Sitcoms reveal unseen endings

A ghoulish follow-up plot is imagined for TV's Steptoe and Son

The creators of classic British sitcoms have revealed what happened to their characters after the shows ended.

Fans can find out what became of the main players in Steptoe and Son, Porridge, Rising Damp and others.

Steptoe and Son's Harold killed his miserable father Albert and fled to Rio, series co-writer Ray Galton told The Radio Times.

The Vicar of Dibley considered becoming a lesbian, while Rising Damp's Rigsby still ran a boarding house.

Miss Jones has a fling with Alan in an imagined Rising Damp

Some of the would-be TV plots are revealed in stage plays created by the shows' writers. Others were imagined storylines told to Radio Times writers.

There was a happy postscript to prison comedy Porridge, which starred Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as cellmates Fletcher and Godber.

Viewers last saw Fletcher in 1978 spin-off Going Straight, in which he left prison and got a job as a hotel night porter.

Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais revealed: "After that he became housekeeper on a country estate belonging to an ageing rock star like Bill Wyman."

In his old age, Fletcher was looked after by his daughter, Ingrid, and her husband - his former cellmate, Godber.

Fletcher remains in contact with old associates in an imagined Porridge

Porridge is returning for a one-off Christmas special in the form of a mock documentary, but it is unconnected to the scenario described.

Rising Damp writer Eric Chappel revealed that well-spoken lodger Philip (Don Warrington) was not an African prince at all.

He spent his later years still living in his dingy bedsit with landlord Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter), while Alan (Richard Beckinsale) and Miss Jones (Frances de la Tour) had a brief fling which ended when Alan dumped her.

Perhaps the most shocking plot involved the murder in Steptoe and Son.

Harold - played by Harry H Corbett - fled to Brazil but eventually returned to the rag and bone yard in Shepherd's Bush - only to find it taken over by a snooty woman from the National Trust.

Radio Times also reveals what happened next to the main characters from Blackadder, Hi-De-Hi!, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Gimme Gimme Gimme and Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads.