Bid to reunite Enfield and chum

The pair produced a host of memorable characters in the 90s

BBC One is hoping to reunite Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse for a new series, its controller has said.

Peter Fincham told the Guardian there would also be new sitcoms starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Jennifer Saunders in the coming months.

Mr Fincham also said he "felt responsible" for the axed chat show Davina, but added that not all commissions could succeed.

He was talking in an interview to mark his first year as BBC One controller.

Davina McCall's chat show was axed after it was panned by critics and its audience fell to 2.3 million during its eight-week run.

"I commissioned the programme and then found it sailed into a storm in the newspapers," said Mr Fincham.

"But one of the things about BBC One is that you're making a very wide range of decisions and commissions.

Peter Fincham joined the BBC from TalkbackThames

"Some of them will work with an audience, some of them less so. If you think everything will be a hit first time, you're fooling yourself."

BBC One controller since March last year, Mr Fincham said makers of comedy had to be convinced the channel was a "good place to be".

"In comedy, a cult success is a very lovely thing to have. But a mainstream hit can be something else."

He added: "Comedies can be fragile things to start but can last the longest and resonate the longest."

Among plans for the coming year is a follow-up to the Bafta-winning Bleak House, with that series' writer, Andrew Davies, adapting Little Dorrit.