Astronauts

Astronauts is a British sitcom that aired on ITV in 1981. It was written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, two of The Goodies. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who wrote Porridge, were script editors. It was made for the ITV network by ATV. In Astronauts, Britain's first three astronauts are sent off into outer space to occupy a 'sky lab' for six months. They take with them a dog, white mice and some insects. The dog, Bimbo, had previously appeared in The Goodies. The astronauts are Malcolm Mattocks, Gentian Foster and David Ackroyd. The astronauts' contact at Mission Control is Beadle, an American. The main humour came from the claustrophic conditions of the two room 'sky lab', and tension it brought. On 11 August 1982, CBS showed a pilot for an American adaptation called The Astronauts, but no series developed. It starred Granville Van Dusen as Mattocks, Brianne Leary as Foster, Bruce Davison as Ackroyd and McLean Stevenson as Beadle.