Room 101 to return?

BBC TWO{jcomments on}Reports claim that comedy chat-show Room 101 is to be revived with comedian Frank Skinner as the new host.

The BBC Two show originally ran between 1994 and 1997 with Nick Hancock as host and it was re-launched in 1999 with Paul Merton fronting the series until 2007. Room 101 featured celebrity guests nominating people, sports, television shows or hobbies they would like to see placed in Room 101. The game-show gets it name from the George Orwell book Nineteen Eighty-Four where the horrors of the world are stored in Room 101. Orwell himself got the idea for the title of the room from various meetings he had at the BBC, which he often thought were tedious, which were held in a conference room numbered 101.

Room 101 was produced for BBC Two by Hat Trick Productions who are reportedly behind the plan to revive the series with Skinner at the helm with a possible airdate of 2012. Skinner himself was one of the celebrity guests to featured on the programme during its run. Other notable guests included Anne Robinson (who wanted to banish the Welsh to room 101), Stephen Fry, Ian Hislop, Terry Wogan and Michael Grade who wanted to banish Doctor Who. Grade famously cancelled Doctor Who in 1985, prompting a huge media backlash, because he felt the series was too dated. In the edition of Room 101 that Grade was guest on members of the audience were dressed up as famous Doctor Who aliens such as the Cybermen.