New Tricks

The show began as a one-off pilot episode broadcast on 27 March 2003, which attracted enough viewers for the BBC to commission a full series that began airing on 1 April 2004.

Creators Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell devised the show's title based on the proverb "you can't teach an old dog new tricks".

James Bolam left the show in 2012, claiming it had "become stale"; he made his final regular appearance in the first episode of Series 9 and a guest appearance in Series 10, episode 8.

Both Amanda Redman and Alun Armstrong announced they would leave after Series 10 following a public spat with several of the show's writers; they were replaced by Tamzin Outhwaite and Nicholas Lyndhurst respectively.

Dennis Waterman, the only cast member to appear in all twelve series, announced in September 2014 that he would leave after filming just two episodes of the final series, and was replaced by Larry Lamb for the rest of the run.

The final episode of Series 9, a "stealth pilot" intended to set up a Glasgow-based spin-off, was pulled from the BBC schedule after the Jimmy Savile scandal broke because the episode's plot involved child sex trafficking; it aired months later, by which time the spin-off plan had been dropped.

Roy Mitchell, a supporter of football club West Bromwich Albion, named numerous characters after the club's players, and the original three main male characters took their names from the Halfords Lane Stand at The Hawthorns football ground.

The theme song "It's Alright, It's Okay," written by Mike Moran, is sung by cast member Dennis Waterman, who was also known as a professional vocalist alongside his acting career.

Episode 7 of Series 8, "The Gentleman Vanishes," became the show's highest-rated episode with 9.87 million viewers, topping the UK TV ratings for that week.

Ratings dropped sharply after most of the original cast departed: Series 10 averaged 8.35 million viewers per episode, while Series 11 averaged only 5.75 million.