The original pilot episode had a different cast: Rowan Atkinson and Chris Langham were joined by Chris Emmett, Christopher Godwin, John Gorman, Willoughby Goddard and Jonathan Hyde. The pilot was due to air on April 2, 1979, but was cancelled due to BBC fears over its political content just before a general election, and has never been broadcast.
Pamela Stephenson first met her future husband Sir Billy Connolly on the set of this sketch comedy show. Connolly played himself in a Janet Street-Porter sketch, which he is interviewed by Stevenson in character as Janet.
After the final show broadcast on March 8, 1982, Rowan Atkinson starred in a new historic sitcom Blackadder (1982), which he co-wrote with Richard Curtis. Pamela Stephenson co-starred opposite Christopher Reeve in Superman III (1983), and Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones went on to do their own sketch comedy show, Alas Smith & Jones (1984).
The show's title came from the fact that it aired on BBC2 opposite the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1.
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Top Gap
By what name was Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979) officially released in India in English?
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