Men Behaving Badly minutes longer. "Men Behaving Badly" is based on Simon Nye's 1989 book of the same title. Producer Beryl Vertue first considered it for a film before deciding it was suited for television adaptation. Harry Enfield, already a well-known comedian, was cast first. He had seen Martin Clunes perform in a play and recommended him for the other lead. Enfield felt out of place in the sitcom and announced he was leaving after the first series. When Thames Television found out, their immediate reaction was to end the series, and they had to be persuaded to put on a second series,
Bear Behaving Badly Mullan as Nev and Simon Buckley as Keith, with legendary actress Bella Emberg playing the role of Barney's Aunt Barbara. A series of twenty-six episodes was commissioned by the BBC in March 2007, after a trailer for the proposed series being uploaded to YouTube received over 1 million hits. Following successful ratings, a second series of twenty-six episodes followed in December 2008. Both series were originally broadcast on BBC One, before being repeated in an early morning slot on BBC Two. In August 2009, a third series of thirteen episodes was filmed. These episodes began airing from 7 December 2009,