Humphrey Barclay became Head of Comedy at LWT in 1977 and supervised various successful series including "No, Honestly", "A Fine Romance" (1981–84). In May 1980 he unveiled "Metal Mickey" as a show "with the appeal of "Star Wars", the Daleks and "Mork and Mindy"" Following criticism at the Edinburgh International Television Festival of what was seen as casual racism the LWT series "Mind Your Language" (1977–79; 1986), Barclay commissioned "No Problem!", transmitted by Channel 4 during 1983–85, the first original black-made sitcom for British TV (an earlier series featuring a black family, "The Fosters" (ITV, 1976–77), had been a remake of a
Richard Beckinsale spawned a film version. Soon after, he appeared in two of British TV's most successful sitcoms at the same time. On ITV, he was playing naive medical student Alan Moore in "Rising Damp" (voted ITV's best-ever sitcom in the "Britain's Best Sitcom" poll in 2004) while also starring alongside Ronnie Barker in the BBC sitcom "Porridge" as prison inmate Lennie Godber. He also appeared in the films "Rentadick" (1972) and "Three for All" (1975) and made appearances in several other television series such as the "ITV Playhouse" episode "Last Summer" in 1976. Shortly after his 30th birthday, Beckinsale was the