As happens sometimes, the waft of an idea teased my brain this morning, and I wondered if there was a series of blogs to be written about movie tie-in novels. Then I realised how much effort this would be, and decided against it.
My mind wandered a little further, and I started wondering about sitcoms and novels. This reminded me of two things, one based on a novel, and one great novel based on the sitcom.
Men Behaving Badly is based on a not-so bestselling novel of the same name by the show’s writer Simon Nye.
This fact has always stuck with me, as it seems so incongruous.
And of course, the novel based on the show I thought of was Red Dwarf‘s Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.
Now I know there an an awful lot of tie-in books for sitcoms, from Bachelor Boys to Hyacinth Bucket’s Book of Etiquette for the Socially Less Fortunate. There’s not so many novels though, either progenitors or spin offs.
The next one to spring to mind is the Reggie Perrin novels by David Nobbs. The first series of the sitcom was based on the first book, and Rossiter wanted the second series to be the same, so Nobbs had to write the next one too.
Roy Clarke wrote a few novels based on Last Of The Summer Wine, and even turned one of them back into the 1983 Christmas special Getting Sam Home.
There are some novelisations of Yes Minister too.
I know I am forgetting or missing loads more, so if you think of any, let me know and I will add them to the list.
