All About "Two Pints"

Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps is a northern sitcom set in Runcorn which follows the lives of five 20-something friends. Their quest in life is mainly to drink beer, have sex, smoke and eat takeaways! Two Pints hasn't had much luck in award ceremonies and is constantly getting bad reviews from TV critics, however despite this it has enjoyed good TV ratings on both BBC2 and BBC3 for seven series now.

In the first series we see everything from the girls (Janet, Louise and Donna) worrying about their weight to the boys (Gaz and Jonny) worrying about TJ Hooker types stealing their girlfriends! Flo, Donna's mother, is always present with her tasteless comments and advice. Series two follows on from the first with pregnancy scares, ex-boyfriends, sex demands and marriage proposals.

The first two series only had 6 episodes each but series three went up to 10 episodes and brought about the introduction of two new characters, Munch, Gaz's half brother and David, Louise's boyfriend. The third series sees more useless but very amusing advice from Flo, marriage preparations, affairs, noisy neighbours, sex games and a big cliff-hanger to leave viewers on the edge of their seats!

The 2003 Christmas Special followed the third series - it was a unique musical extravaganza set back in the days before the terrible fivesome were ever a fivesome, and Janet and Jonny hadn't even met. It's an average Saturday night out for the Runcorn girls and Janet is on the pull, little does she know that the man of her dreams is also on the look out and isn't too far away. Its a magical moment when their eyes meet across a crowded bar and both suddenly realise they're speaking the same language - Janet shows him her boobs and Jonny vomits all over them - its love at first sight and there's no going back. This episode was made up almost entirely of surreal musical numbers, something very rare in sitcoms, we think it worked very well, it was certainly a brave gamble by everyone involved.

In the later series true love falters when Janet decides to leave the house she shares with boyfriend Jonny, and Gaz is astounded to catch Donna having a late-night tryst at The Castle with an old fling. He is soon left wondering who will be around to satisfy his insatiable sexual appetite when Donna announces she is off to start a new and exciting life journey.

Meanwhile, Louise's student days are over when she finally graduates from college, but the precious one quickly discovers how tough life can be in the real world. The five-some are finding themselves in great danger of having to grow up. What will happen to Janet and Jonny now that she's lost that loving feeling? And will Gaz manage to persuade Donna to stay in his beloved Runcorn?

In the 2006 series Gaz and Jonny conjure with some particularly tricky questions: Which one of them is really father to Janet's little boy, Corinthian? Will Janet actually cast them adrift and take a job-of-a-lifetime aboard a cruise ship? And would pork scratchings really beat mini cheddars in the World Cup final of bar snacks? And if that wasn't excitement enough, Louise uncovers shocking revelations about her parentage - is she the love child of Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela?

The new seventh series was originally planned for 2007 however as the production team were busy working on the second season of Grownups filming was delayed. The series finally made it to screen on the 13th January 2008 with the opening episode broadcast live from TV Centre.

It soon became apparent to fans that Ralf Little (who played Jonny) had indeed left the show - the plot saw him killed off-screen and the second episode featured a funeral/memorial scene. In a witty nod to fans that the writers realise the show may be nearing the end, Jonny was written-out by taking part in a shark-jumping competition in Hawaii. 'Jumping the Shark' is a colloquialism used in the TV industry to denote the point at which the characters or plot of a TV series veer into the ridiculous. The phrase originated from a Happy Days scene and, to ensure there was no doubt as to their intention to include this reference, the writers also got Janet to repeat The Fonz's catchphrase "Aaay!" in the episode too.

Although the final episode in series seven made it look like the show might be finishing, Two Pints will actually be back for an 8th series in early 2009.