Plugging away

Writer Charles McKeown (71 ?) will be pleased with the ratings for the first episode of his comedy, Hold The Sunset, starring Alison Steadman and John Cleese. An average of 6.21m watched - a share of 29.1%. They seem unphased by the gaps between jokes, staying more or less with it throughout.

Charles' writing credits stretch back to Brazil, with Terry Gilliam and Tom Stoppard, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and one episode of New Tricks.  He appeared in the background, non-

McKeown (left) in Yes Minister

speaking, of the 1980 Fawlty Towers episode, The Kipper and The Corpse, and spoke, as a BBC radio producer in Jobs for the Boys, a Yes Minister episode from the same year. He had more lines as Frankie, Victoria Wood's suitor in her stage play, Good Fun, which had a short run at the Crucible in Sheffield, but never made the West End.