Channel 4 gives TFI Friday full series after successful return

(Image credit: multiple sources)

Channel 4 today confirmed it's bringing back Chris Evans' classic 1990s series TFI Friday in the autumn.

TFI Friday returned for a one-off special earlier in June and Channel 4 says its peak audience of 4.2 million viewers easily beat its main competitors.

Chris Evans said: “Oh my goodness, are we really going to get to do this again? Looks like it - and leading into Christmas too. I might actually spontaneously explode on live television due to over- excitedness. Does that still count as unpredictable cos I've said it now?”

Jay Hunt, Channel 4’s Creative Officer, said; “Chris is the best of the best of live broadcasters and I never doubted for a moment that this TFI would live up to expectations. Confirming a series was a no brainer”.

The show which mixes live music with celebrity guest interviews and madcap features was a big hit in the Nineties. The one-off special was meant to commemorate its 20th anniversary, however it was only its 19th anniversary and it now appears the special was a ploy by Channel 4 to test the public's appetite for a new series.

TFI Friday will return for eight episodes.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.