The stars reunite to start filming Birds of a Feather

The stars of Birds of a Feather have been reunited as they begin filming the show's comeback, almost a quarter of a century after it first launched.

Lesley Joseph, Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke are seen at a market stall as they work on a series to be screened in the spring.

Birds of a Feather - in which Pauline and Linda play sisters sharing a home in the posh Essex town of Chigwell after their husbands were sent to prison - was launched 24 years ago, but was axed by the BBC in 1998.

It is now being revived by ITV for a further run, written by the original creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.

Lesley returns to the cast as Sharon and Tracey's man-eater friend Dorien in the eight-episode run.

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.