Where do we stand on…

… Four Weddings re-booted?

Mr Richard Curtis cordially invites you to watch a remake of Four Weddings and

a Funeral on Friday. A 7pm ceremony on BBC One will be followed by tears, laughter and wondering where the past 25 years have gone. Perhaps.

Viewers will get to catch up with the characters played by Hugh Grant, Andie Macdowell, John Hannah and 21 others in the 14-minute charity special for Comic Relief. One Red Nose Day and a Wedding, as it’s called, will feature new stars, too, including a male singer who Curtis says is “exceptionally famous”.

Details of the plot for the “sketch” film are a tightly guarded secret, but it looks set to be similar to the 2017 remake of Love

Actually, also produced for the charity.

The segment was heartwarming, with much-loved scenes from the original recreated. But it had little more to add, story-wise: just bits we’d seen before, peppered with a couple of heavyhanded reminders of how to donate – oh, and Hugh Grant’s prime minister had developed a dodgy leg. Four Weddings’ reboot will, as the title suggests, involve matrimony – but no funeral. This makes sense, as it is meant to make people feel warm and fuzzy enough inside to pledge a few pounds. However, the heartbreak in the original was what threw the happy ending into sharp relief: a reality check among the sugary-sweetness of the rest of the plot. Without it, will this latest iteration really be classic Curtis?

For those who need a bigger Four Weddings fix, fear not: a new TV miniseries is in the works, with a crop of bright young things replacing the original cast. Let’s just hope their legs hold up in the interim.

Helen Chandler-wilde

Overleaf: Charlotte Coleman, the rebel who put the ‘F’ in Four Weddings