Dijitaliks News

The cult 2000s sitcom accrued obsessive fans and celebrity guests before being abruptly cancelled. Now, 20 years on, its star and writer return with a stage revival – but they insist it’s no victory lap

Drugs, gangs, kidnappings, police corruption, murder, even necrophilia. While this might sound like the stuff of a grisly crime drama, in reality it’s the backdrop to the strange and surreal BBC sitcom Ideal. A black comedy centred on a low-level weed dealer, Moz (played by Johnny Vegas), the show has become a beloved cult classic since its original run from 2005 to 2011.

After years spent lingering in the digital abyss, episodes were finally uploaded to iPlayer last year and now, 20 years since it first aired, the show is returning for a live stage production. “I didn’t appreciate how original it was when we were making it,” says Vegas, sitting in the restaurant of a plush five-star hotel in Manchester, a far cry from the rodent-infested flat he spent years in as Moz. “You only appreciate it years later, when folks are coming up going: ‘That was the one show that spoke to me – that was my life.’”