[Nobby]

I wondered how old the undated page linked in the OP was since I suspect it's been a few years since BBC Radio Solent has had the budget to restore a television sitcom.

It would seem it was restored in 2014 looking at this...
www.bbc.co.uk 

I beg your pardon, this link should have been to this... www.bbc.co.uk 

BBC Radio Solent - BBC Radio Solent Special, One Foot In The Grave - A Celebrati…
It's the 25th anniversary of the production and start of one of Britain…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[James2001]

Looks like they've remastered the 1983 LOTSW Christmas special too, will be showing the same night as One Foot in the Algarve. Going by this, it's a much bigger improvement:

twitter.com 

LOTSW is definitely a show that could do with a remaster, the mid-90s episodes look particularly ragged (looks like they moved to directly editing on film in the 1995-98 series, as opposed to the previous series which were shot on film and edited on video, and the picture quality drops sharply).

[James2001]

The picture quality of the LOTSW episode really is good, the comparison really does show how dark the original transfer was and how much detail is lost in said darkness:

www.bbc.co.uk 

BBC iPlayer - Last of the Summer Wine - Getting Sam Home
Feature-length edition of the comedy starring Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and Brian …
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Picture quality wise, it's pretty much up to that of the LOSTW episodes from the early 00s, apart from a strange blue tinge during the end credits.

Will be interesting to see how the end credits on One Foot In The Algarve are handled, as they were originally on video, have they just upscaled the original credits or recreated them from scratch?

[XIII]

Surely The Royale Family should get a restoration given the first three series were shot in 16mm. The later specials were shot in HD IIRC.

[James2001]

I think the later specials were still done on film, there was a thing with one of them where there was an issue with the lens on the camera which didn't become apparent until the film was developed and they had to reshoot a load of material.

[VMPhil]

Yes the first three specials, Queen of Sheba (2006), New Sofa (2008) and Golden Egg Cup (2009) were shot on super 35 I believe. There was a problem with the last one as James said which meant they had to reshoot a lot of it. Then I’m pretty sure the last two Joe’s Crackers (2010) and Barbara’s Old Ring (2012) were shot on digital.

another interesting thing is that in between series 1 and 2, Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal made the series Mrs Merton and Malcolm in 1999, which was not well received, but what’s interesting is that it was also shot on film without an audience, but made in widescreen. (It too was a Granada production). Whereas the Royle Family remained 4:3 until the end of its original run at Christmas 2000. Which I therefore assume was a deliberate creative decision for that programme.

Yes the Royle Family could be remastered, but I’d argue in this case that a cleaner look might actually hinder the show rather than help it.

[XIII]

Yes the first three specials, Queen of Sheba (2006), New Sofa (2008) and Golden Egg Cup (2009) were shot on super 35 I believe. There was a problem with the last one as James said which meant they had to reshoot a lot of it. Then I’m pretty sure the last two Joe’s Crackers (2010) and Barbara’s Old Ring (2012) were shot on digital.

another interesting thing is that in between series 1 and 2, Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal made the series Mrs Merton and Malcolm in 1999, which was not well received, but what’s interesting is that it was also shot on film without an audience, but made in widescreen. (It too was a Granada production). Whereas the Royle Family remained 4:3 until the end of its original run at Christmas 2000. Which I therefore assume was a deliberate creative decision for that programme.

Yes the Royle Family could be remastered, but I’d argue in this case that a cleaner look might actually hinder the show rather than help it.

I'm not keen on Mrs Merton and Malcolm, mostly because I think Mrs Merton works better when interacting with real person and it didn't work in a sitcom setting.

[James2001]

One thing about these HD remasters of old TV shows is that they often show up flaws in sets, costumes, makeup and effects as they were never intended to be seen at that sort of quality.

Though I often find that even watching old shows in SD, a lot of that still shows up, the smaller screens of the past and analogue interference and distortion would have helped hide things too.

I often see when they talk about these remasters talking about "higher quality film", though on many of these older shows you can argue at the time, the filmed inserts often looked a lot worse than the studio video material, there really were some dreadful film transfers in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. The fact they could do high quality transfers decades later wouldn't have even crossed the programme makers minds (and the film itself was often not kept anyway).

[tellyblues]

The last three series of Still Game looked terrible filmed in HD and showed up the makeup and the acting, which is not the best when you want people to believe they're watching a show about pensioners. The writing being poor was the worst thing though.

[Omnipresent]

One programme I'd really like to see remastered in HD is Victoria Wood's Screen One "Pat and Margaret". It was one of Victoria's best works that's had surprisingly few repeats.