Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps - Series

Series

The first six series with the original cast including Ralf Little ran until 2006 when Little said he would not return to the series, saying he thought the character had come to a natural end. Will Mellor hinted at the series continuation in television interviews, one being Loose Women, and more or less confirming it on The Paul O'Grady Show, with statements such as "we'll keep on making it". Ralf Little announced during an interview for This Morning on 19 September 2007 that he would not be returning for the following series due to an overwhelming schedule, and Jonny Keogh was therefore killed off-screen in the first episode of the seventh series.

An eighth series was confirmed by Will Mellor in an interview in the Metro on 21 April 2008, in which he said that they would be filming the series from November 2008 to January 2009. In January 2009, the BBC announced recording dates for the next series at BBC Television Centre from 1 February to 3 April. A special edition for Comic Relief was also recorded on 25 January. The eighth series began airing on 8 March 2009 starting with a Comic Relief special, which featured characters from Coming of Age and Grownups, as a curtain raiser, with subsequent episodes as normal. Natalie Casey, Kathryn Drysdale, Luke Gell, Will Mellor and Sheridan Smith all returned and the new character of Wesley was played by Thomas Nelstrop.

Two special episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps were filmed in 2009. The first was set a few minutes after the ending of the previous episode, its cast being limited to Janet, Wesley and Tim, and was recorded on 13 August 2009 at BBC TV Centre. It was a musical extravaganza set entirely inside the Archer and was broadcast on 15 December 2009.

The second, "Sliding Gaz", was recorded on 18 August 2009 and shown on 22 December 2009. The cast consists of Donna and Gaz only and shows Donna in a "sliding doors" technique, imagining Gaz being healthy and also paralysed.

In April 2010, it was revealed that the show was to return, albeit 'refreshed' by the BBC, which could mean cast changes, and the loss of the creator of the show, Susan Nickson, who is reportedly moving on to work in America. Location filming for series 9 is set to begin in Runcorn on 25 January as reported in The Runcorn Weekly News.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the show the official BBC website put numerous of the viewers' favourite clips where uploaded including Will Mellor and Natalie Casey presenting a 5 minute show about the 10 things you didn't know about the show. A plot summary of the new 2011 series was then revealed by the BBC. Original cast members Sheridan Smith and Kathryn Drysdale announced in 2010 that they would not be returning to the show. They were written out of the series and their departures were mentioned in the first episode of series 9. On 23 July 2011, following a decline in ratings, the BBC decided to cancel the series.

• A total of 80 episodes of Two Pints have been aired. The finale episode was aired on 24 May 2011.
• The ninth series began airing on 26 April 2011 with two episodes being shown back to back.