Following on from the broadcaster's much-questioned decision to bring back Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles after more than 20 years for a Christmas episode of To The Manor Born, the BBC has confirmed that it is to delve even further into its past and resurrect The Frost Report.

Seen by many as the real birth of TV satire, the show first hit the nation's screens back in 1966 and went about launching the careers of many famous comedians.

Sir David Frost, now better known for his serious interviewing skills – having famously grilled all the US presidents and British prime ministers since 1969, including one memorable performance against Richard Nixon – played the straight-guy and won all the plaudits, though the show also earned its place in history by thrusting the likes of John Cleese, Michael Palin and Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker onto the small screen.

Indeed, it was in rehearsals for The Frost Report that the diminutive Corbett and the much larger Barker were first referred to as 'The Two Ronnies', a name which stuck for decades after.

Furthermore, the show, which itself grew out of the satirical That Was the Week That Was, has also been credited with paving the way for shows such as Monty Python which changed the face of comedy on TV.

Sir David, who now presents the weekly programme Frost All Over the World on the Al Jazeera English Channel, has expressed his delight at the prospect of bringing the show back.

He said: "Putting The Frost Report Is Back together has been a joy, with so many memories – and even more important, so many laughs - along the way."

Though most viewers under a certain age will have little, if any, knowledge of The Frost Report, one of its most celebrated moments has become a fixture near the top of the TV guide polls highlighting the top comedy moments of all time.

The sketch, which sees the tall upper-class Cleese looking down at the shorter and middle-class Barker, who in turn looks up to Cleese and down on the working-class Corbett, who "knows his place", was praised at the time for addressing the key social issues of the day in a ground-breaking satirical fashion.

Sir David will be reunited with Cleese and Palin as well as a number of other surviving members of the original cast, with the two-hour show to be broadcast on BBC Four on Easter Monday.