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Your Top 10 British Sitcoms
Father TedThe It Crowd
Fawlty Towers
House of Fools
I spose that's all I have seen from British sitcoms but I love them all!
PorridgeOnly Fools & Horses
Rising Damp
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Men Behaving Badly
Black Adder
Peep Show
The New Statesman
Goodies
Inbetweeners
Honourable mention to US Office which is 10 x funnier than the UK one.
Like most of your list Huck. Mine would have to include:Father Ted
Red Dwarf
The Vicar of Dibley
Dinnerladies
Early Doors (currently watching on DVD)
Upstart Crow
Dad's Army (still holds up well)
Keeping Up Appearances (Patricia Routledge is a national treasure)
The Thick of It
Black Adder
Oh no, I left out Derry Girls! Might have to sub it in and omit Upstart Crow.
Many mentioned above i do love...here's some others not yet mentioned:The Young Ones
Bottom
'Allo 'Allo
Minder
Jonathan Creek (Is it a sitcom? It's funny anyhow!)
Goodness Gracious Me
Goodnight Sweetheart
The Fast Show (You ain't seen me, roight! - Black! Blaaack! I'm afraid, i was very.....very..drunk!) :)
Frasier
One Foot In The Grave
Some Mother's Do 'Ave Them
2.4 Children
Slightly more than 10..but that's only some of what i like!
Val wrote: "How do I fit Bread in to my top ten??"Baker's ten?
Tim wrote: "Baker's ten?"I see what you did there! Nice one!
i'd question if some of these are sitcoms and Frasier isn't British :-) but interesting choices and some i'd forgotten about. Certainly very revealing !!! Does anyone recall Rob Brydon in Human Remains = a very black and uncomfortable sitcom of sorts. I loved that, and also Brydon in The Trip with Steve Coogan. @TheFoe - love Office (USA) but better than Office (UK) - never !
Opps, didn't see that bit in the heading.....so no Frasier then. Still...it's a hoot of a series! :)
Huck wrote: "i'd question if some of these are sitcoms and Frasier isn't British :-) but interesting choices and some i'd forgotten about. Certainly very revealing !!! Does anyone recall Rob Brydon in Human Rem..."I recall an early series that Rob Brydon starred in, Marion and Geoff. A mockumentary monologue dairy, featuring naïve taxi driver Keith Barret, failing to realise that his wife has done the dirty on him! Around 2000 ish it was aired i think.
theDuke wrote: "Opps, didn't see that bit in the heading.....so no Frasier then. Still...it's a hoot of a series! :)"Frasier is totally brilliant Duke - probably one of the cleverest and consistently brilliant sitcoms ever. Maybe need to have a Best US Sitcoms thread - Bilko, Odd Couple, M*A*S*H, Cheers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Police Squad ....
theDuke wrote: "I recall an early series that Rob Brydon starred in, Marion and Geoff. A mockumentary monologue dairy, featuring a taxi driver called Keith Barret, a naïve taxi driver going through a messy divorce! I think that was around the turn of the century ish"Good call on Marion and Geoff - loved that - Human Remains is also a sort of mockumentary. Another good one was This Country was also great and loved Detectorists. So many now springing to mind
theDuke wrote: "Many mentioned above i do love...here's some others not yet mentioned:The Young Ones
Bottom
'Allo 'Allo
Minder
Jonathan Creek (Is it a sitcom? It's funny anyhow!)
Goodness Gracious Me
Goodnight S..."
As entertaining as it is, I would say that J Creek is definitely not a sitcom. Also, the fabulous Fast Show and equally fabulous Goodness G Me are sketch comedies not sitcoms.
There are quite a few on other people's lists that I absolutely loathe. Good job we all like and appreciate different things. And quite a lot of sitcoms that I used to watch and really enjoy at the time haven't aged well at all. Some are positively cringeworthy now eg. Are You Being Served. In fact, it would be much easier for me to write a list of sitcoms that I definitely don't enjoy. Back in a mo with my list...
Here are my faves...Blackadder
Red Dwarf
Bottom
Vic of Dibley
Father Ted
Allo Allo (although it hasn't aged very well)
Inbetweeners
Drifters
The Windsors
Fall and Rise of Reg Perrin
Always found One Foot to be a bit hit or miss. When it was funny it was absolutely hysterical and other times it was just a bit meh.
Helen The Melon wrote: "quite a lot of sitcoms that I used to watch and really enjoy at the time haven't aged well at all. Some are positively cringeworthy now eg. Are You Being Served. In fact, it would be much easier for me to write a list of sitcoms that I definitely don't enjoy."Go for it Helen. While i always enjoyed WIndsor Davies i don't really think any of the shows he was in were any good - a waste of potential?
Some stinkers no doubt
Hi de Hi
Are You Being Served
Green Green Grass
Never the Twain
On The Buses
Miranda
Birds of a Feather
Bread
....
Must admit it's been a long time since I regularly watched any home grown sitcoms, but FWIW a few not mentioned so far that stick in the memory... (in no particular order except the one they occur to me)Ripping Yarns
Brass
Butterflies
Sorry!
Citizen Smith
and an honourable mention for Jon Pertwee's version of Worzel Gummidge. Not a sitcom but hugely entertaining.
Can I have 11?Fawlty Towers
George & Mildred
The Vicar Of Dibley
The Inbetweeners
Gimme Gimme Gimme
The High Life
Only Fools And Horses
Keeping Up Appearances
Bottom
One Foot In The Grave
Miranda
How could i forget Steptoe and Son - marvellous acting and does anybody remember a short series called "Potter" starring Arthur Lowe - "Potter Mints - the hotter mints"i even enjoyed the early Bill Owen version of Last of the Summer Wine before it became hopelessly corked
I can't believe I forgot Still Game (Series 1-6 and the Christmas and Hogmanay specials. From Season 7 on it went totally downhill).
Some more honourable mentions:Steve Coogan's Saxondale
Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive
Ricky Gervaise's Extras (still crack up ar Ronnie Corbett's cameo)
And I also loved Shameless. Haven't watched the U.S. Version.
Just remembered another British sitcom...anybody remember 1990's Game On? I haven't seen it in a long time. A product of it's time, from the era of lad culture, in a similar vein of Men Behaving Badly. This series featured 3 flat mates, a laddish egotistical agoraphobic, a meek carrot topped bank clerk and a sexually precocious underachieving career girl, played by pre East Enders Samantha Janus/Womack. All i can remember of it, was the profusive use of the word 'Tosser'!Also, the short lived but brilliant off shoot of Porridge, Going Straight. It could've been just as successful as Porridge. The sad and far too soon passing of Richard Beckinsale shelved the show after just 1 series
Huck wrote: "theDuke wrote: "Opps, didn't see that bit in the heading.....so no Frasier then. Still...it's a hoot of a series! :)"Frasier is totally brilliant Duke - probably one of the cleverest and consisten..."
Do you remember a series called Sledge Hammer? A spoof yank series with David Rasche hamming up a kind of Dirty Harry character, complete with Magnum .44! I haven't seen that in a very long time. Also Due South is another one i recall. Anyway, i'm going off topic!
Sledgehammer doesn't ring bell Duke (is that almost a pun?)or Game On
but Extras almost made my top 10 - the magical Ronnie Corbett and Ross Kemp episodes
Still Game - excellent and of course Rab C Nesbitt
and i think there were some truly hilarious moments in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - some of his facial expressions almost made me wet myself
Speaking of those that we don't like...Huck's mention of Extras....is one i can't stand. I like Ricky Gervais as a stand up comic....but never saw the appeal of The Office or Extras. Steve Coogan is another, i found his Alan Partridge character just too cringy for my liking.Rab C Nesbitt on the hand, brilliant, just brilliant. And the equally excellent The Tales Of Para Handy too. And who couldn't love his hapless cigar smoking bald man from the Hamlet ads?! Cue Air On A G-String! :)
theDuke wrote: "Speaking of those that we don't like...Huck's mention of Extras....is one i can't stand. I like Ricky Gervais as a stand up comic....but never saw the appeal of The Office or Extras. Steve Coogan i..."i think most of my favourites involve some sort of cringe factor - maybe not so much comedy as cringedy
Uncomfortable humour at its best - W1A with Hugh Bonneville and the fantastic Jessica Hynes - Brand Consultant (genius script) and Jason Watkins also wonderful. Every character in fact is brilliantly conceived
It may be sacrilege but there are parts of Dad's Army that i find embarrassing at times - Clive Dunn mainly - it's much too hammy and predictable. The genius is the relationship between Mainwaring and Sgt Wilson (Pike's "uncle") and Hodgtes the ARP Warden
Ok, Huck, here you go...Fawlty Towers - hugely irritating, makes me want to scream sometimes. However, there are a few funny bits but Basil and Sybil are just utterly unbearable.
The Office - this was just awful and made me feel like I'd had a sense of humour bypass. Can't stand Mr. Gervais.
Miranda - Urgh. Not funny.
Royale Family - nothing funny here either. Just boring. Zzzzzz.
Gav & Stacey - some, v few, funny moments but just ho-hum.
Keeping Up Appearances - this makes me want to throw stuff at the TV. It enrages me SO much!! Hyacinth is beyond unbearable. Not really a fan of Patricia R anyway.
Last Of Summer Wine - early stuff was better but.....ugh.
Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em - far too irritating.
Not Going Out - I like and enjoy Lee Mack on most things but not this.
Also never found the likes of 2.4 Children, Two Pints of Lager..., My Family, Outnumbered remotely funny even tho they were hugely popular at the time.
I don't think a lot of the older one's have aged very well and unlike Huck, I do not like cringedy!
Edit: Oh, definitely not a fan of Mr Coogan or any of his progs.
And Still Open All Hours was not good.
Tim wrote: "...and an honourable mention for Jon Pertwee's version of Worzel Gummidge. Not a sitcom but hugely entertaining."Hmmph. Can't believe you have reminded me of this horror from my youth, Tim. I assume you mean the late '70s/early '80s version? Worzel truly was the stuff of nightmares for a 3/4 yr old.
Huck wrote: "theDuke wrote: "Speaking of those that we don't like...Huck's mention of Extras....is one i can't stand. I like Ricky Gervais as a stand up comic....but never saw the appeal of The Office or Extras..."Dad's Army is a product of it's time, like so many others from the 60's and 70's. It Ain't 'Alf Hot Mum was mentioned.....i haven't seen those in years, and is rarely aired these days, in part due to language used, but mainly due to the character Rangi Ram, whom in my opinion was played to perfection by Micheal Bates. Alas, although Bates was born in India and could genuinely speak fluent Sanskrit, his origins were of British white, and thus 'blacked-up' for the part. Now seen as racist, along with other shows of the time, like Love Thy Neighbour (of which i don't think is the slightest bit racist, as the joke was always on eddie Booth, not his West Indian neighbour Bill Reynolds), Alf Garnett of Til Death Do Us Part & In Sickness And In Health, even the odd episode of the Goodies didn't escape the racial card, as fab a show it was.
One show i'm glad was consigned to racial purgatory....a show that my parents used to watch, but i never saw the appeal of it...The Black And White Minstrels Show. How that show ever got past the good taste & moral decency development stage...i'll never know. I have the misfortune to have seen some clips from this abomination of a show, one in particular stands out. In a crudely mocked up New York subway scene, there was a blacked-up white man with a young pretty white girl. This faux African man then breaks in to song...the lyrics of which debases and sexualises the young lass, to the point of wanting to rape her! And he sort of does get away with it.
This...is what passed for popular light entertainment for the masses of the 1970s?! And that show ran for 20 years!!!
Thank god the 1980s came and changed everything, that's all i'll say on that!
Helen The Melon wrote: "Tim wrote: "...and an honourable mention for Jon Pertwee's version of Worzel Gummidge. Not a sitcom but hugely entertaining."Hmmph. Can't believe you have reminded me of this horror from my youth..."
I was too young for the original series by John Pertwee, but i thought The Detectorists (also brilliant) MacKenzie Crook's adaptation was rather good.
Helen The Melon wrote: "Hmmph. Can't believe you have reminded me of this horror from my youth, Tim. I assume you mean the late '70s/early '80s version? Worzel truly was the stuff of nightmares for a 3/4 yr old. "I guess a guy pulling his own head off might freak out someone at that age!
Tim wrote: "Helen The Melon wrote: "Hmmph. Can't believe you have reminded me of this horror from my youth, Tim. I assume you mean the late '70s/early '80s version? Worzel truly was the stuff of nightmares for..."Great show though! :-)
@Helen - amazing, somebody who doesn't rate Fawlty Towers ! I appreciate Messrs Gervais and Coogan are marmite personalities and it'[s all subjective, thankfully. @TheDuke - Alf Garnett was a very important and positive way of dealing with racism by helping us laugh at at it - in the same way Hancock's Blood Donor did earlier on. And i agree Love Thy Neighbour showed how ridiculous the racial stereotypes were, without being too twee. I loved Goodness Gracious Me as well as it hit the right spot by showing Asian culture in a comic light and used humour rather than anger to address prejudice (on both sides). Any culture that can laugh at itself deserves credit and i guess Father Ted is another superb example
Huck wrote: "@Helen - amazing, somebody who doesn't rate Fawlty Towers ! I appreciate Messrs Gervais and Coogan are marmite personalities and it'[s all subjective, thankfully. @TheDuke - Alf Garnett was a very..."
I think that was the key to those shows, that had these prejudist characters in it.....joke being aimed mainly at that character, and not on the stereotypes. Alf Garnett was a pivotal creation of the time, played wonderfully by Warren Mitchell. I always love the friction between Garnett's conservatism against his son-in-law's Mike Rawlins socialist views..played brilliantly by by Tony Booth, Cherie Blair's dad nonetheless!
I've not really seen a lot of Tony Hancock's work, bar some episodes of the sitcom he did with Sid James. As for Goodness Gracious me; the restaurant scene will always be a favourite of mine, along with the phrase "Kiss My Chuddies"! :)
Remembered another sitcom i was very fond of - Only When I Laugh - set in hospital with James Bolam, Peter Bowles, Richard Wilson et al. In those days apart from Rising Damp there wasn't much to recommend ITV comedy and OWIL had some marvellous moments
I remember that one! The intro theme tune was very distinctive; "I'm H A P P Yyyyy..... yes i know i am, i'm sure i am, i'm H A P P Yyyyyy!" :)
Just remembered another one; Man About The House. Somewhat a tad dated nowadays, but it created the George & Mildred spin off. And dare i say it....even though i were a wee lad when she was on the telly, in later years i developed something of a crush for the delectable Sally Thomsett, she is gorgeous.And now i shall just go and plant myself on the naughty step for pulling out the sexism card! Can't help it, she is lovely ...even at the ripe age of 73 today!
theDuke wrote: "Just remembered another one; Man About The House. Somewhat a tad dated nowadays, but it created the George & Mildred spin off. And dare i say it....even though i were a wee lad when she on the tell..."i thought you were going to say you developed a crush on Yootha Joyce !!
Huck wrote: "theDuke wrote: "Just remembered another one; Man About The House. Somewhat a tad dated nowadays, but it created the George & Mildred spin off. And dare i say it....even though i were a wee lad when..."Yootha was a very distinctive looking lady for sure. Alas, she died when i was 6 years old...so er...not really! Paula Wilcox on the other hand......
theDuke wrote: "Yootha was a very distinctive looking lady for sure. Alas, she died when i was 6 years old...so er...not really!."Poor Yootha was only 53 when she died in 1980, just four days after her birthday. Ironically, fears of becoming typecast as Mildred (whom she'd played since 1973) led to an increase in her tendency towards alcoholism. Apparently she had been consuming half a bottle of brandy every day for ten years, increasing in her later years.
Isn’t it true that nearly all comedy has a certain cringe element to it? There are some jokes that rely on wordplay and wit but a lot of sitcoms set up a person or situation where embarrassment and humiliation are key. One example from the distant past is the showing up of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Yes the guy is an annoying pompous fool but he really is humiliated in the end, just for laughs. My all time favourite is Detectorists. I enjoy Fawlty Towers but the way Sybil and Manuel are shown is a bit iffy, I think.
Isabella wrote: "Isn’t it true that nearly all comedy has a certain cringe element to it? There are some jokes that rely on wordplay and wit but a lot of sitcoms set up a person or situation where embarrassment and..."Good points Isabella. Pomposity is always an easy target - think of Basil Fawlty, Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. And there's also the idea that a character's self image or lack of self awareness makes them the target of the humour - Alan Partridge, David Brent etc. Delusional people are always funny (or dangerous)
Isabella wrote: "Isn’t it true that nearly all comedy has a certain cringe element to it? There are some jokes that rely on wordplay and wit but a lot of sitcoms set up a person or situation where embarrassment and..."Personally, i thought Sybil was the only character that kept Basil in line myself! If she weren't there, could you imagine the chaos that could happened without her? Basil Fawlty's life was chaotic enough as it was! As for Manuel...granted he was the 'punchbag' character in the show, but damn funny! "Que?!" :)
I'd be far more critical of that moron Russel Brand, and what he did, than the choice of character Sachs was asked to play. RIP Andrew Sachs.
It's no good, I can't maintain my silence any longer. Unless I've missed it somewhere, not one single mention of The Good Life!
theDuke wrote: "Isabella wrote: "Isn’t it true that nearly all comedy has a certain cringe element to it? There are some jokes that rely on wordplay and wit but a lot of sitcoms set up a person or situation where ..."I wasn't meaning that the characters were unpleasant, just that my perception was that they were shown as the archetypal nagging wife and the stupid foreigner, rather than people in their own right.
Anyone old enough to remember Citizen Smith? It's so long ago, I'm not sure how funny it was ... 🫤
Derek wrote: "It's no good, I can't maintain my silence any longer. Unless I've missed it somewhere, not one single mention of The Good Life!"Hi Derek, really good to see you here again. The Good Life was actually on my shortlist, and then I forgot to mention it. I thought Penelope Keith was great in it.
Helen The Melon wrote: "Derek wrote: "It's no good, I can't maintain my silence any longer. Unless I've missed it somewhere, not one single mention of The Good Life!"Hi Derek, really good to see you here again. The Good..."
Thank you Helen, if I get the time later I might even nominate a couple of songs on the Themes thread.
Derek wrote: "Thank you Helen, if I get the time later I might even nominate a couple of songs on the Themes thread."It would be lovely to have you back contributing to the themes threads. I think we're in need of some new ideas for them too so get thinking!
(not in any particular order)
Fawlty Towers
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads
The Office
Black Adder
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
I'm Alan Partridge
W1A
Peep Show
People Like Us
The Thick of It