Britcoms

D

Ducky

Master of the Moos
Moderator
Coming from US remakes thread.

What's your favourite Britcom? Nowadays and in the past? Rather watch somthing like The Fast Show and Little Britain or something with a plot, such as My Family or Green Wing?
And, at least for me, mentioning Australian shows won't hurt the thread ;)

My all time favourite must be Green Wing. It's just the strangest and random show that I've evern seen. You cannot expect what the next scene brings and so many times you've been totally speechless and thinking what a.. until you just laugh like a maniac. LIttle Britan... it's different but has also lots of 'ok, not funny" stuff. Even there is so much lovable characters, such as Andy

THen easier to watch, My Family is quite good - even tho people come and go, Ben is just too adorable.

as for the past shows these so kicked ass as well:
The Fast Show - Suits You, Sir were wonderful!
Wooster and Jeeves (oh Fry & Laurie are so so wonderful together)
Absolutley Fabulous
Yes, Minister/ Yes, Prime Minister - very simple and relaxing humour tho

and as for Aussieshow.. Comedy Inc - even my father forgot the news and was laughing like mad (it had same timeslot with main news)
 
Little Britain and show like that are funny the first couple of times you see them but essentially it's the same joke every week so I get bored with them very easily.

Over the last few years my favs have been Pheonix Nights (love Peter Kay), Shameless, the Office, Peep Show and Kath and Kim. If you want to back back a few years Only Fools and Horses, Porridge and Absolutely Fabulous.

Then I also love the comedy panel shows like Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 cats.

And you just can't beat live stand up.
 
Well Monty Python is a legend and Fawlty Towers... it's been so long and I haven't seen somuch of it :( John Cleese is a wonderful guy :D

What I watched a lot, as reruns was Allo!Allo!

And here's quite interesting list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain's_Best_Sitcom

How could I forget Keeping Up Appearances! Oh Hyacinth is sooooo irritating that... It's one of those Britcoms that I've tried to look for on DVD.

One that I have trouble watching is Men Behaving Badly - it is great, but I've seen only reruns and before that I've seen Doc Martin and that's why I have troubles to see Martin Clunes in a comedy :p

As for Little Britan...has anyone watched Little Britan USA? I assume they show it in UK as well? FatFighters with Rosie O'Donnell made me laugh so hard. But then I think the new chacter, the woman with the dog is kind of lame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_Up_Appearances
 
As for Little Britan...has anyone watched Little Britan USA? I assume they show it in UK as well? FatFighters with Rosie O'Donnell made me laugh so hard. But then I think the new chacter, the woman with the dog is kind of lame
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Yeh they do. I went out last night when it was on but managed to watch the last 10 minutes and I loved the FatFighters with the ice-cream substitution :lol: But like you said I dont think that the woman and her dog is a little boring.

Thanks for the link. I love Porridge, Black Adder and Open all Hours- Ive got to say that I think Ronnie Barker is one of the best British comics that have been on TV.

I love your halloween avatar btw Ducky :devil:
 
It seems to take us forever to get Britcoms over here, even with BBC America, so these are not current in the UK. Thank heavens for our PBS stations for getting us anything, though. My first love, years ago, was "To The Manor Born" (still love Penelope Keith). Also love "Waiting for God"- who couldn't love Tom and Diana! AbFab is hilarious. Although a more sedate comedy, I remain terribly impressed with "As Time Goes By;" I don't think U.S. TV has the capability to make something that subtle and have fans laughing so hard.

But BBC has Judi Dench and we don't. I am so impressed with British actors of stature willing to work the small screen as well as the big screen; something with the training process (British Rep, etc)? At least we're beginning to see that, but, interestingly, only women of stature, so far (Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgewick, Holly Hunter, Mary McDonnell), and only on cable rather than the "major" networks

What I think BBC also does way better than us (and also on a smaller budget, I believe) is mysteries. The adaptations of the works of Agatha Christie (Poirot and Miss Marple), PD James (Dalgliesh), Ngaio Marsh (Alleyn) and, of course, Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) are brilliant. So sad that Joan Hickson (Miss Marple, exactly as Christie wrote her) and Jeremy Brett (the perfect Sherlock Holmes) both died, and Roy Marsden - the only Dalgliesh, as far as I’m concerned – left, ending those iterations.
 
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One of my fave shows of all time is the Vicar of Dibley, i freaking LOVE this show. So funny. Also love Heartbeat, faulty towers and Gordon Ramsay's shows, The F Word and Kitchen Nightmares.

I have just gotten into 'Spaced', have watched about half of the first season. Very funny, it is a Simon Pegg show, the guy who did Shaun of the dead and Hot fuzz. If you like those movies, you will like Spaced.
 
DaWitch said:
Well Monty Python is a legend and Fawlty Towers... it's been so long and I haven't seen somuch of it :( John Cleese is a wonderful guy :D

What I watched a lot, as reruns was Allo!Allo!
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I love Allo!Allo! I caught most of the episodes when it air on a public broadcasting station back in the late 1980's. Now that it's available on DVD we had to get the whole series :) We are currently watching season 7.

Monty Python had some good sketches but some we a little out there. I know that's probably where they were suppose to be :lol:

Fawlty Towers is another classic show. Again we have it on DVD :)

Another classic is Are You Being Served. Hilarious. Mrs Slucombe and her pussy :guffaw:
 
Heartbeat is drama, I love it too :)

AS for Little Britain USA, oh man this clip

Tony and James hunting

it totally dropped me, I was laughing like hell in the end.

Meh, I so want to buy Allo!Allo! and Keeping Up Appearances on dvd, but... the money problem :p
 
Ha! Found today cheap Keeping Up Appreances! So bought season 3-4 and 5. Those two sets were same price together than season s1-2 so I guess I buy that later. Man, I'd hate to have woman like Hyacint as my neighbour :lol: :lol:
 
Just started watching a show called 'The IT crowd', LOL it is really funny, especially if you are a computer nerd.
 
I definitely love Monty Python and Fawlty Towers(So happy I bought the DVD's :p). Both being two of my favorite shows ever. Cleese is a comic genius! As I comic writer I look up to all the Pythons a lot, and have so much respect for them. I also used to love watching keeping up Appearances and Are You Being Served when I was younger. I never know when their on anymore :(

Poppet said:
And you just can't beat live stand up.
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Amen to that!
 
I loved Fawlty Towers. When I was younger I used to watch the reruns of it on friday nights with my Dad and my sisters - we would be cracking up before the show had even started because of the way that they would make an anagram out of the hotel sign. :lol: It hasn't been on for a long time, though.

I love all those old comedies, like Allo! Allo! and (I'm really surprised this hasn't been mentioned before) Dad's Army. Classic! And, I really have my parents to thank for introducing me to them: they love all that sort of stuff.

Vicar of Dibley was also great, as has been mentioned... also Father Ted! That was such a great show.

But probably one of my ultimate favourites will always be Black Adder. (I'm surprised this hasn't got more of a mention...) A friend came to stay with me a while ago, and he brought his Black Adder DVDs with him. We literally spent the weekend just laughing ourselves silly at them. :lol:

More recent ones: My Family would definitely be at near the top. And I'm sure there's several more, but I really can't think of them right now.

Then I also love the comedy panel shows like Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 cats.
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Yeah, me too. Those two that you mentioned (especially Mock the Week) as well as Have I Got News For You? and Would I Lie To You? Also those ones that aren't really comedy panel shows but are still hilarious: Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, Whose Line is it Anyway? (I was too young to see it when it was airing over here, but that is why we have 'Dave' :) )

Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppet
And you just can't beat live stand up.

Amen to that!
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Definitely agree with that. :D

EDIT: I also think that radio comedy shows deserve a mention here. Things like 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Old Harry's Game' to name two. There was also one called 'Bleak Expectations' on BBC Radio 4 a few months ago - that was really funny as well. There are so many more that I can't even start to pick others out... but yeah, some of the funniest shows to be found are actually on the radio. :)

... *is actually such a geek*
Good times.
 
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...These are my all-tme favourite Britcoms over the years. I have a feeling I'm a bit older than most posters on here, so some date back quite a way....

Some made me laugh at the pure genius and others because I have a really stupid sense of humour - chuckle.

Dad’s Army 1968 - 1977 (BBC)
Please Sir! 1968 - 1972 (ITV LWT)
Sykes 1972 - 1979 (BBC)
Open All Hours 1973 - 1985 (BBC One)
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em 1973, 1975, 1978 (BBC)
Porridge 1973 - 1977 (BBC)
It Ain't Half Hot Mum 1974 - 1981 (BBC1)
Rising Damp 1974 - 1978 (ITV Yorkshire)
Fawlty Towers 1975 & 1979 (BBC)
The Good Life 1975 - 1978 (BBC)
The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin 1976 - 1979 (BBC)
Open All Hours 1976 (BBC) - David Jason before Delboy
A Sharp intake of Breath 1977 (BBC) - Again David Jason before Delboy
Citizen Smith 1977 - 1980 (BBC1)
Butterflies 1978 - 1983 (BBC)
Only When I Laugh 1979 - 1982 (ITV1)
Only Fools and Horses 1981 - 2003 (BBC1)
Sorry! 1981 - 1988 (BBC1)
Blackadder 1983 - 1989 (BBC1)
Just Good Friends 1983 - 1986 (BBC1)
Ever Decreasing Circles 1984 - 1989 (BBC1)
Three Up, Two Down 1985 - 1989 (BBC)
Brush Strokes 1986 - 1991 (BBC1)
The New Statesman 1987 - 1992 (ITV Granada)
Red Dwarf 1988 - 1999 (BBC)
Birds of a Feather 1989 - 1998 (BBC)
Drop The Dead Donkey 1990 - 1998 (Channel 4)
Jeeves and Wooster 1990 - 1993 (BBC)
One Foot In The Grave 1990 - 2000 (BBC)
The Detectives 1993 - 1997 (BBC1)
The Vicar of Dibley 1994 - 2007 (BBC1)
The Thin Blue Line 1995 - 1996 (BBC)

:)
 
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