BBC2 - Britains Favourite Sitcom

[34064 Fighter Command]

You can vote for the winner, but you have to choose from the Top Ten.

The full List:-

1 Blackadder
2 Dad's Army
3 Fawlty Towers
4 Good Life
5 One Foot in the Grave
6 Only Fools and Horses
7 Open All Hours
8 Porridge
9 Vicar of Dibley
10 Yes Minister
11 Father Ted
12 Keeping Up Appearances
13 'Allo 'Allo!
14 Last of the Summer Wine
15 Steptoe and Son
16 Men Behaving Badly
17 Absolutely Fabulous
18 Red Dwarf
19 The Royle Family
20 Are You Being Served?
21 To the Manor Born
22 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
23 The Likely Lads
24 My Family
25 The Office
26 Drop the Dead Donkey
27 Rising Damp
28 Dinnerladies
29 As Time Goes By
30 Hancock's Half Hour
31 The Young Ones
32 Till Death Us Do Part
33 Butterflies
34 The Thin Blue Line
35 Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
36 Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
37 Waiting for God
38 Birds of a Feather
39 Bread
40 Hi-De-Hi
41 The League of Gentlemen
42 I'm Alan Partridge
43 Just Good Friends
44 2.4 Children
45 Bottom
46 It Ain't Half Hot Mum
47 The Brittas Empire
48 Gimme Gimme Gimme
49 Rab C. Nesbitt
50 Goodnight Sweetheart
51 Up Pompeii
52 Ever Decreasing Circles
53 On the Buses
54 Coupling
55 George and Mildred
56 A Fine Romance
57 Citizen Smith
58 Black Books
59 The Liver Birds
60 Two Pints of Lager and...
61 The New Statesman
62 Sykes
63 Please, Sir!
64 Dear John
65 Barbara
66 Spaced
67 Bless this House
68 Love Thy Neighbour
69 Man About the House
70 Desmonds
71 Duty Free
72 All Gas and Gaiters
73 Happy Ever After/Terry & June
74 Only When I Laugh
75 Brass
76 The Rag Trade
77 Sorry
78 Kiss Me Kate
79 Doctor in the House
80 I Didn't Know You Cared
81 Shelley
82 Nearest and Dearest
83 Fresh Fields
84 The Army Game
85 Robin's Nest
86 The Dustbinmen
87 Whoops Apocalypse
88 My Wife Next Door
89 Never the Twain
90 Nightingales
91 Early Doors
92 Agony
93 The Lovers
94 Father Dear Father
95 Hot Metal
96 And Mother Makes...
97 Life With the Lyons
98 Marriage Lines
99 A Sharp Intake of Breath
100 No Problem

Hot Metal at No 95 - I can't believe it.

Should have been in the top 10 easily IMHO. For those of you who didn't see it, basically a version of ' drop the dead donkey ' based in a tabloid newspaper.

 

[Rusco]

Talking of sitcoms - who remembers Mind Your Language?

Everyone seems agreed that it's blatantly racist (me included) but it's still running on Granada Plus. How do they get away with that?

I remember that, more racism than a Kilroy-Silk news article. I think that is where Suzanne Danielle made her first appearance. She who then went on to marry Sam Torrance.

 

[Northstander]

HOW THE HELL IS LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE ON THERE!!!!

When you watch the and the canned laughter starts I think to myself what am I supposed to be laughing at!!!!!?

dear John- Now that was a cracking one, very under rated!!

Hi-di-hi will IMO be in the top ten. It may be looking back a bit shite but at the time of release had one of ther biggest viewing figs.

 

[Pavilionaire]

OFAH will win by a country mile, and rightly so.

Sadly, truly funny comedies that the whole family can watch and enjoy equally, however old, are almost a thing of the past.

Personally, I love Alan Partridge, The Office and The League Of Gentlemen as much as OFAH but I accept they have not got the cross-over appeal of Delboy and Rodney.

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

Ha! someone mentinoned Dear John, excellent stuff. Kirk St Moritz was a classic character.

However as regards the top ten I think it is a pretty good one. I think Vicar of Dibley is definitely the odd one out, but I don't mind it.

Top for me has to be Fawlty Towers everything about it is brilliant. Faultless writing and acting, and they knew when to stop, I've watched each episode dozens on times and never tire of it.

I also really like the Good Life, a superb ensemble piece, brilliantly played and the environmental mesage still relevant today, and it had Felicity Kendal in it.

Blackadder also brilliant, as was Yes Minister. And Only Fools and Horses is a national institution, ok it might be past its sell by but it has provided British Comedy with some of its best characters of all time.

What surprised about the top 50 was just how damn good it was. Of the 50 featured I could happily sit through a few episodes of about 40 of them and still find my self laughing.

It's a shame that multi-channel tv seems to have diluted the writing talent in this country.

 

[Gwylan]

Talking of sitcoms - who remembers Mind Your Language?

Everyone seems agreed that it's blatantly racist (me included) but it's still running on Granada Plus. How do they get away with that?

How the hell did Love thy Neighbour get in the list? That was offensive in the 60s, TV execs would get lynched today if they put that on.

On a different topic, it's a shame that Black Books is so low down. Different class from some of the dross on that list.

 

[marvin]

My three are:

1. Blackadder
2. Bottom
3. Porridge

Bottom is not in the top ten, you can't make up your own 10 its got to be from the 10 that are there.

Its what's upset the Orifice lot, the rest of the country does not think its as good as this tasteless minority do. So they can't chose it.

 

[Rusco]

Bottom is not in the top ten, you can't make up your own 10 its got to be from the 10 that are there.

Its what's upset the Orifice lot, the rest of the country does not think its as good as this tasteless minority do. So they can't chose it.

Doh !

 

[Sussex on Leith]

This list does raise the question of how you define a sitcom, especially now that canned laughter tracks are (hopefully) becoming a thing of the past. The Book Group would be in my Top Ten, but that's as much a character study as a sitcom, albeit a very funny character study. And the Office, much as I love it, was getting close to soap opera territory towards the end.

That said, can't argue with a lot of the choices. I watched the first two series of Yes Minister on DVD yesterday, which was very useful therapy ahead of Monday morning, given my line of work.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I know shows like OFAH and Dad's Army are national institutions and god forbid we should say that they aren't actually funny (lightning bolt), but they are just soo middle of the road, with about one laugh out loud moment per three episodes (again imho). Presumably classic Rik Mayall like 'The New Statesman' was just a bit too much for good old middle England to stomach, and god forbid on Channel Four. Am I mistaken, or are the top fourteen shows on this 'BBC' poll, products of the good old 'BBC' comedy department?

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

To be honest the bias toward BBC comedies is probably due to the fact that many more people would have seen those comedies rather than the aforementioned gems such as Black Books, The Book Group (not really a sit com IMHO but bloody good all the same). The new statesman also really funny was on late on a sunday night on ITV so was not really going to have a large enough audience to get high up in the poll. I would have liked to have seen Spaced up there too.

But all in all I think this debate reminds how much good British comedy is out there.

 

[marvin]

I know shows like OFAH and Dad's Army are national institutions and god forbid we should say that they aren't actually funny (lightning bolt), but they are just soo middle of the road, with about one laugh out loud moment per three episodes (again imho). Presumably classic Rik Mayall like 'The New Statesman' was just a bit too much for good old middle England to stomach, and god forbid on Channel Four. Am I mistaken, or are the top fourteen shows on this 'BBC' poll, products of the good old 'BBC' comedy department?

No you're mistaken "father ted" @ no 11 is a CH 4 prog, is it not?

But then out of the top 30 I only count 3 non BBC progs.
Father Ted, Drop the Dead Donkey, both C4 and Rising Damp which was ITV (unless you count the very unfunny series of Men Behaving Badley that first apeared on ITV.)

 

[Pavilionaire]

The BBC have pissed all over the other channels when it comes to comedy. What have ITV been doing? At least Channel 4 has helped to nurture some of the UK's comedy talent. However, most of the Top 50 are excellent.

By stark contrast, if a similar type of poll were conducted with U.S comedies I'd be struggling to come up with more than 4 or 5 that I actually enjoy (Seinfeld, Cheers, Soap, maybe Rhoda er...)

 

[Jambo Seagull]

This list just goes to show how people's tastes differ. Like others, I can not for the life of me explain how Vicar of Dibley or Open all Hours got anywhere near the top 10. I do think the Office and Phoenix Nights are the best comedies on our screens for many a long year and will stand the test of time.

In my view the golden age of sitcom was probably the 70's. For me Porridge, Rising Damp, Fawlty Towers and What ever happened to the Likely Lads have stood the test of time. Since then things have gone downhill until quite recently. Although Blackadder and OFAH were good, I think that a lot of the stuff around in the late 80's and early 90's was complete dross. Personally I would rather have a tooth removed without an anaesthetic than watch shows like Bread, the Brittas Empire and (worst of all by a milion miles) Red Dwarf. Oh and I forgot Birds of a Feather. Complete and utter shite.


P.S. It is a well-known fact that the only decent ITV sitcom evere made was Rising Damp. All the rest are by definition Shitcoms.

 

[Brovion]

Why is Blackadder in there? It is undoubtedly brilliant but it's not a 'situation' comedy on the grounds that the 'situation' changed every series - that was rather the point of it.

Unfortunately as somebody has said the 'Tabloid Dullards' will be out in force and the vastly overrated 'Only Fools and Horses' will probably win: for some reason a bit of mawkish sentimentality and petty crime endlessly recycled really appeals to the British public.

Likely Lads, Father Ted and Steptoe not in the top ten. You should be ashamed of yourselves Britain.

 

[DTES]

1. Blackadder
2. Blackadder
3. Blackadder

By a long, long way from that list.

But if I have to pick two more, then Fawlty Towers and OFAH it is.