Recommend to me some Britcoms

Cafe Society
1

I’ve always been a huge fan of British comedies… can’t get enough of them. I’d like you to help me add some fodder to my grist mill. They don’t have to be new, so long as I can find them on DVD.
To give you some idea of my taste, here’s some of the shows that I really like…

Monty Python
The Goodies
Not The Nine 'O Clock News
Blackadder
Red Dwarf
The Office
Doctor In The House
The Young Ones
Absolutely Fabulous
Fawlty Towers

and here’s a few I don’t like…

Mr. Bean
Are You Being Served?
The Good Life

So, what do I need to see?

2

Try “'Allo 'Allo!”. It’s a hilarious comedy set in France during WWII. Lots of boobie jokes, double entendres, and an effeminate member of the Gestapo!

3

Judging from your list, I’d recommend “As Time Goes By”, which isn’t strictly a sitcom, but is (to my 8-year-old recollection) about 80/20 comedy/romance.

Avoid “Keeping Up Appearances” if you don’t like AYBS?.

4

Check out Chef! - particularly the earlier series. The newer series isn’t awful, but it wasn’t nearly what the earlier ones were.

5

Little Britain is pretty new, it’s a sarcastic, manic hilarious look at Britain, Monkey Dust is a dark, animated view of a soulless world, which is equally hilarious.

6

Admitedly neither of the above are really Sitcoms, but are British and Comedy, Coupling is a very good britcom in the traditional sense of the word.

7

I’d recommend Spaced. It’s written by and stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson of Shaun of the Dead fame.

8

vl_mungo, having recently been sent on a quest to find Britcoms for my ailing mother, may I point you to this thread for more recommendations.

I’m relieved she’s moved onto comedies after exhausting seemingly every costume drama set in the British isles ever made. By the time we got to the one about the Edwardian nannies, I was ready to kill myself. I know a lot of people knock material like The Vicar of Dibley but I liked it … and it’s a LOT more entertaining than anything involving Edwardian nannies, or wartime food rationing, or …

9

Besides which, Dawn French could put any three Edwardian nannies on their bustled arses by simply raising an eyebrow.

Speaking of which, you MUST check out the various eps of “French & Saunders”, starring the aforementioned Dawn French and AbFab’s Jennifer Saunders. It’s sketch comedy, and hit-or-miss, but when they hit they HIT (and it happens more often than the “miss” part). When they miss it’s not horrible, just boring.

10

“You” in that post being vl_mungo, not Selkie. Unless she wants to.

11

Actually, Selkie has already partaken of French & Saunders. I thought there were more misses than hits, myself, but I agree that the ones that hit really hit. Loved the take-off on The Silence of the Lambs, for example.

12

Heh! I think my favorite F&S skit (besides the Fellowship of the Ring spoof) was the takeoff on The House of Elliot. Even being completely unfamiliar with the source series, it had me ROLLING!

13

Only Fools and Horses
Porridge.
Steptoe and Son.
Hi-de-hi (For the first 5 seasons or so, after that it got a bit weak)
The Comic Strip Presents

14

Black Books has made me laugh harder than any show I’ve seen in the last few years. Think a surreal Fawlty Towers in a bookstore. Great, great show.

15

Just to ad a bit of random factoids, Dawn French is married to Lenny Henry, the creator and star of Chef!

And speaking of Lenny Henry, you might want to check out the Lenny Henry Show, from the late 80s.

16

I’m going to try a “if you like that, you’ll probably like this” kind of thing. Here goes:

Monty Python - The League of Gentlemen, A Bit of Fry & Laurie
The Goodies - Father Ted
Not The Nine 'O Clock News - The Fast Show
Blackadder - no recent shows are as good as Black Adder
Red Dwarf - Father Ted
The Office - maybe The Day Today, I’m Alan Partridge, Brass Eye, People Like Us
Doctor In The House - any crappy 1970s ITV sitcom, e.g. Love Thy Neighbour
The Young Ones - Spaced, Black Books
Absolutely Fabulous - don’t know, don’t like it
Fawlty Towers - no recent shows are as good as Fawlty Towers.

17

Just another vote for The Vicar of Dibley. I’m currently running through the episodes but I have to rent them from a video store that’s 25 miles away. It is silly comedy, but sometimes there are some lines that make me think. Like in the very first episode, when Geraldine is describing getting “the call”.

18

Maybe you’d like The Brittas Empire? But perhaps not.

Maybe you’d like The New Statesman with Rik Mayall? Erm, might be a bit too reliant on knowledge of british politics and outdated.

Yes Minister? Also very political.

To The Manor Born? That’s kind of Good Life-ish, hmmm.

Butterflies? Nah, that’s not really hilarious enough.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

19

Oh, yeah, A Bit of Fry & Laurie. One of the best shows ever! It’s at least as good as Monty Python. It’s a crime that they’ve only made one “best of” VHS tape commercially available. I’ve found a bit more available online, but there’s still a lot that’s not out there anywhere.

20

The one show I really liked but had never heard of over here was Dinnerladies . Seems to be rather underrated even over there but I thought it was hysterical.

And I would second Porridge (and Ronnie Barker’s other show **Open All Hours ** isn’t bad either) and definatly Yes Minister . Why can’t we get satire like that over here? Lord knows we’re ripe for it.