It’s like choosing your favourite music; differently ordered list every day. But this made me smile or cringe or both:
God help us!
Not such a good life now for a former teevee presenter who’s jobless. At least the former weather girl got to sell a few more books.
Fwiw, Only Fools and Horses has to win it by a country mile, asssuming no ‘vote campaigns’.
The top 100 includes plenty of non-BBC shows (as it would have to have). Father Ted is at no.11 as we’ve already heard, but the fact that 24 of the top 25 are BBC shows probably says more about middle England than anything else.
I’d probably go for Blackadder FWIW but can’t see myself voting (or tuning in every week). I think it is just an excuse to show more repeats, and to give work to the rent-a-quotes they always have on those list shows.
most of these come from what my parents made me watch in the 80’s.
BlackAdder & Father Ted I loved, Fawlty Towers is alright. Porridge, Rising Damp or Phoenix nights should be top in my book.
As for Vicar of Dibley, WTF? I hate this. somebody tell it I hate it. It offends the very core of my being and all I stand for. it being no3 says everything about the British public, or rather the middle aged British public that voted.
Never liked Fools & Horses or Yes Minister either. And all the Good Life tapes at the BBC should be burned on a Darth Vader style funeral pyre, with me dancing around it.
man, I hate Richard Briers.
and Penelope Keith.
The Brittas Empire was fantastic!
The Vicar of Dibley isn’t at no.3. They haven’t decided the order of the top ten yet – that’s the whole point of the forthcoming bunch of programmes.
That said, I must get off my chest how exasperating I find these list shows. They always seem to show the same set of faces (Stuart Maconie, Miranda Sawyer, Paul Morley, Kate Thornton etc.) and the fake spontaneity of their “recollections” grates too. They want you to believe that they’ve remembered one of their favourite bits of TV and thought up an amusing story about it, whereas really the producers have just got a bunch of researchers to sit through a few hundred hours of tape then played the celebs the bits they want to show and fed them a line to go with each clip.
“Ooh I used to love that” they gush, “D’ye remember the theme tune? <hums note-perfect rendition> Fantastic!!!” ’Course you remember it, you twat, they’ve just played to you five minutes ago.
The only exception is Peter Kay who seems to have thought up his own anecdotes and sounds genuinely funny telling them. I heartily recommend his show Live at the Bolton Albert Halls, btw.
Spaced doesn’t even make it into the top 100? Good grief. It doesn’t have broad appeal, aimed more at younger people, but surely it’s better than some of the crap on that list?
That said, Blackadder clearly deserves to win! Are international voters allowed?
Don’t think I can list five, not having access to television.
And while most of this show was too smutty for me to watch and I had to turn it off. I did laugh and laugh at the ‘Grot shop’ episode of Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin <don’t stone me>
Spaced is at no.66.
I can’t see how they can to stop you voting from outside the UK, but the online voting form asks for the region you live in, so you’d have to pick a fake one.
Well I cast my vote for a show I first saw while living in London, so surely that’s legit.
Blackadder - Quite simply the best situation comedy ever.
Fawlty Towers - Excellent, but was primarily reliant on Cleeve’s performance.
Dads Army - Average scripts that were often drivel, but redeemed by brilliant acting (Clive Dunn excepted).
Vicar of Dibley - Nooooo! For the love of god, why??? Despite an impressive pedigree of actors and writer this never fails to be anything but truly awful.
The Good Life - OK for its time, but very dated. If only it wasn’t so cosily middle class, middle England.
One Foot in the Grave - Improbable plots, irritating characters. Makes for a very unlovable comedy.
Only Fools and Horses - Good at first, but over-rated and has been living off past glories for the last 15 years. Enough already!
Open All Hours - Boring. “Last of the Summer Wine”'s little brother in the unamusing stakes. Exactly how many jokes are there to be had from blunt Northerners talking about trivial matters as if they were vitally important?
Porridge - Good. Ronnie Barker before he got crap.
Yes Minister - Clever-clever, smug and irritating. Comedy for those who think “PM’s Question Time” is the height of topical wit.
I’m afraid all this list demonstrates is that the most popular of most things is also the lowest common denominator.
I’m gonna give Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Dad’s Army an equal number of votes.
I prefer the term “Bag of shite” to “decidedly average”
(I was forced to sit though an entire episode once, an even bigger ordeal than getting through the last 1/4 of AI)
I can understand my own favs like Spaced or Black Books not making it, but Father Ted? - Ok the talent is Irish rather than British, and it was on C4 not the Beeb, but it was nominated.
Reposting what I posted on this on another board.
I’m Canadian, not British, but…
Of the top ten, the only two I agree with are Blackadder and Yes, Minister.
I’ve seen and enjoyed Vicar of Dilby (inoffensive, and I’m rather fond of Dawn French), and Fawlty Towers (funny the FIRST time through…doesn’t hold up to repeated watchings), but don’t think either deserves to be on the list.
One Foot in the Grave, I could do without.
The other 5, I’ve never seen.
Of the others, Father Ted, Red Dwarf, The Young Ones, The Brittas Empire, The Thin Blue Line, and The New Statesman should all be higher. (I notice a lot of overlap in the casts of my top list… Rik Mayal, Chris Barrie and Rowan Atkinson are all good signs, it seems. (Although Bottom and Mr Bean sort of ruin the theory…))
I’ve a certain fondness for As Time Goes By and My Family, but I wouldn’t put them higher than they are - at least not top 10. And although I like AYBS and KUA, I don’t think they hold up to repeat viewings even enough to hold their positions. The rest of the list either I’ve never seen, or don’t like (2.4 Children, I liked when it was first being aired here, now I watch it and think ‘the HELL?’.)
Some I’d have put on the list but didn’t see there: Chef! (The first couple series - before they got divorced.), Mulberry (which was rather sweet for a show with Death as a supporting character) Humm…that’s it.
Hey, I love One Foot in the Grave. What’s wrong with you people? 
I’m not a participant in the BBC poll, and this might not qualify as a sitcom, but none of that will stop me from nominating People Like Us for this Top Ten list. I just wish my local PBS station would make up its mind whether it wants to broadcast it. They seem to pick the occasions with a dart board.
The marraige scene of 'Allo, 'Allo! shoots the whole series up to near the top for me!
“We are goetherred here before Gid, to jain these two in haley matrimony…”
So… what catagory does The Goonies fit in? Variety?
Also, I thought Doctor In the House would rank much higher.
Does anyone remember The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin? I thought it was hysterical. (oh, I just checked the list; it’s number 35) Of the shows mentioned, Blackadder is by far the best. I’ve always thought Red Dwarf was waaaay over-rated. And, as much as it pains me to say it (and I have all the episodes on tape), it’s true: Fawlty Towers doesn’t really hold up on repeated viewings.
Dang, I wish it was easier to see some of these shows in the US. BBC American is only on digital cable (and always seems to be running dreck). And my local PBS station only seems to run endless reruns of Red Dwarf and Are You Being Served?. (shudder)
Funny, I think Red Dwarf was waaaay underrated.
Exactly! One Foot in the Grave is great. The character of Victor Meldrew always reminds me a bit of my grandfather. Granted, the plots are rather farfetched, but hilarious. I keep waiting for the programs to be released on DVD.
As for the other programs, I agree with the objections to the Vicar of Dibley. It’s mediocre at best (although I do like Dawn French).