# What's British TV Like these days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015 "2005-02-26T15:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/1 "2005-02-26T15:51:32Z")
I like a lot of the older British TV shows that get put on Public TV here. Stuff like “ARE YOU BEING SERVED”, “FAWLTY TOWERS”, and “KEEPING UP APPEARENCES” I find to be great comedy. I’ve noticed that my parents like them, probably because the 1970’s British shows are a lot like the 1950’s American Comedy shows. Anyway, what can we expect toget over here in the years to come? Are you limeys still making KUA-that’s a really great show! PLEASE don’t send us any more shows about country parsons and their crumbling churches! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/2 "2005-02-26T15:58:29Z")
Pretty good, especially with regards to comedy: The League of Gentlemen, Shameless, Little Britain, The Office, Alan Partridge etc. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/3 "2005-02-26T16:03:19Z")
It’s dark. The Office is pleasantly uplifting, compared to Monkey Dust and Shameless, which are IMO by far the best programmes at the moment. Monkey Dust is an animated comedy, rather surreal, and very sick. Shameless is a comedy-stroke-drama, set on a rough Manchester council estate, and is sometimes quite spooky in its realism. In general, The Office and its ilk have driven one of the final nails into the traditional sit-com studio-audience format. (Keeping Up Appearances stopped being made many years ago.) As for drama, I can’t think of anything worth mentioning. Certainly nothing to compete with the stuff HBO has been providing over the past few years. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/4 "2005-02-26T16:16:05Z")
I think it’s fair to say that there haven’t been any decent mainstream British sitcoms for quite a while now, unless _The Office_ counts as mainstream. The best TV comedy produced here in recent years is of the “ironic panel game” genre - _Have I Got News For You_, _Never Mind the Buzzcocks_, _Shooting Stars_, etc. These are essentially excuses for invited stand-up comics and other wags to be funny, in the format of a quiz show. They have been staples of British TV for the last fifteen years. Traditional British sitcoms are few and far between. There’s quirky or satirical stuff like _The League of Gentlemen_, _Black Books_ and _Phoenix Nights_, but not much in the _Dad’s Army_ or _Only Fools and Horses_ vein. It sounds like you have already seen _The Vicar of Dibley_ and been duly unimpressed. Don’t expect to much of _My Hero_ or _My Family_, either. _One Foot in the Grave_ is worth a look if it isn’t already on PBS. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/5 "2005-02-26T16:51:22Z")
Except I forgot about the Irish/British _Father Ted_. If one of the hallmarks of a good sitcom is that it is funny to sophisticated and non-sophisticated viewers alike, then _Father Ted_ is a very good sitcom. Whimsical, absurd, very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/6 "2005-02-26T19:09:35Z")
There are a couple of Dramas with popularity - Frost, Judge John Deed. They are too slow (and not on at the right time/day) for me, but they seem well made. I don’t think anyone mentioned the Royle Family. There’s also Nighty Night, Time Gentlemen Please (not very good IMO), Black Books, Spaced Going back a bit there’s Men Behaving Badly, Red Dwarf, ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/7 "2005-02-26T19:15:34Z")
But most of my favourite programs are American… Simspons, Malcolm in the Middle, Oliver Beene, Two and a half Men, Frasier, Friends, ER, Rescue Me (bit right-wing but meh), Las Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-british-tv-like-these-days/292015/8 "2005-02-26T22:06:51Z")
It’s gone downhill since **Blackadder** finished! Then again, since nothing could ever match Blackadder, it was inevitable ;).