# Your 5 favorite Brit-coms **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910 "2006-03-26T01:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/41 "2006-03-27T04:50:13Z")
BlackAdder (all) Monty Python Yes, (Prime) Minister Father Ted Faulty Towers ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/42 "2006-03-27T06:17:50Z")
1. _Bless me Father_: a much funnier Catholic-genre program than _Father Ted_ 2. \*Yes Minister \* and _Yes Prime Minister_: so well written that they were scary at times 3. _A Fine Romance_: Judi Dench and her real life husband Michael Williams in a tour de force of wickedly dry humour ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/43 "2006-03-27T06:28:27Z")
Could somebody explain _Are you Being Served?_, because I think it sucks really, really, really hard. 1. _As Time Goes By_ 2. _Executive Stress_ 3. _Mr. Bean_ 4. _Coupling_ (ignoring the post-Jeff season (s?) ) 5. _Blackadder_ P.S. _Are you Being Served?_ sucks. Hard. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/44 "2006-03-27T06:33:24Z")
:shrug: I think “Are You Being Served” is quite amusing. Not the best of shows, but I do find sexual innuendo always brings a smile to my face. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/45 "2006-03-27T06:38:03Z")
Are You Being Served is old and outdated, but it always made me chuckle. I always thought it was surprising what they were able to get away with way back then. Besides, I’ll always have a soft spot for it, since it was the first British comedy I ever watched. It led me to Black Adder and Red Dwarf, and the rest was history. It’s a gateway British comedy. ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/46 "2006-03-27T06:57:15Z")
In no particular order: Spaced Fawlty Towers Only Fools and Horses Red Dwarf Blackadder (there are a few more that I love but since we can only list our top 5…) ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/47 "2006-03-27T07:01:19Z")
Fawlty Towers Coupling Suburban Shootout (holy CRAP! Have you seen this? I can’t believe it! It’s like an estrogen driven version of The Sopranos!) Footballers’ Wives The Avengers ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/48 "2006-03-27T07:11:12Z")
:smack: And I obviously can’t read. PLease replace the last two (definitely not comedies) with AbFab & Black Books ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/49 "2006-03-27T07:15:16Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > Would that be [Only Fools and Horses](http://www.ofah.net/)? > > For anyone who doesn’t know, the title comes from the saying “only fools and horses work”. IIRC the ‘saying’ may have come from the theme song. I think that the song-writer once admitted that he had made up the saying and that the ‘historic’ status of the saying was a sort of urban legend that just grew. Brewers dictionary of Phrase and Fable does not credit it. The internet is full of unreferenced examples but I am interested to hear of any true reference for the phrase which predates the series. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/50 "2006-03-27T07:59:51Z")
_ **The Games** _ (Yes, strictly speaking, it’s Australian. I’m including it for three reasons; it has some of the same wry, satirical feel as my favorite British comedies, the people have accents, and it’s at least as good as any other show on this list.) _ **Yes, Minister** _ and _ **Yes, Prime Minister** _ (Excellent books, too; written in the style of Hacker’s political memoirs published in the future, with some references to what happened to the characters. I really wish they’d been able to do a final episode or a reunion show, showing the end of Hacker’s government. My faith in the authors is such that I know it could have been brilliant.) _ **Red Dwarf** _ _ **Blackadder** _ _ **Coupling** _ (I never cared much for Jane until the episode where she gets insulted by a sock puppet _on her own hand_! That performance helps put this show on the list.) Honorable mention (and might make the next version of this list if I ever seen enough of them): _ **Murder Most Horrid** _ (An anthology series starring Dawn French. Has to be an anthology since people are dropping dead (often violently) in every episode. The one with Amanda Donahoe as the hitwoman has the funniest line in the history of television. I’d pay a lot to find this on DVD or tape.) _ **One Foot in the Grave** _ (I saw a few episodes, including about half of the finale, and then caught it pretty regularly when they started over at the beginning. But the local PBS station changed their lineup before they got to the end again. I really want to see that last episode.) And one that’s not on the list: _ **Fawlty Towers** _ (I loved this show the first few times I saw it, but it hasn’t worn well. At some point it dawned on me how many of Basil’s troubles are self-inflicted. There’s a certain automatic sympathy for him because of Sybil, the Major, and all the various difficulties of running the hotel, but then he loses that by making things worse all by himself. And it’s usually not in a best-intentions-gone-awry sort of way. The feelings of sympathy and comeuppance just sort of cancel each other out.) ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/51 "2006-03-27T08:56:57Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > _ **Fawlty Towers** _ (I loved this show the first few times I saw it, but it hasn’t worn well. At some point it dawned on me how many of Basil’s troubles are self-inflicted. There’s a certain automatic sympathy for him because of Sybil, the Major, and all the various difficulties of running the hotel, but then he loses that by making things worse all by himself. And it’s usually not in a best-intentions-gone-awry sort of way. The feelings of sympathy and comeuppance just sort of cancel each other out.) I think that there is a fundamental difference between the US approach to sit coms and the UK approach (as glanced upon above). Specifically it is to do with differences in the cultural view of intention, behaviour and character. I think that to most Brits, the humor of Fawlty Towers is in the fact that Basil is so incompetent and unfit to deal with people and is the source of his own discomfort. That is the key point. It goes for many other Brit Sit Coms: AbFab- two totally incompetent drug taking alcoholic media whores. Keeping up Appearances- A snob and a wimp Red Dwarf- incompetent crawling yes-man and a slob Blackadder- clever but self defeating Edmund and a slob One Foot in the Grave- a moaning senior citizen and a defeated wife Only Fools and Horses- an inadequate con-man and a wimp of a brother The Office- incompetent socially unskilled boss and a group of staff with no initiative Father Ted- three totally incompetent priests. All of these and many others are based on the premise that the character flaws of the characters and the flaws of communication between them forces them to repeat the same set of mistakes year after year without learning or changing. That is what is humorous to the British eye. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Piranha_Brothers)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/52 "2006-03-27T09:04:31Z")
Monty Python is not a britcom. Somehow. More of a beyond-category-thing. In random order: **The Youg Ones** too often forgotten, very pythonesque, surreal but violent **Fawlty Towers** no comment necessary **Blackadder** (esp. II) no comment necessary **Coupling** Jeff rules! The concept is quite standard, but it’s so incredibly well done Oh what shall I say for 5? Red Dwarf? Are you being served? Allo allo? Father Ted? (Oh no, that’s Eircom) Black Books? I just don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/53 "2006-03-27T11:46:13Z")
In no particular order: Porridge Dad’s Army Blackadder The Good Life Fawlty Towers ---
**Author:** ![Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hook)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/54 "2006-03-27T12:39:10Z")
No-one’s mentioned one of my very favourites yet - **Some Mothers do 'Ave 'em**. Starring a very young Michael Crawford, yet to become famous in **Phantom of the Opera**. Others in no particular order - Man about the House Porridge Rising Damp The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin There are so many others I have great memories of - To The Manor Born, Good Neighbours, Alf Garnett etc. Good times! ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910/55 "2006-03-27T16:50:21Z")
AbFab - I literally laughed out loud. Every episode. Chef Are You Being Served Mr. Bean - the sitcom NOT the movie!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-5-favorite-brit-coms/349910.md?page=2)