Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

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i think Dom's pre / post Friends thing is more important when you think about it in terms of how a show is written. few british sitcoms i know of have really run with the american "team" system. i know "my family" has, any others? rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

it doesnt seem a good list for 10 years of tv?

in comparison to the US you mean? i haven't seen the lists of French, Chinese, Australian comedies...

wrong to base on nationality perhaps but it seems there's an idea that the UK should be producing better comedy generally - better than the US better than anywhere else in the world. why tho?

or is it just that in a ten year period there should be more comedy that caters for one's own tastes. again tho, why? a few people on ILE are 'above' most of these shows/kinds of humour it seems, just as they are with certain types of music or other entertainment. hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Phoenix Nights: good "set piece" humour (racist folk group, Stars In Their Eyes, Ann Summers party), not great character interplay humour. Fair to say?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Are you seriously saying you don't see Spaced as an update of Dad's Army?

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:40 PM (5 minutes ago)

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Dad's Army is a sitcom that is centred around two main character who don't have much in common but are thrown together by a "greater" need. The rest of the cast is an ensemble who revolves around them, and are all "weird" in their own specific way. The humour arises from how the two main characters cope with both each other and these other characters who rotate around their lives. The set-up of the average episode will find the characters escparing the enclosed space that they've been forced into and exploring a "new" space, usually with a large number of characters from this supporting cast.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:50 (seventeen years ago) link

hating on Little Britain is a lot like hating on Mika or Gorillaz.

sorry steve but neither mika or albarn has done anything quite as straight up offensive as Ting Tong Macadacca Ding Dong.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:51 (seventeen years ago) link

rather than Dom's distinction it could be more of a case of more writers, less character coherence perhaps?

-- acrobat, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:47 PM (1 minute ago)

do characters cohere in real life? i'd say not. the bigger diff us/uk is that their seasons run almost FOUR TIMES longer than ours. which in case of 'friends' means real stuff actually happens in their lives, careers, etc, over the course of years. the transition from 'post-student' to 'adult' is played out in real time. there were 13 episodes of 'spaced', so of course the characters were coherent. (plus the writers were the actors...) over the ten years of the 'friends' arc, the characters changed, but why wouldn't they? all the lauded and dull brit sitcoms (dad's army, porridge) were way more cipher-based. 'friends' maybe had a few catchphrases, but it wasn't as bad as 'dad's army' in that respect.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

also the two main characters fall in love with each other as was expected from the start. (xpost x2)

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link

dom, that's weak.

it's like that "there are only seven stories" thing, you can modify it to taste. daisy and tim have a fair amount in common. there's no class humour. etc.

but the main thing is 'spaced' is shot nothing like other sitcoms.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Porridge was *revolutionary* though, as well as being well-written, well-characterised, and hilarious, in terms of social construct. Lukewarm, Jock: these were characters that broke down boundaries.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not talking *stylistically* Henry, I'm talking of form.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, if I reshot To The Manor Born in the camera trick style of Green Wing, it'd still have more in common with the former than the latter.

xp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

blueski: Jam, Green Wing. There's two off the bat.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link

replace 'ever' with 'beforehand'

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:56 (seventeen years ago) link

forgot Jam cos didn't watch it

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

-- blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:55 (28 seconds ago)

the young ones? python?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Spaced is important because it was the first time that *that generation* and *that lifestyle* had been shown on British TV: low-level media aspirationals scraping a living in the arse-end of London. Maybe the TV show that Spaced has most in common with then is Thirtysomething?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The Goodies as well, xp.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

low-level media aspirationals scraping a living in the arse-end of London

The Goodies!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 10:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh man, ha ha, spooky xpost!!!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:00 (seventeen years ago) link

<i>was it the first sitcom (ie pre-scrubs, pre-arrested development) to have shitloads of random insert shots?</i>

ally mcbeal?

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

none of these other shows listed seemed quite so reliant on effects, filming techniques etc. as Spaced - i'm standing by it still...

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather the way Spaced was shot was far more integral to the show than any other british comedy show ever.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:55 PM (7 minutes ago)

certainly for a very long time.

integral is the right word -- the 'to the manor born'/'green wing' thing doesn't work because whereas 'green wing' (which isn't that bad, but it's no 'scrubs') is quite traditional, the characters in 'spaced' are always making film refs, so is the show... it comes together.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

does green wing have anything in common w/ scrubs other than them both being v bad and unfunny in hospitals?

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't even know they were making film refs most of the time (xp)

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:08 (seventeen years ago) link

integral is the right word -- the 'to the manor born'/'green wing' thing doesn't work because whereas 'green wing' (which isn't that bad, but it's no 'scrubs') is quite traditional, the characters in 'spaced' are always making film refs, so is the show... it comes together.

By your logic then Spaced has a lot in common with Family Guy. Which it obviously doesn't.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link

does green wing have anything in common w/ scrubs other than them both being v bad and unfunny in hospitals?

-- RJG, Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:07 PM (1 minute ago)

oh you.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link

RJG and quitguy like the same amount of stuff.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Green Wing is no Surgical Spirit

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

i like more stuff.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe one more thing

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Only When I Laugh > Surgical Spirit > Scrubs > Green Wing

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:14 (seventeen years ago) link

in only when i laugh, did the whole show take place in that one room, i cant remember

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:16 (seventeen years ago) link

which of these shows had the smallest budget?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I imagine if "Only When I Laugh" had ran for 10,000 episodes it still wouldn't have reached the budget for one episode of "Green Wing"

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Only When I Laugh *wasn't* a one set sitcom, I think. I'm sure they went out into the corridor and the garden at some points as well.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link

sounds awesome

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:24 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/800/onlywhenilaugh.jpg

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link

One set comedies = awesome

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:26 (seventeen years ago) link

There's always that argument that retro video games are intrinsically better because they didn't have the luxury of impressed or realistic graphics to play with so all effort was put into the actual "gameplay" itself. Same distinction between OWIL and Green Wing, maybe?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:28 (seventeen years ago) link

That one guy that quit, you can't say you like more stuff than I do just because you like green wing, scrubs and 30 rock

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:28 (seventeen years ago) link

good comedy = anything that when one sees a still of the cast making a "wooowhmp woooowhmp" noise makes it funnier.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:29 (seventeen years ago) link

its a good point about one-set shows, its a massive change and exciting, when they go somewhere else briefly

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:29 (seventeen years ago) link

do you like 'friends', rjg?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

dom what do you consider the finest british comedy series. would it be a sitcom? do you think the sitcom is the best format?

where do you place whatever happened to the likely lads?

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't agree with all this 'limitations r good' stuff. it wasn't really an aesthetic choice. it's like with films: they've improved since outdoor shooting became doable.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link

How do you know it wasn't really an aesthetic choice?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

You don't half talk some drivel at times

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

cos there's no way they could have shot on location for more than x-minutes. bbc budgets across the board were firm on that, not just in comedy.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:36 (seventeen years ago) link

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