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

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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

Best British comedy series ever is Porridge ahead of Yes, Minister. IAP, Father Ted, Steptoe, and WHTTLL would all place highly. WHTTLL had a great first series, series and a half, but it did run out of steam towards the end of its run. Like The Simpsons, we tend to watch the episodes out of order these days, so we don't notice it as much. The show also has a lot to say about that first generation of educated working class lads from the late 50s/early 60s, I think I've learned a lot more about prole life from that era from both TLL and WHTTLL than I have from any kitchen sink drama.

Sitcoms are the one artform that take up most of our cultural lives: they're bite-sized, they're constant, and they're meant to "reflect" our lives in some way. More of your brain is taken up with sitcom plots than you realise.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:36 (seventeen years ago) link

And all comedy was on the BBC was it?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I like middle-late period friends

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

do you really think it was down to limitations? lots of its contemporaries seemed to be multi-set

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

On The Buses was shot on location.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link

But not for the BBC of course!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:39 (seventeen years ago) link

True. ITV budgets must have been a *lot* bigger than BBC ones at the time, then.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Brideshead Revisited cost something like £12million to make, and this was back in the early 80s.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Some sitcoms ARE just about people sitting around and talking - "'Til Death Us Do Part" springs to mind - and that's an aesthetic choice

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

i reckon the money is there but it has to go on something they "know" will get viewers these days. so silly money for j ross less so for another series of green wing. maybe if more people watched it'd be different. nathan barley must have cost a lot for little payback as well?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

i've never seen a full episode of WHTTLL. why didn't it get repeated as much as other shows of the same time?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

I like middle-late period friends

-- RJG, Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:38 PM (19 seconds ago)

yeah, snap: it did improve.

the bbc produced a lot of the single-set sitcoms dom is talking about and they did put restraints on outside shooting that had nothing to do with aesthetics. itv budgets often were bigger, yes. an export-driven thing like 'brideshead' is not the same as a domestic-only sitcom.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

is this really true? what was so expensive about it? making the footage go backwards and forwards is cheap and quick to do. i guess it had a bigger cast than many comedies?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link

i've never seen a full episode of WHTTLL. why didn't it get repeated as much as other shows of the same time?

It didn't? More so than something like "I Didn't Know You Cared" tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Dad's Army shot a lot of stuff on location though. When did the BBC start scaling down on that sort of stuff?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

aye, never even heard of that (xpost)

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, you've missed out there!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link

nathan barley must have cost a lot for little payback as well?

Maybe not on the show itself, but on the advertising campaign, surely.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I had the privilege of working on the DVD release of both series of WHTTLL - cracking dialogue. It needs to go in a time capsule. The later series of Steptoe encountered at work are better than I remember from broadcast repeats too; surprising amount of incidental music on that show.

Porridge is my #1 too. Ever Decreasing Circles somewhere in a fairly nebulous top "10" (which might contain anything from five to twenty-five shows).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Are any of the classic British sitcoms accompanied by a full-blown "commentaries, documentaries, original trailers" DVD boxset Michael?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:55 (seventeen years ago) link

yeh but remember green wing ended cos it cost too much so erm some things are still beyoned the financial reach of most british producers.

is this really true? what was so expensive about it? making the footage go backwards and forwards is cheap and quick to do. i guess it had a bigger cast than many comedies?

-- blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:44 (11 minutes ago)

i think i remember reading it was shot in an actual hospital for some reason and it was this that jacked up the price.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:59 (seventeen years ago) link

It's also an hour long, so twice the expense right away

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:00 (seventeen years ago) link

one of the key actresses in green wing played gordon brittas' wife in the brittas empire. it's like hauntology or something.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:03 (seventeen years ago) link

she quasi-hott

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link

By and large, no - just the episodes, no extras. We did do some Dad's Army partworks discs which had little 10min "We Are The Boys" biogs or "Old Boys Network" excerpts. Even A Bit of Fry & Laurie, which both myself and the client thought would be ripe for the full-blown treatment, considering the current status of at least one half of the duo, was only assigned the usual vanilla budget.

If it ain't Dr Who, you don't get any goodies.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:07 (seventeen years ago) link

(That was in response to Dom, obv)

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:12 (seventeen years ago) link

british tv is pretty neglectful, dvd-wise, compared with the americans.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:14 (seventeen years ago) link

why is "no extras" the selling point of the python dvds? is it a joke? i don't get it.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i think most python merch riffs on either its shoddiness or its 'flogging-a-dead-HORSE (HA DYS i said HORSE)' qualities.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:17 (seventeen years ago) link

do they tip the TV over there as well?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I've not watched many DVDs but, generally, I don't watch the extras and find them a bit irritating when I do

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:22 (seventeen years ago) link

It's also an hour long, so twice the expense right away

that's not quite how it works - it is more expensive but not double

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, yes, you know what I mean tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link

it should cost double. like a return ticket should always be double a single.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link

my favourite episodes of Gimme Gimme Gimme were all single set. man how i loved GGG.

― Alan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:30 (seventeen years ago) link

oof

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:31 (seventeen years ago) link

GGG being in the Steptoe lineage - if anyone is doing SitCom Family Trees

― Alan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Wash your mouth out with (carbolic) soap

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

By the way, I voted for Help. It's funnier than anything else on the list (LOLs per minute) (except maybe Spaced, although I've seen it too much to find it funny at all these days) it also loaded with pathos and human-interest. In that respect it's the only thing that can share a podium with Porridge, IMO. Favourites are yes, the italian wifebeater ("chop my hands off at the wrist if I lay a finger on my wife") and Monty managed to make me cry. If nothing else, you can sit back and watch Langham and Whitehouse give simply awesome performances.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

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