The Bus

10 British Comedies You Should Be Glad You've Never Seen



I'm not sure the US has ever been more enthusiastic about British comedy than it is right now. Thanks to Veep and to Hulu’s uncensored screening of The Thick of it, excitement about Armando Iannucci has reached near-Olympic levels. And just last week, HBO announced a remake of award-winning BBC sitcom Getting On, a bleak take on nursing in an underfunded hospital.

Judging by shows like these as well critical faves like The Office and cult sitcoms from Peep Show to The IT Crowd, it must seem that all UK comedy shares a certain aesthetic. It's painfully-observed, harshly-lit, darkly funny, and of course, full of swears.

But not all of our sitcoms are the same. They rarely get exported, but many of our most popular comedies are inexplicably popular, laugh-track-filled, seemingly dashed-off efforts that would be pulled at the pilot stage (if not sooner) across the pond. You may think America has churned out some trash, but at least it was given a budget, a team of writers, and an attempt to look glossy. The worst British sitcoms appear to have culled their best material from vaudeville (take their jokes… please). And audiences are expected to sit through all this without the reprieve of an ad break, in most cases.

Here, in no particular order, are ten British sitcoms to cherish… never having watched:

My Family (2000-2011)
Last Of The Summer Wine (1973-2010)
Birds Of A Feather (1989-1998)
On The Buses (1969-1972)
My Hero (2000-2006)
One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000)
George and Mildred (1976-1979)
Two Pints of Lager And A Packet of Crisps (2001-2011)
'Allo 'Allo! (1982-1992)
Are You Being Served? (1972-1985)

(Link has descriptions and video clips)

http://splitsider.com/2012/08/10-bri...ve-never-seen/

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I have not heard of most of these, with the exception of 'Allo 'Allo and Are You Being Served? which always played late at night on my PBS affiliate. Neither seemed funny.

Tracer Bullet

My Family is truly dreadful. Ditto Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. They're the Chuck Lorre shows of Britain.

danfindlay

I'm glad neither Red Dwarf nor Coupling were on the list.

Bill Needle

I had heard One Foot in the Grave was pretty good, but I haven't seen it. I mean, people also swore by Three's Company back in the day.

conscience

I enjoy the first four series of My Family. They rival the best comedies I've ever seen. I haven't seen anything after so maybe that is where the hate is coming from?

Are You Being Served ? Wtf? Hilarious show.

A lot of the shows on that list had been on the air for a long while. Of course they are going to get stale at some point.

bluetoast

Are You Being Served is one I always heard was good.

Rex Fenestrarum

Are You Being Served? was funny when I was a teen (they ran it on my local PBS station in the late 70s - early 80s). But it hasn't aged well. At all. If you've seen an episode of Three's Company in the past couple of years, it's similar (in the dated, "why was this ever considered funny?" sense).

Agreed on the others, too. I've seen most of these (and many others that never made it here) and can say that just because it's British, that doesn't mean it's any good. Some British comedies make SyFy movies look like they have Titanic's budget in comparison.

Supermallet

There's plenty of terrible British comedy. We have the luxury of only getting the stuff good enough to deserve export. For anyone who's watched Extras, the sitcom that Gervais' character does is a pretty accurate send-up of typical British sitcoms.

This is also an excellent condemnation of typical British humor:
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Groucho

Are You Being Served? is funny the first time you see it. Then you see another episode, and it has all the same jokes. And this went on for 69 episodes!

'Allo 'Allo is pretty good, although it did start to go off the rails after a while.

davidh777

I actually have a disc or two of a number of those shows but have never watched any of them

sven

I've never even heard of any of those.

The only British sitcoms I've seen are The Inbetweeners and Spaced both of which were awesome and The Office which I did not care for.

Original Desmond

remember because UK series are mostly 6 episodes long only (compared to anything from 13 to 24 for Us seasons), there are a lot more comedies/tv shows in general per year

Which means more duds as well as more good shows

Lastdaysofrain

My Family was actually one of the rare instances of a UK show taking a US Sitcom approach, with a 24 episode season and a team of writers, and as you would imagine, it produced a pretty mediocre sitcom on par with just about any mediocre US sitcom of the last decade.

One Foot in the Grave was actually fairly funny, I wouldn't put that on that list at all. The others though....seems about right.

conscience

My Family never had a 24 episode season, but yes, it was American-esque in that it was created by an American.

Trevor

Switching gears, I still vote Fawlty Towers as the best sitcom of all time.

grenier

I like My Hero, it's just a goofy show.

Phodg

Wow. Del Boy falling through the bar on Only Fools And Horses might not be the funniest comedy moment of all time, but it's a thousand times funnier than Stewart Lee. That's truly terrible. No wonder his wiki page says he plays to "small audiences".

andicus

"You may think America has churned out some trash, but at least it was given a budget, a team of writers, and an attempt to look glossy."

Seriously? What an idiotic statement. You can't polish a turd. (Can't remember if MythBusters verified that or not?)

BuddhaWake

I didn't think Allo Allo was bad. kind of funny really. but I've only seen 8-10 episodes maybe.

Supermallet

Without a hint of hyperbole, I can easily say that Stewart Lee is the greatest stand up comedian working today. The only person who even comes close is Louis CK.

Groucho

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Sorry, Brits. It doesn't hold a candle to "What does a yellow light mean?" or "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

islandclaws

I used to love Are You Being Served? when I was a kid, although I highly doubt it would hold my interest if I watched it now.

Lastdaysofrain

I second this, I could see him not being for everybody, but he's really really excellent.

My Family may not have had 24 episodes, but it generally had a lot more than the usual, I think one series may have had up to 20.

Most shows in the UK are written by very small teams of writers, usually only one or two I believe. Where most US sitcoms are written essentially by committee, with punch up people etc (although that has changed recently) and i remember reading an article or seeing an interview with people working on My Family talking about how they adopted that American approach with the writing team, which was unusual for the UK. And it produced a pretty good facsimile of a US show, a joke machine with no point of view and no real heart to it.

It's funny to compare Ralph Little's sitcom "The Royle Family" with "Two Pints of Larger.." you can't get two more different shows, one showing everything great about UK sitcoms and one showing everything bad about them.

Boba Fett

One Foot in the Grave angered a lot of people with its incredibly black humor and in particular its final episodes. I'm not shocked some people hate it now.

Giantrobo

I call BULLSHIT. According to many here, ANY SHOWS created in other countries are always GOOD.