Favourite comedy sketch/show

[Hadders]

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister might be over 30 years old but they are timeless. So relevant even today and absolutely hilarious.

 

[bspahh]

John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme on Radio Four is a favourite of mine. It’s unashamedly clever comedy and isn’t for everybody but he does it very well. Given that he writes all of it, the hit rate is astonishingly high.

Try the “Organising the Russian revolution by email” sketch as a tester. I appreciate not everybody will enjoy it but I love it!

His show “Cabin Pressure” (also on Radio Four) is a more conventional sitcom and also very good. It is currently being repeated from the start and is available online.

Its worth following twitter with #cabinpressure from 7.15 on a Sunday evening when they are replaying Cabin Pressure. JF points out jokes that I would have otherwise missed.

These are posts from his blog http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.com/ about Cabin Pressure.

This is a thread about the Double Acts episode with Michael Palin in a signal box.

Radio 4 Comedy - The Wroxton Box

Last night the last episode of John Finnemore's "Double Acts" was broadcast on Radio 4. This episode is a half-hour sitcom set in Wroxton Signal Box in the early 1960s, with Michael Palin as the signalman and John Finnemore as his clerk. The programme is set to a background of bell-codes from...

www.railforums.co.uk

He has said how he likes to go on long train journeys to write.

 

[nlogax]

Its worth following twitter with #cabinpressure from 7.15 on a Sunday evening when they are replaying Cabin Pressure. JF points out jokes that I would have otherwise missed.

Cabin Pressure is another fantastic show. Roger Allam's turns in that and in latter series of The Thick of It were just incredible. Btw, if you detect any similarities between John Finnemore's comedy style and that of Mitchell and Webb, it's probably because he wrote for M&W's radio and tv shows for many years.

Last of the Summer Wine.. I've tried with repeats over the years but ultimately it just takes me back to miserable Sunday nights with another week of school beginning the next day

 

[Strat-tastic]

Another sitcom - Detectorists. A lovely gentle character comedy. It's all on iPlayer.

 

[trebor79]

The Smoking Room was pretty good.
I also enjoy Inside Number 9,eevm if it is a bit dark at times. The episode "A Quiet Night In" from series 1 is the finest half hour of comedy I've ever seen. I can watch that over and over and not get bored, the performances are just perfect.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Sitcom wise, I love Cabin Pressure and I'm delighted to see it being played again.

On telly, What We Do In The Shadows is really floating my boat, and I still enjoy watching the earlier series of Benidorm on Netflix.

The Fast Show you say?

 

[hst43102]

Surprised nobody has mentioned Citizen Khan yet. One of the only "proper" modern comedy shows!

 

[Bobdogs]

Look out for Chewing the Fat,sketch show which led to Still Game.
I shall be watching Marvellous, being repeated on BBC 2 July 1st, starring Toby Jones. Recommended.

 

[Ianno87]

The League of Gentlemen.

 

[alex397]

Lots of my favourites are already mentioned on here, mostly from the early ‘Noughties’ - Spaced, Black Books, Green Wing, IT Crowd. Excellent stuff

I did quite like Father Ted - enough to watch every episode. But it’s not really something I’ll watch again. It got a bit annoying sometimes, although I’m not sure why as I often like silly humour.

I also have a fondness for Sean Lock’s sitcom, 15 Storeys High. I think it’s quite underrated. I’d recommend it if you like Sean Lock, and have a cynical humour. There are lots of cameos in it, although I’m not sure they are cameos as some of them weren’t as famous then. Toby Jones, Peter Serofinowitz and Bill Bailey appear in very minor roles, to name just a few.

With more modern comedies, I have really enjoyed Car Share and Friday Night Dinner. The latter is a bit silly, but somehow for me it just really works!

I find most sitcoms from the 70s and 80s a bit naff, but I’ve always loved watching Only Fools and Horses. I’ve seen every episode Perhaps because I grew up watching it and have a nostalgia for it (despite not being alive in the 80s!). It can be a bit naff, like most traditional sitcoms from that era, but I think it is very well written, and I think one of the appealing things about it is there is emotion behind it, and you empathise with the characters - that’s quite hard to do successfully in comedy I think.

 

[PeterY]

The sit com shows I liked most but not in any order
To the Manor Born
Goodnight Sweetheart.
The Good Life.
Red Dwarf.
Faulty Towers.
On the Buses.
Porridge.
Butterflies
Citizen Smith.
My Family.
The Goodies.


These are the ones I loathe and would rather watch paint dry or the grass grow
Monty Python
Little Britain

 

[hexagon789]

Forgot to give honourable mention to Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister; some of the best political comedy there's been

 

[Cowley]

Speaking of The Fast Show, I’ve met people down yere loike this...

 

[Peter C]

The forums have given up showing my notifications for this thread now... I missed out on all of the recent posts!
But I've just been reading the recommendations and they're all sounding really interesting. I've heard of some of them and they're on the list to watch at some point but most of them I haven't even heard of

-Peter

 

[trebor79]

These are the ones I loathe and would rather watch paint dry or the grass grow
Monty Python

Oh, I'm not alone in detesting Monty Python then! It's execrable rubbish, I'm convinced one of the reasons it was so liked was just because it was totally different to the usual sitcoms of the time. From there a cult following has built up. It's quite clever in places, but it's just too silly for me.
Blackadder is similarly verging on too silly. I can watch some of it and enjoy it, but often times I find myself getting irritated by the deliberate hamming it up.

 

[Monarch010]

For a pure sketch show, Big Train was brilliant. Written by Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews of Father Ted fame. All of the main contributors went on to bigger things.

 

[cb a1]

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - radio or TV. Absolute genuis and greatest theme tune ever.

Drop the Dead Donkey was brilliant too.

 

[Peter C]

I was watching a video about Oh, Doctor Beeching the other day and I've just remembered this thread so I'll give that show as another one to add to the list. An awful lot of the lines feel forced and unnatural, but overall it's quite a nice little show. It focuses around Hatley (Arley) station in the last few weeks/months of its existence as the Beeching Report is published. Two series, available online.

-Peter

 

[Rob F]

Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a classic.

 

[GusB]

I was watching a video about Oh, Doctor Beeching the other day and I've just remembered this thread so I'll give that show as another one to add to the list. An awful lot of the lines feel forced and unnatural, but overall it's quite a nice little show. It focuses around Hatley (Arley) station in the last few weeks/months of its existence as the Beeching Report is published. Two series, available online.

-Peter

Oh, Doctor Beeching was, I think, the third series that utilised some of the cast from Hi-De-Hi. The second being You Rang, M'Lord. I didn't watch it when it was first broadcast, but I've since seen it online and I wasn't particularly impressed.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

For a pure sketch show, Big Train was brilliant. Written by Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews of Father Ted fame. All of the main contributors went on to bigger things.

+1 for this. Didn't resort to tired catchphrases like many of the sketch shows before it and since.

As far as bad comedies, Little Britain was about as funny as having your eyeballs waxed, and with one or two exceptions Harry Enfield's sketches always struck me as very snide and a bit "lowest common denominator" much like the aforementioned Little Britain. In interviews too, Enfield comes across as being so far up his own backside that he could give himself a colonoscopy... The best thing about the Fast Show was that you could see how funny Paul Whitehouse was when he wasn't having to carry Enfield with him.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Many of my favourites have already been mentioned so I'll not repeat here. Spike Miligans 'Q' series always raises a smile and I've always liked Benny Hill and Kenny Everett.
Father Teds Speed 3 is my favourite episode especially Dougals realisation at the end. Also Monty Pythons No Time To Lose sketch from series 3,the joke continues into the Kamikazi Scotsman sketch.

 

[David Goddard]

We have built up a reasonable collection of comedy DVDs over the years, with some we watch a lot more than others, so are clear favourites:
On The Buses
The Vicar of Dibley
Open All Hours
dinnerladies
Oh Doctor Beeching

Plus we are great lovers of the Carry on films- Sunday afternoon staple during lockdown!

 

[Peter C]

Oh, Doctor Beeching was, I think, the third series that utilised some of the cast from Hi-De-Hi. The second being You Rang, M'Lord. I didn't watch it when it was first broadcast, but I've since seen it online and I wasn't particularly impressed.

I remember watching it a couple of years ago and when I first saw it, I thought it was quite funny, but looking at it now I'm with you. It's alright, but not amazing.

-Peter

 

[trebor79]

Two I'd forgotten about:
"The High Life". A very low budget sitcom based around the crew of an airliner. Starred a young Alan Cumming. Although it was very low budget, it was quite funny. Well it was for 15 year old me and my younger brother.
"The Brittas Empire". Chris Barrie as a jumped up, supercilious leisure centre manager. Pretty low budget. Also featured Colin the cleaner with big spots on his face and the receptionist who was always hiding her baby under the counter. I don't know why I watched it really, it was total dross and cringe worthy even to a teenager.

 

[Freds dad]

Bottom

The Royle Family

Phoenix Nights

 

[341o2]

Two I'd forgotten about:
"The High Life". A very low budget sitcom based around the crew of an airliner. Starred a young Alan Cumming. Although it was very low budget, it was quite funny. Well it was for 15 year old me and my younger brother.
"The Brittas Empire". Chris Barrie as a jumped up, supercilious leisure centre manager. Pretty low budget. Also featured Colin the cleaner with big spots on his face and the receptionist who was always hiding her baby under the counter. I don't know why I watched it really, it was total dross and cringe worthy even to a teenager.

Chris Barrie seemed to have been influenced by Kenneth Williams, the cleaner referred to him as Mr Brittarse.
Dad's Army, both TV and radio adaptations.
Spinoffs from Dad's Army - It sticks out half a mile, where some of the cast subsequentially became involved in restoration of a pier and Parsley sidings, Arthur Lowe as the stationmaster
Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel - the Marx Brothers set up a law firm. As this is radio, for some reason only two are featured

Ronnie Barker has to be one of my all time favourites. The Navy Lark has been mentioned, as AB "fatso" Johnson who CPO Pertwee would get to do the dirty and dodgy work of his latest fiddle. The action centered upon the accident prone frigate HMS Troutbridge, the bane of Captain Povey's life. On one occasion, they blew soot in Boulogne covering themselves and the town with it

 

[341o2]

Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister might be over 30 years old but they are timeless. So relevant even today and absolutely hilarious.

Several clips have been used to explain the Government's Coronavirus strategy, such as this one

 

[trebor79]

Bottom

The Royle Family

Phoenix Nights

All brilliant in their own way. Love all of these.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

In addition to many of the excellent suggestions above, three more which have all but disappeared

Oh no, its Selwyn Froggitt
Me Mammy
Never mind the quality, feel the width

I find modern TV comedy a little bit too PC to stand much chance of being funny.