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

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'm very interested to see how this turns out. Hope I haven't missed anything really obvious - I haven't bothered with My Hero and its ilk.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
The Office	13
I'm Alan Partridge	12
Spaced	12
Brass Eye	10
The League of Gentlemen	6
Peep Show	5
The Mighty Boosh	4
Black Books	3
The Thick of It	3
The Royle Family	2
Little Britain	2
Phoenix Nights	1
Monkey Dust	1
15 Storeys High	1
the Armando Iannucci Shows	1
Big Train	1
Help	1
Green Wing	1
Jam	0
Saxondale	0
Catterick	0
Rock Profile	0
Extras	0
Happiness	0
Nathan Barley	0
The IT Crowd	0
Marion and Geoff	0
That Mitchell and Webb Look	0

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:34 (eighteen years ago)

Father Ted.

― Mark G, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

It started in '95.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

No My Hero, no credibility.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

TMWRNJ should be on the list if you're going to include the likes of Rock Profiles.

in it's absence (or more likely regardless of this) has to be IAP. the 2nd series has seemed better on second and third viewing. the first remains pretty much perfect. i think Coogan's been better at actual comic nuance in both writing and performing within this period than anyone else (Morris best as satirist i suppose yes - everyone since has been informed by both more than anyone else), despite probably having as many misses as hits (the hits are THAT good i guess).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

I hate that you guys have so many quality shows. I don't even want to vote for one because the other 6 or so that I love will go un-voted-for.

Why can't Canada make quality programming anymore? Has there even been anything since Kids in the Hall? Fuck a C0rner Gas :( I'ma give it to Brass Eye but Spaced is a CLOSE second and IAP a CLOSE third and Barley a CLOSE 4th and The Office a CLOSE 5th and LoG a CLOSE 6th and and and... etc

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 15:56 (eighteen years ago)

Have to go for LoG, really.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:57 (eighteen years ago)

I want to say The Thick Of It but I can't.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:58 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, a friend of mine saw the pilot for the US Thick Of It. Said it was terrible.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

No "The Book Group".

― Mark C, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

(LOL at my celeb crush on actress who looks exactly like gf)

― Mark C, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:04 (eighteen years ago)

I voted Brass Eye, by the way.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Bang Bang It's Reeves & Mortimer
Cath Tate (no votes I guess?)
Still Game
Attention Scum
SMACK THE PONY

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

me too

xp

I have Attention Scum on DVD but never seen - worth a watch?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:08 (eighteen years ago)

I've probably laughed the most at Peep Show or Speaced out of all of these, but Brass Eye just never gets old. I also have a real fondness for Black Books, it's so cosy. It makes me want to quit everything and become irrelevant and run a terrible business.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

SPEACED

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

brass eye is now more than ten years ago, by a few months.

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

I have Attention Scum on DVD but never seen - worth a watch?

of course. probably not aged particularly well tho. the title sequence quite good tho in present company of lolcats and such.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

How well has it aged compared to say...Select Magazine circa 1994?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

um...an undeterminable quantity better

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

Absolute Power should be in the list just because I liked it (some didn't, but I'm not very interested in hearing from them on this thread I can reveal).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

Shit! Ah well, make it 'the best British comedy of the last eleven years'.
xxxpost

Adam - I was wrestling with myself as to whether to go for Black Books - it really is delightful, and probably the best recent example of a fairly trad, studio based and laughter-tracked sitcom managing to remain fresh.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

It is.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

I also started watching Help recently - not bad, bit strange?

What was that My Life In Film like? Terrible?

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

some funny bits

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

Every time I thought about the BBC paying to make it I laughed.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

'absolute power' was shit

― That one guy that quit, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

bellend says what?

MLIF helped because I thought the couple (his friends) and his interplay with them was quite endearing.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:19 (eighteen years ago)

oh oh oh and also, I heard some of that Down The Line Radio 4 thing with Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson and Simon Day. It wasn't bad. I love Simon Day.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

'absolute power' was shit

i loved it! but that might just have been the Emily Blunt factor. Plus i like anything john Bird does.

anyhoo, where is How Do You Want Me?

― CharlieNo4, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

In the absence of radio choices, it's Brass Eye for me as well, although I'm voting for Monkey Dust because I feel it'll be under-represented. If The Office and Little Britain get more than two votes between them I will be a sad, sad panda.

― Just got offed, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

The Thick of It, with no reservations, with Black Books a very close second. Peep Show has great one-off gags and one-liners, but I find it a bit wearying -- I watched the whole first season on DVD in one go, and it was a really depressing experience. I loved Brass Eye, but it kind of pales next to The Day Today.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

For some reason, I've never seen Spaced, even though the DVD's been sitting on my TV for the past year.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

BAN THIS FOOL

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

;)

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

Also - if you've only watched the first series of Peep Show, the second is markedly much funnier and more enjoyable.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:34 (eighteen years ago)

I have been searching everywhere for Mark's quote about the 60s but I can't find it.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

"Who needs love when you're doing it up the bum?"

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:38 (eighteen years ago)

where s HUMAN REMAINS ??

― pisces, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

LoG

― the next grozart, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

Tatum, you should really watched Spaced. you know how some shows you just "love"? Like, you're sad you're not watching it when you're not watching it, even a little bit? It's one of those. That good. GOD I want to watch it again.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:05 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't mean to call you by yr last name, I just failed at typing as usual. sry

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

I have made quite a few oversights, sorry about that - a couple I really like as well! (Bang Bang..., Human Remains)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:20 (eighteen years ago)

I like Nighty Night, even if nobody else does.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:23 (eighteen years ago)

I don't particularly like it, but I really should've included it.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

(I know quite a few people who think it's great, by the way)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

Spaced is a very 'of the time' thing so if you come to it for first time you probably won't dig it half as much.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

I only saw it like 3 years ago! I still LOVVVED it.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

I have to go with Black Books.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

Hmmmm.... I don't really think of I'm Alan Partridge as being the debut as there had already been the Knowing Me, Knowing You chat show thing before it, so I'm tempted to go for The Office (which was brilliant, even if Ricky Gervais is getting a bit rubbish now) or Peep Show (which used to be brilliant, and is now merely quite funny) instead, but, fuck it, even if I quibble with the debutness I think that series of Alan Partridge is comedy perfection. Anyone who says Little Britain is a cunt.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

point of order: Just Good Friends is very good! but yes very dated. awful theme tune. but the soap opera quotient is still quite compelling. penny seems an awful snit in the 21st C but resembles my other half so this is forgiven.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

Peter Vaughn fucking killed it in Our Friends In The North. Awesome performance from the man there.

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

it never had as prominent a timeslot as 9pm friday c4 "at the time" but owing to constant repeats it's sort of sneaking in.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

you can say Nathan Barley isn't funny but you can't say it's not a comedy show.

believe me, i tried once.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

is it rockist to prefer 'reginald perrin' and 'fawlty towers' over other more ingratiating Classic Sitcoms?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

Not really, I don't think.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

Nowhere near it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

a more interesting poll/discussion perhaps:

who is the most likeable LEAD character in a British comedy show/sitcom?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't even know "Scrubs" was supposed to be a comedy, I thought it was a "comedy-drama"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago)

I've only saw it a couple of times tho

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Rene Artois?

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

no way

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

Iannucci in bewildered/world weary mode, surely

Scrubs is an awkward cut n'shut of comedy with two minutes of bullshit schmaltz welded to the end of each half

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

scrubs is repellant. audioly and visually

I thought arrested development was funny but not quite hitting the notes it thought it was or something, the first time I watched it. I did think it got better, as it went on, though--the funniness came from the repetition of situations/allusions to previous incidents and recurring jokes. so, once it had some good things to repeat/previous good things to allude to and good jokes that could recur, it improved. watched it all, again, recently, and I think it v funny and well done, now

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

Fawlty Towers is just as ingratiated as Porridge if not more so.

More so, I'd say

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (eighteen years ago)

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:31 (eighteen years ago)

I obviously haven't watched enough of it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

Nana Moon as Wolfie's mother in law is fab. "hello foxy".

Yes, that was good

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

Agreed, which is why it was doubly poor once Tony Steedman replaced him.

I may be too harsh on JGF. This is another theme song I sing around the house to amuse 2-y-o and distress wife.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

no way

-- That one guy that quit

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:32 (eighteen years ago)

reggie perrin is just so fabulously tragic. chunks of it aren't all that great - some of the other actors are dreadful, the pacing seems off to me, the climax rushed - but the story itself is so good, and the central performance so staggeringly perfect, you forgive it all.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

i wasn't talking scrubs = friends as "cultural phenomenon" i was talking about how it used and who it used by. "comedy" isn't always "used" primarily for the jokes. lack of Smack the Pony on list is interesting.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

Scrubs IS like Friends in that it's all about the jokes. I forgive them a lot of shit because they've got a bunch of dudes throwing in gags that would be funny in any show (as Friends also showed).

To like Friends but not Scrubs seems absurd to me.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

the xposts here are drivin me mad

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

AD gets funnier every time you watch it.

I can happily watch all of Arrested Development in order then go back to the beginning again.

Rossiter as Perrin is fucking awesome yeah

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if I can forgive the whole of the last series though

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:32 PM (41 seconds ago)

yeah i know it's a rockist choice, but like 'perrin' it doesn't fit in with the others, for me anyway. it's the fawlty character himself really -- i don't think you get that level of blackness in 'porridge'.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (eighteen years ago)

darkness is not a pre-requisite of great comedy (altho for many people these days it seems that it is). it's often a v useful asset but it can do as much damage as good.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

friends doesn't have zach braff in

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (eighteen years ago)

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

There was 90s one? Wasn't Leonard Rossiter dead by then? No, I meant
the third series - where he set up some sort of holiday camp or something.... no, more a kind of community.... that was dire

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:39 (eighteen years ago)

Friends has Matthew Perry who was OK in Friends but HORRIBLE in that worst Scrubs episode i've ever seen.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

So do I, I think

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

Reggie Perrin is def. more rockist than Rising Damp, the Here My Dear to the latter's Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits if you will (please don't, though).

not sure if the soap opera in scrubs is as compelling as the ross/rachel saga, or that its as well handled. scrubs often gets messily mawkish and sentimental in a way Friends always zings itself out of.

xpost there was a post-Rossiter series! the legacy of reggie perrin. definitely best forgotten, i think.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:41 (eighteen years ago)

the scrubs where dr cox imagines his brother in law is still alive until the very end is very well done tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:42 (eighteen years ago)

In Biographical Dictionary Of Film, DT refers to Basil Fawlty as the epitome of "the tragedy of fascism."

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature. Also, as I'm sure I've said elsewhere on ILE, the books are better (at least the first two - the third is pretty crappy though).

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

at a guess the soap opera / drama element is the win for the most important demographic though.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:44 (eighteen years ago)

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature.

That's because they're supposed to be caricatures surely? What about Doc Morrissey tho, he was good!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

I remember that!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

reggie's wife = teh hottness. his daughter was dreadful tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:46 (eighteen years ago)

i think When The Whistle Blows should've been included in this poll.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

in my mind i always link spaced up with my older cousin going on about how great human traffic and music has the right to children were... is this linkage in any way correct?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

hahahahaha. go to my 'generation' thread.

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

i wish they'd repeat Dear John.

YES!

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:33 (eighteen years ago)

Is anyone other than Dom going to give a detailed analysis of Monkey Dust's cultural value, or have we been through all this already?

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:58 (eighteen years ago)

You're letting the mask slip, dude.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:59 (eighteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.