Here’s a tough question for you – name your top 5 sitcoms (UK) of all time. Your list will probably feature some of the classics alongside ones that remain very influential to you depending on your age and taste of course. But it’s tricky, isn’t it?
Our forthcoming Landmark Sitcom Season marks 60 years since the terrifically misanthropic Hancock hit the small screen, which has given us the chance to shine a light on a genre that evokes great passion and reflects a deep part of our national identity.
When a sitcom reaches that hallowed ‘classic’ status it is enjoyed over and over by new generations as the characters and settings become timeless. My happiest childhood memories are of watching Open All Hours, Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers as a family, with three different generations all coming together through laughter. It’s a joyful bonding experience and ultimately comedy’s job is to cheer everyone up.
This landmark season is a celebration of the craft of comedy writing. We’ve chosen pieces across all four channels that recognise and extol the original minds that come up with these funny settings, characters and lines that make such an impression upon us.
BBC One Revivals
Are You Being Served?
On BBC One we’ve already had Mrs Brown’s Boys Live tickle the nation with an audience of 11.5m. Next we’ve got some comedy royalty back – Clement and La Frenais, Marks and Gran and Roy Clarke - doing their signature pieces with us to offer up a mix of updates, Porridge, Goodnight Sweetheart, Young Hyacinth, a prequel to Keeping Up Appearances and an homage to Are You Being Served? written by the brilliant Derren Litten.
Landing populist sitcoms on BBC One is the most challenging part of what we do - critics tend towards loving the more irreverent shows which play to smaller audiences, and mainstream studio sitcoms were deemed unfashionable in the immediate wake of The Office. But mainstream comedy is still a huge part of what separates the BBC from all other broadcasters, and the commitment to family shows has become a huge part of the legacy and soul of British comedy with all the major hits of the last 60 years being a mainly BBC story.
Porridge
There’s also a one-off panel show called We Love Sitcom which looks at different generations of sitcoms, featuring familiar faces from the comedy world and BBC One daytime is also joining in the fun with a sitcom-themed episode of Pointless Celebrities.
New on BBC Two
The Coopers vs The Rest
On BBC Two we’re embracing the channel’s reputation for the pioneering and eclectic with five brand new specials from the cream of contemporary British comedy. These are Home from Home, We the Jury, Motherland, Our Ex-Wife and The Coopers vs The Rest. From stellar writers including Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh, Graham Linehan, Andy Wolton and James Acaster, these brand new half-hours with super-talented casts, guarantee something for everyone.
Comedy has diversified in its range of voices and genre from satire, comedy thrillers, comedy drama, studio sitcom, single camera narratives, spoofs, mock docs to sketch…and BBC Two has been at the forefront of bringing us all these idiosyncratic shows that break new comedic turf.
Also on Two, our friends in factual are giving us Jimmy Carr And The Science Of Laughter: A Horizon Special.
BBC Three Comedy Feeds
As part of the season, BBC Three is launching its new batch of Comedy Feeds – six shows capturing our commitment to finding the very best of new British talent both on and off the screen. These pieces have a youthful attitude and modern voice at their heart and cement Three’s reputation as the crucial place for emerging British talent to cut their teeth. Recent success stories that have rippled out from comedy feeds include BAFTA-nominated People Just Do Nothing, Josh and Sunny D. These complement the revivals on BBC One by seeking out the hit shows and stars of tomorrow.
At the time of writing, not all the BBC Three Comedy Feeds have been made and delivered – that’s how fresh out of the oven they are! Find out more on the BBC Media Centre website.
BBC Four
BBC Four’s involvement in the season is to right some wrongs of comedy history and also provide us with a definitive history of the British sitcom, with contributions from many of the biggest names to have ever walked through the BBC’s doors, called British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves.
Also on BBC Four, some master tapes of episodes of those formative sitcoms from the 1960s were lost at a time before people realised they would go on to be classic comedies loved by generations to come. So we’ve re-staged them with new casts and the original scripts.
Till Death Us Do Part
We’ve chosen three pieces which at the time marked a shift from the polite comedies that came before and offered up social realism that reflected the real working class lives of the audiences. They are Till Death Do Us Part, Steptoe & Son and of course the lad himself who sparked everything off – Hancock’s Half Hour. All three pieces endure in the crispness and timelessness of the writing.
You can see from the showreel the breadth and range of what we do. Shining a light on this unique legacy, promoting what’s exciting about the contemporary and nurturing the future. Comedy’s hard to get right, but when a show connects, it’s loved the most and lasts the longest.
Who knows, maybe something you see might even make your top 5 one day?
