Recommend me some British sitcoms

Me and my wife fell in love with British tv when we discovered Red Dwarf.Lately we have went on a huge dvd buying spree and have been enjoying a wide range of programs like The Brittas Empire,Only Fools And Horses,Father Ted,Chef!,Black Adder,The Thin Blue Line,The Office,My Hero,Porridge,Fawlty Towers,The IT Crowd and Black Books(We LOVE this one!).

There are some excellent choices amongst your purchases,Jody.

'Hancock's Half Hour' (Tony Hancock,Sid James etc.).This is an absolute must have!

I would also recommend(going by your selection);

'Open All Hours' (Ronnie Barker and David Jason)
The trials and tribulations of a miserly shopkeeper and his 'nephew' in the north of England.

'Dad's Army' (Another must have)
The WWII adventures of a Home Guard unit that is based in the seaside town of Warmington-on-Sea

'Up Pompeii' (Frankie Howerd)
A bawdy romp set in Roman Times

'The Likely Lads' and it's sequel,'Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads' (James Bolam and Rodney Bewes)
The day to day adventures of two childhood friends.One upwardly mobile the other a work-shirking lay about scrounger.

'Bless This House' (Sid James...again)
Anything that could happen would happen to the hapless family in this domestic sitcom.Set in the early seventies.Sid James and Diana Coupland are the parents of a 'weekend hippy' son and daughter.

'I Didn't Know You Cared' (John Comer,Robin Bailey and Liz Smith)
Based roughly on the Giles cartoons

'The Royle Family' (Ricky Tomlinson,Sue Johnson,Caroline Aherne,Craig Cash,Liz Smith)
About a disfunctional family.Set in the north of England .

If you see anything written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais buy it.The sitcoms that they wrote wewe invariably excellent.

BTW. The Black Books and The IT Crowd are big favourites around these parts...Ooh er,missus.



Edited by Man Erg - April 01 2009 at 03:33

Green Wing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58GzbUsAW9I (excellent - features Tamsin Greg from Black Books)

Edited by Dean - April 01 2009 at 04:08

Dean wrote: Green Wing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58GzbUsAW9I (excellent - features Tamsin Greg from Black Books) Coupling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzbXngxaak (the BBC version - excellent)

I was going to recommend Green Wing, but thought that may be too similar to the US version (Scrubs??); not sure which came first, there

How could I have forgotten 'Coupling'? First 2 series were excellent

Another recommendation would be Outnumbered - partially improvised, but often inspired comedy; occasionally laugh-out-loud & the children are excellent.

Gavin and Stacey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-100FEomg (current flavour of the month - a big hit over here) Supernova - no vids  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_(television) Rob Brydon as an astronomer who is sent to an observatory in Australia.

micky wrote: there was one that used to run on public TV where I lived that I loved.. don't remember the title... some old bat that was in a nursing home... very cantankerous on the outside.. but a heart of gold on the inside.

One Foot in the Grave anyone? An then there's My Family.

If you want comedy drama with a tad of brutal realism to it, try Shameless. Possibly my favourite programme on at the moment.

Not sitcoms, but a great laugh nonetheless, my favourite shows are all on Dave: QI, Nevermind The Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week... All are amazing.

Oh, and of course some good old what I like to call "gin" humour, Birds Of A Feather. I also second coupling. It's like Friends but with British humour.

Dad's Army is the one absolute essential you have missed. Easily the epitome of British situation comedy.

Apart from the classic already mentioned I have to strongly re-recommend.

Spaced and Peep Show!

Both are brilliant, original modern sitcoms.