Before you begin reading, please understand that this isn’t even close to being a knock on the greatness of The Office, Outnumbered or The Thick of It. I also don’t want this to seem like a planting of the flag for the good ‘ole days syndrome. Merely a celebration, as The Independent‘s Tim Walker brilliantly […]
Read moreWorking class sitcoms vs. Blue collar comedy. Fawlty Towers vs. Father Ted. The Telegraph vs. The Guardian. No matter what side you’re on in this rather ridiculous issue, what viewers ultimately want is good comedy. While Telegraph readers tend to lean more towards the Conservative Party and a centre-right view, the majority of the Guardian readers […]
Read moreThey just don’t mix. Where would we be if the world of British comedy adhered to the real world high expectations of good customer service? Think about it. No Fawlty Towers, no Black Books and no League of Gentlemen. According to customer service gurus, Michel Roux and Mary Portas, the aforementioned British comedy series come […]
Read moreOver the past several months there seems to have been a number of well-deserved programs revisiting classic British comedy series such as the celebration of the 30th anniversary of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, a look at the early days of Morcambe and Wise and the return of Ronnie Corbett in The One Ronnie. For my […]
Read moreSeeing as though we’re only days away from another questionable American remake of a really well-done British television import, I thought I’d immediately put in the request for my first 2011 New Year’s resolution. You know the drill. Have written about this many times. Readers in the UK, I apologize for taking up space and […]
Read moreThe brilliance of The Office ranks right up there with the genius of Fawlty Towers in the fact there were only 12 episodes (plus, two 45-minutes specials) ever produced. Since quitting the Wernham Hogg Paper Company and leaving the world of David Brent and his life in Slough, Berkshire behind, Ricky Gervais has been a busy, […]
Read moreBritish situation comedy. Whether it’s Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, The Office, or the classics of Keeping Up Appearances or Are You Being Served, these are programs that we’ve all watched for years but probably never gave a second thought as to why we laugh. Aside from the brilliant writing, no one really has simplified the mechanical structure […]
Read moreEvery so often, you run across a site on ‘the internets’ that you just have to share. This particular site came to our attention recently when we were taping the host segments at TC8 in BBC Television Centre with Moira Brooker (Judy, As Time Goes By) and Philip Bretherton (Alistair, As Time Goes By) for the […]
Read moreOver the course of our Behind the Britcom interviews with Richard Briers and Penelope Keith from The Good Life (Good Neighbors in the U.S.), it was quite clear not only from the actors point of view, but also from the writer, Bob Larbey, that Tom and Barbara Good’s concept of self-sufficiency is more relevant today […]
Read moreIn London Sunday, taping the host portions of the upcoming PBS special, Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen at BBC Television Centre. The cool thing is that we are taping in Studio TC8 which was home to the likes of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served and […]
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