British comedy

[Weez]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 5:45am

Hello! I often come across American people online who go "gosh, I just love British humour!" and I know that television constantly crosses oceans, but I'm wondering just what you guys are familiar with.

For instance, I feel the blank looks that go sweeping by my posts whenever I enthuse about 'The Thick Of It', half 'The Office', half 'Yes Minister', but peppered with the foulest obscenities known to man. I hope this blankness doesn't mean you won't go see 'In The Loop', the forthcoming feature film from the same team, if you ever get the opportunity.

What about 'The Mighty Boosh'? You can find a heckuva lot of it on a certain site to watch if you misspell the search terms and have a look for "maightee". It's very peculiar and very twisted and very funny.

I know you know what 'The Office' is, you have your own version an' all. I believe 'Extras' is fairly well known transatlantically as well?

What about game shows? 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' seems to be interchangeable, as we get both US and UK versions on UK TV. What about 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'?

tl;dr - what British comedy TV series do you enjoy watching? I'm mostly wondering about the last few years' worth, but obviously there's brilliant earlier stuff too.

[Hrududu]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 8:17am

I'd be interested to know too, the last few times American friends enthused about British comedy they were namechecking things like Keeping up Appearances and Are you Being Served. Things like Buzzcocks, Boosh and Black Books (To keep to the Bs) hadnt made it across the Atlantic.

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 9:19am

I love Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served, As Time Goes By, The Last of the Summer Wine, Hetty Wainthrope (I may have incorrectly spelled that.).
Patricia Routledge is a particular favorite of mine, and I would love to see her in other shows.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 9:24am

Little Britain
Keeping Up Appearances
Ab Fab
Are You Being Served

Love, love, love 'em! I have the first 3 on DVD.

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 9:52am

I forgot about Little Britain. I love the Village Gay.
I've just started watching To the Manor Born. I've seen the first two episodes and will watch more.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 9:56am

nmartin---I own "The Full Bouquet" which is the entire show on DVD for Keeping Up Appearances. There are quite a few good extras, including a documentary on Patricia Routledge that shows her in various other roles on stage and TV.

You should try to rent it if you can't get your own set. It's well worth the time.

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:09am

Thanks, Best, I'll look for it on Amazon. I saw a film about Routledge one time, and she was doing an Alan Bennett one woman piece. She had a great line, "So I asked myself, 'What would the Queen Mother do?'"

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:17am

It's probably the same film on the DVD set, nmartin. I remember it airing on BBC (or PBS?) a while back.

Tangent: It always makes me sad to think that "our Rose" (the 2nd one) isn't with us anymore. She died shortly after the series ended. She was a big West End musical star, having replaced Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady and created the role of Madame Giry in The Phantom of the Opera.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:18am

What I love about the British sitcoms is that every type of humor is represented. You go from very broad (Ab Fab, Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers) to more reserved type of humor (As Time Goes By, Waiting for God). It seems that American sitcoms are now all the same in that they all rely on sarcasm as humor. There is nothing that is just funny without a bit of mean spiritedness behind it (except maybe The Simpsons).

I was watching My Hero on Friday night and I think the actress that plays Mrs. Raven is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. (Talk about mean spirited! Ha!) It's the perfect blend of excellent writing and an excellent actress.

I've always enjoyed Keeping Up Appearances because even though it's very formulaic (Hyacinth always falls into the shrub when the dog barks). Patricia Routledge is a true physical commedienne in the vein of Lucille Ball.

I've always liked Are You Being Served? and Fawlty Towers because they are well acted. I like Vicar of Dibly because it has parts for character actors (everyone isn't young, beautiful and successful).

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:22am

Goth, I watched My Hero the other night as well. You're right Mrs. Raven is a wonderful character, and that actress is great.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:25am

More fun trivia tying shows together:

Hyacinth's next door neighbor Elizabeth (Josephine Tewson) is the real-life cousin of Mr. Humprhies on Are You Being Served (the late John Inman).

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:26am

"Goth, I watched My Hero the other night as well. You're right Mrs. Raven is a wonderful character, and that actress is great."

Are you in the NY area? Was it the pregnancy episode you were watching? The fire alarm bit with the old man and the naked man was so funny.

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 10:32am

Goth, I'm not in the NY area, but that's the one I saw. I looked it up that woman's name is Gerladine McNulty.
Best, I did not know that about Tewson and Inman. Thanks for the info.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:08am

I am a die-hard TO THE MANOR BORN fan.

Love it. LOVE it. LOVE IT!!!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:20am

"Goth, I'm not in the NY area, but that's the one I saw. I looked it up that woman's name is Gerladine McNulty."

I think that was the funniest episode I've seen. Between the fire drill and the baby talking to Piers.

Here in NYC, they were playing "My Hero" and "Mulberry" on the same night. So we got to see the actress Lill Roughley in two different roles. On "My Hero" she plays the upper crust mother and on "Mulberry" she played the working class cook. Great contrast in her acting.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 11:33am

I'm a huge fan of Coupling, even if it's a few years old. I don't watch much tv as it is ...

[clever name]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:37pm

I do love alot of the British shows. Besides The Office and My Hero and Dad and of course Ab Fab. and Coupling. I LOVE Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen.Ive seen every episode of those shows. I have been told I would like The Mighty Boosh. I cant STAND The Vicor of whatever-that-show-is. I cant get through an entire episode. But Weez, I would love your imput on British shows. I think they are hilarious!

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:41pm

I'm about as far away from being a fan of British comedy as can possibly be. Having said that, I do like Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the Grave and Absolutely Fabulous. And a billion years ago, I liked Doctor in the House. And, of course, the funniest human being who ever lived, The Benny Hill Show. That's it.
Updated On: 7/14/08 at 01:41 PM

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 1:55pm

Yes, of course, Benny Hill! I loved that when I was in high school. I still remember his Shirley Bassey impersonation. One of the funniest things I have ever seen.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 2:14pm

Oh no! You don't get Last of the Summer Wine do you? Which decade are you in? 1970s? 1980s? 1990s? Nearly 40 years of episodes and every one the same! I'd better pull my jacket over my head and shuffle off back to the West End board in embarrassment.

best12bars: I saw "our Rose" (Mary Millar) play Sally in the European premiere of Follies in Manchester in the mid 80s.

[Weez]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 4:57pm

Oh my gawd. O_O I love you guys, I really do, but I think y'all need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. Although I really don't know what you'd make of Chris Morris, so it's probably best if I don't try and encourage 'Nathan Barley' or 'Brass Eye'... XD

You can hunt down a lot of my favourite series on the site that shall not be named. I think some nice gentler ones you should look into are:

'Black Books' - angry drunk Irishman owns a bookshop, hangs out with Bill Bailey (what a legend!) and Tamsin Greig.
'The IT Crowd' - from the same chap who wrote 'Father Ted', it's not as laugh-out-loud hilarious, but does have plenty of nice moments and is probably the only way you should experience Chris Morris for now. Set in the basement-bound IT department of a large firm, has Richard Ayoade. Ignore the US pilot! Insist on the UK original!
'Father Ted' - it's a bit older than what I've been thinking, but it's the BEST sitcom about Irish priests you'll ever see. Probably one of the finest sitcoms ever written full-stop.
'Absolute Power' - set in a PR office, has Stephen Fry, is rather good despite not being so well-known as others.
'Green Wing' - set in a hospital, it's silly, but it's not twistedly so. One of the characters is the sitcom incarnation of a former co-worker of mine, being a half-Swiss man who looks like Donkey from 'Shrek'.

The problem is, some of the shows I'm thinkong of really are peculiarly British. You might find 'Look Around You' funny in itself, but if you didn't grow up watching the shows it parodied, there's about a million layers lost. 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' is laugh-out-loud hilarious (especially once they lost Lamarr and Hughes and got Amstell and Bailey ) but it's so full of people that may well not be known to you. Mind you, the John Barrowman episode would probably work well enough for you. You know who he is, and he did pretty much take over most of the episode. He is TERRIBLY filthy though, so bear that in mind if you go looking for it on That Site. (Which you should. But be careful you don't get stuck on a loop, I got trapped for about four hours the other day, just watching. O_O)

Please tell me we at least have some 'Spaced' fans out there. I bet we do. :) Or at the very least 'Shaun of The Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz'. Also, any Steve Coogan fans in da house?

The problem with me bringing up this subject is that I tend to find myself liking all the stuff up in the top righthand corner of my comedy map (please don't ask about my comedy map), the stuff that is sweary and/or dark and/or twisted and/or VERY excluding if you don't get/like the conceit it's built on; 'The Thick Of It', 'The Mighty Boosh', 'Nathan Barley', 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace', 'Man To Man With Dean Lerner', 'Brass Eye', 'The Day Today', that sorta stuff. You can't even convince British people to like some of these shows, and I'd never let my mother watch ANY of them. I will insist on pushing 'The Mighty Boosh' at you though. Again, it's twisted and peculiar, but because it's set in its own peculiar little Boosh universe, whether you like it or not is less about your nationality and much more about your state of mind.

Anyhoo, I've got some theatre chat I should probably get down to. That's enough blathering for y'all to be getting on with. :)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 5:19pm

Weez, unfortunately the US doesn't seem to get as many of the current British shows. We used to get some on BBC America, but then it became too expensive to run and so they went to cheaper shows. The last I remember was Comedy Central running Ab Fab about a week after it had been broadcast in the UK.

Many people see the British shows on PBS and to get by cheaply PBS broadcasts continuous reruns of older shows.

Lately some of the US shows have been putting full episodes on the internet. Do any of the British shows do this?

[Weez]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 5:24pm

'The IT Crowd' did, certainly. But pandering to geeks was half the fun of that show; they even had DVD subtitles in l337-speak. XD Not sure about other shows though. But there's other ways to see things than on TV; with the internet being what it is, I'm quite surprised there isn't more crossover. Perhaps you guys just don't know what we're currently into, so wouldn't go looking for them.

BBC America needs to step up!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 5:39pm

My Favorites thus far:

Absolutely Fabulous
Vicar of Dibley
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
Coupling
Little Britain
Let Them Eat Cake
Wild West
Jam and Jerusalem (aka Clatterford)
Murder Most Horrid
Carrie and Barry
Black Books (it's like revisiting my roommates when I was in London)

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/14/08 at 5:39pm

BBC America = the So Graham Norton Show network because that's about all they ever show. That and 20 home decorating shows.