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British ( Television ) Comedies

 
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I could'nt get enough of them,
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister
Black Adder - All the Series
Fawlty Towers
Anybody can think of any more of the good stuff,
I couldnt enjoy Monty Python very much, i mean some of them are good, but some are totally over the top.
What are some of the new things that are going on in UK now a days. I get BBCAmerica, and i watched "The coupling" or some thing like that and found that to be good
Anybody else out there who like the British comedies, and can suggest a few new / old things to watch ?
 
slicker
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Keeping up Appearances
EastEnders - (where she's from)
The wife watches these on BBC. I can't understand what the EastEnders are sayin' and I can only stand Mr. 'Boo-Kay' for so long before I want to strangle him.
 
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i liked the one about the shopkeeper and his nephew and the viscious cash register...i forget the name though....
perfect neighbors...i think that is what it was called was ok too. lets not leave out Red Dwarf though!
[ June 20, 2003: Message edited by: Randall Twede ]
 
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Aside from the ones already mentioned (Black Adder, Fawlty Towers), Jeeves and Wooster was pretty funny. I liked Spitting Image also. Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a masterpiece as well.
But why limit the discussion to comedies? What I really dig are the British crime dramas that often end up on PBS and A&E: Rumpole of the Bailey, Brother Cadfael, Inspector Morse, Poirot, etc... (Who's the female one? And I don't mean Miss Marple.) I always found The Bill amusing (criminals who would stop running when the unarmed police officer chasing him simply pointed a finger and yelled "stop"). London's Burning was pretty good, as was a shortlived show that even the Brits might not have heard of called Yellowthread Street, which was a cop show that took place in Hong Kong. There was another show I liked, whose name I can't remember, which would pit different British military units against each other in competetions such as marksmanship, land navigation, navigating an assault course, etc...
I thought some of the game shows they had were pretty good. The king of them all would have to be The Crystal Maze when Richard O'Brien was hosting it. There was another one that is kind of fuzzy but I remember contestants having to run around all over the country side and the hostess was some chick who got around in a helicopter if I remember it right. They had an oddly disturbing show called Sticky Moments... The host was extremely... flamboyant shall we say. The thing with British game shows is that the prizes weren't up to par with their American counterparts. For example, one of the grand prizes on The Crystal Maze was like hangliding lessons or something. :roll:
The other thing I hate to admit getting hooked on over there was those sappy Australian soaps. Anybody who has ever watched Neighbors and Home and Away will know what I mean.
[ June 20, 2003: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]
 
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Originally posted by Jason Menard:
There was another one that is kind of fuzzy but I remember contestants having to run around all over the country side and the hostess was some chick who got around in a helicopter if I remember it right.
Treasure Hunt. The woman was Anneka Rice and she had the most famous arse in England because that's all the camera ever saw of her.

 
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Originally posted by Randall Twede:
i liked the one about the shopkeeper and his nephew and the viscious cash register...i forget the name though....
perfect neighbors...i think that is what it was called was ok too. lets not leave out Red Dwarf though!
[ June 20, 2003: Message edited by: Randall Twede ]



The vicious cash register featured in the fantastic "open all hours". I was just thinking that all of the shows mentioned here are so old ... then I realised we don't make decent shows here anymore, we just import them from the US now.
 
mister krabs
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Besides the many good comedies mentioned already, I love "'Allo 'Allo". Another one was "Chef". "One Foot in the Grave" was also funny although it was also sad sometimes. "The Piglet Files" was another good one.
But the best British comedy was "Danger Mouse".
 
Jason Menard
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Originally posted by Angela Poynton:
then I realised we don't make decent shows here anymore, we just import them from the US now.


Which is odd, because for the most part, we don't make many decent shows here either.
 
Ugly Redneck
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No Way!!
The best has to be Black Adder!! Or Mind your Language!
[ June 20, 2003: Message edited by: Sriraj Rajaram ]
 
Richard Hawkes
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Originally posted by Sriraj Rajaram:
The best has to be Black Adder!!
The Black Adder series was superb!
My other favourites don't seem to have made it to the States or no one likes them: Father Ted, Vic Reeves, The Day Today, I am Alan Partridge, Harry Enfield, The Fast Show.
US wise, I'm a sucker for Friends and Frasier and I even got into Spin City and Married with Children for a while(!). Oh and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! "Yo, smell you later!"
 
Randall Twede
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yeah i really liked Black Adder too. im into the history of Great Britain in the first place.
 
Sheriff
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Nobody likes "Are you being served?"?
 
ranger
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But the best British comedy was "Danger Mouse".


Once I realized the adult humor in this cartoon, I loved it. Some very obscure weird jokes in this one, but ones that when you got them were hysterical.
Mark
 
Randall Twede
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you perverts never cease to amaze me
 
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How about some mothers do av'em?
 
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Dont blindly believe everything I say.


dont worry,i'll never believe anything u say.
no need for searching comic charectors outside.MD is having better infidels than loural&hardy.
just joking
basha
 
Richard Hawkes
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Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
But the best British comedy was "Danger Mouse".
My favourite cartoon ever, BS that is (Before Simpsons).
 
Rancher
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Thanks, guys.
Many shows that I'd forgotten. Chef and DM being the biggies. Reminded me I have the 'Danger Mouse saves the world' video in the shed somewhere)
I'll add Young Ones" to the list. Early Ben Elton. Love the man!
(I'd also mention 'Mr Bean', but it's almost an embarassment after the US adaptation for the big screen.)
 
tumbleweed
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Originally posted by Marilyn de Queiroz:
Nobody likes "Are you being served?"?


We do it ranks 2nd after "Allo Allo" in our household.
 
Richard Hawkes
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Originally posted by Marilyn de Queiroz:
Nobody likes "Are you being served?"?
No! Actually watching the re-runs is funny. The show is so camp and pantomime like.
Originally posted by Steven Broadbent:
How about some mothers do av'em?
Another show that used to drive me nuts along with Dad's Army.
I was a fan of To the Manor Born and The Good Life, shows I used to watch after tea with my parents and only get half of the jokes. Those were the days...
Originally posted by David O'Meara:
I'll add Young Ones" to the list. Early Ben Elton. Love the man!
Forgotten that one! A show I had to wait for my parents to leave before I could watch it (acually my dad liked it but you know mums: "Its just stupid! Why is he banging his head with a hammer?!")
 
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Just because no ones mentioned them, but three of my favourite comedies are "The Office", "Spaced", or "Black Books"... I know that "Spaced" has been aired on some channels in the States (at some obscure time) but Im not sure about the other two.
Cheers,
Mark
 
Richard Hawkes
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Originally posted by Mark Fletcher:
"Spaced"
Forgotten that too. Great show! Slow motion gun fights! And that Robot Wars episode - one of the robots was named "War Bastard"
 
Angela Poynton
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Ahhh now "Black books" .. the only decent thing to come out of this country in quite some time in my opinion! Am chuffed to bits they're making a 3rd series.
Really couldn't get into "The Office", nice idea just didn't work for me, and seem to have completely missed "Spaced".
Was never a fan of "Are you being Served" but of the classics mentioned my faves include.
"Black Adder" - all of them, fabuously written hilariously performed.
"Fawlty Towers" - amazing.
"Open all Hours"
"Allo Allo"
"Sorry!" - not sure if this got exported but loved it.
More recent quite good stuff is
"Chef"
"My Family"
"Phoenix Nights"
"Father Ted"
"the Fast Show"
"The Sketch Show"
 
David O'Meara
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What's the one where the guy is a super hero and the baby can talk? Only saw a couple of episodes but enjoyed them. Watched the first season of 'The Office' and didn't mind it. I'm not usually a fan of the mockumentary, and you must have worked in an office to get it (the manager reminded me of an old boss)
On the topic of 'The Sketch Show', it's quite popular in Oz, and each major TV station has come out with its own clone of it. The only difference between the local and imported versions is that the English version is funny
 
Steven Broadbent
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I remember the Paul Hogan Show quite a few years back , also Kelly Montieff - American Humo(u)r that travelled........wonder what happened to him?
and no-one has mentioned "Shelley"..
 
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