I'd like to add Is It Legal to this I think. There were some fantastically funny moments in that and I thought it got rather unfair press. Though being on ITV couldn't have helped its cause.

Both good calls, I feel. I know this is a current show, but I think Spin City is a perfect candidate for this thread. It's very funny in places, but Channel 4 seem to have decided that 11pm is now the best place for it, while Friends mysteriously gets more popular as it gets worse. It always gets missed out of the obligatory list displayed in the margins of the age-old lazy Sunday paper argument "Why aren't British sitcoms as good as those across the pond?" (usually written by Andrew Collins or someone else with no imagination). The supporting cast are also brilliant (notably Alan "Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Ruck), so maybe it will survive now Michael J. Fox has had to make way for Charlie Sheen.

OK so the scripts are not Simpsons-standard, but it should not be ignored. Mind you, even in America it's not particularly popular.

(Incidentally, sorry I keep going off on tangents on other threads - from now on I'm going to try and stick to the point!)

Just

Absolutely with you on Spin City - the episode that parodied Homicide was spectacular. What about Me, You and Him though???

Al

No, I saw one episode of 'Me, You and Him' and it was bad. Nick Hancock sharing a flat with Punt&Dennis... though I understand they had to rewrite the script to make it acceptable to ITV.

Yeah - by rights I should recognise that MY&H was awful - it's 'stars' have hardly gone from strength to strength since - but I can't quite dismiss it. It was so resolutely anti-wacky. It avoided the kind of Men Behaving Badly syndrome of 'lads together' which I hate. If you saw Seinfeld's stand up on TV just before Christmas he did this routine about men - and said 'You wanna know what men are really thinking about? Nothing.'
It kind of captured that a bit.

But I guess it was pretty shoddy. Ah well.

Yeah - by rights I should recognise that MY&H was awful - it's 'stars' have hardly gone from strength to strength since - but I can't quite dismiss it. It was so resolutely anti-wacky. It avoided the kind of Men Behaving Badly syndrome of 'lads together' which I hate. If you saw Seinfeld's stand up on TV just before Christmas he did this routine about men - and said 'You wanna know what men are really thinking about? Nothing.'
It kind of captured that a bit.

But I guess it was pretty shoddy. Ah well.

>No, I saw one episode of 'Me, You and Him' and it was bad. Nick Hancock sharing a flat with Punt&Dennis... though I understand they had to rewrite the script to make it acceptable to ITV.

There was a feature in the now-defunct VOX on it while it was being made (summer 1992)- apparently they were filming two versions (one for post-watershed, one for 8.30pm), so the result was a bit anaemic, perhaps - still, we watched it most weeks (it rained a lot that summer), and I remember it raising a laugh here and there.

Also - made by Thames. And it was better than most of Carlton's glittering comedy output. (Although that mad logic would mean we'd have to take our hats off to Love Thy Neighbour and Up The Elephant)

Yeah, I read that feature as well, that's what I was referring to... so Vox is defunct then? I hadn't looked at in years. I suppose all that sector must be under pressure then - that would explain why the last issue of Select (which I hadn't looked at in years either) had some stuff about revamping to meet new demands or something...

Sorry for going off the point. A show which was not a classic but which was OK was... 'Yes, Minister'. Or 'To The Manor Born'. Aaaaahhh.... you wouldn't expect to see them praised in SOTCAA, would you? But they should. They were not classics because neither had really strong characters like Steptoe/Delboy (Hacker was often just a peg for a political story the (pro-Thatcher) writers wanted to spin; the Penelope Keith character, whose name I've forgotten, was too selfish and petulant, for me anyway). But they had strong plots, avoided cliches, and, in their own way, were original comedy.

Does anyone remember that sitcom starring Alexi Sayle, written by Lineham and Mathews? I think it was called Paris, and i believe it was OK, although i only saw it when it was first show, and was young and naive in those days.

It was called Paris, and it did really badly, but I never saw it myself.

It's almost too good to qualify for this category but does anyone remember 'Nightingales' on C4? All I remember about it was that it was about three night watchmen in an office block, starred Robert Lindsay and was surreal, often brilliantly so.

Yes, Nightingales was a lot of fun, quite surreal. It deserves a repeat.

The sitcom 'Paris', written by Linehan and Mathews did so badly because.....Harry Enfield was on the other side at the same time. Never stood a chance. I think C4 used to repeat it a couple of years ago at 4am on Sunday morning or something. I think it should be shown again considering it came from the pen of Graham and Arthur but then I never saw it. I suspect if it was half good it would.

How about The New Statesman (Rik Mayall). A bit laboured sometimes but pretty good. One strength of both Yes, Minister and The New Statesman is that when I've read the scripts they've still made me laugh out loud. Some comedy doesn't work on paper, which doesn't necessarily mean it's bad comedy- it could be brilliant in performance (and of course this can work the other way round) and yes, I know I'm rambling now, but I still like YM and TNS.

I'm sorry to disagree with previous comments, but I think Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister are as deserving of classic status as any sitcoms of the past forty years. The intelligence, wit and originality of scripts and performance were never less than exceptional.

It was never cool to watch these shows, and what they show sufferred from most was the worst fan club in the world, Margaret Thatcher, Tebbit etc.

But all these are outside factors. Watch these shows and judge them on their own merits. Bollocks to cool, funny is funny.

All i seem to remember about the New Statesman was, in later series, it seemed to take on a darker tone, especially in the special episode after Alan B'stard had been 'murdered'. Quite scared me it did.

I've just remembered: the special show was called 'Who Shot Alan B'stard' or something in the same vein. I hope i'm getting that Bastard joke right, as i'd hate to spoil a classic play on words like that...

How about 'Fist Of Fun'?

How about This Morning with Richard Not Judy. Why should I laugh at these shows when the studio audience never seemed to?

>Yeah, I read that feature as well, that's what I was referring to... so Vox is defunct then? I hadn't looked at in years.


VOX went under round about 1996 - following year, IPC brought in UNCUT, with endless pages of Allan Jones and David Stubbs residing in the where are they now file. It is still better-written than the NME though - picking it up today, Steven Wells has become an illustration. Now he's not funny is he? (He may well have written some of On The Hour - can L&H enlighten us to which bits, so that I can bitterly stop laughing at those sketches in an adolescent fashion.)

I suppose all that sector must be under pressure then - that would explain why the last issue of Select (which I hadn't looked at in years either) had some stuff about revamping to meet new demands or something...
>
>Sorry for going off the point.

me too.

A show which was not a classic but which was OK was... 'Yes, Minister'. Or 'To The Manor Born'.

Haven't seen TTMB for years and years and years, but loved it at the time. A friend once commented that Margaret Thatcher may well have become PM partly because of the very existence of Margo Leadbetter/Audrey fforbes-Hamilton. A profound socio-political comment? Probably not.

"Yes Minister" was great, though. Paul Eddington was also the funniest one in The Good LIfe a lot of the time.

Here's one (and I realise this really is sticking my neck out...): Ever Decreasing Circles. Have been watching the repeats as I enjoyed them the first time round, and it is still pretty good. Richard Briers portrays that exacting, neurotic horror fantastically. It's all a bit "oh look at us in suburbia" (the characters do not possess a left-wing bone between them), but for the most part, it hasn't shown its age as much as Esmonde & Larbey's more-trumpeted Good Life.

Am I a lone voice on this one?

Yeah, I liked 'Ever Decreasing Circles' as well. It went off a bit in the last few series, but I saw a repeat recently and I'd be inclined to put it for consideration as a 'near classic'.

Lordy....Nightingales was pretty unfunny if I recall - for "black humour" read "dull". Paris was funny as hell and should have gone on to greater things but was never allowed to. Ummmm......how about "The High Life"?,
that usually made me laugh every week. Which is pretty good going. Also, you may want to turn your enfeebled minds (To The Manor Born indeed!) to "Let the Blood Run Free" an Australian soap parody which was usually on about three in the morning and was often chockful o' yoks. Or did I just fancy Nurse Pam?

>
>
>It is still better-written than the NME though - picking it up today, Steven Wells has become an illustration. Now he's not funny is he? (He may well have written some of On The Hour - can L&H enlighten us to which bits, so that I can bitterly stop laughing at those sketches in an adolescent fashion.)
>

Maybe it's because I'm an adolescent, but I think Steven Wells is the best thing in NME - if I'm speaking honestly, it's the only thing that makes me laugh out loud in there (I avoid 'Thrills' like the plague).
David Quantick used to do something in Select, didn't he?

This is very off the point and a few messages late, for which I humbly apologise.
>

>Maybe it's because I'm an adolescent, but I think Steven Wells is the best thing in NME - if I'm speaking honestly, it's the only thing that makes me laugh out loud in there (I avoid 'Thrills' like the plague).
>David Quantick used to do something in Select, didn't he?
>
Quantick's fine - does he still do Quantick's Travels in Select? Graham Linehan's Good Ideas was very funny as well.

David Quantick is back in Select now, since it has had another 'make-over' (so far, this seems for the better). He now just complains about the world of pop music. Still, in my opinion, funny.

I always like to watch repeats of ''Allo 'Allo', and 'It's Not Half Hot Mum' on UK Gold. For good old fashioned comic timing and silly jokes, they're fabulous. 'Sorry' is now being shown on Granada Plus, and, quite frankly, it rocks.