Suggestions for British comedies

T

teonzo

Straw Hat Pirate
I've watched some British comedies and loved them. My 2 favourites are Monty Python and Father Ted, I have also Fawlty Towers, Bottom, Blackadder, Goodness Gracious Me and Chef. I'm looking for some other shows to buy on DVD. Surfing on Amazon I wrote down these names:

Dad's Army
Only When I Laugh
The Tony Hancock BBC Collection
The Likely Lads
The Complete Steptoe & Son
Auf Wiedersehen Pet
Bless this House
Nearest And Dearest
On the Buses
Only Fools and Horses
Porridge
Rising Damp

but never seen any of them (uhm maybe a couple of episodes of Steptoe when I was a child).
Can you suggest some titles to buy first (from the above list or others)? Thanks.



Teo
 
teonzo said:
I've watched some British comedies and loved them. My 2 favourites are Monty Python and Father Ted, I have also Fawlty Towers, Bottom, Blackadder, Goodness Gracious Me and Chef. I'm looking for some other shows to buy on DVD. Surfing on Amazon I wrote down these names:

Dad's Army
Only When I Laugh
The Tony Hancock BBC Collection
The Likely Lads
The Complete Steptoe & Son
Auf Wiedersehen Pet
Bless this House
Nearest And Dearest
On the Buses
Only Fools and Horses
Porridge
Rising Damp

but never seen any of them (uhm maybe a couple of episodes of Steptoe when I was a child).
Can you suggest some titles to buy first (from the above list or others)? Thanks.



Teo
Click to expand...

Hmm, while I've seen some of those, not really enough to comment fully, but I'm not sure I'd rush to recommend any of those on the list really, but if you liked Father Ted you might like the IT Crowd, it's by the same guy and has simlar humour, as does Black Books.

Spaced is also good if you're Simon Pegg/ Edgar Wright fan. Oh and Peep Show is great too.

From the list though, Porridge and Dad's Army are pretty good, both considered classics.
 
I would go with Dad's Army and Porridge too, I would highly recommend Only Fools and Horses too, it's such a brillaint show in my opinion, Steptoe And Son is good too.

There's one other classic show that you've missed out though, and that's Red Dwarf.
 
The only one of those I can say I've seen a lot of is Only Fools And Horses as my step-dad is a massive fan. Yeah, it's definitely one of the greater British comedies.

But as memorium pointed out, you missed Red Dwarf. Seriously - Red Dwarf. Also, what I've seen of Black Books has been pretty hilarious (doesn't help that my older brother is similar to Bernard in looks and personality).
 
I have to say RD is an acquired taste. I used to love it when I was younger but I find a lot of the humour a tad immature now, even though by rights I should still like it, since it'sa similar brand of madcap humour seen in BB/Spaced/IT crowd.
 
The vast majority of those shows are decent enough. There are some others I can think of which nay be of interest.

* Mongrels - A puppet sitcom. If you like Family Guy you will probably like this too.
* Green Wing - Surreal comedy set in a hospital, very different to just about every other sitcom around. For example the episodes are about an hour long, there are at least 14 regular characters, and the footage is often sped up or slowed down for comic effect.
* QI - The cleverest quiz in the world. The questions are so hard you get bonus points just for being interesting, and points taken away for answers which are not only wrong, but pathetically obvious.
* I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - A radio comedy, which is a game show in which the panel play silly games. Games include "Mornington Crescent", a game based on the London Underground system so complicated no-one actually knows the rules to it.
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - As well as being a series of novels, H2G2 was originally a radio comedy, and also adapted for TV.
 
Thanks for the replies.
About Red Dwarf, I bought the boxset about 2 months ago, but still have to watch it. The weird thing is that a couple of friends told me it's a great sci-fi show, and now you say it's a comedy. Guess I misunderstood my friends. Or maybe it's a comedy with a sci-fi setting, while I thought we were talking about standard sci-fi like Star Trek.



Teo
 
teonzo said:
Thanks for the replies.
About Red Dwarf, I bought the boxset about 2 months ago, but still have to watch it. The weird thing is that a couple of friends told me it's a great sci-fi show, and now you say it's a comedy. Guess I misunderstood my friends. Or maybe it's a comedy with a sci-fi setting, while I thought we were talking about standard sci-fi like Star Trek.
Click to expand...

It is a sci-fi comedy. It is a sitcom set on a spaceship 3 million light years from Earth.
 
From your list I would choose Dad's Army and Porridge, I don't know all of them though and some I just don't like (Only fools and horses).

But I would choose Red Dwarf over all of them. (Incidentally, they're making a new season soon.)
 
Feels a bit redundant to say so now, but Only Fools is definitely the way to go.

Also Alan Partridge (most specifically, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge) and some Harry Enfield stuff (Harry & Paul, maybe).
 
Nobody has mentioned The Thick of It. The only British comedy to have a decent film spin-off. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things on television ever and one of the few times swearing is amusing.

Malcolm Tucker is a legend with Jamie a close second. If you want to see what the British government is like, buy this.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Man, we need more Scottish lunatics running things instead of this current bunch.
 
Genkina Hito said:
Nobody has mentioned The Thick of It. The only British comedy to have a decent film spin-off. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things on television ever and one of the few times swearing is amusing.

Malcolm Tucker is a legend with Jamie a close second. If you want to see what the British government is like, buy this.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Man, we need more Scottish lunatics running things instead of this current bunch.
Click to expand...

We had Gordon Brown. That is my response to that statement.
 
Sparrowsabre7 said:
Genkina Hito said:
Nobody has mentioned The Thick of It. The only British comedy to have a decent film spin-off. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things on television ever and one of the few times swearing is amusing.

Malcolm Tucker is a legend with Jamie a close second. If you want to see what the British government is like, buy this.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Man, we need more Scottish lunatics running things instead of this current bunch.
Click to expand...
We had Gordon Brown. That is my response to that statement.
Click to expand...
And Scotland still have Alex Salmond.
 
teonzo said:
I've watched some British comedies and loved them. My 2 favourites are Monty Python and Father Ted, I have also Fawlty Towers, Bottom, Blackadder, Goodness Gracious Me and Chef. I'm looking for some other shows to buy on DVD. Surfing on Amazon I wrote down these names:

Dad's Army
Only When I Laugh
The Tony Hancock BBC Collection
The Likely Lads
The Complete Steptoe & Son
Auf Wiedersehen Pet
Bless this House
Nearest And Dearest
On the Buses
Only Fools and Horses
Porridge
Rising Damp

but never seen any of them (uhm maybe a couple of episodes of Steptoe when I was a child).
Can you suggest some titles to buy first (from the above list or others)? Thanks.
Teo
Click to expand...

I would recommend Dad's Army, Porridge, Rising Damp and Only Fools and Horses from that list. As others have posted, Red Dwarf is good if you like Sci-fi/comedy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is well worth getting (note - the various media of book, film, radio show and tv series are all slightly different with Hitchhiker's).

As you like Monty Python why not try Ripping Yarns. It is a nine episode series written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping_Yarns
 
Sparrowsabre7 said:
Genkina Hito said:
Nobody has mentioned The Thick of It. The only British comedy to have a decent film spin-off. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things on television ever and one of the few times swearing is amusing.

Malcolm Tucker is a legend with Jamie a close second. If you want to see what the British government is like, buy this.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Man, we need more Scottish lunatics running things instead of this current bunch.
Click to expand...

We had Gordon Brown. That is my response to that statement.
Click to expand...

I meant guys like Malcolm Tucker not actual real British politicians.
 
Genkina Hito said:
Sparrowsabre7 said:
Genkina Hito said:
Nobody has mentioned The Thick of It. The only British comedy to have a decent film spin-off. Seriously, it was one of the funniest things on television ever and one of the few times swearing is amusing.

Malcolm Tucker is a legend with Jamie a close second. If you want to see what the British government is like, buy this.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHOyiknNuUw?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Man, we need more Scottish lunatics running things instead of this current bunch.
Click to expand...

We had Gordon Brown. That is my response to that statement.
Click to expand...

I meant guys like Malcolm Tucker not actual real British politicians.
Click to expand...

I know, I was being facaetious =P
 
Porridge
Only Fools and Horses
Red Dwarf
Peep Show
Green Wing
Dad's Army
The IT Crowd
Coupling
Vicar of Dibley
Chewin' the Fat
Harry Enfield and Chums
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
The Good Life
 
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