British Comedy Archives - British Sitcoms And Me

The Obscure Sitcom Files: Miss Jones and Son

The past is an interesting time, a time that people would suggest housed funnier comedy and where you could get away with making jokes on minority groups without someone calling you out on it. I completely disagree with this view – even then, you had the likes of Mary Whitehouse and Points of View as indicators that people didn’t completely accept what was on their TVs – and further evidence for this comes in the fact that some groups were ignored altogether, usually because society was ashamed of them. Single mothers for one thing. This taboo was challenged by one sitcom in the 70s, a tale of a mother and her son surviving after the departure of the father in the family. I give you Miss Jones and Son.

The Obscure Sitcom Files – Mad About Alice

Ah, the family sitcom – a popular type of sitcom that has been practiced extensively over the years, especially by the BBC. Do you know what can also be funny? Divorce. Speaking of divorce, the sitcom that I’m going to be looking at today is one which explores this somewhat delicate process through the eyes of a duo who should not be together at all. But is it any good? Let’s find out!

Obscure Sitcom Files: Hold the Sunset

In recent times, you may have heard of John Cleese’s attempts to reboot Fawlty Towers with his daughter Camilla Cleese. This news has been heavily criticized and considering Cleese’s recent feelings about the concept of cancel culture, I fear that a lot of the humor in this new revival will be very weak. However, it has also inspired me to look at his other work, and this led me to the sitcom he did for the BBC from 2018 to 2019, Hold the Sunset. Is it as good as this ex-sitcom legend had hoped it would be? Let’s find out.

The Obscure Sitcom Files: Sam’s Game

With Friends having proven to be a popular worldwide phenomenon, it was only natural that British companies would have a piece of the pie. Some would be more successful than others – Coupling, released in 2000, made it to four series and is still fondly remembered today, whilst 1998’s Babes In The Wood, primed to be the next British success, vanished after 2 series with little trace. Today, however, this blog focuses on one of the more notable failures – the 2001 sitcom Sam’s Game.

The Obscure Sitcom Files – A Prince Among Men

Introduction

Ah, sports – one of the greatest pastimes of the human world. I personally never really got into sports – I was one of those nerdy kids who would much rather prefer to linger in the toilets all class rather than do P.E. (well, I didn’t really – I was one of those who cared deeply about my grades but I would have if I could have). Still, it is a pastime so timeless that there have been numerous attempts to adapt it into comedy, some more successful than others. Modern comedic takes on it include Ted Lasso and The First Team, whilst earlier attempts include Renford Rejects and Fantasy Football League. Did you know however that there was an attempt at a mainstream sitcom starring Chris Barrie in the 1990s? Well, you might do, but let’s read on anyway, shall we?

A Look At What Went Wrong With Series 6 and 7 of “The Brittas Empire”

The cast of the show during Series 6. Clockwise from top left; Julie (played by Judy Flynn), Helen (played by Pippa Haywood), Brittas (played by Chris Barrie), Linda (played by Jill Greenacre), Penny (played by Anouschka Menzies), Gavin (played by Tim Marriott), Carole (played by Harriet Thorpe), Colin (played by Michael Burns) and Tim (played by Russell Porter)

Introduction

“The Brittas Empire” was a British sitcom running from 1991 to 1997 which featured Chris Barrie as Gordon Brittas, a manager with a Dream but not enough social skills and too much confidence to lead it without everything descending into chaos, as well as a similarly oddball staff to compliment him. This blog post in particular though is specifically focused on a later part in the series’ history, namely Series 6 and 7. By this point, Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen (the original creators of the series) had left, with Series 5 presumably being intended to be the end of the Series, a theory backed up by the fact that their final episode had everyone being given their happy ending. However, after said special, the BBC decided to continue the series for two series, getting on new writers to fill the void left by the original two’s absence. Despite the attempts of the new writers, however, these new episodes were not well-liked by the viewers for a variety of reasons, and this post attempts to look into why this may be the case.

Welcome to my blog about Sitcoms!

Welcome to my very own blog: British Sitcoms and Me, a blog which I have just set up to discuss British Sitcoms, whether that be my opinions on them or just some interesting facts that I have recently found out about them.

Why are you doing this?

Good question, random observer! First, it’s Summer where I’m currently living (although you wouldn’t be able to tell from the weather) and I’ve recently finished University for the year so it would be nice to have something to do to pass the time without devolving into madness (although I do hope to continue working on this when I get back to University in the Autumn). Secondly, I have been exploring my future career options and have found that maintaining a blog works well in getting into future career pathways, especially if I want to get into the study of media, so I figured: Why not start now!

Why British sitcoms in particular?

Also a good question there. Well, I first discovered them around about 2018-2019 through shows like Derry Girls and The IT Crowd. However, it wasn’t until the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown that I realized that I really liked them, thanks to me gaining special interests in shows like Red Dwarf and my favorite underrated sitcom of all: The Brittas Empire. And, whilst there is some good coverage about them online, I feel like it is a field that isn’t particularly crowded, especially concerning those sitcoms which were once popular, but are never talked about nowadays.

Of course, it doesn’t help that compared to dramas, sitcoms are somewhat ignored in media coverage. This is a fact that is especially true with studio sitcoms, which are nowadays treated as laughing stocks (I still shudder at a Guardian article suggesting that audience laughter is unsophisticated). So, with this in mind, I figured I might try to give more coverage to those sitcoms that need some love.

So what types of British Sitcoms do you plan to talk about?

Well, I could in theory talk about anything in this field. However, I have a preference for those sitcoms from the 1990s. And I’m not just talking about more popular shows like Absolutely Fabulous and One Foot in the Grave. I’m talking about stuff like Sitting Pretty, Is It Legal? and On The Up. But, as I say, if it piques my interest in the field of British Sitcoms, I will try to make a blog post about it.

…Bloggist out.