British TV comedies most repeated in 2014
British Comedy Guide's comprehensive schedule allows us to mine some interesting data. For example, here's a list of the ten British comedy shows that were repeated the most in 2014:
1,531 repeats: Last Of The Summer Wine
257 on Drama, 354 on Yesterday, 920 on Gold.
1,041: 8 Out Of 10 Cats
673 on 4Music, 57 on E4, 69 on 4seven, 20 on Channel 4, 169 on Dave, 53 on More4. (Not including 148 Cats Does Countdown repeats.)
998: Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps
941 on VIVA, 47 on Comedy Central, 10 on Comedy Central Extra.
877: Mr Bean: The Animated Series
827 on CITV, 50 on ITV. (These episodes are only 15 minutes in length each.)
855: Birds Of A Feather
838 on Drama, 9 on ITV, 8 on ITV3.
780: QI
708 on Dave, 72 on BBC Two.
770: Desmond's
All on The Africa Channel.
712 on Gold and 1 on BBC One.
708: Harry Hill's TV Burp
All on Gold.
593: 'Allo 'Allo!
556 on Gold, 37 on BBC Two.
588: Mock The Week
548: Keeping Up Appearances
503: Sooty
498: Peep Show
471: Russell Howard's Good News
465: Bottom Knocker Street
420: One Foot In The Grave
345: Have I Got News for You
335: Shaun The Sheep
327: As Time Goes By
303: Gavin & Stacey
300: Not Going Out
In total, 579 different shows were repeated at least once in 2014, with 39 different TV comedies reaching the 200+ repeat mark.
Meanwhile, The Navy Lark topped the list of radio comedies repeated, with 173 broadcasts during 2014 on Radio 4 Extra.
1,531 repeats of Last Of The Summer Wine might look like a lot, but it's worth bearing in mind that digital channels rely on repeats to prop up their schedules. Blasting Summer Wine's tally out of the water was US sitcom Friends, which clocked up an incredible 6,766 repeats during the year on Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra.
For more analysis, here's a report from Ian Wolf, the researcher who complied this data.
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