The Comic Strip Presents...

The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents... which was labelled as an example of alternative comedy. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and others.

I loved these films. It's great to see Ade, Rik, Nigel in these. My favourite would be Four Men In A Plane and A Fistful Of Travellers' Cheques and Mr Jolly Lives Next Door.

Anyone else like this?

Really scattergun stuff. Some good, "The Strike", "The Bullshitters" (although technically not under the Comic Strip name) and "GLC" for example, but some absolute self indulgent balls along the way too.

Of the more recent stuff, liked "The Hunt For Tony Blair", but thought "Five Go To Rehab" reeked big time of desperation.

The only one I've seen is 'The Hunt for Tony Blair' not half bad, but the premise was promising to begin with.

Yep. I've seen all of them. Great stuff to watch.

I just watched Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, really funny. I like the scene where they at The Dorchester.

Some of them were great, real cutting edge stuff and some were not even funny. For a comedy that's not good.

Love The Comic Strip. Off the top of my head, my favourites:
Mr Jolly
Dirty Movie
The Strike
GLC
Eddie Monsoon
Supergrass
Five go mad
South Atlantic Raiders
Four Men in a car/plane
Bullshitters
Detectives on the verge of a nervous breakdown
Gino
Gregory: Diary of a nutcase
and of course, Bad News

Sure there were a lot of duds, but every episode was an experiment. Some missed and some hit. All worth it for the brilliance in the episodes above.

Les Dogs was always was a particular favourite of mine, but Richardson and Richens were never less than interesting and often funny.

The French and Saunders contribution Slags sticks in my mind as possibly the least funny thing I have seen outside of famine footage.

Red Top

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_comic_strip_presents/episodes/2016/1/

Felt like this had potential, but was undercooked and unfocussed, compared to The Hunt For Tony Blair.

Thankfully Maxine Peake shone though. Russell Tovey was good. And in a star-packed ensemble, the less well-known Lewis Macleod (who I'm unfamiliar with) also stood out as Alan Rusbridger.

I just thought that overall they were smug and not really funny. Just exaggerating the things they were supposedly "spoofing".

It started off great. Excellent parody and satire and then it started to wane in the second half. I was pleased when it was over so I could go and do something else by the end.

Quote: Woozie @ 22nd January 2016, 9:32 PM GMT

I was pleased when it was over so I could go and do something else by the end.

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Quote: Woozie @ 22nd January 2016, 9:32 PM GMT

It started off great. Excellent parody and satire and then it started to wane in the second half.

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I didn't think it started all that well, but then it improved and settled down, without really taking off.

I only thought there were about three made! If you count up all the above mentioned that must come to about 30! Films! That rivals the Carry On franchise - don't like that word.

How did they get funding if you say half of them were rubbish? Was it C4 who did them all the only ones I saw were. Certainly gave the writers and actors involved a living for a couple of decades. I shall have to Google to see if you're all pulling my plonker.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 23rd January 2016, 11:20 AM GMT

I only thought there were about three made! If you count up all the above mentioned that must come to about 30! Films! That rivals the Carry On franchise - don't like that word.

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41. And a feature film. Channel 4, BBC Two and Gold.

I watched them all and remember seeing Supergrass in 85 when I was only 8. I had the biggest crush on Jennifer Saunders after that film

There were a lot of great episodes and other favourites are The Strike, Summerschool and the Bad News ones. The episode Red Nose Of Courage has some of the funniest scenes and storyline. Ade Edmonson is fantastic in that.

Some of the later episodes started to lose the Comic Strip vibe especially as the original guys started appearing less. Four Men In A Car was a perfect return for the series after a long break and I still laugh thinking about the music getting stuck on 'indestructable'.

The DVD boxset is a great buy and worth it for the extras alone becuase there is a few hours of interviews. Dawn French said it was the perfect life because they were being paid to do silly stuff with their mates all day. Getting funding is probably a lot more controlled these days even for broadcasters like Channel 4 but I bet back then they trusted the writers enough to give them a bag of cash and leave them to it.