British Sitcoms - My Top 100

Following an extensive review and not without controversial omissions.

Television only.

01 Only Fools and Horses
02 Hancock's Half Hour
03 Fawlty Towers
04 Dad's Army
05 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
06 George and Mildred
07 Father Ted
08 Desmond's
09 One Foot in the Grave
10 Blackadder
11 Count Arthur Strong
12 A Fine Romance
13 Watching
14 Last of the Summer Wine
15 The Royle Family
16 Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister
17 Rising Damp
18 Hi-De-Hi
19 The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
20 Bread
21 The Vicar of Dibley
22 Man About The House
23 The Green Green Grass
24 Are You Being Served?
25 Detectorists
26 'Allo 'Allo
27 Citizen Smith
28 Home To Roost
29 Steptoe and Son
30 Butterflies
31 The Lenny Henry Show
32 Porridge
33 A Sharp Intake of Breath
34 The Liver Birds
35 Keeping Up Appearances
36 And Mother Makes Three/Five
37 Whoops Apocalypse
38 The Good Life
39 Red Dwarf
40 I'm Alan Partridge
41 W1A/2012
42 George and the Dragon
43 Absolutely Fabulous
44 Bless This House
45 The Thin Blue Line
46 Dinner Ladies
47 Two's Company
48 The Likely Lads/Whatever Happened To
49 Lucky Feller
50 The Young Ones
51 Dear John
52 No.....That's Me Over Here
53 On The Buses
54 Oh Doctor Beeching
55 Sorry
56 Just Good Friends
57 To The Manor Born
58 Don't Drink The Water
59 After Henry
60 The Dustbinmen
61 You Rang M'Lord
62 Happy Ever After/Terry and June
63 The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs
64 Ever Decreasing Circles
65 The Lovers
66 The Rag Trade
67 Goodnight Sweetheart
68 Peter Kay's Car Share
69 Birds of a Feather
70 You're Only Young Twice
71 Agony/Agony Again
72 Rab C Nesbitt
73 Robin's Nest
74 Hold The Sunset
75 The Office
76 Open All Hours/Still Open All Hours
77 All Gas and Gaiters
78 The Brittas Empire
79 Father Dear Father
80 Shelley
81 Black Books
82 Not in Front of the Children
83 May To December
84 Oh No It's Selwyn Froggit
85 That's My Boy
86 Chef
87 Citizen Khan
88 The Fosters
89 Brush Strokes
90 Fresh Fields
91 The IT Crowd
92 Men Behaving Badly
93 Benidorm
94 Get Some In
95 Goodbye Mr Kent
96 Not Going Out
97 Miss Jones and Son
98 Drop The Dead Donkey
99 For The Love of Ada
100 Heartburn Hotel

Now that is what I call thorough! Very interesting rankings. Didn't spot any omissions myself. Good work!

That is very kind of you Aaron.

I've been (enjoyably) slaving over YT and other clips as well as reading and testing my memory 24/7.

It makes it feel worthwhile.

I am probably going to spoil it now by listing in no particular order the ones that didn't make it:

Pardon the Expression, The Larkins, The Army Game/Bootsie and Snudge, Hugh and I, Marriage Lines, Oh Brother, Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width, Doctor at Large/at Sea, Curry and Chips, Never The Twain, Keep It in the Family, Two in Clover, Whack-O, Not On Your Nellie, Lollipop Loves Mr Mole, Queenie's Castle, My Good Woman, Romany Jones, Yus My Dear, Please Sir, The Fenn Street Gang, Till Death Us Do Part, In Sickness and in Health, Love Thy Neighbour, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, The Cuckoo Waltz, Down The Gate, Bottle Boys, No Honestly/Yes Honestly, Sykes, Graham's Gang, The Wackers.

Mind Your Language, Up The Elephant, Odd Man Out, In Loving Memory, Brass, My Husband and I, The Gaffer, All About Me, Fairly Secret Army, The New Statesman, Tripper's Day/Slinger's Day, The Bounder, Duty Free, Bottom, All at No 20, Sitting Pretty, Waiting For God, As Time Goes By, 2.4 Children, Roger Roger, A Bit of a Do, The High Life, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Two Pints and a Packet of Crisps, Game On, Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, The Inbetweeners, Peep Show, Miranda, The Thick of It, League of Gentlemen, Gavin and Stacey, Green Wing, Spaced, Outnumbered, My Family, Mrs Brown's Boys.

I accept that I haven't seen everything that has ever been on but I have given it a very good try!

Royle Family but no Early Doors?

Quote: A Horseradish @ 25th February 2018, 1:10 PM

I am probably going to spoil it now by listing in no particular order the ones that didn't make it:

Pardon the Expression, The Larkins, The Army Game/Bootsie and Snudge, Hugh and I, Marriage Lines, Oh Brother, Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width, Doctor at Large/at Sea, Curry and Chips, Never The Twain, Keep It in the Family, Two in Clover, Whack-O, Not On Your Nellie, Lollipop Loves Mr Mole, Queenie's Castle, My Good Woman, Romany Jones, Yus My Dear, Please Sir, The Fenn Street Gang, Till Death Us Do Part, In Sickness and in Health, Love Thy Neighbour, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, The Cuckoo Waltz, Down The Gate, Bottle Boys, No Honestly/Yes Honestly, Sykes, Graham's Gang, The Wackers.

Mind Your Language, Up The Elephant, Odd Man Out, In Loving Memory, Brass, My Husband and I, The Gaffer, All About Me, Fairly Secret Army, The New Statesman, Tripper's Day/Slinger's Day, The Bounder, Duty Free, Bottom, All at No 20, Sitting Pretty, Waiting For God, As Time Goes By, 2.4 Children, Roger Roger, A Bit of a Do, The High Life, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Two Pints and a Packet of Crisps, Game On, Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, The Inbetweeners, Peep Show, Miranda, The Thick of It, League of Gentlemen, Gavin and Stacey, Green Wing, Spaced, Outnumbered, My Family, Mrs Brown's Boys.

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Oooh, many good titles in that!

Quote: A Horseradish @ 25th February 2018, 1:10 PM

I accept that I haven't seen everything that has ever been on but I have given it a very good try!

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A man after my own heart! ;-)

I think you have it just about right. There is some thing for every body. Grand selection.

Car Share? The Office?

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 25th February 2018, 5:54 PM

Car Share? The Office?

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What terrible modern bores.

Quote: Aaron @ 25th February 2018, 6:40 PM

What terrible modern bores.

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Car Share is good, but The Office on the other hand is completely overrated.

Watching an ep from each of that lot would be the equivalent of having a pint in every pub in England, and probably more expensive. Got most of the recognisables hasn't it, not many recent or modern ones though Radish, I take it you're not a young hipster like some of us then.

What about The Squirrels?
It rarely gets mentioned in any list ,good or bad.
Written by Eric Rising Damp Chappell and much funnier than that other sitcom depicting office life.
It's got some really good actors in it too.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 26th February 2018, 12:41 AM

Watching an ep from each of that lot would be the equivalent of having a pint in every pub in England, and probably more expensive. Got most of the recognisables hasn't it, not many recent or modern ones though Radish, I take it you're not a young hipster like some of us then.

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My list won't couldn't contain many modern stuff at all. Maybe 1 or 2 that's it. I'm not old either, I'm a young hipster like you.

Quote: Ray Pirret @ 25th February 2018, 5:14 PM

I think you have it just about right. There is some thing for every body. Grand selection.

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Many thanks Ray.

Quote: Tommy Griff @ 25th February 2018, 1:41 PM

Royle Family but no Early Doors?

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I'm a bit vague on Early Doors.

Thank you for the suggestion, Tommy.

I will look at it.

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 25th February 2018, 5:54 PM

Car Share? The Office?

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They are both in the list, Paul, so I'm guessing you think they should be higher up in the list.

I didn't like Phoenix Nights at all so Car Share has done comparatively well. And the American The Office didn't even make it into the American 100 so that too has done comparatively well,

I don't actively dislike anything in my Top 100 otherwise I would have made it a Top 75 or a Top 50. There's also a fair number of ones that didn't make it into the 100 which I quite like but not enough for a list of 150.

Quote: Bill Poster @ 26th February 2018, 1:01 AM

What about The Squirrels?
It rarely gets mentioned in any list ,good or bad.
Written by Eric Rising Damp Chappell and much funnier than that other sitcom depicting office life.
It's got some really good actors in it too.

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I've never heard of The Squirrels, Bill, and will try to track it down.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 26th February 2018, 12:41 AM

Watching an ep from each of that lot would be the equivalent of having a pint in every pub in England, and probably more expensive. Got most of the recognisables hasn't it, not many recent or modern ones though Radish, I take it you're not a young hipster like some of us then.

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Alf - Yes it was like having a pint in every pub - I've watched masses of them in just a few weeks, mainly on YT and Daily Motion on which the adverts are excruciating. Of course, a lot is in the memory anyhow.

I'm not a young hipster but the earliest shows predate me, were broadcast when I was in my pram or when I was newly walking and talking with the idea that everything in colour on a screen was set in Woodstock. That would be the Woodstock that was about 500 feet away because does anywhere else really exist?

Actually, I'm much the same now - having been literally a child of the sixties (which those who were of an age to have sex in that decade were not, contrary to the label they get given).

Quote: A Horseradish @ 26th February 2018, 11:53 AM

I've never heard of The Squirrels, Bill, and will try to track it down.

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*cough* https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_squirrels/shop/3288/dvd/

Quote: Aaron @ 26th February 2018, 11:55 AM

*cough* https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_squirrels/shop/3288/dvd/

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Thank you Aaron.

Maybe it does ring a faint bell - I will try to look at it.

I'm not sure whether to see your comment about Car Share and The Office as playfully contentious or heartfelt.

Not that I intend to submit a Freedom of Information request about it.

There is an enormous amount on this forum which delightfully leaves readers wondering.