Ok, I can think offhand of Blackadder, Up Pompeii and Chelmsford 123 but it seems to me that history ought to be replete with possibilities for sitcomming. No doubt people will now deluge me with examples I've forgotten!
Setting WWII and the 20thC to one side and going back a bit further, what ideas might be possible?
Dark Ages, Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.
Could be some good material in the court of King Henry VIII, I reckon. Or indeed any monarch around those few hundred years.
Time Team's pretty funny at times as well!
HMM howz about a time team one. Where the cast play 2 sets of characters, one bunch are middle ages escort agency? The other half the archeologists peicing together their lives cenuries later?
This show might be hard for you to get your hands on but if you do I highly suggest it for you Blackadder fans. It was a Canadian production called "Blackfly".
Benny "Blackfly" Broughton played by Ron James (a well known Canadian comedian) lives in colonial 18th Century Canada. The show also had Colin Mochrie (Who's Line US version) playing a rigid and very strict British Corporal named Enthwhistle and a bunch of other really kooky characters like a native bar tender, this rowdy Irishmen and a bunch of other British migrants. Great show, a little under budgeted but funny none the less. In one episode the Brits have to hold off against an invading American army.
I think a shipboard sitcom is long overdue - something set on one of Drake's voyages or maybe Columbus.
Also, howsabout something set around life on the Northern Frontier at Hadrian's Wall?
Wasn't that Chelmsford 123?
Quote: Jolanta Zofia Nowak @ March 16, 2008, 8:42 PMI think a shipboard sitcom is long overdue - something set on one of Drake's voyages or maybe Columbus.
Not quite Drake or Columbus, but Captain Butler (1997, starring Craig Charles) is 'shipboard'!
Quote: sootyj @ March 16, 2008, 8:44 PMWasn't that Chelmsford 123?
Erm. The clue's in the name mate.
I was going to do one about the English Civil War. (No - not the Clash song)
I did write a very rough outline for a sit com set around the time of the plague, and the great fire of london, but I got too lost in the research and it sort of went of the bolil a little. I still have the notes laying around somewhere so I may go back to it at some point.
Quote: David Chapman @ March 16, 2008, 9:47 PMI was going to do one about the English Civil War. (No - not the Clash song)
I think this is a hot idea. Roundheads v Cavaliers would have a lot of mileage in it. Set in a castle, maybe, and focussing on a hard-up Earl who can't decide on his loyalties..? Scheming servants? Ranting puritans?
Andrew and Jolanta/David - brilliant. Please get writing! 
Get working on that, Griff. A sitcom version of Carry On Dick!
I love highwaymen!
Claude Du Vall is the bestest.
I also had an outline for a sitcom set in hell.
The local pub is the hangmans noose.
They show hop scotch and tiddly winks on the big screen.
The main passtime is Morris dancing.
321, Bullseye and Albion market are the top tv shows.
The birdie song, Garandma and Sudupa ya face are the most played songs on the juke box.
Spinich casseroll and sprout suprise are on the menu.
Something about the Russian revolutions would be hilarious because the scenario was so very serious yet chaotic.