The most underrated comedy of all time?

Is Help, written by and starring Paul Whitehouse & Chris Langham the most underrated sitcom of all time?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/help

Thanks to Langham's well-publicised trial, Help was screened once by the Beeb (as far as I know) and then pretty much forgotten.

A 2nd series was made, but never made it to TV. Although weirdly, I did manage to buy a copy from Portugal I think and it's recently been released commercially over here.

It's no surprise the BBC didn't promote it, but in my view, Help is the most underrated comedy of all time.

It's dark, funny, poignant, different, daring, touching, brilliantly acted and incredibly perceptive!

Is it the most underrated comedy? Do you agree?

What have I missed? I'd say Cyderdelic comes a pretty close 2nd.

Penny for your thoughts.

Second series? Commercial release? Higson? Are you getting a bit confused with People Like Us?

Help was brilliant. Well annoyed with Langham for being a paedo.

Edit: Felt it only fair that I add that he denies being sexually attracted to children, and was convicted of downloading but not making or participating in activity

T'internet says there have been two series of the Swedish version released, but only one series of the original made.

Aaron, you're absolutely right. It was the 2nd series of People Like Us that has only just been released in the UK, but not at the time. My mistake. I'm not even sure it was ever screened?

Help has never been released or re-broadcast! A REAL shame.

Both series of People Like Us were broadcast; the show predates all of the scandal by quite some years (2001).

I do agree that Help deserves much more credit though.

On the original underrated point... I disagree. It certainly deserves to be more widely known, but everyone who remembers Help does rate it justifiably highly.

For underrated, I think we need to look for a sitcom that - whether it is widely remembered or not - should get more credit than it does; is 'misunderstood', perhaps. And I had a perfect example of that this afternoon, but even I've forgotten it now. Ummm...

Quote: Aaron @ September 21 2011, 12:18 AM BST

For underrated, I think we need to look for a sitcom that - whether it is widely remembered or not - should get more credit than it does;

View original

Everybody Loves Raymond. It's not cool to like that show, but it has great characters.

One underrated sitcom that I would nominate would be Heil Hitler I'm Home. Not because I think it was good particularly but more just because it didn't deserve the reception that it received and should have been allowed to run past its first episode. It fits into the misunderstood category anyway.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 21 2011, 8:59 AM BST

Everybody Loves Raymond. It's not cool to like that show, but it has great characters.

View original

Bloody good suggestion. Yes, I totally agree.

Quote: Nick @ September 21 2011, 9:18 AM BST

One underrated sitcom that I would nominate would be Heil Hitler I'm Home. Not because I think it was good particularly but more just because it didn't deserve the reception that it received and should have been allowed to run past its first episode. It fits into the misunderstood category anyway.

View original

And again. Ditto Hardwicke House.

Ever Decreasing Circles.

Overshadowed by the preceding Good Life but every bit as worthy. Immense lead performance from Briers.

One I hardly ever hear mentioned is Just Good Friends, with Paul Nicholas and Jan Francis, quite a good show from what I remember.

Just Good Friends got big audiences and was appraised after John Sullivan's demise.

A US nomination; Bakersfield PD- A fish out of water comedy; urban black cop in all-white hick town (great back-story as well).

But it wasn't a one joke comedy playing on stereotypes but more about the relationship between the world-weary divorced cop and his young enthusiastic but not too bright partner.

Just Good Friends can't be underrated because it went to about 3 series.

I thought Rescue Me (the girlie one) and the Lisa Tarbuck one (Somebody Green?) were underrated. The latter though was probably a bit too close to Bridget Jones.

Linda Green.

Quote: Aaron @ September 21 2011, 4:45 PM BST

Linda Green.

View original

That's it.

Again both of these were more drama than comedy though.