British Comedy Guide

Best Esmonde and Larbey Sitcom?

What do you think was the best Esmonde and Larbey sitcom? Here's a list of their collaborations I found on this site - (note some might not be sitcoms).

The Dick Emery Show (1963)
Spare a Copper (1965)
Room At The Bottom (1966)
Please Sir! (1968)
The Fenn Street Gang (1971)
Cosmo And Thingy (1972)
Bowler (1973)
Football Crazy (1974)
Get Some In! (1975)
The Good Life (1975)
The Other One (1977)
Three Piece Suite (1977)
Feet First (1979)
Just Liz (1980)
Don't Rock The Boat (1982)
Now And Then (1983)
Ever Decreasing Circles (1984)
Brush Strokes (1986)
Double First (1988)
Hope It Rains (1991)
Mulberry (1992)
Down To Earth (1995)

I've seen at least some episodes of at least 8 or 9 of those titles. I don't actually like rating any one show as 'best' because the best writers often have more than just one best, in my opinion. However, for the sake of it, I'd rank my favourites or 'bests' as follows:

And my awards go to...

1st place: Ever Decreasing Circles.
runner up equal: Brush Strokes, and The Good Life.

I haven't seen them all, but I choose Brush Strokes!

Yeah, I watched all of Brush Strokes through recently. When you watch it in order right through I think you get more out of it. It has a bit of a soapy feel to it as it develops. Lionel is my favourite: "Come in. Sit down. You're sacked. Get out." "My arch-angel." He he. Laughing out loud

'their'

Impossible to say as I haven't seen 80% of them but EDC ranks highly in my all time greats.

I haven't seen most of these but of the ones I've seen, I love Hope it Rains. I enjoyed Ever Decreasing Circles and to a slightly lesser degree, Good Life.

I also really like On the Up, which was Bob Larbey on his own. Even better, A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By.

Oh yes, On The Up was great.

A Fine Romance was great. Who was that funny guy in it (was he called Edward) who was also in 'When the boat comes in'?

When I was a lad I had a record in which Judy Dench played 'Puss in boots'. I have an idea her husband played in it too. It was a David Frost production - and it was a very high standard series.

Here's five mins of the puss in boots. However, seems to be Michael Williams singing rather than Dench.

http://www.djdchronology.com/pussnboots.html

Ah yes - Dench comes in toward the end. What's different about this story is it is dramatised and musical. Jeremy Brett seems to be the narrator.

I'm not familiar with many of the titles, but have always had a soft spot for Please Sir!.

Puss in Boots is lovely. When we were children, we had lots of records with musical versions of stories but, of course, wouldn't have had this.

I have watched a bit of Please, Sir, probably on YouTube. I'll confess to not finding it very funny --- and that's most likely because I am not much of a John Alderton fan.

:O

Remember watching, Please Sir! and The Fenn Street Gang.

But my favourite would be, Get Some in!

Quote: zooo @ November 1 2011, 11:07 AM BST

Oh yes, On The Up was great.

Just the one Mrs Wembley?

:D

Ever Decreasing Circles gets my vote as well. Haven't seen any of the rest, apart from The Good Life.

The Good Life closely followed by Please Sir!. Did they write the film version as well?

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