BBC's contribution to British Comedy Page 2

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ November 4 2011, 4:57 PM GMT

A Fairly Secret Army
Up Pompeii!
The Rag Trade

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Well, the first was almost a spin-off of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, so debatable.

Up Pompeii! was a BBC series.

The Rag Trade started on the BBC.

But otherwise a rather good list, and point well made.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ November 4 2011, 7:22 PM GMT

Oi! I didn't know you had a channel section!! Would have saved a lot of brain cells. Okay, just go to the channel section to see the all the non BBC sitcoms. There are loads!

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There are plenty of different lists, if people take the time to look.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/year/ https://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/channel/itv1/ https://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/genre/sitcom/ https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/

There are a hell of a lot of ropey comedies on Kipper's list.
BBC were always better than ITV, The Goodies, Morecambe & Wise and Men Behaving Badly were of a higher quality when they were on the BBC as opposed to ITV.

In fact apart from Rising Damp I don't think there are any other ITV sitcoms on the BCG's top 50.

Channel 4 have shown some top quality stuff in recent years though.
So I'd put them comfortably in second place.

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ November 4 2011, 8:49 PM GMT

There are a hell of a lot of ropey comedies on Kipper's list.

Channel 4 have shown some top quality stuff in recent years though.
So I'd put them comfortably in second place

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" May I refer the Honourable Member to one of the finest sit coms ever made in this wonderful land of ours? I refer of course to https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/cowboys/

I feel certain that there is another senior Member that will join me in proposing that this be included in any list relating to this topic."

Quote: Matthew Stott @ November 4 2011, 2:31 PM GMT

A company we're all lucky to have. Think of Brit TV and radio without the BBC. Exactly. Nothing's perfect, but let's not forget the current alternative.

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Definitely. Not only would British TV be a poorer place without the BBC but the whole country as a whole.

BBC sitcoms and their comedy in general is untouchable. Without it we would have had a few cult hits on C4 and a couple of decent but not great ITV efforts. There would be no sitcom industry without the Beeb!

I feel my attempt has backfired, and I'm almost in agreement with them. Of course BBC has the best sitcoms, we all know that. But they made ropey ones too and do they really need a bigger halo than they have? ITV until recently, did their bit, but yes on the whole, they were lower rent, but that's the fault of the executive who paid way too much attention to the advertisers' target audience thing. Even Grade wasn't allowed to change that.

C4 have indeed become the 2nd best sitcom channel, making class shows. But that is one of the reasons why they started, as the market was there for it, but ITV just wouldn't change their ways and exploit it themselves! It is no surprise that C4 took a lot of ITV's top producers and a few from BBC.

The Dustbinmen was another from ITV.

http://youtu.be/31ayOlYy4v8

re: Just imagine British comedy without the BBC's input.

The BBC is a public funded body whose remit is to "inform, educate and entertain" through broadcasting. Whilst private companies fund their programmes through advertising and sponsorship.

Personally I lament at the majority of its output, encouragement to the public to participate, and its breadth and depth of programming endevours.

I am disappointed because for every 'classic' remembered there are hundreds of as-good-as and better ... still born.

Quote: dennispennis123 @ November 5 2011, 12:05 AM GMT

Definitely. Not only would British TV be a poorer place without the BBC but the whole country as a whole.

BBC sitcoms and their comedy in general is untouchable. Without it we would have had a few cult hits on C4 and a couple of decent but not great ITV efforts. There would be no sitcom industry without the Beeb!

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Can't agree with that, if there had been no BBC then the talent that existed would have had to go to ITV, and ITV would have produced the best TV comedy in the world. The likes of Cleese and Barker et al weren't likely to wander off to Germany and make their names there, I don't think.

But we had the BBC, with all its experience and heritage and domination when ITV was still young and not as well known, so it's no wonder most of the best talent chose to be aired on the BBC. ITV had to pick up the second tier talent really, but did quite well with it for a couple of decades, till they just seemed to give up bothering.

Still, ITV's 70s and 80s output of sitcoms would be very warmly welcomed by any other country in the world. We in Britain are a bit spoilt and don't appreciate the huge range we have always had, imo.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ November 7 2011, 8:45 AM GMT

Can't agree with that, if there had been no BBC then the talent that existed would have had to go to ITV, and ITV would have produced the best TV comedy in the world. The likes of Cleese and Barker et al weren't likely to wander off to Germany and make their names there, I don't think.

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SOME of the talent would have been picked up elsewhere, obviously, but some would not have been, just due to the fact that there are only so many slots. Plus we don't know that they would have been able to, or allowed to, make the same shows elsewhere.

Anyway, it's all guesswork, the fact is the BBC exists and they made the shows they made.

I like the Beeb. They make a lot of mistakes, and at the moment are taking too few risks, but it's still one of the few institutions which makes me feel any sort of national pride.