Early Channel 4 sitcoms

My memory is hazy but I recall Channel Four in its early days commissioned some interesting sitcoms that never lasted long but were pretty good.
I would like my memory jogged and these ones come to mind:

Chance In A Million - Was this a spoof of a slapstick comedy setting Simon Callow up for silly pratfalls?

Struggle (I think) - Tim Piggot Smith running a loony left London council. Remember it being quite funny if I was older and understood some of the jokes.

Fairly Secret Army - Geoffrey Palmer as a sort of right wing Citizen Smith.

Tandoori Nights - Sayeed Jaffery as a curry house owner. All I can remember of this three decade old Asian sitcom is that it was better and less dated than Citizen Kahn.

I do remember one early Channel 4 gem, Father's Day with John Alderton. A kind of Outnumbered before Outnumbered. It was a real favourite, I don't think it lasted more than two series, but Alderton was great in it. I like the sound of Struggle, don't recall that at all.

Fairly Secret Army was pretty good as I recall.

Don't remember Struggle but your description puts me in mind of Tygo Road. Are you sure it was about a council? Tygo Road was about a trendy lefty community centre-type thing, with this bloke that described everything as "really fascist".

Mind you, Tygo Road might have been on BBC2.

The memory is hazy but I know I liked it as a nipper and would love to see it again. Whether I'd still find it funny, though, is another matter.

Yes I checked it on imdb it was called Struggle and as much as I can remember the comedy stemmed from the conflict between trendy middle class Marxists and more down to earth older working class councillors. A bit like Marty Crane and Niles and Frasier.

It was made in a period when Yes Minister was riding high and Tory tabloids were full of stories about looney left councils banning racist bin bags and such like.

Tygo Road was definitely of that same zeitgeist but clearly it wasn't Struggle then.

Ah well, good luck with your quest.

From our as-yet unpublished guide to Struggle:

There's trouble brewing at the London Borough of South Ham, as socialist council leader Steve Marsh's efforts are thwarted by the forces of the 'real world'.

Father's Day, wow I'd forgotten all about that. Not too sure if it was a sitcom or not but does anyone remember They Came From Somewhere Else?

Remember Scully?

Not technically a sitcom I guess - but a great show

Oh and Desmond's of course.

I know its not from the very earliest days of Channel 4, but Norman Beaton in Desmond's - used to love that show.

Quote: lofthouse @ September 20 2012, 6:34 PM BST

Oh and Desmond's of course.

View original

Beat me to it! I used to love Scully, theme tune by Elvis Costello, written by Bleasdale, TV heaven. I know it's not strictly a sitcom but a Channel 4 movie, but does anyone remember Yang Kipperbang P'Tang? That was an early highlight.

Quote: youngian @ September 19 2012, 11:27 PM BST

Chance In A Million - Was this a spoof of a slapstick comedy setting Simon Callow up for silly pratfalls?

View original

Love it.

Quote: Pingl @ September 20 2012, 6:44 PM BST

but does anyone remember Yang Kipperbang P'Tang? That was an early highlight.

View original

I think it was on the opening night. An even more off beat early CH4 comedy film was Red Monarch about Stalin and his henchmen all played by Irish actors. Colin Blakely was Stalin and David Kelly was head of terror.

Not sure if it was comment about Stalin being Georgian rather than Russian or some spoof of DeValera's grim regime.

Quote: youngian @ September 20 2012, 9:05 PM BST

I think it was on the opening night. An even more off beat early CH4 comedy film was Red Monarch about Stalin and his henchmen all played by Irish actors. Colin Blakely was Stalin and David Kelly was head of terror.

Not sure if it was comment about Stalin being Georgian rather than Russian or some spoof of DeValera's grim regime.

View original

That vaguely rings a bell, David Kelly was great. Cowboys, Robin's Nest, Whoops Apocolypse.

No-one's yet mentioned Dream Stuffing...

Paxo surely

I remember Father's Day (and the theme tune surprisingly).
Was it based on or written by Hunter Davis? Ghost WRiter of Wayne Rooneys Biography among others.

EDIT
Can't find a Wiki entry for Fathers Day
But Hunter Davis did write a book of that name so I'm sure it was based on that