Claire Zolkwer - New ITV Head of Comedy Page 11

All the above comments prove to me the difficulty of defining what makes good comedy - it's all a matter of taste and what your mood in at the time. I laughed when watching "Man about the House" and "George and Mildred" I laughed at "The Office" and " Sensitive Skin". As a teenager I did not find "Dad's Army funny - I do now.
The Jimmy James sketch "It's in the box" has made me laugh everytime I've seen it performed by Jimmy James or Jim Casey and its over 60 years old.

Comedy is a funny old thing -and that's a fact.

Quote: Marc P @ August 30 2010, 9:00 PM BST

True, but not a lot lately.

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Which is the exact point I was making.

It's a good point.

Quote: Timbo @ August 30 2010, 7:24 PM BST

Perhaps ITV always felt the need to play it a bit safer, whereas the BBC has always had the luxury of pursuing edgier projects, so you had programmes that were distinctive with an original creative vision. Back in the days of limited choice the BBC were able to influence popular taste, so what was edgy had the opportunity, if it was good enough, to become mainstream.

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This is strange if you compare it with Channel 4. It tried to create a new platform for sitcoms and stand up away from the BBC, and it probably succeded more than ITV did, except that now more channels have come in.

I still think this term 'mainstream' is over-rated (though that might be the point!) commercial might be a better term (except then you have the confusion with commercial TV)

Has the BBC ever bought a Channel 4 comedy?

Quote: Aaron @ August 29 2010, 12:46 PM BST

They haven't. It's just a view that a lot of people have of them now, tainted by the channel's/network's more recent forays into sitcom (or rather, lackthereof).

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How many ITV comedys are in the BCG's top 50 sitcoms?
I can't see a single one in the top 20 apart from Men nehaving badly which only achieved success after it moved to the BBC.

I count one and a half in the whole top 50.
Rising Damp & Men Behaving badly.
I'd call that falling short.

Quote: Tim Azure @ September 1 2010, 10:19 AM BST

This is strange if you compare it with Channel 4. It tried to create a new platform for sitcoms and stand up away from the BBC, and it probably succeded more than ITV did, except that now more channels have come in.

I still think this term 'mainstream' is over-rated (though that might be the point!) commercial might be a better term (except then you have the confusion with commercial TV)

Has the BBC ever bought a Channel 4 comedy?

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Channel 4 still has more of a public service remit, as it gets a wedge of the licence fee and government money. I reckon this is part of the reason why it can take more risks when making comedy and drama as it doesn't just have to rely on big business backing them up.

I can't think of a 4 comedy that the BBC bought. I guess they hijacked Reeves & Mortimer after Channel 4 gave them their big break.