Best Of British Comedy

I am wondering if anyone else remembers the above show - a Christmas clip show, presented by Frank Muir. It isn't mentioned in his profile on this site or his IMDB page and IIRC it did not have a repeat broadcast. The titles for the show used the sloping block BBC logo to capitalise the above phrase.

It was actually a two-part show, 45 minutes each, in which Muir introduces clips from BBC sitcoms (mostly - there was also a clip from Monty Python's Flying Circus) over the years. The first show opened with Hancock (The Blood Donor) and the second show closed with Only Fools and Horses (the chandelier scene). Most of the clips are from shows we now regard as sitcom classics but with a few which are definitely less well-known now (eg My Wife Next Door).

I remember it well as my parents videotaped it, and given the expense of videotapes at the time my Dad tried several times to reuse the tape for something else but my sister and I fought against this (nevertheless we did end up having to sacrifice the first few minutes at one point). I think it was broadcast in 1983 - definitely not before as we had our first family video recorder in January 1983. For many BBC sitcoms this was my introduction to these shows, and I can still recall now the exact dialogue used for each clip. Sadly the videotape is now long gone but I'm wondering if anyone else besides myself and my sister can recall this programme.

I found this on IMDB. 1982 rather than 1983 though and doesn't mention some of the shows that you recall: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9651966/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_11_slf

And this is at least part of that show on YouTube:

Thanks Billy, that's what usually comes up whenever I try to Google for Best Of British Comedy. The show I'm referring to is strictly a clip show, I understand The Funny Side Of Christmas was comprised of specially-recorded mini-episodes or sketches, the type of thing that surfaced decades later on DVD Boxsets.

Love the snowflake Christmas ident at the start too ❄️

No I googled a couple of things and found nothing matching that. I do have recollections of Frank Muir in a yellow jumper presenting some TV show from about that time but it could have been Jackanory which I believe he did occasionally. He was a very likeable and popular man and it's got me thinking he should have his own thread really, great writer and 'humourist', as he referred to himself.

I'd say your best bet was emailing ITV to trace the show, as not only was it probably on ITV, he was once head of Entertainment there I believe. And they more accessible than the Beeb, or at least used to be.

New Year's Eve 1983 and 2nd Jan 84 on BBC One.

Certainly sounds a jolly watch, but nothing I've ever seen!

Quote: Aaron @ 20th June 2023, 11:36 PM

New Year's Eve 1983 and 2nd Jan 84 on BBC One.

Certainly sounds a jolly watch, but nothing I've ever seen!

View original

Yes - not quite Christmas as I'd remembered it, but around New Year so all within the same school holiday. And the first Christmas my family had a video recorder for.

I decided to try and search on this again a few days ago and found a few more clues - from the BBC Genome website https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/0b09b1fe58d600cc69ec2eca18863fe4 (Part 1) and https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8de125f4668db33de9385a0cdc7aad9f (Part 2). And both parts were 50 minutes each, not 45 as I'd originally believed (which I'd deduced from how they and other recordings fitted on a 3-hour videotape).

I'm going to try and remember which clips were included, as these programmes were the first I'd seen of many of the shows included, and for at least one show, the only bit I've ever seen of that show. Even today, the clips of the best-known shows are still burned into my brain as such despite me being familiar now with the whole episodes they are from.

I remember Frank Muir wearing a stone-grey suit, with a salmon-pink bowtie which co-ordinated with the furnishings in the studio. Very early-to-mid-80s styling.