Andy Hamilton (II)

The enduring success of TV's comedy prophets

Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin talk to Benji Wilson about a career in comedy.

Having set a new benchmark for sitcoms with Outnumbered, writing partners Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton know that expectations are high for their new pilot, part of Channel 4's Funny Fortnight. This one also centres around a squabbling suburban family, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. James Bolam and James Fleet play a father and son-in-law trying to negotiate a post-apocalyptic Britain in which economic collapse and climate change have created a lawless society of scavengers - think Survivors meets Steptoe & Son.

Having created the reigning champion of family sitcoms in Outnumbered, Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton take the genre into new territory - the future. Not the distant future but, as the title suggests, a few decades hence when economic collapse and rising sea levels have transformed life in Britain. The Pilch family struggle by in a house powered by batteries on a street beset by floods. There's plenty of black humour: casual asides refer to the Isle of Norwich and when Mick (James Bolam) admits to gambling away the Triple-A batteries, he explains, "I put them all on a dog fight... I bet on the dog and the bloke won."

A climate-changed, bank- collapsed England of the near future, where the Dutch are the despised immigrants (Holland having disappeared under water), is the subject of this Funny Fortnight sitcom pilot from Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey). A promising scenario delivered by James Fleet and James Bolam.

One of the oldest sitcoms on the radio returned for two specials this past fortnight, covering the Olympics in all its hellish glory...

Andy Hamilton returns as the underworld-weary Satan in Old Harry's Game, giving his professional opinion of the Olympics while trying to persuade those around him, especially the kindly historian Edith (Annette Crosbie), that the Olympics are not as great as everyone makes out to be. (It's not that difficult, is it?)

In the first special last week, Satan takes Edith to the original Greeks who founded the Games, who mainly wanted to just look at naked men. The show also explored what happened to the original marathon runner Pheidippides after he discovered his run was a waste of time. At the end of this episode, though, we learn that Edith's daughter is taking part in the hurdles, so Satan agrees to take her up London; but in exchange she will eventually finish writing Satan's official biography.

Although this sitcom's been running since 1995, I think it's still one of the best around, because of both the images it creates and the ideas that appear in the show. For example, in Old Harry's Game all twelve Apostles are in Hell and Judas claims he was killed by Mossad. Then there are Satan's various "guises". In this episode he pretends to be Kate Middleton...

It's amazing that this show can still produce laughs after being so long on the air; proof, if needed, that this sitcom is simply top notch. Let's hope there will be a few more episodes made yet, as it can clearly stand the test of time...

The prize for subversive gag of the week went to Andy Hamilton, whose long running sitcom Old Harry's Game (Radio 4) embarked on the first of two Olympic Specials last Thursday. Satan, ever resourceful, had decided to launch his own "Infernal Olympics" to coincide with the London Games. "It's like the real Olympics" he explained, "only without the corruption and the travel chaos."

My favourite sitcom returns for a two-part special, inspired by the unavoidable-and-almost-upon-us London Olympics.

Satan (the devilishly good Andy Hamilton) has seen it all before, ever since 776 BC to be precise, and he's not impressed. Fellow inmate Edith (Annette Crosbie), the historian who apparently committed suicide while watching Midsomer Murders, is delighted by the prospect. Satan has no choice but to correct her rose-tinted view and carts her off to meet the Ancient Greek Olympics Committee. They are all in hell, and we soon understand why. (Let's hope the same fate does not await Sebastian Coe.)

Next week's edition returns the wretched underworld losers to 2012. Satan agrees to take Edith to the London Olympics, but it's more a case of going for Gehenna than for gold.

Two-part special of Andy Hamilton's great situation comedy, set in Hell with him in the lead role as the Devil (aka Old Harry, Satan, Prince of Darkness etc). Old Harry fans will know that anything that's going on upon Earth (even in banking) sooner or later catches Satan's attention. He's now learned that London is about to host the Olympic Games and decides to take a closer look. I wonder does Lord Coe realise that all that stands between him and total 2012 disaster is Annette Crosbie, as Edith, wrongly assigned to Hell, Satan's (sort of) conscience?

Andy Hamilton interview

Award-winning director, producer, writer and performer Andy Hamilton talks comedy.