Lost Sitcoms

Bruce Dessau's top TV comedy for 2016

It's been a bad year in all sorts of ways, but not in terms of TV comedy. I sat down today to come up with a top ten of the year and had difficulty narrowing it down to ten. Of course there were disappointments and programmes that didn't quite live up to expectations, such as Sky's Andrew Lawrence documentary, but there was still plenty to laugh at here. And if you are quick some of them are still available on various catch-up services. And in case you are wondering, I decided not to include Black Mirror - it was brilliant but just too painfully real to be funny.

You can't have your sitcom and eat it

I would argue that a decent mainstream sitcom will last longer than almost any reality show. Most of these reality juggernauts run out of steam after eight years or so, and then limp along for a couple more. A sitcom can last so much longer.

TV Review: Lost Sitcoms - Steptoe & Son

The script does show its age in places, with jokes about indoor toilets and Hitchcock's Psycho while a gag about "brown crumpet" is awkward on various levels.

Where are all the working class television characters?

Steptoe and Son are back - but whatever happened to their successors? Social historian Michael Collins finds out.

Lost Sitcoms: Steptoe and Son review

Had the originals not existed, you'd easily buy these two as a father and son whose destinies are inseparably entangled, however much they would wish it otherwise.

Which BBC sitcom revival deserves its own new series?

From Porridge to Goodnight Sweetheart and Are You Being Served? Which sitcom deserves another outing on our screens?

Unlike the recently rebooted Porridge and Are You Being Served?, this rejuvenated BBC sitcom actually has a point to it: it's a loving and spot-on recreation of a missing Hancock radio episode from 1956, in which the Lad Himself (Kevin McNally) and co convince themselves their new neighbour is a serial killer. There's a real potency to it, too - it was originally broadcast only three years after the grisly, real-life discoveries at 10 Rillington Place.

Hancock's Half Hour: a triumphant remake of comedy gold

"So should you watch it? Yes. Yes, you should, and then you should write letters to the BBC demanding that they reassemble this cast and crew post-haste," says Tom Cole.

Tony Hancock is the Picasso of moaning

The BBC's Hancock revival is so good it sparked an epiphany. I've not laughed that much at a British sitcom in years. Nothing on TV is actually that funny anymore. It's not that there aren't shows I like and enjoy, it's just that I now realise I wasn't really laughing at them. I was only smiling wistfully. Or going "Ha."

TV Review: Lost Sitcoms - Hancock's Half Hour

The script - by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, of course - is so good you are not even bothered by the basic scenery - there are literally no walls. In fact it would be just as funny if you closed your eyes and imagined you were listening to the radiio. The only thing you would miss would be McNally's gloriously unforgettable face.