A TV scene from my colonial childhood…
British comedy once had no match in the TV world—to name a few: Dave Allen Show, Morecambe and Wise, and Love Thy Neighbour.
Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory... More by Charles Mudede
Going back as far as Tony Hancock’s “Hancock’s Half Hour”, “That Was The Week That Was”, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s “Not Only…But Also”, and continuing into the present day with the mildly amusing “Inbetweeners” and “Gavin and Stacey”, British comedy has ALWAYS vastly outstripped its American counterparts. “The Office” is British, and funnier there than here. Rob Brydon alone is funnier than every American TV comedian put together barring only the cast of “Arrested Development”. His turns in “Marion and Geoff” (filmed almost entirely from the passenger seat of a parked car he was sitting at the wheel of) and “Human Remains” (with Julia Davis) are the two funniest things that have ever happened in the course of human civilization. With the possible exception of Peter Cook.
If you’re a fan of Morecambe and Wise and Dave Allen, surely you remember “The Two Ronnies”, which I remember watching on PBS station here either before or after “Monty Python” in the mid-seventies.
“…And it’s ‘good night’ from him.”
I remember my local PBS station playing Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Two Ronnies, Benny Hill and Dave Allen…all back to back…when I grew up.
It is no surprise that decades later that BBC America is my first “favorite” channel on my cable remote.
Fnarf FTW!
One of the advantages of living in a border town (bordering Canada) was being able to pick up Canadian television, which had a lot of British shows like this one. It totally ruined me for US television comedy.
The guy with the shaggy hair is Kate Beckinsdale’s father. He died shortly after this of a heart attack.
dave allen could tell a joke better than ANYBODY.
For me, the pinnacle of Britcom is the sublime Yes Minister.
Political commentary of the highest form! Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington!
I didn’t get where I am today without appreciating the great work of Leonard Rossiter.