Rev.
Rev. is a delightful comedy starring Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman. It’s about a Church of England priest who comes to an inner city flock in London. It’s funny, dark and magnificent. One of the finest British comedies to come out of Britain in the last few years.
Pramface
Pramface is another BBC comedy that’s a big hit in the UK. It’s about two teenagers who, in an alcohol fueled session at a party engage in relations that end up in the result of a baby. Both are woefully unprepared for parenthood as are their hapless parents. It’s delightfully funny and as the parents of two small children, we get particular delight out of this show.
Miranda
You may recognize Miranda Hart from her dramatic role on Call the Midwife, but she’s a season comedian and her show is a delight. The series is based on Hart’s semi-autobiographical writing, following a television pilot and the BBC Radio 2 comedy Miranda Hart’s Joke Shop. The various episodes revolve around this set-up and the scenarios Miranda gets herself into: Miranda (Miranda Hart) is 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and gets called ‘Sir’ once too often. She has never fitted in with her old boarding school friends, Tilly (Sally Phillips) and Fanny (Katy Wix), and finds social situations awkward, especially around men. She is a constant disappointment to her mother, Penny (Patricia Hodge), who is desperate for her to get a proper job and a husband. It’s a great show!
The Inbetweeners
Warning: This show is extremely vulgar. But also amazing. The show follows the life of suburban teenager Will McKenzie (Simon Bird), and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The episodes involved situations of school bullying, broken family life, indifferent school staff, male bonding, and largely failed sexual encounters. It’s hilarious and the use of foul language is simply amazing.
Come Fly With Me
Come Fly with Me was a British mockumentary television comedy series created by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams of Little Britain fame. Narrated by Lindsay Duncan, the series launched on 25 December 2010 on BBC One and BBC One HD. A spoof of British documentaries Airport and Airline, the series follows the activity at a fictional airport and three fictional airlines: FlyLo (a low-cost airline), Our Lady Air (an Irish low-cost airline) and Great British Air (a major international British airline). Lucas and Walliams portray many of the focal airline and airport staff, as well as some passengers, whose comments and experiences are featured in one or more of the series episodes in the style of a “fly-on-the-wall documentary”. I happen to really love airports so I really enjoyed this spoof.
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley is a BBC television sitcom created by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007. The Vicar of Dibley was set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women. The main character was an invention of Richard Curtis, but he and Dawn French extensively consulted the Revd Joy Carroll, one of the first female priests, and garnered many character traits and much information.
Gavin and Stacey
The show follows the romance between Gavin, from Billericay in Essex, and Stacey, from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. Initially, Gavin lives with his parents, Pam and Mick, and spends his time with his best friend Smithy. Stacey lives with her widowed mother, Gwen, but is frequently visited by her Uncle Bryn and her best friend Nessa. The series follows the key moments in their relationship; as they have their first meeting, meet each other’s families, become engaged, get married, look for a house, briefly split up, look for new jobs and try to conceive. This show is really about the ensemble casts of characters and it’s a true delight.
Black Books
Black Books is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004. Starring Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, the series is set in the eponymous London bookshop Black Books and follows the lives of its owner Bernard Black (Moran), his assistant Manny Bianco (Bailey) and their friend Fran Katzenjammer (Greig). It’s like Notting Hill but more funny and somewhat dark.
Coupling
This show has often been called the British version of Friends, but that sells it rather short as the show is way more funny and way more edgy. Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from 12 May 2000 to 14 June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three men each talking among themselves about the same events, but in entirely different terms. The show is somewhat based on the love life of show creator Steven Moffat – who’s more famous now as the show runner of Doctor Who (and it’s fun to spot all the Who references in the show).
Red Dwarf
As a bit of a sci-fi geek, Red Dwarf is one of my favorites. Red Dwarf tells the adventures of the last human alive and his friends, stranded three million years into deep space on the mining ship Red Dwarf.
Hyperdrive
Hyperdrive is a British television science fiction sitcom broadcast by BBC Two in 2006 and 2007. The working title was Full Power. In a 2008 interview, Kevin Eldon commented that he considered a third series was unlikely to be commissioned. Set in 2151 and 2152, it follows the crew of HMS Camden Lock as they stumble through their heroic mission to protect British interests in a changing galaxy. This show is a who’s who of British comedy as it stars Nick Frost and Miranda Hart, amongst others. It’s delightfully funny.
The Thick of It
This is a great show for those interested in the mess that is politics. It’s one of our favorites and stars an ensemble cast of inept British government apparatchiks who attempt to mostly save their own butts. The star of the show is by far Malcolm Tucker played brilliantly by Peter Capaldi (who will be playing Doctor Who later this year). His ability to swear is a gift and like The Inbetweeners above, you will hear swear words used in a way you never thought possible. It’s a fantastic show and an excellent insight in modern British politics. check out IN THE LOOP the movie made fro mit.
NEXT BLOG to COME SOON:
I like these as well – but these can go in another blog entry:
Friday night dinner
NIGHT NIGHT
SPACED
THE IT CROWD
BOOK GROUP
VICAR OF DIBLEY
AS TIME GOES BY
only fools and horses
fawlty towers
one foot in the grave
absolutely fab
twenty twelve
green wing
little Britain
wait for god
the wrong mans
white van man