Broadening my comedy horizons - (Readers Recommend)

[Banana Woofwoof]

Not Only...But Also is great but it's so difficult to find anything, and not much exists anymore anyway.

Anyway, here are some more.

Not the Nine O' Clock News
Yes, (Prime) Minister
Innes Book of Records
Ripping Yarns
Drop the Dead Donkey
Q Series
Saturday Night Fry (radio series)
The League of Gentlemen radio series
Why Bother? with Peter Cook
Rawlinson End (radio series, Peel sessions stuff)
Whose Line is It Anyway? (radio series)
In Other Words... the Bodgers (radio series)
Spaced
Help! (and are they making another series since Peter Langham's been accused of paedophilia?)

[TJ]

Delve Special, an early radio vehicle for Stephen Fry. Wonderful stuff.

[Jemble Fred]

http://rapidshare.de/files/26335360/rumpole_and_the_teenage_werewolf.mp3.html

This was rather good – if it leads you to the books, thank John Mortimer, not me. There's a new one out in a few weeks too – Rumpole & The Reign of Terror!

Cheers to Mike from NotBBC for the link, it's none of my doing.

[Gavin]

Peter Langham's been accused of paedophilia?

Not another one!

[Banana Woofwoof]

Why the hell did I say Peter?

I meant Chris, sorry! He's called Peter in Help!

[Gavin]

Why the hell did I say Peter?

I meant Chris, sorry! He's called Peter in Help!

I always want to call him Clive.

[Miles]

Citizen Smith as already mentioned is very good, and something else with Robert Lindsay that I bought simply on the basis of what I had read here was Nightingales, and it was well worth it. A bit of a spartan DVD, but the show is great, seems normal enough at first, but that doesn't last too long, and it's just one of the oddest and funniest things I'd seen in a long time.
Also, Ever Decreasing Circles, although that boxset was a lot cheaper when I bought it. I think. I quite like The Good Life, but Ever Decreasing Circles is nothing like that, and I much prefer it .

[Ray Le Otter]

Hey!
Remember, kids - the programmes recommended have to be either available on DVD or on Sky at the moment. See the first post in thread.

That rules out Help, Innes Book Of Records, Q etc.

[jennifer]

Symptom - Victoria Wood, please! (ie this idiot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItbJ3JQOkxY&search=Victoria%20Wood)

That's just made me very angry in many, many ways...

Yes. I'd quite like to hurt his face.

[neveragain]

His fat face.

[Brutus Beefcake]

Monty Python's Flying Circus is being shown around 11 o'clock most nights on Paramount 2.

[snakeThru]

i've recently been recommended a radio show called 'Old Harry's Game,' does anyone know this/have any opinions on it?

i'd also like to throw in will self's novels/short stories

[Saul]

Old Harry's game is a Radio 4 sitcom written by and starring andy Hamilton as Satan. In the first episode Professor Richard Whittingham (usually known simply as "The Proffesor") played by James Grout arrives in Hell. Although he has lead a good life Satan explains that he is damned because he is an atheist. In fact for the first few episodes he refuses to believe that he is actually in the underworld rather that experiencing a coma brought on by the coma he slipped into after a car accident. That accident was caused by Thomas Quentin Crimp (Jimmy Mulville), a self obsessed nasty evil (but also pathetic) man who dies and therefore gets sent to Hell at the same time.

I think its great, although the 2005 series (without The Proffesor)  wasn't  much good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Harry's_Game

[Go With The Flow]

Monty Python's Flying Circus is being shown around 11 o'clock most nights on Paramount 2.

Yeah, that's on a permanent Series Link for me.

SWELL UPDATE
I managed to buy Arrested Development S1 for £16 from CeX. I shall be watching as soon as possible. (PS2 broke - waiting for DVD player)

Not the Nine O Clock News is also starting on Paramount Comedy 2 (On Monday July 31, about midnight) , I shall set that to record as well.

If any other shows are on the telly, please post in this topic immediately!

[neveragain]

I doubt that Paramount are showing the proper NTNOCN episodes, they'll probably be the early-90's-made compilations. They're still good though and well worth a watch if you haven't seen the series.

[rudi]

Old Harry's game is consistently good - cracking bathtime listening.

BBC7 how I love thee...

Hey!
Remember, kids - the programmes recommended have to be either available on DVD or on Sky at the moment..

Which allows me to ask for possibly the 800th time why Mr Don & Mr George or Absolutely aren't available, eh? EH??

[Go With The Flow]

I just watched the AD Extended Pilot. I laughed out loud, so that's always a good sign. Is there any point in me watching the (non extended) Pilot, are there any new scenes?

[Paaaaul]

No. There's no difference bar a few extra scenes in the extended one.

[clareQuilty]

Another vote for Trailer Park Boys, Mr.Show and Arrested Development.

Some of the funniest television comedy i've ever seen.

[Go With The Flow]

Arrested Development
Well, I watched the whole series. It's unbelievably funny! I had to rewind parts of the DVD I was laughing for so long I missed bit of dialogue.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to try and buy S2 as soon as I can.

4 seasons of Mr Show is on playusa for £32, so I'll most likely get that next.

[neveragain]

Wow then. Good quick work. Great, innit?

[thepuffpastryhangman]

Yesterday I watched four sit coms, three of them either first episodes or first episodes of a new series, the other a second episode of a first series, which for whatever reason I'd not seen previously.

It's difficult to know which was worse.

Black Books - Series 1 Episode 1. What a disappointment. After hearing so much about it I expected more, well, I expected something, it was lamentable. Three jokes stretched to twenty four minutes. Are drunks drunk? Well yes.

Supernova - Series 2 (I think) Episode 1. Didn't expect much, didn't get it. Was this marginally better than Black Books? Slightly. At least it had pace and wackiness, oh, and a great theme tune. Hardly sharp though.

Extras - Series 1 Episode 2. Pure gash. The only decent bit being at the end, when Gervais confronts Stiller, this is could've been done outside the show and lost nothing. Terrible, though no worse than the two already mentioned.

One Foot In The Grave - Series 1 Episode 1. A masterclass. I only bought this thanks to recommendations from folks here. It's a template for situation comedy. I didn't laugh much, but what perfect execution. So good I'm already forgetting how awful the three above are.

[Marv Orange]

4 seasons of Mr Show is on playusa for £32, so I'll most likely get that next.

Try and find clips of mr show on youtube before you spend your money.

[Why I Hate Tables]

Black Books - Series 1 Episode 1. What a disappointment. After hearing so much about it I expected more, well, I expected something, it was lamentable. Three jokes stretched to twenty four minutes. Are drunks drunk? Well yes.

Episode 2 is better. Try that one. If you don't like that one,give up watching them.
[/quote]

[thewomb]

Buy all 6 series of Trailer Park Boys on DVD and never look back.

[Bert Thung]

Hot Metal - Eighties parody of Rupert Murdoch/Robert Maxwell press barons. Marshall/Renwick's finest hour. Just below Rising Damp as ITV's greatest ever sitcom
If You See God Tell Him - Richard Briers gets hit on the head and starts believing every advert he sees. Marshall/Renwick again, incredible stuff.
Delve Special - Tony Sarchet's pisstake of Roger Cook's consumer investigations, starring Stephen Fry. Woefully underrated, even on here.
Norbert Smith, A Life - Harry Enfield's parody of the British Film Industry

[butnut]

Are those all available on DVD Bert?

[Jemble Fred]

I don't think any of them are, are they? Unless there was a low-key Hot Metal release. Delve Special is a radio show, but no DVD for 'This is David Lander', either.

[Garam]

I'm really surprised at the lack of DVD treatment for Enfield stuff. He was facking hyowge not so long ago. As big as Fast Show, if my childhood memories are correct.

[neveragain]

Yes indeed. There are many things of his that should be released - 'Smashie and Nicey: The End of An Era' should definitely get the DVD treatment - and the 'Sky One Best Of... Brand Spanking New Show' previously available at every bargain bin in the land was never one of them.