How On earth Did Vicar Of Dibley Finish Third In Best Uk Sitcoms Poll?

Ally C to thread!

Peter Egan was the smarmy bloke on Ever Decreasing Circles. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin has been repeated, because I watched it, and definitely remember not watching it the first time round.

Mr ailsa reckons the great British public kept the Vicar of Dibley in as long as they did to keep Carol Vorderman's legs in view for as much of the evening's viewing as possible. This sounds entirely plausible.

I think you are cause even I don't go that far. At best it strikes me as pleasant.

This most infamous of all British sitcoms attracted controversy out of all proportion to the number of people who saw it. Naturally, the hullabaloo was built on the shocking notion that anyone would mount a comedy about Hitler and the Jews - seemingly the definition of poor taste. In reality, the show was no more than a spoof - and not of 1930s Germany but of the kind of 1960s/1970s American sitcoms that would embrace any idea, no matter how stupid. The title, the corny dialogue, the applause when anyone arrived on set, the acting (McCaul's Hitler was more reminiscent of Chaplin's The Great Dictator than your actual Fuhrer) - all were clear signposts of parody. Mel Brooks had already explored the concept of pantomime Nazis in his masterpiece movie (and eventual stage musical) The Producers."

And yes, seeing as every other sitcom ever made in these isles is there (and I've never even heard of most of the last 20) where is Game On?

Dad's Army deserves its placing. The Vicar Of Dibley does not.

yes minister should have been higher!

Also, there's such an emphasis on the golden-age-of-telly 70s sitcoms in that list... I can't ever remember having seen an episode of Yes Minister.

But yeah, Vicar of Dibley... WTF? I can only assume its because its fresher in a lot of people's minds.

Yes Minister was good but I never saw enough of it either. I think Fawlty Towers is rated about right.

Old Fools & Horses episodes I still enjoy and laugh at throughout, like one I saw recently includign Vas Blackwood and Jim from Eastenders in the cast. The problem with OFAH is people forget it's earlier subtleties in favour of the bar-leaning mishaps, Del's cariacture cliches and everything post-Damien. But that episode where Grandad's close to full-on senility/death is as poignant as the end of Blackadder IV and far less replayed. And Mickey Pearce is my role model in life.

it's a shame that people haven't seen yes minister much.

Surely the most *important* sitcoms were Hancock and Steptoe & Son, which established its darker vein. They also do transcend their context, and stand up much better than some things. A good understanding of post-war Britain would be very useful, but an essential appeal is there to the British psyche per se.

A few thoughts on sitcoms in the top 10/those out of it, based on recent viewings:

"Blackadder"; I love the fourth series the most. The level of comic invention is not always as high as in the second - or some of the third series - but there is a significant vein of pathos, and you almost see the show's usual gags and constructions being wearily cast aside by that last episode, as a darker and very moving vision entirely creeps through. The "Goodbye *Kevin* Darling" scene and others are very firmly etched in my mind...

"Fawlty..."; it generally is much as good as they say, though a few episodes are a bit weaker. "The Kipper and the Corpse", "The Psychiatrist", "Communication Problems", "The Germans", the searing "The Anniversary"... those amount to jaw-dropping television. A great marshalling of character and situation, to all sorts of comic ends. I love its profound ambivalence towards the characters; one is always rather *too* sure how to take Blackadder's characters, who lack depth in comparison.

"Dad's Army"; rooted in times further back than the Galton and Simpson stuff... this has its Carry On and music hall lineage; which would be possibly off-putting for the trendy viewer, but historically interesting for the cultural critic.
Most of all the sublime ensemble cast make this the most consistently watchable and comfy sitcom... though crucially it has sharp edges, which keep you on your toes. Mainwaring and Wilson's quiet English conflict/partnership prefaces the more outright personality clash of Paul and Martin in "Ever Decreasing Circles". John Laurie and Arnold Ridley are so wonderful, too... this deserved a high placing, yes.

"The Good Life"; good fun from the few episodes I've seen recently. Too good to be true, eh? The central couple seem wonderfully idealised to me, in a likeable, offbeat way. Eddington - as has been noted by some - is the core of any pathos the thing has. Hmmm... I don't entirely think the comedy took off as it might have done. The plot of one I saw had a strangely banal, clipped pay-off that muffled the piece's overall impact. Earlier there had been a lovely scene between the Goods - a couple one is going to see as either insufferably grating, or charmingly cheery - and Jerry, where they assume he has problems at home and all. The actors were splendid in portraying two different poles. A more pronounced edginess might have helped...
But all the same, Felicity K. is well... as sublime as it gets, and it's fun if lacking conflict, crucially. A shame it was very listlessly backed by Ulrikka Jonsson, who didn't convey any depth of insight into the show.

The others I am not as familiar with as I ought to be, so will reserve comment a bit. Suffice to say, I found the Christmas OFAH last year to be rather a stilted affair... it's oddly a show I've seen quite little of, in the sense of full episodes. Little bits here and there, generally. I sense that at its best, it'd be a fine sitcom - c.f. the grandad comments above - but I'm not sure it'd be entirely to my taste. Something like "Porridge" seems to hold more inspiration & insight, overall, ASAIK.

The same writers of "The Good Life" came up with "Ever Decreasing Circles" which is a certified *masterwork* from what I have seen of it so far - the first 9 episodes. I'm glad to see this has its fans in ILX; what a travesty it was only #52 in the original poll. Along with "Reginald Perrin", one of our most hard-hitting, thoughtful sitcoms. Very few hefty guffaws, and very often more of a feeling that you're watching a melancholic, cyclical play... Beckett or Pinter even. The laughs are greater for being bleak and hard-won, and the occasional moments of tenderness that break through are heartbreaking. Like FT, you are never allowed to side with one character for too long... and like "Steptoe and Son" and the solo Hancock, there is an immense vulnerability in Martin. Was there ever much of that in Blackadder? Blackadder is intelligent, undergraduate-style humour; on that level, wonderful. But - barring perhaps BGF - I think this stops it from being up to the top tier of: Steptoe, Hancock, Perrin, EDC [which may well end up my favourite of all]... Its situations up 'till BGF lacked that desperation, too.

I don't understand anyone saying 'The Office' was too high... it has been the standard bleak sitcom model applied to these times, with form twisted a bit - mockumentary element taken from 'This Is Spinal Tap'. Interestingly, having now seen some EDC, Gareth seems to have some of Martin's anal-retentive trivial obsessiveness [albeit concerning obv. more current things], and Tim seems to have Martin's assumed cheeriness, which hides a real sadness at how things go in his life. There may be more comparisons actually between the two shows; they may at some stage come to me... :)

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There have been British efforts to do the team approach (I think My Family is/was written like this, and runs for 13-14 eps/season). It wasn't unusual in the '70s for sitcoms/sketch shows to have 13-ep runs (Python, Dad's Army, etc).

My wife ordered the final two episodes of Vicar of Dibley from Amazon.com. They were the only episodes of the show either of us had seen (I'd never heard of it). My wife really liked those episodes, but mostly because she's in love with Richard Armitage, who played the Vicar's love interest. I thought the epidodes were pleasant enough.(n.1)

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(n.1) I think Armitage is a very good actor (based on his turn as John Thornton in the BBC's North and South), but he wasn't great here.