Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

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In the absence of radio choices, it's Brass Eye for me as well, although I'm voting for Monkey Dust because I feel it'll be under-represented. If The Office and Little Britain get more than two votes between them I will be a sad, sad panda.

― Just got offed, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:11 (sixteen years ago) link

The Thick of It, with no reservations, with Black Books a very close second. Peep Show has great one-off gags and one-liners, but I find it a bit wearying -- I watched the whole first season on DVD in one go, and it was a really depressing experience. I loved Brass Eye, but it kind of pales next to The Day Today.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:29 (sixteen years ago) link

For some reason, I've never seen Spaced, even though the DVD's been sitting on my TV for the past year.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link

BAN THIS FOOL

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (sixteen years ago) link

;)

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:33 (sixteen years ago) link

Also - if you've only watched the first series of Peep Show, the second is markedly much funnier and more enjoyable.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:34 (sixteen years ago) link

I have been searching everywhere for Mark's quote about the 60s but I can't find it.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:35 (sixteen years ago) link

"Who needs love when you're doing it up the bum?"

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link

where s HUMAN REMAINS ??

― pisces, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:47 (sixteen years ago) link

LoG

― the next grozart, Friday, 4 May 2007 17:51 (sixteen years ago) link

Tatum, you should really watched Spaced. you know how some shows you just "love"? Like, you're sad you're not watching it when you're not watching it, even a little bit? It's one of those. That good. GOD I want to watch it again.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link

I didn't mean to call you by yr last name, I just failed at typing as usual. sry

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:07 (sixteen years ago) link

I have made quite a few oversights, sorry about that - a couple I really like as well! (Bang Bang..., Human Remains)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:20 (sixteen years ago) link

I like Nighty Night, even if nobody else does.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:23 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't particularly like it, but I really should've included it.

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link

(I know quite a few people who think it's great, by the way)

― chap, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link

Spaced is a very 'of the time' thing so if you come to it for first time you probably won't dig it half as much.

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:43 (sixteen years ago) link

I only saw it like 3 years ago! I still LOVVVED it.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link

I have to go with Black Books.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:30 (sixteen years ago) link

Hmmmm.... I don't really think of I'm Alan Partridge as being the debut as there had already been the Knowing Me, Knowing You chat show thing before it, so I'm tempted to go for The Office (which was brilliant, even if Ricky Gervais is getting a bit rubbish now) or Peep Show (which used to be brilliant, and is now merely quite funny) instead, but, fuck it, even if I quibble with the debutness I think that series of Alan Partridge is comedy perfection. Anyone who says Little Britain is a cunt.

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link

the faux tarantino-isms of spaced have worn reeeeally badly

i voted for the royle family!

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:46 (sixteen years ago) link

I have to say, I don't understand "faux-tarantino-isms". I don't think Spaced has aged that badly, either.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:50 (sixteen years ago) link

If Spaced owes a debt to anything, it's The Simpsons.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 19:50 (sixteen years ago) link

And video games! Not only game references, but a lot of game-isms. If I remember correctly. That was one of my favourite bits.

― Will M., Friday, 4 May 2007 19:55 (sixteen years ago) link

If Spaced owes a debt to anything, it's The Simpsons.

in being the first(?) British comedy to plough the field of 'of it's time' popcult references in such a Simpsons-like way yes (Young Ones did this too but in a different way kinda).

― blueski, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Yes, but also in terms of pace and style.

― admrl, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Just finished watching the first episode, may have to change my mind. Funn-eee.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:16 (sixteen years ago) link

I know "funn-eee" is the universally accepted shorthand for "not funny", but what I really meant was "actually funny".

Irrelevantly, Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz is one of my favourite British comic performances in recent memory.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:18 (sixteen years ago) link

(Although the film itself -- patchy.)

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 4 May 2007 20:18 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm Alan Partridge is one of the funniest things I've ever seen, period, so that wins.

― John Justen, Friday, 4 May 2007 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I miss my little boy. I know this is incommunicable. Calling all pearants. Or somefimk.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:36 (sixteen years ago) link

Adam, I think we have similar comedy tastes.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Nighty Night was GREAT.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Remember when we saw Peter Baynham at Amoeba?? WTF??!

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:57 (sixteen years ago) link

C'mon Spencer. Anglophilia or Misanthropy or Anythink; Shit was Wretched. Retch. Ed.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 01:58 (sixteen years ago) link

Does everyone hate Alan Partridge now?

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Please remember my being American disability!

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Just from reading this thread Alan Partridge has grown wings he was denied four months ago.

But [i]Nighty Night[/i[.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:08 (sixteen years ago) link

Ah, I missed the IAP acronym.

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:12 (sixteen years ago) link

Spencer, let's meet Lohan and Peter Baynham at Skybar and do all the Fast Show routines.

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:44 (sixteen years ago) link

Alan Partridge is great. Nighty Night was funny.

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:47 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.mgnet.karoo.net/lapdance.jpg

― admrl, Saturday, 5 May 2007 02:49 (sixteen years ago) link

I voted for Alan Partridge, but I'm lame like that.

― Nicole, Saturday, 5 May 2007 03:36 (sixteen years ago) link

"Unh unh, I want a second series"

― Spencer Chow, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:23 (sixteen years ago) link

garth merenghi's darkplace was better than a lot of these.

having said that, i vote big train.

― r|t|c, Saturday, 5 May 2007 10:39 (sixteen years ago) link

I have no idea what's going to win here! I'd guess it'd be a straight fight between The Office and Brass Eye but in an ideal world the League of Gentlemen would sweep all before before it. That third series is still the apex of TV comedy for me (bad Joke Shop Guy episode notwithstanding).

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:00 (sixteen years ago) link

If you disagree with me about the third series, I should point out that I think the second series was the apex of TV comedy before the third series was.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:02 (sixteen years ago) link

(Actually Alan Partridge might easily win)

― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I voted for IAP, but if I though it'd have any chance of winning I'd have gone with The Armando Ianucci Shows. The Powerpoint stand-up comedian, the Italian barber, "You see it wasn't called drum n bass in those days, that came after"... man, I need to go and buy the DVD this afternoon.

― Dom Passantino, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:08 (sixteen years ago) link

i made a post but nu-ilx eated it.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 11:09 (sixteen years ago) link

Skipping 280 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Quitney, Fawlty is the 'Sgt. Pepper' here. tops sitcom lists as much as Porridge if not more so, has mythical status because it was only two series. it's just as rockist a choice as the older shows.

i like it as much as Porridge.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:32 PM (41 seconds ago)

yeah i know it's a rockist choice, but like 'perrin' it doesn't fit in with the others, for me anyway. it's the fawlty character himself really -- i don't think you get that level of blackness in 'porridge'.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link

darkness is not a pre-requisite of great comedy (altho for many people these days it seems that it is). it's often a v useful asset but it can do as much damage as good.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (sixteen years ago) link

friends doesn't have zach braff in

― RJG, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:38 (sixteen years ago) link

is that the 90s one? i never saw that. i've not actually seen all the third series either, it seemed pretty poor.

There was 90s one? Wasn't Leonard Rossiter dead by then? No, I meant
the third series - where he set up some sort of holiday camp or something.... no, more a kind of community.... that was dire

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Friends has Matthew Perry who was OK in Friends but HORRIBLE in that worst Scrubs episode i've ever seen.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (sixteen years ago) link

I prefer Rising Damp to Reggie Perrin. How do you like THEM apples.

So do I, I think

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Reggie Perrin is def. more rockist than Rising Damp, the Here My Dear to the latter's Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits if you will (please don't, though).

not sure if the soap opera in scrubs is as compelling as the ross/rachel saga, or that its as well handled. scrubs often gets messily mawkish and sentimental in a way Friends always zings itself out of.

xpost there was a post-Rossiter series! the legacy of reggie perrin. definitely best forgotten, i think.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:41 (sixteen years ago) link

the scrubs where dr cox imagines his brother in law is still alive until the very end is very well done tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:42 (sixteen years ago) link

In Biographical Dictionary Of Film, DT refers to Basil Fawlty as the epitome of "the tragedy of fascism."

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature. Also, as I'm sure I've said elsewhere on ILE, the books are better (at least the first two - the third is pretty crappy though).

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (sixteen years ago) link

at a guess the soap opera / drama element is the win for the most important demographic though.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:43 (sixteen years ago) link

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:44 (sixteen years ago) link

Rossiter sort of carried the whole of Perrin, though; Sue Nicholls, Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates give truthful performances but the other actors don't rise above the level of caricature.

That's because they're supposed to be caricatures surely? What about Doc Morrissey tho, he was good!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link

A short-lived US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.

I remember that!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link

reggie's wife = teh hottness. his daughter was dreadful tho.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:46 (sixteen years ago) link

i think When The Whistle Blows should've been included in this poll.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:47 (sixteen years ago) link

in my mind i always link spaced up with my older cousin going on about how great human traffic and music has the right to children were... is this linkage in any way correct?

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:06 (sixteen years ago) link

hahahahaha. go to my 'generation' thread.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link

i wish they'd repeat Dear John.

YES!

― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link

Is anyone other than Dom going to give a detailed analysis of Monkey Dust's cultural value, or have we been through all this already?

― Just got offed, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link

You're letting the mask slip, dude.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:59 (sixteen years ago) link

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