UK Comedy Series

Its a subtle show that's perfectly balanced with the drama & comedy. Did you see there's an extra Christmas episode for series two?

I really like the slightly barmy Farmer they have to ask permission from, so they can detect on his land. With his posh accent . . . . . I say, did either of you two chaps see a trampoline roll by just now? There wasn't a small child in it was there?

Like you say, theres not many shows like it . . . most UK comedies based in small villages and rural communities are quaint, mainstream and very nostalgic. 'Last of the summer wine', 'Vicar of Dibley' and the like. Saying that, there's the classic 'League of Gentlemen' which is brilliantly perverse, so its not all quaint chocolate box whimsy.

Either way, most sitcoms are situated in Cities. Or at least large towns . . . . .

 

I just recently rediscovered Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, I forgot how bloody brilliant it is!

"blood... his blood... and bits of sick..."



I just wish that season 2 of Alan Partridge was available over here... I never understand the reasoning behind never releasing a complete run of something...

 

Yep, Garth Marenghi is a classic. Good call.
So is 'Man to Man with Dean Learner' . . .

Technically there are 4 seasons of Alan Partridge (plus the original Radio Show that spawned the TV series)



Also the book is funny.
I found it on audio and he reads it in character . . .

 

Ah, I specifically meant the 'I'm Alan Partridge' series I didn't realize they had Mid Morning Matters out too?? or the audio book!! now I must go a-hunting!

So many great comedy series don't make it out over here, so I miss out on the stuff I used to watch back home, like Gimme Gimme Gimme, Bo Selecta! and plenty of others.

Silly bloody regional codes >mutter grumble<

 

Thanks for bringing up The Detecortists. Never heard of it before. Loving it! Very gentle and heart warming.

 

I haven't made my way thought his thread yet, and I wanted to do that before I commented, but I think there's a good chance this hasn't been posted. Matt Berry did a series of five short pseudo-documentaries for the BBC called "Mat Berry Does...". The Matt Berry Does Ghosts one is easily the best of the lot. I seldom rewatch stuff, but I've watched this thing like five times already. It speaks to me.



And I stumbled upon this clever bit of British meta-humor (meta-humour, rather) recently:

 

I'm finding it tough to believe that nobody here found the above Matt Berry piece at least moderately amusing, considering the discussion I've been reading in this thread so far. Moving on.

Still haven't finished reading this thread (and I'm starting to believe that goal may have been an ill-conceived pipe dream to begin with), but I did a forum search and it doesn't appear this one's been mentioned. So, Unnatural Acts (or (Un)natural Acts) was a one season pre-Boosh sketch comedy show staring Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding and Rich Fulcher of The Mighty Boosh (the American Fulcher also one half of the mighty Snuff Box). Just noticed Jessica Hynes of Spaced is in it, too, but I'm thinking maybe not used so much? Most importantly, there's a reoccurring sketch with Fielding and Barrett as zookeepers that provided the genesis for the Mighty Boosh.

Erh, I should probably mention that the show's a little disappointing? Fulcher and Barret were one-half of the writing team, so I'm not really sure why that would be. But so far, I am just not super-impressed with what I'm seeing. Likely an inflated expectations thing. Still, I figured if you're a fan of Boosh, you'd probably want to check this out regardless. Unlike a lot of the stuff in this thread, this was not a BBC production, but done for Paramount Comedy, which later became Comedy Central (UK).

So, all 5 of the 6 eps are up on the YouTubes (the first one is blocked by the BBC for some inexplicable reason), but the quality, particularly the audio, is pretty sub-par. If you're just interested in the Zookeeper sketches, you can probably find those on there, too.

Spoilered for gratuitous man-butt:

Spoiler

 

Oh, very cool. The audio does seem to be quite a bit better on those.

I always found Gilliam being the odd American out on Python just a shade strange, but I find Fulcher's case to be significantly stranger. Not sure why. He does seem like a pretty odd guy, anyway.

 

Sweet, i will have to check this out. I've also been searching for 'Asylum' on torrents for years with no luck, and i just found at least a few
episodes on YouTube, too. They are substandard quality, but its better than nothing!

 

@The Moog
Well, I'm not sure how it is over in the UK, but here in US there's quite a lot of these British comedies up on YT in their entirety. You definitely can't watch analogous US shows here without paying YT a fee. I figured it was because the BBC wasn't really paying too much attention to what was going on over here, or their just wasn't enough folks watching for them to care. But if those (Un)natural Acts playlists aren't regionally blocked for you that may not be the case. I don't know. Glad I could hip you to the show, though.

 

Indeed, its always cool to see where performers came from. I think the first time i became aware of Noel Fielding was
when he played the relentless techno DJ in Nathan Barley.

 

I intend to get around to that one.

I'm currently watching Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, which is definitely growing on me. I mean, it's not actually the funniest show I've ever seen, but there's so much care put into the costumes and make up, etc, and I am kind of a fan of surrealism/weirdness for the sake of it. Took me an episode or two to kind of adjust to it, though. Can't believe it lasted two seasons.

 

I tried to like it, but it just did'nt do it for me . . . i find Fielding less-funny without Julian Barratt involved.
Kinda like Ricky Gervais without Stephen Merchant.

Yings without their Yangs . . . or something.

 

Yeah, I can definitely see that. And I'd go so far as to say that none of Fielding's characters I've seen so far on Luxury are as funny as any of his characters for Boosh. And there's nothing on this show anywhere near as funny as the amazingly enjoyable banter of Fielding and Barratt on Boosh. Just those too going back and forth is high caliber stuff. But, I think Luxury does have flashes of brilliance, and if you don't going in expecting Boosh II, it can be worth a watch. And it helps if you just like weirdness, too.

 

Haha, a popular feeling it seems.

I still listen to the XFM downloads and podcasts mainly for Karl Pilkington and Merchant.
Gervais wasn't quite such a big-head back then . . .

I found his more recent show 'Derek' to be really cliched and overly sentimental. Not a fan.

 

One i enjoyed very much recently was 'Travel Man'. It might of been mentioned on this thread before.

Richard Ayoade takes a comedian guest on a 48 hour visit to an interesting place each episode. Its a fast-paced
and kinda 'meta' travel show, full of Richard being his usual funny-self and all the guests are pretty funny, too.

Worth a watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_Man

 

I watched a couple episodes of Ayoade's Gadget Man (the ones with guests I was interested in, like Fielding and David Mitchell) and enjoyed it. I think Richard Ayoade is practically a genius. Moss on The IT Crowd easily makes it into my top 5 sit-com characters of all time. Not even sure who rounds out that 5. Maybe Latka and Kramer? Haven't actually thought it through. Hate to say it, but the other stuff I've seen him do has never been quite up to that watermark.

I really haven't reached "cross the street to punch him in the face" levels with Gervais, though the only thing I've seen him in has been the Office. I can tell from interview and stand up clips that he does seem to be a conceited, arrogant prick, though. Not sure if that's going to interfere with my enjoyment of his comedy. I intend to check out Extras at some point.

 

Red Dwarf is back for series 11
Like the previous series for 'Dave', the first episode of this new run was pretty damn good.
Its back to basics, with plenty of good laughs.

 

CHEWING
GUM

So finally had a look at Netflix and find this little gem. A semi autobiographical two season comedy created and written by Michaela Coel