classic english living room

keep calm and carry on the comedy. welcome to watchmojo uk and today we’llbe counting down our picks for the top 10 greatest classic british sitcoms! for this list, we’ve gathered the finest,funniest, most iconic and most important british sitcoms. as this is a countdown of the classics, tobe in contention the show must have started before the year 2000. for a look at celebrated recent sitcoms, besure to check out our video counting down the greatest modern shows, and if cult comedyis more your thing then we’ve got you covered

with another clip as well. we start stacked with sexual innuendo, fora double helping of double entendre. throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s “areyou being served?” had audiences bent double with its risqu㩠word play and comic misdirection. taking place in the clothing section of afictional department store, each half-hour episode offered an abundance of inside leggags and not so well veiled references to mrs slocombe’s ‘pet cat’ – which seemedto get itself into all manner of situations. true, the ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ approachis out of sync with today’s society, and the social stereotypes have dated, but “areyou being served?” remains a favourite with

fans and critics. so much so, a one-off reboot aired in 2016. following on from earlier success with “theyoung ones”, “bottom” is the squalid, anarchic brainchild of ade edmondson and rickmayall. the pair wrote and starred in the series,which centres around richie richard and eddie hitler, dysfunctional flatmates living onthe dole in west london. mostly set inside their paltry and dangerouslyunsanitary city home, show storylines centre on drinking heavily, fighting fiercely, andhatching unconventional plans to try and find someone willing to have sex with them.

it’s crude, often controversial, and thecomplete opposite to ‘clean cut’. plus, the show’s title is the most blatantbum gag going. what more could you want? the earliest aired of today’s entries, “steptoe and son” was a front-runner for sitcom writers. as one of the first shows to cast actors overstraight-up comedians, with wilfrid bramble and harry h. corbett starring in title roles,it saw a generation clash between elderly albert steptoe and his middle-aged son, whosesocial aspirations are wildly out of tune with his father’s.

despite ongoing rumours of on-set tensions,“steptoe” was watched by 28 million at its peak, with moving storylines which offeredmuch more than the expected gag reel. in 1964, it was even rescheduled so as notto be broadcast on election night. prime minister howard wilson feared that thepolls would be empty if “steptoe” was on. of all britain’s institutions, its governmentperhaps most frequently falls within the comic’s firing line. political satire is a staple of uk tv, and“yes minister” gets our vote as the finest parliamentary jaunt on the box.

the series follows the rise (and occasionalfalls) of the right honourable jim hacker mp, a hapless incumbent at the fictional departmentof administrative affairs. hacker’s hopeless attempts to get his policiesnoticed contribute to what seems a floundering career in public office, until a surprisingpromotion lands him in the big seat for a two-series sequel. “yes prime minister” ran from ’86 to’88, as hacker causes havoc from inside number 10. from the first line of its iconic theme tuneto its many classic catchphrases, “dad’s army” is etched into british pop culture.

written by jimmy perry and david croft andset in the fictional town of walmington-on-sea, the show chronicles the comings and goingsof a home guard platoon during world war two. a cast of classic characters includes privatespike, godfrey, walker and frazer, as well as sergeant wilson and lance corporal jones,who all do their best to give the enemy ‘what for’ under the patriotic but imperfect leadershipof arthur lowe’s captain mainwaring. it’s war, just not as we would normallyknow it. to south east london next, and a family businessdestined for the big time – or so del boy believes, at least. “only fools” sees david jason’s delpair with little brother rodney to make a

questionable living on the streets of peckham. the trotters will try their hand at anythingif it seems a money-maker, but their ‘independent traders’ firm has yet to expand from outthe back of beat up three-wheeler. not-so-ably assisted by grandad, and unclealbert in later series’, their drive rarely waivers but success almost never comes theirway. still, millions tuned in on a weekly basis,crossing their fingers that one day it would. the links between comedy and the clergy may not be immediately obvious, but some of tv’sfunniest shows take place in and around the holy house of god.

we might have listed “the vicar of dibley”here, a biblical triumph in its own right, but we’ve saved our sermon for “fatherted”. a predominantly irish arrangement, it firstaired on channel 4 in 1995 before running for three series, with a christmas specialto boot. set on craggy island, the fictional placeof exile for three not-so-saintly priests, the sublime and ridiculous storylines seetitular ted deal with daily life in the parish alongside fathers jack and dougal. it’s the answer to all your sitcom prayers. as one half of “the two ronnies”, ronniebarker was already a household name when he

debuted as norman stanley fletcher. but his stretch inside hmp slade remains oneof the comic’s most memorable roles. “porridge” was the result of another initiative,“seven of one”, which saw barker star in seven separate sitcom pilots, includingan early version of “open all hours”. while finding a funny side to prison lifeproved difficult at first, writers dick clement and ian la frenais soon realised that ‘smallvictories’ were key. essentially, “porridge” is fletcher beatingthe system over and over again, and audiences loved his anti-establishment ways. with only 12 episodes ever made, “fawltytowers” is the shortest-running of today’s

top ten. but size really isn’t everything. the hotel-based hilarity was created by johncleese and connie booth, who were married at the time of the first series and both hadstarring roles. cleese’s basil fawlty is head hotelier,attempting to run a hospitable residence but consistently blowing his top whenever problemsarise. booth plays polly, a hotel assistant and voiceof reason within the chaos, while prunella scales stars as sybil, basil’s long-sufferingwife, and andrew sachs is manuel, a spanish waiter forever lost in translation.

from hotel inspections to hygiene restrictions,basil’s business is a shambles, but it makes for five star tv. before we unveil our top pick, here are afew honorable mentions. a sitcom spanning almost 500 years of history,“blackadder” takes today’s crown. from the middle ages to elizabethan england,the regency period and world war one – not to mention a lengthy series of specials, one-offclips and standalone sketches – no era is safe from edmund blackadder and his band ofthe merriest of men. rowan atkinson’s antihero raised the barfor sitcoms throughout the ‘80s, consistently

bucking the trend with his delightfully deadpandelivery. but, as with most great comic characters,he has a human side too, and despite all the gags, usually at the expense of baldrick,the finale to “goes forth” remains one of the most moving moments in british tv history. blackadder, we salute you.

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