Britain's Best Sitcom: Difference between revisions

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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
#REDIRECT [[w:Britain's Best Sitcom]]
{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}
{{Primary sources|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox television
| image                    =
| image_size              =
| image_alt                =
| caption                  =
| genre                    = [[Documentary series|Documentary]]
| creator                  =
| developer                =
| writer                  = {{Plainlist|
* [[Robin Ince]]
* [[Steve Punt]]
* Lloyd Stanton
* Johnny Vaughan
* Andre Vincent
* Phil Wilding
}}
| director                = {{Plainlist|
* Andy Devonshire
* Steve Franklin
* Carry John Hughes
* Norman Hull
* [[Becky Martin]]
* Andrew Nicholson
}}
| creative_director        =
| presenter                = See [[#Episodes|list of episodes]]
| starring                =
| theme_music_composer    =
| opentheme                =
| endtheme                =
| composer                =
| country                  = United Kingdom
| language                = English
| num_series              = 1
| num_episodes            = 12
| list_episodes            = #Episodes
| executive_producer      = {{Plainlist|
* Robin Ashbrook
* Ricky Kelehar
}}
| producer                = {{Plainlist|
* Gerard Barry
* Karina Brennan
* Will Bryant
* Stephen Franklin
* Alex Hardcastle
* Garry John Hughes
* Norman Hull
* Shirley Hunt Benson
* Verity Maidlow
* Stephen McGinn
* Andrew Nicholson
* Matt O'Casey
* Cybele Rowbottom
* Elaine Shepherd
* Mark Turnbull
}}
| editor                  =
| location                =
| cinematography          =
| camera                  =
| runtime                  = 60 minutes<br>(180-min. premiere; 90-min. finale)
| company                  = [[BBC Manchester]]
| distributor              =
| channel                  = [[BBC Two]]
| picture_format          =
| audio_format            =
| first_aired              = {{Start date|2004|01|10|df=yes}}<ref name="2003_press_release">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/12_december/30/best_sitcom.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050418225813/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/12_december/30/best_sitcom.shtml |archive-date=18 April 2005 |title=BBC TWO asks the nation what is Britain's Best Sitcom?  |date=30 December 2003 |website=[[BBC Online]] |publisher=BBC |access-date=8 October 2014}}</ref>
| last_aired              = {{End date|2004|03|27|df=yes}}
| related                  = <!-- To be used only for remakes, spin-offs, and adaptations. -->
}}
 
'''''Britain's Best Sitcom''''' was a [[BBC]] media campaign in which television viewers were asked to decide the best [[British sitcom|British situation comedy]]. Viewers could vote via telephone, [[Short Message Service|SMS]], or [[BBC Online]].<ref name="press_release">{{cite press release |title=The battle of the sitcoms begins... |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/01_january/10/sitcom_top_ten.shtml |location=London |publisher=BBC |date=10 January 2004 |access-date=8 October 2014}}</ref> This first round of voting was conducted in 2003, after which the BBC published a list of the top 100 selections.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/top10.shtml |title=Britain's Best Sitcom: The Top 10 |year=2004 |website=bbcattic.org |location=London |publisher=BBC |access-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013155339/http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/top10.shtml |archive-date=13 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="11-100">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/top11to100.shtml |title=Britain's Best Sitcom: Top 11 to 100 |year=2004 |website=bbcattic.org |location=London |publisher=BBC |access-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013153757/http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/top11to100.shtml |archive-date=13 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> From this list, they produced a 12-episode television series broadcast by [[BBC Two]] from January through to March 2004.<ref name="2003_press_release"/>
 
The series was a retrospective that examined the history and qualities of the contending programmes. In the first episode, [[Jonathan Ross]] summarised the progress of the poll and presented [[video clip]]s from the 50 sitcoms that received the most votes.<ref name="press_release"/> Each of the next ten weekly episodes, one hour in length, focused on one [[sitcom]].<ref name="2003_press_release"/><ref name="press_release"/> In each episode, a different celebrity presenter advocated a particular sitcom, delivering 20 reasons why it deserved viewers' votes.<ref name="2003_press_release"/><ref name="press_release"/> The sitcom's writers and actors, as well as celebrity viewers, also shared their own perspectives and memories. In the 90-minute series finale, transmitted live, Jonathan Ross announced the top sitcom to be ''[[Only Fools and Horses]],'' with ''[[Blackadder]]'' in second place and ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'' in third place.<ref name="top10">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/winner.shtml |title=The Final Top Ten Sitcoms |website=bbcattic.org |location=London |publisher=BBC |year=2004 |access-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013160237/http://www.bbcattic.org/sitcom/winner.shtml |archive-date=13 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
Notably all finalists were BBC productions, with ITV and Channel 4 sitcoms not appearing (''[[Father Ted]]'', the highest-ranked non-BBC sitcom, was at number 11).
 
==Episodes==
{{Episode table |total_width=auto |overall= |title= |writer= |Aux1= |aux1T=Presented by |airdate= |episodes=
{{Episode list
|Title=The Launch
|WrittenBy={{?}}
|Aux1=[[Jonathan Ross]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|1|10|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=1
|ShortSummary=Jonathan Ross recaps the 50 top British sitcoms, as determined by an electronic poll conducted in 2003.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Blackadder
|WrittenBy=[[Ben Elton]], [[Richard Curtis]] and [[Rowan Atkinson]]
|Aux1=[[John Sergeant (journalist)|John Sergeant]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|1|17|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=2
|ShortSummary=John Sergeant advocates ''[[Blackadder]]'', an historical farce that premiered in 1983 on [[BBC1]].
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Fawlty Towers
|WrittenBy=[[John Cleese]] and [[Connie Booth]]
|Aux1=[[Jack Dee]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|1|24|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=3
|ShortSummary=Jack Dee advocates ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'', a comedy of errors that premiered on [[BBC2]] in 1975.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=The Good Life
|WrittenBy=[[Esmonde and Larbey|John Esmonde and Bob Larbey]]<ref>{{cite news|title=''A Celebration of The Good Life''|first=Richard|last=Webber|publisher=Orion Books|year=2000}}</ref>
|Aux1=[[Ulrika Jonsson]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|1|31|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=4
|ShortSummary=Ulrika Jonsson advocates ''[[The Good Life (1975 TV series)|The Good Life]]'', a sitcom about a middle-class English couple who make an attempt at farming at their house in the southwest London suburb of [[Surbiton]]. It premiered on [[BBC1]] in 1975.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Yes Minister
|WrittenBy=[[Antony Jay]] and [[Jonathan Lynn]]
|Aux1=[[Armando Iannucci]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|2|7|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=5
|ShortSummary=Armando Iannucci advocates ''[[Yes Minister]]'', a [[political satire]] that premiered on [[BBC2]] in 1980.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=One Foot in the Grave
|WrittenBy=[[David Renwick]]
|Aux1=[[Rowland Rivron]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|2|14|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=6
|ShortSummary=Rowland Rivron advocates ''[[One Foot in the Grave]]'', a [[dark comedy]] about the trials of an elderly curmudgeon and his longsuffering wife. It premiered on [[BBC1]] in 1990.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Porridge
|WrittenBy=[[Dick Clement]] and [[Ian La Frenais]]
|Aux1=[[Johnny Vaughan]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|2|21|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=7
|ShortSummary=Johnny Vaughan advocates BBC1's ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]'' (1975–1978) and its sequel, ''[[Going Straight]]'' (1978). The programmes concern different aspects of prison life, including – in ''Going Straight'' – acclimatisation to a changed family life and outside world.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Only Fools and Horses
|WrittenBy=[[John Sullivan (writer)]]
|Aux1=[[David Dickinson]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|2|28|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=8
|ShortSummary=David Dickinson advocates ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'', which centres on an ambitious [[Cockney]] [[market trader]] called [[Del Boy]]. It premiered on BBC1 in 1981.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Open All Hours
|WrittenBy=[[Roy Clarke]]
|Aux1=[[Clarissa Dickson Wright]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|3|6|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=9
|ShortSummary=Clarissa Dickson Wright advocates ''[[Open All Hours]]'', which premiered on BBC2 in 1973. It concerns a [[South Yorkshire]] shopkeeper and his wistful nephew.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=The Vicar of Dibley
|WrittenBy=[[Richard Curtis]] and [[Paul Mayhew-Archer]]
|Aux1=[[Carol Vorderman]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|3|13|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=10
|ShortSummary=Carol Vorderman advocates ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'', in which Geraldine, the buxom new vicar of a small village in [[Oxfordshire]], lives among a colourful cast of characters there – and encounters some opposition. BBC1 premiered ''The Vicar of Dibley'' in 1994.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=Dad's Army
|WrittenBy=[[Jimmy Perry]] and [[David Croft (TV producer)|David Croft]]<ref>{{cite news|title=''Dad's Army: The Complete Scripts''|first=and Webber|last=Croft, Perry|publisher=Orion Books|year=2003}}</ref>
|Aux1=[[Phill Jupitus]]<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|3|20|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=11
|ShortSummary=Phill Jupitus advocates ''[[Dad's Army]]'', a comparatively long-running comedy that first aired on BBC1 in 1968. Set during the [[Second World War]], it introduces viewers to an unlikely group of [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]] volunteers on England's south coast.
|LineColor=
}}
 
{{Episode list
|Title=The Live Final
|WrittenBy={{?}}
|Aux1=Jonathan Ross<ref name="press_release"/>
|OriginalAirDate={{Start date|2004|3|27|df=yes}}
|EpisodeNumber=12
|ShortSummary=Jonathan Ross announces which British sitcom received the most votes from viewers.
|LineColor=
}}
}}
 
==Results==
 
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col" width="30" | {{Abbr|No.|Number}}
! scope="col" width="250" | Title
! scope="col" width="100" | Years broadcast
! scope="col" width="100" | Number of votes<ref name="top10"/>
|- style="background:#e5d1cb;"
! scope="row" | 1
|  align=center |  ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]''
|  1981–2003
|  342,426
|-
! scope="row" | 2
|  align=center |  ''[[Blackadder]]''
|  1983–1989
|  282,106
|-
! scope="row" | 3
|  align=center |  ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]''
|  1994–2007
|  212,927
|-
! scope="row" | 4
|  align=center |  ''[[Dad's Army]]''
|  1968–1977
|  174,138
|-
! scope="row" | 5
|  align=center |  ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''
|  1975–1979
|  172,066
|-
! scope="row" | 6
|  align=center |  ''[[Yes Minister]]''
|  1980–1984
|  123,502
|-
! scope="row" | 7
|  align=center |  ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]''
|  1974–1977
|  93,902
|-
! scope="row" | 8
|  align=center |  ''[[Open All Hours]]''
|  1976–1985
|  67,237
|-
! scope="row" | 9
|  align=center |  ''[[The Good Life (1975 TV series)|The Good Life]]''
|  1975–1978
|  40,803
|-
! scope="row" | 10
|  align=center |  ''[[One Foot in the Grave]]''
|  1990–2000
|  31,410
|-
|}
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}
 
==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Lewisohn |title=Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy |edition=Revised 2nd |year=2003 |publisher=BBC Consumer Publishing |isbn=0-563-48755-0 |oclc=52830784}}
 
==External links==
* [https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=britain%27s+BEst+Sitcoms&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search Radio Times billings]
* {{IMDb title}}
 
[[Category:BBC television documentaries]]
[[Category:BBC television comedy]]
[[Category:2004 in British television]]
[[Category:2004 British television series debuts]]
[[Category:2004 British television series endings]]
[[Category:Top television lists]]
[[Category:British television-related lists]]

Latest revision as of 16:11, 15 September 2024

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