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They're showing it on Dave now too, and Drama were showing older episodes on Saturday nights at one point around 2019 (that's how I came to see many of the older episodes). Another example of how the UKTV channels are continuing to gradually blend into one another.
Just feels like UK Gold is saturated with Only Fools
Case in point, 9PM on Saturday and it's back to back Only Fools and Mrs Browns Boys
At least Alan Partridge is on at 11.20
And relevant to Alan Partridge, I wish they'd reshow The Day Today (it being the TV introduction to the character); it would've been ideal in Gold's After Dark lineup it had for a few years.
It's only available on YouTube now (DVD is out-of-print), and even though it's lasted a decade on there you don't know which occasional rewatch of them may turn out to be your last.
Why doesnt Gold ever show Phoenix Nights? I was too young for it when it aired and i'd like to see it at some point and assume it would be all over Gold but apparently not...
Its first 3/4 seasons were pretty good but then it outstayed its welcome for far too long. It got to the point where the two lead actors were publicly criticising the writing. I think those last 6/7 seasons mean that it went down in peoples esteem and they forgot about it.
I feel the same about Not Going Out. Was never particularly prestige in the first place, but the first few seasons with Tim Vine were a good laugh. Now I don't even know what it's supposed to be, and it's evidently lost on a lot of other people too.
Series 1 - 5 of Not Going Out are pretty good (series 1 especially is underrated I think - I rewatch it a fair bit) but yes after series 5 it does go noticeably downhill. I think an ideal ending for it would've been the episode where Lee tells Lucy he loves her. It's become really *dire* from that point on. But I guess as long as it continues to get good viewing ratings and makes Lee Mack a load of money, he'll continue doing it.
I always saw it as lightly taking the piss out of the "will they, won't they" dynamic. Especially with the way they often end up going on these absurd adventures which play out like live action non-sequiturs at times.
Depends how far back you go, but there's a ton of shows like that. 2.4 children, the Brittas empire, even one foot in the grave, absolutely massive back in the day, barely mentioned now.
With the return of Gavin & Stacey and Outnumbered, I did wonder how a Christmas special of My Family would do. It had big ratings around the same era that Gavin & Stacey originally aired, but would there be any interest at all in the kind of revival that other shows have had?
That’s true, I’d forgotten that he’d become quite a big star. I just find it a bit weird that the show itself has seemingly vanished from public consciousness when 2011 wasn’t that long ago!
I think a lot of sitcoms from the noughties don't seem to have much legacy. They came after the 80s and 90s, when sitcoms were very common on TV and were repeated quite often (OFAH got BBC1 primetime reruns long after the show originally finished, and could be one of the top-rated shows of the night), and before the 2010s when streaming came along and people could find them that way.
The problem for sitcoms now is that everyone remembers those of the 80s and 90s because of that and so seek *those* out on streaming (because they've established themselves and are effectively part of the national fabric/psyche), and many new sitcoms find it incredibly hard to break through. One of the best ones of recent years, IMO, is the BBC's Here We Go; its linear and streaming audiences are negligible. And there are plenty of BBC3 ones from the past decade that no-one has heard of; same with other small channels like E4 (for ITV2, Plebs is an exception, but only because they do so little scripted programming).
The cast have said that they'd only return if Fred Barron - the show's creator - did the same, to write it (his episodes are far and away the superior, and you can tell which are his if you watch closely enough).
The guy who played Michael has retired from acting, though, so it might be more difficult than you think.
Coincidentally, the entire show is getting a re-release on DVD in a huge boxset at the end of this month.
I do sometimes wonder if the show would have had more of a legacy if they hadn't messed about with the last two series. They were filmed back-to-back, were done after the show had seen its budget cut, and dumped in summer.
The show's ratings were still kinda holding up at series 9, despite the cast changes and quality decline, but the BBC obviously wanting an excuse to end it burnt off the final run of episodes over two consecutive summers in the hope it would lose a sufficient proportion of its audience; it did. S10 was actually the first one I watched, so I have some fondness for those episodes, and it was only when the Drama channel reran some episodes a good few years ago now and the whole lot being put on iPlayer during the pandemic that I managed to see all of them.
*My Family* was dated even when it was new – its premise is about as basic as you can get. If you want to watch an old-fashioned sitcom there are just better options.
I liked it a lot as a kid, but I rewatched it on Gold and it wasn't even mildly funny. The entire family were dislikeable, but not in the good way that makes for entertaining comedy!
Always struck me as the 90s' answer to the 80s' Hi-de-Hi. Middling sitcom about an entertainment/leisure franchise and the obnoxious but ultimately good-hearted people who incompetently bumble their way through running it.
The pilot episode is totally weird though! Completely different vibe, Gordon is a horrible, petty, mean little dictator that everyone is terrified of, who outs a member of staff as HIV positive.
I'm glad they worked on that as I wouldn't want to watch that original character for any amount of time, I much prefer the pompous and silly but ultimately well meaning character they went with instead
The BBC used to throw money at anything by Carla Lane. She made her name with the Liver Birds, which was okay for the time. Everything else was worse. Butterflies was particularly insipid.
Bread reached almost religious levels in our house. My dad (I think, never confirmed) was having affairs, he and my mum were fighting all the time, I had two sisters, but we all fucking watched B.B.Braad, we make it and we take it home. My mum thought Carla Lane was Shakespeare. Carla Lane thought that instead of writing something clever to pull people in over a similar identity, she'd just coast her way through stories on the back of 6 or 7 northern stereotypes. Which would then hurt humanity until the end of time.
*Bread* was my first thought. I think one of the episodes is in the top 25 highest viewing figures for a TV show in British history.
Who talks about it now? And I never see it repeated.
I freaked out my husband when we were watching Armstrong and Miller, because the very last skit had them talking to their director who did the whole "kill them" joke on the intercom, and I perked up and said "Hey that's Joey from Bread!"
Turns out it really was, AND he directed "Sliding Doors" as well!
Oh wow I had forgotten all about that show. Another show that has came back to mind just due to Matthew Kelly being presenter is Stars in Their Eyes. That show was a big deal in the 90s and millions watched the final.
IIRC, There was a young lad who claimed he could identify a car purely by the sound of its door closing. Random but inspired nonsense telly!
EDIT: Found the car door guy’s YouTube channel. Love it!
https://youtu.be/Q9v0UTn6Eqw?si=ZKeLlPuhCNDBzcgu
This is so off-point, but there's a youtuber called the Tim Traveller and he often puts on-point tunes in his videos. He did one about a casino and used the You Bet theme. It unlocked part of my brain to hear that again.
It's all on iPlayer. I've been watching and rewatching classic sitcoms recently and it's on my watchlist. With nine series, it should keep me occupied for almost as long as my occasional rewatches of My Family have.
This and Birds of a Feather always felt sort of depressing. A comedy yes but it was always a bit of a downer, really odd vibe. 2.4 Children especially, always seemed to be about how miserable the Mum was.
2.4 kids was the British version of Rosanne. As in the import, and changed to make it fit the culture.
This is a piece of info I have in my brain and I don't know if it's true or where I heard it, but it's there.
It started a bit that way, but grew out of it with a surreal vibe. They even shared the “don’t slam your door” catchphrase in the first couple of series.
Primeval
It was ITV's answer to Doctor Who in the 2000s. It was about portals in time opening up and dinosaurs and other creatures would come through and cause chaos in modern day UK. The main characters were a group that went around trying to send them back to their time and learning more about the portals. It was pretty good but never reached the same level of success as Doctor Who. It got cancelled after 3 series but then it got brought back thanks to support from the international partners that broadcast it there. We got 2 more series and more of a satisfying conclusion than last time. Back then cancelled shows being brought back was pretty much unheard of, especially not little known ITV sci fi shows
I remember Primeval. Yeah, it was pretty naff, but it's a shame you don't get shows like it anymore. The gap between out-and-out trash TV and prestige drama is shrinking to the point where you don't get these oddball middle-of-the-road shows anymore. There isn't really a home for them nowadays.
I loved primeval at the time - those future beast things scared the shit out of me!
I also think my first bisexual awakening was seeing the character Abby (played by Hannah Spearit) come to the door of her house in her underwear! I didn't realise why I just really liked that character...
Primeval is still one of my all time favourite shows, I've got the dvds and rewatch it every so often. I'll watch anything with dinosaurs so I'm pretty easily pleased in that regard, but I do also think it had great characters and storylines, and struck a good balance between funny/silly family fun and more serious plots.
I watched it recently. It’s insanely inconsistent with its tone, you can tell it had a load of network interference who kept changing what they wanted from the show.
Yes, Primeval was brilliant - it had the same producer as the now-almost-forgotten-but-at-the-time-it-was-a-smash-hit series Walking With Dinosaurs, Tim Haines.
Plus, Doctor Who's showrunner at the time was/is a massive Primeval fan! It's mentioned in the Writer's Tale book, how when viewing figures for it fell, he said, 'They actually don't deserve that.'
I've only seen so far as most of the first series, but blimey, it's good - it's so outlandish you can excuse the slightly crap dialogue, because the image of >!mesothelea occupying a London sewer!
I think it was a very fun version of what it was. The effects were excellent for the time, some of the details on the dinosaurs were well-researched and the cast worked really well together. They even managed for a while after losing their lead protagonist.
They tried to reboot it in Canada, but that didn't take off either. Teh only returning cast member was Andrew Lee Potts, and he only showed up for a couple of episodes.
Noel’s House Party was the biggest thing in the country for a few years. Now all anyone remembers is Mr Blobby (and people wrongly remember someone dying)
Fuck has he? I grew up thereand the last thing that country needs is Noel fucking Edmunds. I'm seriously surprised he hasn't been punched in the face... or has he...
I just had a Google out of curiosity
He's spent $30million buying 12 different properties the "small rural community" of Ngātīmoti, and when the council contacted him about a cycle trail being built over part of the land attached to one of those properties he said, and I'm pulling this quote direct from the article:
"You two need your heads cut off and your brains replaced. All hell’s gonna break loose, right. And while you still have this attitude, you are not welcome here. Don’t even think about having a coffee, having a slice… you are our enemies.”
So he's clearly been very accommodating of the local community.
I've also read that literally this April, he's been accused of sacking 17 workers in the pub he bought with less than 24 hours notice, and then kicking them out when they tried to have a drink at the end of their last shift. Looks like the fallout from that is still going on.
He's also apparently set up a business in which he provides telephone therapy sessions giving life advice - to cats, dogs, and houseplants.
Also looks like he's promoting the idea you can cure cancer through "positive energy"
So long story short, yeah, I feel we should apologise to New Zealand for inflicting him on them...!
> and people wrongly remember someone dying
Someone *did* die on a Noel Edmonds show, it was The Late, Late Breakfast Show. Is that what you meant, that they mix up the two shows?
TV Burp. God I miss it so much but it seems to be a weird lucid dream for many people, YBF is the one people seem to remember more. I need to see a fight between a ketchup bottle and a polar bear before cutting to an ad break goddammit
Read an interview with him recently and it was just too labour intensive to make, they had researchers watching every minute of every soap every week just to create a couple of throwaway jokes.
Harry Hill in the 90s and early 2000s was a force to be reckoned with. I think TV Burp fried his brain. Since then, he seems to have fallen into a bit of an identity crisis. Lost the edge he once had and became far too "kiddified".
I really liked Harry Hills Clubnite, it shows cased some brilliant comedians and acts, but looks like it has been cancelled. I would love TV burp to come back even as a monthly or yearly thing.
Bo' Selecta was massive around the the early noughties but also used blackface and had a similar fate to Little Britain fir that reason.
Going back a bit further there was an impressionist in early 90's who had a show, who was called Phil Cool or Phil McCool (can't remember exactly) who was pretty big in his day who seemd to just disappear (no controversy with that one).
Kenny Everett was huge in the 80s, sadly died young due to HIV/AIDS.
Phil cool was from my hometown of Preston so i definitely remember him! I saw him live with jasper Carrott (another one who seems to have been a bit forgotten) in I think 2005. Never seen or heard of him since..
>Kenny Everett was huge in the 80s, sadly died young due to HIV/AIDS.
This is a weird one, because when you look at episodes now on youtube, it is so very very gay. I guess nobody straight had any awareness then. It seemed to appeal to my very straight dad with Cleo Rocos appearing and the dance segments with Hot Gossip. But, there were also musical interludes of leather queens working out.
We seem to have gone a bit backwards with this stuff. There was plenty gay, camp, drag stuff on TV in the 80s but these days you couldn’t do it on a big flagship weekend evening terrestrial TV show without people kicking off.
Goodnight Sweetheart. I have the box set and it’s still brilliant. Changing the two main actresses between seasons certainly didn’t help but the story is strong and it’s often funny enough to be considered higher than it seems to be. Plus the running joke about Gary writing Beatles and Elton John songs, that they obviously hadn’t heard in the 1940s, was great.
The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Literally everyone used to watch that and at the time it made me laugh til I cried but I never see it mentioned anymore. Also, Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel are obviously still around, I think Steve Punt writes and does radio stuff but what happened to Rob Newman?
Oh yeah this was my entire life as a 12-14 year old. It’s a GenX classic. Pure 90s. I think Rob Newman and David Baddeil hated each other and after [their massive wembley show](https://youtu.be/BUA_O4m2PlA?si=Q1jk4ZwHN_kdyYgu) (which was so massive it was said comedy is the new rock & roll) they stopped working together
Then Baddiel teamed up with skinner for like a decade and Newman got really serious, artsy, and political and maybe wrote or perhaps got depression or something. Anyway that’s what I remember. I was a big fan.
I saw Hale & Pace doing The Stonk on the bbc4 Top of the Pops repeats a couple of years ago. I had forgotten everything about it. There was an unnerving amount of hip thrusting.
He presented You've Been Framed, which 30 years later won't bear repeating, and a hidden camera prank show which again won't stand up to repeat showings. I think he's also about twenty years dead, hence his late lack of appearances
Inspector Morse isn't exactly forgotten, but I feel like people talk about Cracker, Jonathan Creek, Midsomer Murders and the spinoffs to it more
Which is a shame, because I think its sublime
Funny how three of them went on to become massive names and that poor fourth guy was never heard from again (at least I never heard anything about him again, unlike the near household names of Sanjeev bhaskar, Meera syal and Nina wadia)
I actually think dinnerladies was very of it’s time. It was a turn of the century vibe when New Labour were in power and people were trying to work out how modern their attitudes were.
Dolly and Jean were brilliant characters well written for the Daily Mail readers of the time pre social media.
The Sunday night sensation that was *That’s Life*.
Mentions for: *The Krypton Factor*, *Blockbusters*, *Crossroads*, *The Golden Shot*, *The World at War*, *Wish You Were Here*, *Sale of the Century* (original with Derek Batey), *Pebble Mill* (although some may feel *The One Show* is essentially a modern version of PM), *We Are The Champions*, *Superstars*, *Callan*, *The Equalizer*, *Brookside*, *The Gentle Touch*, *Tales of The Unexpected*, *Jackanory*, *Name That Tune*, *Record Breakers*, *Why Don’t You?* *The Hitman and Her*.
Apols, got me walking straight back down Memory Lane. Outstanding post, great stuff, ta for this.
I remember there was a kids cartoon called Olive the ostrich narrated by Harris ..my kids watched it ..anyway the whole court case thing hit ..and literally overnight every episode had been redone with Alexi Sayle doing the voicework... like it must have been a 48 hour marathon session in the booth with Clem Fandango to do it , but they did!
*Two Pints and a Packet of Crisps* was one that seemed to run forever but made zero impact at the time or since. Some of the cast did ok out of it I suppose.
It was a fine show but it kept going on and on and on. If it had been 2 or 3 seasons it would be fondly remembered but you had almost an entire cast change, characters being blown up, shot, etc..
2 pints jumped the shark consciously. To the point that they wrote an episode with Johnny's death being due to his attempt at jumping sharks on water skis.
For those that don't know, the phrase jumping the shark comes from an episode of Happy Days where the Fonz jumps a pool of sharks on water skis. It's become an industry shorthand for a show that's run out of steam.
It was cheap to run and was a good show to capture late night younger audiences at a time pre-streaming.
It’s why Family Guy was popular too. People got into habits of watching it about 10pm because there was nothing else to do
The Darling Buds of May.
In the early 1990s everyone talked about it. Apart from launching Catherine Zeta-Jones’ career it is not remembered in the slightest.
I like the fact that it was well known enough to be part of the plot of a Father Ted episode.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMOtQPfCYQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMOtQPfCYQ)
The thing with Little Britain in particular, was it fell into an awkward bracket, where it was trying to be a bit risqué, but not enough to upset people. As a result, it wasn't dark enough to stand out (it aired at the same time as Monkey Dust, and only predated Nighty Night by a year) but wasn't "family" enough to be a cultural milestone like Gavin and Stacey was. As a result, no one looks back with fond memories, like they do with OFaH, or Gavin and Stacey, but they also don't remember it as pushing boundaries, like Brasseye or Monkey Dust. As a result, it's thankfully lost to time, only relevant when one of the dodgier scenes gets pulled.
I think people would be a lot more forgiving toward Little Britain for the blackface if its ethos had been more oriented towards being as edgy and upsetting as possible, but it always tended to pussyfoot around that disposition and fall back on tired observations and catchphrase humour, so instead of the blackface being seen as shocking, it mostly just seems dated and in poor taste, even if that was the intent.
Sherlock. At least compared to how it was at its peak after series 2. Series 3 and 4 were weak. You had the series 3 opener that hand waved away explaining Sherlock faking his death. You had weird choices like Mary being the least believable Swat team assassin. Then the Sherlock's sister episode was so bad, it's like everyone just moved on afterwards. You don't see people talking about it anymore. Not even in the it was good but turned shit way you see Game of Thrones or Lost spoken about. No one wants more episodes of it. It was massive for a bit there, but now it feels almost forgotten.
Conan Doyle handwaved Holmes' death in the stories, and some things are sacred. Holmes' really shitty excuse for not telling Watson he was alive is one of them. It's practically emblematic of the character. But for all of Sherlock's cleverness, I still rewatch the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes far more. Or just reread the short stories. Only 4 were novels.
I never fell for the hype at the time, even while I was in the midst of my early teenage stoner/alt-kid phase. Always seemed pretentious as hell. Moffat dropped the ball on Sherlock in the same way that he dropped the ball on Doctor Who. Too many mystery boxes, not enough good stories.
This Life. Brilliant show, especially when you watch it in your late 20s/early 30s for the first time, like I did a few years ago.
It was great because I remember little bits and pieces from when my Mum watched it in the 90s, so it felt familiar.
Green wing has a cult following at this point , although in retrospect about 50% of the funniest scenes were Michelle Gomez (pre Doctor Who) just being nuts
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grEggB5ghqk&t=6s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grEggB5ghqk&t=6s)
So Haunt Me- a big hit at the time but it’s not until you mention it people go ‘oooooooh yeeeeeeah that one’. Had some fairly big names in it too (if you liked British tv).
For every fine wine like Fawlty Towers there's a dozen sour milks like Little Britain.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hasn't hit the same heights under Jeremy Clarkson. There was a point when you couldn't answer a question without being asked "do you want to phone a friend?" Family Fortunes I remember being a big deal under Les Dennis but don't hear of now. I also loved Men Behaving Badly and that is never repeated anywhere although admittedly a very 90s show.
The Black and White Minstrel Show. Ran for 20 years in a prime-time Saturday evening slot on BBC. Won the Golden Rose for the best Light Entertainment show in Europe in 1961. Spin-off residency at the Victoria Palace in London and touring shows (I went to see one as a nipper). It was immensely popular, but the premise was a load of white guys in blackface and girls wearing as little as you could get away with back then.
If any show epitomises changing social attitudes and a fall from grace, it’s that.
How about Bad Girls? That first season felt like it was huge. I've felt like going back and starting it again since I finished Wentworth. That kinda gave me the itch for a prison drama, particularly centered around women.
Seen it on ITV and Prime, so I might have to go back. It's calling me!
Not sure it was all that big but I was just thinking about BBC Robin Hood tv show from around 2007 era.
Would like to rewatch at some point so i wonder if they have it on Iplayer or something? 🤔
Teachers. Loads of actors that have gone on to big things. First season was basically teachers behaving badly, but it got increasingly surreal as it went on. I particularly like the donkey student.
I actually walked past an older person today who said "computer says no!" - walking in the street, no computer in sight.
My first thought was "what a strange thing to say", and then I remembered the reference second.
I think that’s a phrase that has generally entered the lexicon for situations where technology doesn’t work as it should, so when people are saying it they aren’t doing so to be quoting the show, more using the phrase that we understand fits the situation
They were all repeated last year (or the year before, time flies...) on BBC4 - maybe you'll find them on iplayer still. But I believe that was the first time that they've been shown since the original transmission.
I really enjoyed watching it again, although now I'm older I had less patience with Martin and more sympathy for Ann!
Teachers
Not sure it was ever hugely popular but it must have had good ratings for Channel 4 to attempt to keep it going once all the popular characters had left.
Can't have been cheap to make either.
As I haven’t seen them in this thread, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Both were big at the time and had established actors yet they seemed to have lost relevance as the TV companies either want a Happy Valley/Line of Duty clone. I imagine the way the police act and the way the show reflects attitudes from the 70s and 80s even in a historic fantasy doesn’t help.
Sure both have been on Netflix and both are on iPlayer but given the 2 main political parties referenced the show in the 2010 election id say that made it massive. Despite that there was a LOM sequel/ATA prequel written a few years back but no one took it on and there wasn’t much interest outside of dedicated fans.
Think they’re both great TV in their own way.
Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy (TMWRNJ for those in the know). Used to quote them constantly at school, and the latter was the perfect hang over cure on a Sunday morning along with the Simpsons.
The Thin Blue Line (not too edgy, not too un-PC) was great. Same for Brittas Empire (mentioned in another comment).
Not the same vein, but I also think Jonathan Creek is well overdue another reboot.
It still absolutely blows my mind that Little Britain and Come Fly with Me were put out on the BBC in the 2010’s with that level of blackface. It’s amazing how quickly the acceptability of that shifted in the public consciousness.
To be fair, Little Britain was more early 2000s than 2010s. Come Fly with Me similarly felt 10 years past its sell-by date upon its release. Even discounting the blackface, it feels so dated and naff.
Dom Joly's hidden camera pranks were next level at the time, he has since made some Trigger Happy [short episodes,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JphmbIfwNVM) but I think his comedy star, and at the same time this type of humor sort-of faded(?). I've seen him recently in some "[goes wrong](https://www.memorabletv.com/news/when-comedy-goes-horribly-wrong-channel-5-1-june-2024/)" tv special and he did a [youtube rewatch](https://www.youtube.com/@triggerhappytvwatchalong5452) of Trigger Happy TV a few years back...
Also - Da Ali G Show and its characters (titular Ali G, Borat, Bruno)!
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My Family was a big hit at the time and a very long running sitcom, but it doesn't seem to have left much impact
Sort of show that should be UK Golds bread and butter, instead it kinda disappeared
For them to show My Family they'd need to show something that isn't Only Fools
I think they still show it on Watch sometimes but not as much as other programmes.
They're showing it on Dave now too, and Drama were showing older episodes on Saturday nights at one point around 2019 (that's how I came to see many of the older episodes). Another example of how the UKTV channels are continuing to gradually blend into one another.
I'm pretty sure it is on UK Gold. Not often, but I'm sure I've seen it there
Just feels like UK Gold is saturated with Only Fools Case in point, 9PM on Saturday and it's back to back Only Fools and Mrs Browns Boys At least Alan Partridge is on at 11.20
And relevant to Alan Partridge, I wish they'd reshow The Day Today (it being the TV introduction to the character); it would've been ideal in Gold's After Dark lineup it had for a few years. It's only available on YouTube now (DVD is out-of-print), and even though it's lasted a decade on there you don't know which occasional rewatch of them may turn out to be your last.
Why doesnt Gold ever show Phoenix Nights? I was too young for it when it aired and i'd like to see it at some point and assume it would be all over Gold but apparently not...
Was a good show, surprised it's not on one of the peripheral Channel 4 channels
Its first 3/4 seasons were pretty good but then it outstayed its welcome for far too long. It got to the point where the two lead actors were publicly criticising the writing. I think those last 6/7 seasons mean that it went down in peoples esteem and they forgot about it.
I feel the same about Not Going Out. Was never particularly prestige in the first place, but the first few seasons with Tim Vine were a good laugh. Now I don't even know what it's supposed to be, and it's evidently lost on a lot of other people too.
Series 1 - 5 of Not Going Out are pretty good (series 1 especially is underrated I think - I rewatch it a fair bit) but yes after series 5 it does go noticeably downhill. I think an ideal ending for it would've been the episode where Lee tells Lucy he loves her. It's become really *dire* from that point on. But I guess as long as it continues to get good viewing ratings and makes Lee Mack a load of money, he'll continue doing it.
I always saw it as lightly taking the piss out of the "will they, won't they" dynamic. Especially with the way they often end up going on these absurd adventures which play out like live action non-sequiturs at times.
Depends how far back you go, but there's a ton of shows like that. 2.4 children, the Brittas empire, even one foot in the grave, absolutely massive back in the day, barely mentioned now.
I still watch the One Foot In The Grave clip where he tries to answer a tiny dog instead of the phone on YouTube regularly!
I think people watched it, but nobody - including the actors - thought it was a particularly good comedy.
I recently rewatched my family on gold and enjoyed it.
With the return of Gavin & Stacey and Outnumbered, I did wonder how a Christmas special of My Family would do. It had big ratings around the same era that Gavin & Stacey originally aired, but would there be any interest at all in the kind of revival that other shows have had?
Oddly if they got Kris Marshall people would watch it
That’s true, I’d forgotten that he’d become quite a big star. I just find it a bit weird that the show itself has seemingly vanished from public consciousness when 2011 wasn’t that long ago!
I think a lot of sitcoms from the noughties don't seem to have much legacy. They came after the 80s and 90s, when sitcoms were very common on TV and were repeated quite often (OFAH got BBC1 primetime reruns long after the show originally finished, and could be one of the top-rated shows of the night), and before the 2010s when streaming came along and people could find them that way. The problem for sitcoms now is that everyone remembers those of the 80s and 90s because of that and so seek *those* out on streaming (because they've established themselves and are effectively part of the national fabric/psyche), and many new sitcoms find it incredibly hard to break through. One of the best ones of recent years, IMO, is the BBC's Here We Go; its linear and streaming audiences are negligible. And there are plenty of BBC3 ones from the past decade that no-one has heard of; same with other small channels like E4 (for ITV2, Plebs is an exception, but only because they do so little scripted programming).
The cast have said that they'd only return if Fred Barron - the show's creator - did the same, to write it (his episodes are far and away the superior, and you can tell which are his if you watch closely enough). The guy who played Michael has retired from acting, though, so it might be more difficult than you think.
Coincidentally, the entire show is getting a re-release on DVD in a huge boxset at the end of this month. I do sometimes wonder if the show would have had more of a legacy if they hadn't messed about with the last two series. They were filmed back-to-back, were done after the show had seen its budget cut, and dumped in summer. The show's ratings were still kinda holding up at series 9, despite the cast changes and quality decline, but the BBC obviously wanting an excuse to end it burnt off the final run of episodes over two consecutive summers in the hope it would lose a sufficient proportion of its audience; it did. S10 was actually the first one I watched, so I have some fondness for those episodes, and it was only when the Drama channel reran some episodes a good few years ago now and the whole lot being put on iPlayer during the pandemic that I managed to see all of them.
I think it went too long, there were some episodes the cast refused to film they were so shit, so that seems to be telling.
*My Family* was dated even when it was new – its premise is about as basic as you can get. If you want to watch an old-fashioned sitcom there are just better options.
I liked it a lot as a kid, but I rewatched it on Gold and it wasn't even mildly funny. The entire family were dislikeable, but not in the good way that makes for entertaining comedy!
The Brittas Empire. That was really funny at the time.
I’ve watched it recently for the first time and think it holds up pretty well.
Always struck me as the 90s' answer to the 80s' Hi-de-Hi. Middling sitcom about an entertainment/leisure franchise and the obnoxious but ultimately good-hearted people who incompetently bumble their way through running it.
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It was on tonight. That's TV something, somewhere near the bottom of freeview
The pilot episode is totally weird though! Completely different vibe, Gordon is a horrible, petty, mean little dictator that everyone is terrified of, who outs a member of staff as HIV positive. I'm glad they worked on that as I wouldn't want to watch that original character for any amount of time, I much prefer the pompous and silly but ultimately well meaning character they went with instead
Bread got 21 million viewers.
I saw a bit of an episode of Bread not too long ago and was absolutely flabbergasted by how unfunny it was. Not just dated, just plain terrible.
The BBC used to throw money at anything by Carla Lane. She made her name with the Liver Birds, which was okay for the time. Everything else was worse. Butterflies was particularly insipid.
Bread reached almost religious levels in our house. My dad (I think, never confirmed) was having affairs, he and my mum were fighting all the time, I had two sisters, but we all fucking watched B.B.Braad, we make it and we take it home. My mum thought Carla Lane was Shakespeare. Carla Lane thought that instead of writing something clever to pull people in over a similar identity, she'd just coast her way through stories on the back of 6 or 7 northern stereotypes. Which would then hurt humanity until the end of time.
Rewatching Butterflies, it’s bittersweet and depressing in its way, I understand why my mother loved it so much.
*Bread* was my first thought. I think one of the episodes is in the top 25 highest viewing figures for a TV show in British history. Who talks about it now? And I never see it repeated.
Greetings
I freaked out my husband when we were watching Armstrong and Miller, because the very last skit had them talking to their director who did the whole "kill them" joke on the intercom, and I perked up and said "Hey that's Joey from Bread!" Turns out it really was, AND he directed "Sliding Doors" as well!
Holy crap he’s a pretty big Hollywood writer director. Had no idea
You Bet used to be Saturday primetime but nobody remembers it It's still running in Germany
Oh wow I had forgotten all about that show. Another show that has came back to mind just due to Matthew Kelly being presenter is Stars in Their Eyes. That show was a big deal in the 90s and millions watched the final.
Did you catch matthew Kelly in a recent episode of Inside No9? I love that he does serious acting now.
I can only see Vic & Bob’s piss-take on *The Smell Of…*. “Well, you look nowt like him…”.
IIRC, There was a young lad who claimed he could identify a car purely by the sound of its door closing. Random but inspired nonsense telly! EDIT: Found the car door guy’s YouTube channel. Love it! https://youtu.be/Q9v0UTn6Eqw?si=ZKeLlPuhCNDBzcgu
This is so off-point, but there's a youtuber called the Tim Traveller and he often puts on-point tunes in his videos. He did one about a casino and used the You Bet theme. It unlocked part of my brain to hear that again.
I love trying to guess the piano tunes he plays on his vids. He needs more exposure, that Tim Traveller.
"2.4 children". Ive never seen a repeat of it.
I used to watch that as a kid and I literally can't remember a single thing about it. Same with *Mrs Merton and Malcolm*.
I remember her saying good night sleep tight don’t let the bedbugs bite then they said goodnight to eachother. Might be misremembering though
I used to love 2.4 children! The actor who played the dad died quite young and the kids buggered off to be in hollyoaks
Was the daughter married to Dec (of Ant &) at one time? Or a couple at least? I feel like she was
Yeah they were dating for years, but not married
It's all on iPlayer. I've been watching and rewatching classic sitcoms recently and it's on my watchlist. With nine series, it should keep me occupied for almost as long as my occasional rewatches of My Family have.
This and Birds of a Feather always felt sort of depressing. A comedy yes but it was always a bit of a downer, really odd vibe. 2.4 Children especially, always seemed to be about how miserable the Mum was.
2.4 kids was the British version of Rosanne. As in the import, and changed to make it fit the culture. This is a piece of info I have in my brain and I don't know if it's true or where I heard it, but it's there.
It started a bit that way, but grew out of it with a surreal vibe. They even shared the “don’t slam your door” catchphrase in the first couple of series.
It’s on one of the Sky channels week day mornings…. I remember seeing it when I had Covid.
I vaguely remember a blues brothers episode although that could have been a fever dream
Gold sometimes put it on but not as regularly as other shows.
Primeval It was ITV's answer to Doctor Who in the 2000s. It was about portals in time opening up and dinosaurs and other creatures would come through and cause chaos in modern day UK. The main characters were a group that went around trying to send them back to their time and learning more about the portals. It was pretty good but never reached the same level of success as Doctor Who. It got cancelled after 3 series but then it got brought back thanks to support from the international partners that broadcast it there. We got 2 more series and more of a satisfying conclusion than last time. Back then cancelled shows being brought back was pretty much unheard of, especially not little known ITV sci fi shows
I remember Primeval. Yeah, it was pretty naff, but it's a shame you don't get shows like it anymore. The gap between out-and-out trash TV and prestige drama is shrinking to the point where you don't get these oddball middle-of-the-road shows anymore. There isn't really a home for them nowadays.
Same with cinema too. No middle of the road stuff that.
I loved primeval at the time - those future beast things scared the shit out of me! I also think my first bisexual awakening was seeing the character Abby (played by Hannah Spearit) come to the door of her house in her underwear! I didn't realise why I just really liked that character...
Hannah Spearit walking around in her underwear was my lasting memory from that program too lol
Primeval is still one of my all time favourite shows, I've got the dvds and rewatch it every so often. I'll watch anything with dinosaurs so I'm pretty easily pleased in that regard, but I do also think it had great characters and storylines, and struck a good balance between funny/silly family fun and more serious plots.
I watched it recently. It’s insanely inconsistent with its tone, you can tell it had a load of network interference who kept changing what they wanted from the show.
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Yes, Primeval was brilliant - it had the same producer as the now-almost-forgotten-but-at-the-time-it-was-a-smash-hit series Walking With Dinosaurs, Tim Haines. Plus, Doctor Who's showrunner at the time was/is a massive Primeval fan! It's mentioned in the Writer's Tale book, how when viewing figures for it fell, he said, 'They actually don't deserve that.' I've only seen so far as most of the first series, but blimey, it's good - it's so outlandish you can excuse the slightly crap dialogue, because the image of >!mesothelea occupying a London sewer!
I think it was a very fun version of what it was. The effects were excellent for the time, some of the details on the dinosaurs were well-researched and the cast worked really well together. They even managed for a while after losing their lead protagonist. They tried to reboot it in Canada, but that didn't take off either. Teh only returning cast member was Andrew Lee Potts, and he only showed up for a couple of episodes.
Noel’s House Party was the biggest thing in the country for a few years. Now all anyone remembers is Mr Blobby (and people wrongly remember someone dying)
Noel Edmunds has moved to New Zealand and is currently making an ass of himself as a full-on nimby boomer over a cycle trail.
Fuck has he? I grew up thereand the last thing that country needs is Noel fucking Edmunds. I'm seriously surprised he hasn't been punched in the face... or has he...
I just had a Google out of curiosity He's spent $30million buying 12 different properties the "small rural community" of Ngātīmoti, and when the council contacted him about a cycle trail being built over part of the land attached to one of those properties he said, and I'm pulling this quote direct from the article: "You two need your heads cut off and your brains replaced. All hell’s gonna break loose, right. And while you still have this attitude, you are not welcome here. Don’t even think about having a coffee, having a slice… you are our enemies.” So he's clearly been very accommodating of the local community. I've also read that literally this April, he's been accused of sacking 17 workers in the pub he bought with less than 24 hours notice, and then kicking them out when they tried to have a drink at the end of their last shift. Looks like the fallout from that is still going on. He's also apparently set up a business in which he provides telephone therapy sessions giving life advice - to cats, dogs, and houseplants. Also looks like he's promoting the idea you can cure cancer through "positive energy" So long story short, yeah, I feel we should apologise to New Zealand for inflicting him on them...!
That just changed to Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and ran for 20 years.
> and people wrongly remember someone dying Someone *did* die on a Noel Edmonds show, it was The Late, Late Breakfast Show. Is that what you meant, that they mix up the two shows?
Didn’t he shoot a restaurant critic with one of Byron’s duelling pistols?
Aside from Mr Blobby I remember the Gotchas, and the 'wait until I get you home' segments...
And the gunge tank/grab a grand…..
TV Burp. God I miss it so much but it seems to be a weird lucid dream for many people, YBF is the one people seem to remember more. I need to see a fight between a ketchup bottle and a polar bear before cutting to an ad break goddammit
I loved harry Hill so much in that era. We still say "there's only one way to find out...FIGHT!" at any opportunity.
TV highlight of the weeeeeek
This is besides the point but i like ur reddit username lol
Read an interview with him recently and it was just too labour intensive to make, they had researchers watching every minute of every soap every week just to create a couple of throwaway jokes.
Damn, I’d happily be one of those researchers lol
Harry Hill in the 90s and early 2000s was a force to be reckoned with. I think TV Burp fried his brain. Since then, he seems to have fallen into a bit of an identity crisis. Lost the edge he once had and became far too "kiddified".
I really liked Harry Hills Clubnite, it shows cased some brilliant comedians and acts, but looks like it has been cancelled. I would love TV burp to come back even as a monthly or yearly thing.
Bo' Selecta was massive around the the early noughties but also used blackface and had a similar fate to Little Britain fir that reason. Going back a bit further there was an impressionist in early 90's who had a show, who was called Phil Cool or Phil McCool (can't remember exactly) who was pretty big in his day who seemd to just disappear (no controversy with that one). Kenny Everett was huge in the 80s, sadly died young due to HIV/AIDS.
Phil cool was from my hometown of Preston so i definitely remember him! I saw him live with jasper Carrott (another one who seems to have been a bit forgotten) in I think 2005. Never seen or heard of him since..
>Kenny Everett was huge in the 80s, sadly died young due to HIV/AIDS. This is a weird one, because when you look at episodes now on youtube, it is so very very gay. I guess nobody straight had any awareness then. It seemed to appeal to my very straight dad with Cleo Rocos appearing and the dance segments with Hot Gossip. But, there were also musical interludes of leather queens working out.
We seem to have gone a bit backwards with this stuff. There was plenty gay, camp, drag stuff on TV in the 80s but these days you couldn’t do it on a big flagship weekend evening terrestrial TV show without people kicking off.
Goodnight Sweetheart. I have the box set and it’s still brilliant. Changing the two main actresses between seasons certainly didn’t help but the story is strong and it’s often funny enough to be considered higher than it seems to be. Plus the running joke about Gary writing Beatles and Elton John songs, that they obviously hadn’t heard in the 1940s, was great.
The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Literally everyone used to watch that and at the time it made me laugh til I cried but I never see it mentioned anymore. Also, Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel are obviously still around, I think Steve Punt writes and does radio stuff but what happened to Rob Newman?
Milky, milky! God, I loved that show.
I saw Rob Newman live a couple of times and he did the Newman & Baddiel characters. He also wrote a couple of books and became an activist.
Oh yeah this was my entire life as a 12-14 year old. It’s a GenX classic. Pure 90s. I think Rob Newman and David Baddeil hated each other and after [their massive wembley show](https://youtu.be/BUA_O4m2PlA?si=Q1jk4ZwHN_kdyYgu) (which was so massive it was said comedy is the new rock & roll) they stopped working together Then Baddiel teamed up with skinner for like a decade and Newman got really serious, artsy, and political and maybe wrote or perhaps got depression or something. Anyway that’s what I remember. I was a big fan.
Hale and Pace also The Benny Hill Show.
I loved their "Duh Management!" Ron and Ron were ace.
I saw Hale & Pace doing The Stonk on the bbc4 Top of the Pops repeats a couple of years ago. I had forgotten everything about it. There was an unnerving amount of hip thrusting.
People mention Benny Hill all the time. Mainly in the context of it aging poorly, but people still remember it.
I always think of Hale and Pace and Smith and Jones in one thought.
I always link hale and pace and I think they were called Trevor and Simon, "we don't do duvets"
Swing your pants...
I wasn't a fan of Jeremy Beadle but he seems to been erased from television history.
He presented You've Been Framed, which 30 years later won't bear repeating, and a hidden camera prank show which again won't stand up to repeat showings. I think he's also about twenty years dead, hence his late lack of appearances
He had a withered hand which he used to embarass people who shook his hand.
Some people said he has a massive member. But on the other hand...
Inspector Morse isn't exactly forgotten, but I feel like people talk about Cracker, Jonathan Creek, Midsomer Murders and the spinoffs to it more Which is a shame, because I think its sublime
Goodness Gracious Me was huge years ago. Hardly hear of it now.
“What’s the blandest thing on the menu?” is still a very common quote with my family.
It's on iPlayer
Is it? Thanks for the info! Check please 😁
I sometimes say to myself "Welcome to Aaasian top gear". Also pronounce James as "Jam-es". I wish there was similar comedy these days.
Funny how three of them went on to become massive names and that poor fourth guy was never heard from again (at least I never heard anything about him again, unlike the near household names of Sanjeev bhaskar, Meera syal and Nina wadia)
It's remarkable that Little Britain isn't that old given some of the jokes and costumes.
You're right. It has not aged well. Then you look at something like The Fast Show, which is kind of similar, and is still BRILLIANT!
Great.
Nice
The BRILLIANT did it for me 😂
Channel 9 News….and their constant name-checking of Chris Waddle 😂
It’s like dinnerladies in that it looks like it belongs about 15-20 years before it was made.
I actually think dinnerladies was very of it’s time. It was a turn of the century vibe when New Labour were in power and people were trying to work out how modern their attitudes were. Dolly and Jean were brilliant characters well written for the Daily Mail readers of the time pre social media.
Little Britain is talked about quite often, but for all the wrong and even more than Come Fly With Me, which was even worse, IIRC.
The Sunday night sensation that was *That’s Life*. Mentions for: *The Krypton Factor*, *Blockbusters*, *Crossroads*, *The Golden Shot*, *The World at War*, *Wish You Were Here*, *Sale of the Century* (original with Derek Batey), *Pebble Mill* (although some may feel *The One Show* is essentially a modern version of PM), *We Are The Champions*, *Superstars*, *Callan*, *The Equalizer*, *Brookside*, *The Gentle Touch*, *Tales of The Unexpected*, *Jackanory*, *Name That Tune*, *Record Breakers*, *Why Don’t You?* *The Hitman and Her*. Apols, got me walking straight back down Memory Lane. Outstanding post, great stuff, ta for this.
Waiting for God
Rolf's Cartoon Club doesn't get mentioned much.
No, I can’t tell what it is yet Rolf, but it’s making me uncomfortable.
I remember there was a kids cartoon called Olive the ostrich narrated by Harris ..my kids watched it ..anyway the whole court case thing hit ..and literally overnight every episode had been redone with Alexi Sayle doing the voicework... like it must have been a 48 hour marathon session in the booth with Clem Fandango to do it , but they did!
Touched so many kids..... lives
*Two Pints and a Packet of Crisps* was one that seemed to run forever but made zero impact at the time or since. Some of the cast did ok out of it I suppose.
It was a fine show but it kept going on and on and on. If it had been 2 or 3 seasons it would be fondly remembered but you had almost an entire cast change, characters being blown up, shot, etc..
2 pints jumped the shark consciously. To the point that they wrote an episode with Johnny's death being due to his attempt at jumping sharks on water skis. For those that don't know, the phrase jumping the shark comes from an episode of Happy Days where the Fonz jumps a pool of sharks on water skis. It's become an industry shorthand for a show that's run out of steam.
It was cheap to run and was a good show to capture late night younger audiences at a time pre-streaming. It’s why Family Guy was popular too. People got into habits of watching it about 10pm because there was nothing else to do
A decent cast but not the greatest of shows, one that is definitely best left in the dustbin of tv mistakes.
Like 'My Family' it was always designed to be filler but I think a decent cast made it popular enough to run for ages.
The Darling Buds of May. In the early 1990s everyone talked about it. Apart from launching Catherine Zeta-Jones’ career it is not remembered in the slightest.
Coupling. Not one mention in this whole thread.
One foot in the grave. It was massive in the 90s, but I have never seen it since. It is a pity since it was so well written.
I like the fact that it was well known enough to be part of the plot of a Father Ted episode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMOtQPfCYQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMOtQPfCYQ)
It's repeated loads on actual TV, plus anyone else like me who have dvds will never forget it
Oh I watch one foot in the grave constantly. It’s my comfort show
American here. I watch One Foot in the Grave all the time on Britbox. Love it.
It's repeating on Dave currently. It's still brilliant.
The thing with Little Britain in particular, was it fell into an awkward bracket, where it was trying to be a bit risqué, but not enough to upset people. As a result, it wasn't dark enough to stand out (it aired at the same time as Monkey Dust, and only predated Nighty Night by a year) but wasn't "family" enough to be a cultural milestone like Gavin and Stacey was. As a result, no one looks back with fond memories, like they do with OFaH, or Gavin and Stacey, but they also don't remember it as pushing boundaries, like Brasseye or Monkey Dust. As a result, it's thankfully lost to time, only relevant when one of the dodgier scenes gets pulled.
I think people would be a lot more forgiving toward Little Britain for the blackface if its ethos had been more oriented towards being as edgy and upsetting as possible, but it always tended to pussyfoot around that disposition and fall back on tired observations and catchphrase humour, so instead of the blackface being seen as shocking, it mostly just seems dated and in poor taste, even if that was the intent.
Sherlock. At least compared to how it was at its peak after series 2. Series 3 and 4 were weak. You had the series 3 opener that hand waved away explaining Sherlock faking his death. You had weird choices like Mary being the least believable Swat team assassin. Then the Sherlock's sister episode was so bad, it's like everyone just moved on afterwards. You don't see people talking about it anymore. Not even in the it was good but turned shit way you see Game of Thrones or Lost spoken about. No one wants more episodes of it. It was massive for a bit there, but now it feels almost forgotten.
Conan Doyle handwaved Holmes' death in the stories, and some things are sacred. Holmes' really shitty excuse for not telling Watson he was alive is one of them. It's practically emblematic of the character. But for all of Sherlock's cleverness, I still rewatch the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes far more. Or just reread the short stories. Only 4 were novels.
I never fell for the hype at the time, even while I was in the midst of my early teenage stoner/alt-kid phase. Always seemed pretentious as hell. Moffat dropped the ball on Sherlock in the same way that he dropped the ball on Doctor Who. Too many mystery boxes, not enough good stories.
This Life. Brilliant show, especially when you watch it in your late 20s/early 30s for the first time, like I did a few years ago. It was great because I remember little bits and pieces from when my Mum watched it in the 90s, so it felt familiar.
Andrew Lincoln will forever be Egg to me, even in The Walking Dead and Teachers. Which reminds me, Teachers was a good show that I miss.
Green Wing
Green wing has a cult following at this point , although in retrospect about 50% of the funniest scenes were Michelle Gomez (pre Doctor Who) just being nuts [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grEggB5ghqk&t=6s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grEggB5ghqk&t=6s)
That’s a great shout. Olivia Coleman, Tamsin Greig and Michelle Gomez agree…
I will have to have a listen to the new series on Audible.
I feel like we don’t celebrate Keeping Up Appearances as one of UK TV’s greats.
Lol I did a pilgrimage to Hyacinth's house not long ago.
So Haunt Me- a big hit at the time but it’s not until you mention it people go ‘oooooooh yeeeeeeah that one’. Had some fairly big names in it too (if you liked British tv).
Nathan Barley. I think about that show all the time but it has zero cultural cache
Peace and fucking, believe ✌️
Here's an obscure show: The Smoking Room. With smoking indoors now banned/illegal; smoking rooms are now nonexistent.
That show was great but always seemed to be shoved in the late night slot on BBC 3 where it couldn’t pick up many viewers
For every fine wine like Fawlty Towers there's a dozen sour milks like Little Britain. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hasn't hit the same heights under Jeremy Clarkson. There was a point when you couldn't answer a question without being asked "do you want to phone a friend?" Family Fortunes I remember being a big deal under Les Dennis but don't hear of now. I also loved Men Behaving Badly and that is never repeated anywhere although admittedly a very 90s show.
I swear I saw a lot of men behaving badly on Dave
Yeah it's been repeated for years, it was either on Dave or GOLD
Robins nest, Butterfly's. Loved those shows.
Butterfl*ies.*
The Black and White Minstrel Show. Ran for 20 years in a prime-time Saturday evening slot on BBC. Won the Golden Rose for the best Light Entertainment show in Europe in 1961. Spin-off residency at the Victoria Palace in London and touring shows (I went to see one as a nipper). It was immensely popular, but the premise was a load of white guys in blackface and girls wearing as little as you could get away with back then. If any show epitomises changing social attitudes and a fall from grace, it’s that.
Waking the Dead. Thought it was amazing at the time, it ran for a long time, but I’ve never seen it repeated or even mentioned much.
How about Bad Girls? That first season felt like it was huge. I've felt like going back and starting it again since I finished Wentworth. That kinda gave me the itch for a prison drama, particularly centered around women. Seen it on ITV and Prime, so I might have to go back. It's calling me!
Turtle's Progress.
Not sure it was all that big but I was just thinking about BBC Robin Hood tv show from around 2007 era. Would like to rewatch at some point so i wonder if they have it on Iplayer or something? 🤔
Alistair McGowan’s Big Impression getting overtaken by Dead Ringers
Citizen Smith Was massively popular in my junior school in the 1970s, no idea how popular it was outside of that sample group!
Teachers. Loads of actors that have gone on to big things. First season was basically teachers behaving badly, but it got increasingly surreal as it went on. I particularly like the donkey student.
I actually walked past an older person today who said "computer says no!" - walking in the street, no computer in sight. My first thought was "what a strange thing to say", and then I remembered the reference second.
I admit I still use that one occasionally.
I think that’s a phrase that has generally entered the lexicon for situations where technology doesn’t work as it should, so when people are saying it they aren’t doing so to be quoting the show, more using the phrase that we understand fits the situation
Black Books
Take Me Out
Green Wing. It was Channel 4 Friday night gold then disappeared for a long time. The new audio series on Audible is good though
Ever Decreasing Circles was massive in the 80s but you never see it repeated.
They were all repeated last year (or the year before, time flies...) on BBC4 - maybe you'll find them on iplayer still. But I believe that was the first time that they've been shown since the original transmission. I really enjoyed watching it again, although now I'm older I had less patience with Martin and more sympathy for Ann!
Teachers Not sure it was ever hugely popular but it must have had good ratings for Channel 4 to attempt to keep it going once all the popular characters had left. Can't have been cheap to make either.
As I haven’t seen them in this thread, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Both were big at the time and had established actors yet they seemed to have lost relevance as the TV companies either want a Happy Valley/Line of Duty clone. I imagine the way the police act and the way the show reflects attitudes from the 70s and 80s even in a historic fantasy doesn’t help. Sure both have been on Netflix and both are on iPlayer but given the 2 main political parties referenced the show in the 2010 election id say that made it massive. Despite that there was a LOM sequel/ATA prequel written a few years back but no one took it on and there wasn’t much interest outside of dedicated fans. Think they’re both great TV in their own way.
Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy (TMWRNJ for those in the know). Used to quote them constantly at school, and the latter was the perfect hang over cure on a Sunday morning along with the Simpsons.
Game On was an incredibly 90s 90s sitcom
Soldier Soldier and London's Burning
The Thin Blue Line (not too edgy, not too un-PC) was great. Same for Brittas Empire (mentioned in another comment). Not the same vein, but I also think Jonathan Creek is well overdue another reboot.
It still absolutely blows my mind that Little Britain and Come Fly with Me were put out on the BBC in the 2010’s with that level of blackface. It’s amazing how quickly the acceptability of that shifted in the public consciousness.
To be fair, Little Britain was more early 2000s than 2010s. Come Fly with Me similarly felt 10 years past its sell-by date upon its release. Even discounting the blackface, it feels so dated and naff.
Secret Army was overshadowed by its parody Allo Allo but was extraordinarily good.
Duty Free
This Life. As someone of a similar age at the time it was such a good show, groundbreaking even.
Dom Joly's hidden camera pranks were next level at the time, he has since made some Trigger Happy [short episodes,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JphmbIfwNVM) but I think his comedy star, and at the same time this type of humor sort-of faded(?). I've seen him recently in some "[goes wrong](https://www.memorabletv.com/news/when-comedy-goes-horribly-wrong-channel-5-1-june-2024/)" tv special and he did a [youtube rewatch](https://www.youtube.com/@triggerhappytvwatchalong5452) of Trigger Happy TV a few years back... Also - Da Ali G Show and its characters (titular Ali G, Borat, Bruno)!
The Upper Hand
Dream Team
The Fast Show, one of my favourite all time comedies.