The BEST of British Comedy

The Conservative party.

 

Thank you very much, very kind off you to say so in this time off PC. Many other people have said the same too me in the past to.

 

By the way Zen, like the new Avitar. Have a nice day and as always, you and your team do a great job that you, merry Christmas and a happy new year.

 

Annette Crosbie lives quite close to us in Wimbledon. She is often seen out shopping and has chatted to Jane on a few occasions their paths cross in one of the shops. She is very down to earth and not entirely dissimilar to the part that she plays as Victors wife.

To avoid character slip, many long running series are written using the actors natural mannerisms and personality. The master of this is Roy Clarke, particularly in Last of the summer wine. When Bill Owen died quite suddenly and had to be written out, his son who suddenly appeared at the episode made about his funeral and then joined the series, is Bill's son in real life.
Roy has a group of actors and actresses who have worked with him for decades an cross over into other series, particularly as the customers in open all hours.
The village in Last of the summer wine is his home town on the Yorkshire Dales, where in his younger days he worked as the village bobby. He often claims that his real life experiences are the basis of the series.

Another writer who had a similar approach is John Sullivan, particularly in Only fools and Horses.
Both he and Roy worked almost entirely for the BBC comedy arts department.
Roy works mainly from his home, which is also up in Yorkshire.

 

Anything related to Monty Python
Benny Hill
The Goodies
Black Adder
Frye & Laurie
Alfresco
Allo, Allo

 

A comedy that would beat all others happened in real life, but it was never filmed.
Prior to his fame as a director, David Lean was the editor of British Movietone News, where he made history my cutting the negatives of the Derby directly on the projection room floor, rather than waiting for a positive print and going through the pos-cut, neg-cut generations that took a couple of days back in the days before video. As a result, he had the race on the screens of the London cinemas on the day of the race. No one ever worked out how he managed that one.

Wind forward about 30 years.
During the Filming of Ryan's Daughters, he popped into the studio editing suite on his way home one evening to check on a cut.
A daft young guy who had only been working for a few weeks, greeted him to take him upstairs. On his way up, he suddenly asked him. "Have you come to see how a film is edited".
That story spread over studios from London to Hollywood in a lot less than 4 hours and more than one edit and dub stopped while everyone was creased up laughing.

If you have ever seen the film Whisky Galore, you will laugh at my famous f*** up, back in my younger days.
Opening the film one evening to a full cinema audience, I pressed a wrong button and selected the sound track of a trailer from King Solomon's mines.
At the start of the film, Jock is walking along the beach looking sorrowful about the lack of whisky in the bars.
As he was walking, the soundtrack was "Come and watch the herd's of elephants teaming across the plains of Africa", (noticed my mistake) "But their was no Whisky".
It took me a few months to live that one down. It was a genuine mistake, but several people did not believe me.

 

I kinda messed up in my first few minutes as an extra in bedroom window

 

oldies but goldies: You Rang, M'Lord?, Hallo hallo

 

Extra's are great fun, particularly when they vastly outnumber the cast in crowd scenes and even more so when they are in period costume. People did not wear trainers with their best attire in Victorian times. LOL

The 1960's film "Cromwell", should have won a special award for the worst period continuity.
It included:-
Fluorescent lighting in his castle, not to mention switches and sockets everywhere. Along with a few items of modern furniture.
While looking for his attacking army, passing truck roofs over the hill, electricity poles and pylons in the background, while a 747 flew overhead.
At the end of the battle scene, while Cromwell was surveying the scene of his hundreds of dead soldiers (700 extras included). Unaware that they were still filming, a few of them started walking off, followed the others as the sheep mentality kicked in. While the crew were waving their arms around like windmills, trying to get them to lie down, most just sat there looking puzzled. The highlight was the guy who actually realised the mistake and hoping for an Oscar, grabbed his stomach and did a dying swan act.

During the films west end run in London, auditorium staff had a competition to see who could list the most errors. Some of them spotted more than 100.

 

In the waltons episode the graduate. There actually is a computer screen. & someone pointed out a city in the background another episode.

 

Coupling: I must've seen this whole series at least twice. One of the funniest comedies ever. This one is a classic.

 

ect ect.

I grew up with british humour on tv, from monthy python,allo allo too...........in my youth,my family mostly watched the bbc or anglia on tv,for newest movies/series/ect

Mzzls

 

Thanks for reminding me about that series, must dig out my box set. If I can find it, wish my DVDs were in alphabetical order.

Steve.

 

Never get lost in the west end of London, it can take up to an hour to find someone who can speak more than 2 words of English.
I assume that all the English speakers are in the theatres and cinemas, while they are just left roaming around the streets.

 

Outdated info via what I got to watch on public broadcasting in the 90s:

Fawlty Towers
Are You Being Served? (my personal fav)
AbFab is a classic. “Why don’t you just tax the stupid people?!?!!???!??”
Wooster + Jeeves
Fry + Laurie
I won’t admit that Benny Hill is someone I look up to.
Blackadder!!!!! A close second
Someone mentioned One Foot In The Grave…pretty good and I won’t say no to this one.
The Office. Seriously. Way better than the American one. Ricky Gervais disappointed me in adapting it to America; he was behind the camera here but was a supremely slimy boss in the original British version.

Do they have mystery series as well? If they have “An Unsuitable Job For A Woman”, I might get it just to watch that one again. British crime dramas are really, really good.

 

I know this is a bit of an old thread - but, just in case, another couple of suggestions. Dinner Ladies, Keeping Up Appearances, Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours (sequel), Waiting For God.

 

I know it's been said several times, but Blackadder. It's some of the smartest comedy writing I've come across. It's even funnier if you're a history nerd.

Also, Red Dwarf and the IT Crowd

 

Love Brithis humour...from the 70/2000

Mzzls