I own the region 1 DVD box set of this show. It’s one of my favourite British comedies.
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If you can, I think that you need to snap up the ‘classics of yesteryear’…
The way things are going, a lot of them will not be available soon, due to the P.C. Brigade.
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I love ‘Columbo’!
Peter Falk was born to play the part.
The only detective show, where the crime is revealed at the beginning, and the roller-coaster ride starts with a shabby, cigar-chomping detective pointing out everything that everyone else has missed.
In 2005, I visited Los Angeles, and took part in the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Show’. Peter Falk was on stage, as was Matthew Fox (Lost).
I tried to get Peter’s autograph, backstage, but he had buggered off…I did get to speak to Matthew Fox, who went on to appear in ‘Bone Tomahawk’.
A cracking show…
Peter was born to play this shabby, cigar-smokin’, under-estimated, ‘small guy’…the kind of guy that usually (in the episodes) went unheard, or un-noticed.
What was great about his characterisation of ‘Columbo’, is that the main character was always portrayed as a ‘nuisance’, bubbling into situations, rather than being ‘professional’.
Underneath the ‘bumbling’, lurked a keen brain…something that his opponents never expected.
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Rising Damp remains far and away the greatest sitcom ITV ever produced. I mean that’s not saying much - ITV sitcoms were, are and will likely always be utter bumshit* - but, regardless, Rising Damp is a bona fide classic and deserves to be regarded alongside any BBC/C4 sitcom great from any era.
*I mean, they did a decent line in the odd comedy-drama here and there - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Minder spring immediately to mind though there may have been others; Moving Story? The Grimleys, maybe? - but for pure, simple, half-hour situation comedies, ITV have always been terrible. And they’re even worse at sketch shows.
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Without a doubt.
‘Rising Damp’ is one that I can’t help but love.
It was a product of its time, and is still relevant, even if some minorities disagree…
When we get to a point where even TV history is being censored, we need to examine ourselves, and ask: When will the ‘Milky Bar Kid’ advert be banned, because it supports white chocolate.
Not politics…just the opinion of a ‘Joe’ in the street… 
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The ‘beeb’ had plenty of stinkers too … it wasn’t all Monty Python, Fawlty Towers etc 
but admittedly most of the best stuff was BBC.
My favourites of those not already mentioned ‘Steptoe & Son’, ‘Porridge’, ‘Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads’ … and more recently, though not new, ‘The League of Gentlemen’
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Love Thy Neighbour is my favourite from ITV.
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Absolutely. Without looking into it in any depth I wouldn’t be surprised if they had at least half a dozen unfunny bags of shite for every true comedy classic. More, probably. But at least they managed to turn out plenty of genuine good’uns over the years. ITV’s return has been shocking for a major terrestrial network.
Fwiw, my favourite British sitcoms:
- The Young Ones (BBC)
- The Comic Strip Presents… (C4)
- I’m Alan Partridge (BBC)
- Fawlty Towers (BBC)
- Spaced (C4)
- The Thick of It (BBC)
- The Office (BBC)
- Father Ted (C4)
- Red Dwarf (BBC)
- Peep Show (C4)
- Blackadder (BBC)
- The Inbetweeners (C4)
- This Country (BBC)
- People Just Do Nothing (BBC)
- The League of Gentlemen (BBC)
- Nighty Night (BBC)
- Saxondale (BBC)
- Rising Damp (ITV)
- Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights (C4)
- Game On (BBC)
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The Young Ones is your fav but you don’t like Bottom?
I couldn’t stand Spaced. Totally unfunny. Black Books is way better.
I must admit…you do have a way with words…
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Some great titles there, Aldo.
Who can possibly forget ‘The Likely Lads’, and ‘Porridge’?
In my book, though, ‘Fawlty Towers’ reigns supreme; and ‘Steptoe & Son’ follows a close second.
‘Dad’s Army’ - although worn down by countless BBC repeats - is also an ever-green.
Regarding ‘Steptoe’, the real-life drama between actors, Harry H. Corbett, and Wilfrid Brambell, is pretty interesting.
In 2008, the BBC produced an excellent drama called ‘The Curse of Steptoe’, starring Jason Isaacs, as Harold, and Phil Davis as Albert…worth watching, if you get a chance. It is available on ‘Youtube’.
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My Top 10 Favourite British Comedy Television Series
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- Blackadder
- Father Ted
- Red Dwarf
- Bottom
- The Young Ones
- Black Books
- Fawlty Towers
- One Foot in the Grave
- Are You Being Served?
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Mine would be virtually the same. Just in a different order.
Porridge would replace Black Books, and Open all hours would be on there.
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I think The Two Ronnie’s and Morecambe & Wise would be on my list too.
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Comedy Gold…
And, for that ‘wow’ ingredient, a hint of ‘Fawlty’.
FAWLTY: "You have absolutely no sense of humour, do you!"
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Ronnie C: GIVE ME THAT LIST! Great big kno…
MARGARET come out and serve him!
Large breastfed women appears
Margaret: How big do you want em’ love?
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Yup. Tried numerous times to get into Bottom given that it was a Mayall/Edmondson vehicle but it was just too peurile imho. The Young Ones had the same jokes about farting or about the contents of Rik’s underpants but that sophomoric humour suited them better at the ages of those characters and, besides that, The Young Ones had so much more going on. It was as smart and surreal as it was crass and vulgar (and, because of the way in which it was funded out of the Light Entertainment budget rather than the Comedy budget, it also had some pretty excellent musical guests too). Bottom was, imho, just crass and vulgar. Nothing else. And the characters of Richie and Eddie, at their ages, just come off as a pair of creepy old twats.
LOL … that sums it up, nicely! 
Black Books is another one I tried to get into given the critical and popular acclaim but I couldn’t take to it. Dylan Moran leaves me cold. Spaced felt as though it was speaking directly to me, to my generation.
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