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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wish we had more TV like this?

451 replies

SaintlyLady · 17/12/2025 08:19

Last night I watched The Two Ronnies Xmas Special from 1982 and Sorry! from 1988.

i literally laughed out loud at some of the sketches in the Two Ronnies -

and Sorry! is an excellent example of my VERY favourite TV genre -

Home Counties set,
middle class,
middle aged,
middle England, ‘
’middle of the road’
sitcoms 🙌

AIBU to want these programmes back on linear BBC1 and ITV?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
KimberleyClark · 18/12/2025 14:27

DeanStockwell · 18/12/2025 14:04

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b009v0dc?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile .

Do you know it's available bbc sounds? It's taken straight from the TV so it's not messed about with at all.
It's still surprising relevant!

We are going to see I'm Sorry Prime Minister in London next April, Gruff Rhys Jones as Hacker.
Written by Jonathan Lynn.

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:29

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:24

That’s hilarious! It’s hard to imagine some actors in different roles especially when you have grown up with them in only one!

I really really couldn’t fathom
it….

did you like frank Spencer too?

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:34

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:29

I really really couldn’t fathom
it….

did you like frank Spencer too?

I did! I grew up with no TV so never saw them as a child! I was watching them in my mid teens onwards!

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:37

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:34

I did! I grew up with no TV so never saw them as a child! I was watching them in my mid teens onwards!

Sorry I already know that

thought I was asking saint lady!

did you watch the you tube? The signature music is so memorable

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:43

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:37

Sorry I already know that

thought I was asking saint lady!

did you watch the you tube? The signature music is so memorable

Yes, I watched the nativity clip. When I have more time, I’m going to watch a few more!

(How do you know I grew up with no TV? Are you psychic!)

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:46

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:37

Sorry I already know that

thought I was asking saint lady!

did you watch the you tube? The signature music is so memorable

The signature music was great, like The Good Life!

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:46

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:43

Yes, I watched the nativity clip. When I have more time, I’m going to watch a few more!

(How do you know I grew up with no TV? Are you psychic!)

No I meant I already know you like FS

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:52

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:46

No I meant I already know you like FS

Sorry!

ObelixtheGaul · 18/12/2025 14:55

Detectorists and the Royale Family are absolutely brilliant on the more modern comedy front.

I loved The Two Ronnies back in the day, but find some of it a bit ponderous now. Never did like Corbett's bit where he sits in the chair and waffles his way round a very naff Christmas Cracker gag.

My poor brother was called Timothy, and had to put up with years of us doing, 'language, Timothy' at him.

Comedy is such a subjective thing. I agree with a pp that some of the appeal of the old comedies lies in our nostalgia of where we were when we watched them. There's a lot of stuff from that period that hasn't stood the test of time, not just because of changed attitudes but because comedy is an ever-evolving formula. At the time of the 1982 Two Ronnies Xmas special, stand-up comics like Jasper Carrot (a favourite of mine), etc, were considered 'alternative' because they weren't doing mother in law gags or doing the 'Straight/Funny Man' double act a la Little and Large/Cannon and Ball.

Then we had the rise of the comedy sketch shows - Lenny Henry, Victoria Wood, Alas Smith and Jones, leading on to Goodness Gracious Me, the Fast Show, The Catherine Tate show. You don't see those types of shows any more. I loved them.

Sitcoms are an ever-changing beast. Somebody mentioned Ever Decreasing Circles up thread, which I loved watching at the time, but I read something about why they stopped making it and the truth was that people just fell out of love with the suburban middle class style, just as they fell out of love with the sketch show format.

I remember them all fondly, but they, like most comedy, were of their time in format and content. I don't wish we made them now, but I do enjoy seeing them again.

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:58

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:19

Yes Geraldine is the goat in the good life

but I did sound it out and imagined Betty saying Geraldine and it did fit

but yes Jessica

Geraldine the goat, and Pinky and Perky the pigs!

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:59

Wasn’t it Olivia the hen! They obe Tom missed trying to shoot it! 🤣

Beeinalily · 18/12/2025 15:00

Dunno why people are saying Shudder, that's a horror channel.

WtP · 18/12/2025 15:15

SaintlyLady · 17/12/2025 12:59

Ah we’re the same generation then if you’re 58

I loved Gimme Gimme but I’m not familiar at all with Game On - I was an 80s not a 90s chick lol!

But I totally agree with you - no one watches TV as a family anymore

So you are younger than me, but for some reason froze your life in the age when you were in your teens/early 20s?
There has been so much good comedy since then, some absolute dross as well, but that was true in the 60s & 70s.
Has your musical taste also remained in aspic?

everdine · 18/12/2025 15:20

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:59

Wasn’t it Olivia the hen! They obe Tom missed trying to shoot it! 🤣

That was meant to say The one Tom missed!

everdine · 18/12/2025 15:26

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 14:19

Yes Geraldine is the goat in the good life

but I did sound it out and imagined Betty saying Geraldine and it did fit

but yes Jessica

When you mentioned baby Geraldine in the manager in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, I thought the name didn’t sound right but I couldn’t remember her actual name so had to look it up!

The episode where Jessica was born was hilarious! Hopefully it’s on YouTube!

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:26

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 13:41

😂😂😂😂😂

Mrs Dooms-Patterson !!!!!

what was her role? I can’t remember for the life of me but know the name and how it was thrown about by Margo

come on Saint Lady..enlighten us

Edited

I can’t recall her at all tbh! I’m not that much of an expert on The Good Life

OP posts:
Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 15:27

everdine · 18/12/2025 14:58

Geraldine the goat, and Pinky and Perky the pigs!

Yes!

everdine · 18/12/2025 15:27

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:26

I can’t recall her at all tbh! I’m not that much of an expert on The Good Life

You never see her, you just hear about her from Margot! They go to the same Pony Club!

Maddyisqueen · 18/12/2025 15:27

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:26

I can’t recall her at all tbh! I’m not that much of an expert on The Good Life

Sorry I was mixing you up with a Everdine

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:28

WtP · 18/12/2025 15:15

So you are younger than me, but for some reason froze your life in the age when you were in your teens/early 20s?
There has been so much good comedy since then, some absolute dross as well, but that was true in the 60s & 70s.
Has your musical taste also remained in aspic?

Yes my TV tastes froze with little and Large and Cannon and Ball

on the whole im less keen on 90s music

OP posts:
WtP · 18/12/2025 15:28

Hang on you say you were born in 1972 which is 7 years after me and yet you say
"Although I watched it - I never really took to it as it only started in 1986 which was ‘after my time!"

This was Bread when you were 14, hardly after your time?

everdine · 18/12/2025 15:30

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:26

I can’t recall her at all tbh! I’m not that much of an expert on The Good Life

It’s well worth a rerun if you can get it. I have it still on DVD!

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:33

WtP · 18/12/2025 15:28

Hang on you say you were born in 1972 which is 7 years after me and yet you say
"Although I watched it - I never really took to it as it only started in 1986 which was ‘after my time!"

This was Bread when you were 14, hardly after your time?

I know but for some reason I slightly went off sitcoms after that !

OP posts:
WtP · 18/12/2025 15:38

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 15:33

I know but for some reason I slightly went off sitcoms after that !

Fair enough on sitcoms, but comedy & music didn't just stop!
I feel genuinely sad for you, as there has been so much progression and talent in both genres over the years.

SaintlyLady · 18/12/2025 16:03

WtP · 18/12/2025 15:38

Fair enough on sitcoms, but comedy & music didn't just stop!
I feel genuinely sad for you, as there has been so much progression and talent in both genres over the years.

I loved Phoenix Nights

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