To wish we had more TV like this?

[SaintlyLady]

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?

Apart from mrs browns boys right enough.

Watch Mammoth. It's hilarious.

Love Butterflies too. It is very poignant.

I like some of the Two Ronnies stuff but hated Morecambe and Wise.
Agree re Ever Decreasing Circles, one of my favourite sitcoms ever. And I agree with pp who mentioned The fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (based on hilarious books by David Nobbs). Leonard Rossiter was brilliant in that.
I was always amazed that Ronnie Barker played both Norman Stanley Fletcher and Arkwright. You couldn't have more different characters!

Did anyone watch The Cuckoo Waltz? (1970s.)

I almost got banned for posting a clip of Reggie Perrin. Suffice is to say in some respects - whilst a work of genius - it has not aged well.

The Ooh-Ahh bird is so called because it lays square eggs

🤣

Agree - I couldn't stand Benny Hill although my father laughed a lot at his show!

Nobody has mentioned the wonderful Dick Emery and Dave Allen - both brilliant in their own way.

I couldn't imagine anyone not finding the Morecambe & Wise Stripper/Breakfast sketch funny! The timing and delivery is perfect.

Omg yes !!!!!

Diane Keen and David Roper - latter was Michelle Fowler’s boyfriend in Eastenders

Cuckoo Waltz was early 80s too I think

I will probably get my arse handed to me on a silver platter but I absolutely loved Kenny Everett, just looking at his face made me laugh out loud 🤣🤣

I agree I love that one !

I watched it in ‘real time’ as a kid very late 70s / early 80s - I loved it as another London/ Home Counties based middle class suburban sitcom. However being of primary school at the time I wouldn’t have got the ‘poignant’ nuances at the time.

Not at all !! Far from handing your arse to you in a plate I LOVED Kenny Everett - absolute genius and really miss his programmes !

I also loved his attempts at chart success - Sid Snot !

I really enjoyed it! It started in 1975 and the last season was 1980.

Hated morecambe and wise so I’m with you on that one!

Also Eric Morecambe on opening the curtains to the sound of an ambulance going by: “He’ll never sell any ice cream going that quickly.”

I still say it all the time on hearing a siren.

I have to admit found the first series of Mrs Brown's boys quite funny as have relatives from that part of Dublin but the dead horse they're flogging was turned into dog food and glue years ago.

To be honest I also seem to be an anomaly because I’m one of the only people who doesn’t mind Mrs Brown’s boys at all ! I’m in the ‘quite good but not my favourite’ camp!

which part of Dublin out of interest? Cabra?

That makes sense. It was out before I was born but when I first watched it, probably in my late teens I thought Ria was so unfulfilled as woman. It was quite sad.

Her husband wouldn’t let her get a job and she hated the domestic chores even though she had a cleaner. You could see the appeal of her emotional affair with Leonard!

I loved The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. And loads of the old sitcoms. I’m 58 and, like many of my generation, sat with my family to watch them. They aren’t the same for me now as one of the best things was laughing at my dad laughing. He absolutely loved comedy, including less ‘wholesome’ stuff like Gimme Gimme Gimme and Game On, which he was watching in his seventies and eighties. It always made him seem younger, if that makes sense.

I think there are still some good shows, but there’s a different vibe around watching them. People don’t sit down as a family so much these days, although I know some who do.

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

Ah I didn’t really pick up the unfulfilled bit as a primary school child watching it

Car Share, Ghosts and Miranda are the top three that fall into that cosy comedy category.

Miranda is probably the most similar to the programmes you are referring to (even the waving at the end like they used to do on Hi-di-hi). But I think Car Share is an absolute feel-good gem of a comedy, absolutely wonderful - it's very nostalgic with the music but also laugh out loud and very sweet with the budding romance element. Ghosts is just absolutely top-notch, it has literally everything you could want in a comedy, you grow to love all of the characters and some of the one liners are hysterical because the delivery is so perfect by the cast. Best casting ever.

We are also very keen on 70s/80s/90s sitcoms in our house and regularly watch Open All Hours / The Good Life / Only Fools & Horses / Vicar of Dibley / Keeping Up Appearances. DH and I were born in the very late 70s and find all of these programmes very nostalgic and comforting. Life can be hard sometimes and you need this kind of comfort tv.