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?

Peter Egan. I had a crush on him. Or rather, the character of Paul. I still refer to matchy matchy couples as Howard and Hilda, to the confusion of everyone under 45.

The Rule of Three podcast about comedy has an episode on EDC if anyone wants to check it out.

@SaintlyLady

TBH, I can't remember, although I have been there, Coolock?. It's actually step-in-laws (if there's such a thing) and in real life a bit closer to the Angelica Houston character in Mrs Brown the film, but some of the humour in the first series definitely reminds me of some of those relatives.

Maybe I should just have said "Dublin" rather than "same part of".

Tom telling Margo off for ruining the party - and her refusing to wear the home made paper hat because it was the daily express or similar 😂😂

love Margo - she wasn’t meant to be a main character at all….

she was the “silent majority” in the end 🥰

I like it but feel it’s been ‘overplayed’

Margo was a brilliant character! She was such a snob and would admit it, but when it really counted (like helping gather the harvest) she was a good friend!

Indeed. Miranda is truly awful.

I really wanted to like FND but it’s as funny as a root canal.

I'm enjoying the continuous reruns of Rising Damp and low the pre-screening warnings for snowflakes regarding the language and attitudes of the time in which the programme is set

”I am not a citizen: I am a resident”.

PK had some absolutely outstanding lines in that superb script, which she delivered in that flawless RP with perfect timing. Margo’s an icon.

She’d have really struggled in the post 2000 era when the internet took over and one couldn’t speak to a real human for customer service!

She truly is an icon!

“Don’t bleed in the sink, I’ve just cleaned it!”

The humour almost always derives from making fun of the ignorant, not cheering them on,.

Does anyone remember the Upper Hand? Loved it. Also how has no one mentioned birds of a feather 🤣

Absolutely agree, you are the only person I’ve come across that’s knows about “A bit of a do” sublime writing.
one of the sketches from TTR I remember well was “The Worm Has Turned” women were in charge & men consigned to doing “wife work”
Yy Ever decreasing circles, A fine Romance, The Good Life (especially one of the Christmas episodes when Christmas wasn’t delivered) I can’t think of the one that was set around a cricket club please someone put me out of my misery & recall the name.
one of the more recent programmes I really liked was “Mum” had humour a lot of pathos with a fabulous ensemble cast.

Yes, Honor Blackman was brilliant!

Op you MUST watch Detectorists! It's fabulous. Do you also remember Me and My Girl? I've watched a few on You Tube. Really nostalgic.

OP, I know it’s a radio show not a TV show, but you might like Radio 4’s Gloomsbury. It is totally harmless, posh people humour that makes me laugh from beginning to end. If you Google it, you will find somewhere you can download all of it!

Oh yes I love The Good Life too. And Porridge. I could happily watch episodes of those back to back - as I do for The Detectorists!

No need for them to be on Linear, you can get it all on catchup/vod on your own schedule. If you are looking for newer funny stuff, try Friday Night Dinner, The IT Crowd, The Inbetweeners. My go-to from the 90s is The Brittas Empire but it seems to be difficult to find it online.

I was desperate for her to get it on with Leonard 😅

We watched 2 episodes of Northern Exposure and it's as brilliant as it was in the niheties (?). The middle England middle class stuff doesn't appeal but a moose strolling down MainStreet...oh yes.

Don't think they are funny at all, or mrs fuckin Brown. I just don't get them 😐

The Cleaner is an example of something more modern that is hilarious.

Ria’s husband would be considered abusive these days, not letting his wife work!

I think a lot of the lot of the nostalgia is because what was on actual live tv was more important as we didn't have much choice. So it was a more communal experience.

I'm still a sucker for old tv programmes. Even tho a lot of your average Two Ronnies was a bit bollocks. You can see them endlessly repeated on channels like That's TV and YouTube.

Did you like the Christmas special last year? We thought it was quite depressing - won’t be going into our yearly cycle, like the other 4 are.