Programmes that have aged poorly and programmes that have aged well?

[HaveYouHadYourBreak]

What programmes that you loved have surprised you on rewatching?

I've just finished the first series of This Life and was surprised at how well it has aged for the most part (but so much smoking!). It was refreshing to see people with imperfect teeth and pubic hair and wobbly bums living in a grotty house share past their early 20s. I'm re-living my youth with the music too.

But Coupling! Oof! I remember it being really good but some clips I've seen (like making sex videos without consent and the way women are talked about) demonstrate exactly why I've never seen any re-runs.

I’m Sorry Prime Minister on stage is worth seeing. It’s the final act in the lives of Sir H and the PM and it’s funny and touching.

I remember trying to explain the premise of Love thy Neighbour to my A level Media Studies group and they were just incredulous

Saw it last night and it is brilliant.

ER is American so I think it is shocking to see the distress of the baby.

Not tv or film but I saw a production of Miss Saigon and it was so clear that the child, about five, didn't like one cast member and his disgust was so obvious when this man kissed him. It felt very uncomfortable to see.

Er used, for the time, really detailed dolls. Sometimes you can see the actual baby becoming a doll for a procedure.

Or they start with a doll. Watch this, it's not a baby until about 45 seconds.

The OG Gavin and Stacey series episodes have aged really well.

I agree. It's still bloody funny and the 'over the top ' scene from Blackadder Goes Forth never stops being utterly devastating 😢

Dinner ladies is also my comfort watch. And the Work Outing scene from the IT Crowd is possibly the funniest episode of any TV comedy ever!

Has anyone mentioned the Crystal Maze? The original Richard O’Brien episodes have quite a following on YouTube, with comments such as “lol the 90s hairstyles “, which made people look older then. I think they were much better than the Richard Ayoade remake.

I'm sure I read in an interview with RO'B once that one reason why he himself went for the completely bald look was to look ageless.

I like Richard Ayoade a lot, but I think the Crystal Maze WAS Richard O'Brien, so any other presenter - however good - will miss the mark and disappoint. I'm still wondering how House of Games will pan out after Richard (another one!) Osman's departure. I'm not saying that Michael Sheen won't do a very good job; but he just won't be RO. Also, on a minor note, 'ROHOG' is much easier to say for short than 'MSHOG' - just like people call Would I Lie To You 'WILTY' but nobody ever referred to Call My Bluff as 'CMB'!!

If you haven't seen the Blackadder documentary (Rides Again, I think it's called), then take the opportunity when you get it. Fascinating all the way through, but particularly when they describe how they ultimately ended up with that heartbreaking final scene.

Surely the Exploding bra scene of IT Crowd has got to be the funniest - I don't recognise the sound that comes out of me when I watch that 🤣 . I think I need another rewatch.

Thanks, I'll give it a watch.

Oh, that's up there!
Moss crawling into his mum's room to steal her bra.
Jen: "My tits! My tits are hot!"
Think I might have to rewatch too 😁

I'm going to make a confession which won't make me any friends, but..

I never watched Little Britain when is was on TV. I don't like David Walliams - I think he's a nasty misogynistic sneerer and stereotyper.

But I did see one sketch on YouTube where Vicky Pollard is on trial for drug smuggling in Thailand. Dawn French plays her mother and has a line which goes something like this:

"Now I'm not sayin' she aint never done nothin' wrong nor nothin''" which just cracks me up. Dawn French is just brilliant.

Sorry.

I liked Rock Profiles that they did before Little Britain

Yes that's a doll, I guess they couldn't persuade a baby to lie motionless like that. The scene I was watching was a baby lying on an examination bed wriggling and screaming and clearly distressed. I'm not stupid I'm familiar with focus on baby and then in someone's arms not clearly visible but sounds of screaming from elsewhere as it's actually a doll. Or like this one a baby that is virtually dead when it's actually a doll. Real babies were distressed in scenes.

There was an episode in one of the early seasons where the baby wasn't distressed (I don't think) but they showed a real life baby with his naked genitals on show. Just wouldn't happen nowadays.

And I thought the same as you when I watched an episode of Boardwalk Empire recently - the children belonging to Kelly MacDonald's character were crying terribly in one scene, and I did remark that I wondered how they got them to cry like that because they must have been very upset.

Horrible isn't it.

See i agree with you that Little Britain is still funny and it’s a real shame people have to feel nervous about saying that.

Oh, I love on The Buses! You're right though in that it hasn't aged well.
I get infuriated by Arthur on Olive's behalf and wish she'd tell him to bog off!
plus she's really NOT fat even though half the show they're joking about her weight
Love the episode where Mum gets a new boyfriend and she keeps leaving them all to it on an evening and they're all pathetically inept and useless. #TeamMum

I tried to watch Friends a couple of years ago with my teenager. After the 1st 3 episodes we had both given up. That and Frasier used to be my Friday nights!

I don't see why it has to be all or nothing, though. Some of the sketches were - and still are - very funny, astute and harmless; but some of them were extremely dubious then and just as (or even more) outrageous and wholly unacceptable now.

I still find myself frequently saying the word 'yes' as "Yeeeeeeesssss!!!" and sometimes refer to the radio as the 'talking noisy-box' like the Scottish hotelier; and the pithily-observed standard irritation of "Computer says Nooooooo!" that we're all very familiar with.

On the other hand, white men blacking up, making non-verbal people with learning disabilities figures of fun and mocking elderly ladies with incontinence issues was horrendously nasty and punching right down.

I agree with you. I still find Little Britain funny when I watch it and thankfully most of my friends would think the same.

Not the nine o'clock news ..ace
Kick up the eighties..brilliant.
Absolutely ..Scots comedy sketch show..Stoney ridge.iykyn.
Naked video.
Chewin the fat..can I have a swatcher o year fanny..at the ice cream van.

Yer not year.