British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves


British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves

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The situation comedy is one of the defining and most-enduring genres

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of British television.

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Oh...

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God...

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Al...mighty!

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I think people remember the sitcom landmarks of British television

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more than they remember anything else.

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I think the sitcom is kind of the Holy Grail of doing comedy.

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For 60 years, sitcom

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has brought us together and made us laugh.

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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Whoever you were, there are certain sitcom characters

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that everyone was familiar with.

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You felt like it was a, sort of, shared experience

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with other people who you couldn't see.

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It was a kind of feeling that you just don't get

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from any other form of television.

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It has shown us many aspects of the British character.

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You snobs!

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We like laughing at people who are rude to each other.

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Bloody blasphemous Scouse git!

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We like seeing people in pain.

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Social discomfort.

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You're not going to lose your job.

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You're not going to lose your job.

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You know, you're not going to lose your job.

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Awkwardness.

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What?

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Don't matter.

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Someone who has fooled themselves into thinking

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that they can put themselves across as better than they are.

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That's automatically going to be funny.

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Alan, you've, er... come free at the side.

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Oh! Sorry.

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One of the things I love about sitcom was I think,

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in some ways, it's often very realistic.

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I think sitcoms, particularly in Britain, reflect the world

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and the times that you're living in.

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That's what's so funny, quite often.

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They come over and get all their false teeth, false eyeballs...

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Sitcoms often challenge us directly

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to reconsider who we are and what we think.

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Got their £2,000, go home,

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start up in business, a new man!

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Trying to find taboo subjects, and find a way of doing them

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so that no-one can be offended,

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is a very interesting challenge in sitcom.

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That's it, now. In you go.

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Isn't that better? Good man.

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This will keep you nice and warm.

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Sitcoms, in particular, can give voice to...

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..attitudes that dare not speak their name.

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And in that way, it's quite cathartic, because once you've

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said things out in the open, you've acknowledged

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this prejudice that you have, you've sort of...anaesthetised it.

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This hasn't been cleaned out for years.

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Hey, there's a little Japanese soldier in here,

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still fighting the war.

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You daft racist.

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So the British sitcom is not just a way to lift the spirits,

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but a way to enlighten us, and tonight,

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we're going to look at how sitcom has dealt with everything

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from our obsession with class

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to our attitudes to homosexuality,

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and from gender politics to race.

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You've got it now, white boy.

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The roots of British sitcom are found in the work

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of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

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These ground-breaking writers gave us

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the first landmark British sitcoms

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with Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe And Son,

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shows which created the blueprints for much of the comedy to come

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over the next 60 years.

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BBC television presents Tony Hancock in...

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Hancock's Half Hour.

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Hancock's Half Hour featured Tony Hancock

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as the central character,

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Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a man with delusions of grandeur

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who was constantly thwarted by his own inadequacy.

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I loved Hancock...

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Stone me, this is hopeless.

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..because it perfectly captured a sort of Little Englander mentality

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that is both contemptible and lovable at the same time.

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-Everybody gets colds.

-Not like I get them.

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-Oh, of course they do.

-No, they don't.

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Samples, that's all they get.

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Me, I get the full output of the entire germ kingdom.

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There's a slight inherent negativity,

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glass-half-empty attitude that Hancock had that permeates sitcoms

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right through the decades, and it's something that captures

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an essence of Britishness.

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The Hancock character always thought he should be living better

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than he was but, I mean, that's why he, at times,

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wore the astrakhan coat and the Homburg hat.

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It gave him that sense of success.

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BELL RINGS

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Good afternoon.

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I wish to fly to Australia.

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What, on that or the carpet?

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What I loved about Hancock in particular was that there was also

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an aspiration to be artistic, and what that allowed for is

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some material that was... that's ostensibly quite esoteric, like,

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you know, he'd have things about poetry,

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he'd talk about Bertrand Russell and make these references that,

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ordinarily, you might think were beyond the ken of most people

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and yet, that sitcom had huge viewing figures.

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As the good poet Oscar Khayyam put it...

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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..you can fool some of the people half of the time,

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you can fool half of the people all of the time,

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but you cannot fool, all of the time, some of the people

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who last laughed. Good luck.

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After the success of Hancock's Half Hour,

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Galton and Simpson created another pioneering sitcom.

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Steptoe And Son gave us not only a mixture of laughter and pathos,

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but also British sitcom's first working class family.

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Steptoe And Son kind of broke the mould in that it was about,

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you know, real situations and a tricky relationship,

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and it was set on the streets of London.

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What was interesting about Steptoe And Son, for me,

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was that it just reflected an England that I saw then.

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There was the rag-and-bone man.

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Steptoe And Son tapped into the intergenerational conflict

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that was increasingly common in 1960s Britain.

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Harold Steptoe was an aspirational,

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if sometimes pretentious, man who dreamed of a better life.

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But in a decade when many people of his age were moving out

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and living independent lives,

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Harold was stuck in a down-at-heel rag and bone yard

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with his grubby, lazy and stubborn father.

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With Steptoe, the father and son

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and love-hate relationship works so well because it was very funny,

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also quite sad at times...

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-I was thinking of going on holiday on my own this year, anyway.

-Oh?

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Cos you saw this son trying to leave his environment, and yet,

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he couldn't really leave his father.

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He needed his father as well.

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We've been on holiday together since you was that high.

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I know we have, Dad.

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That's what I mean.

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He is trapped by his father,

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and this job that he doesn't really want to do,

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and he knows he's sort of, better than it,

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and he wants to move on and every time he does move on,

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you get the "Oh, don't leave me!"

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The more I see of Steptoe, the more I think it's in line with,

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you know, Harold Pinter and Noel Coward and stuff like that,

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in terms of, sort of, family and tension and torture.

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If you're mucking about, I'll wallop you!

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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We were very honoured to have that on our screens.

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In 1964, with the arrival of BBC Two,

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television gained a new outlet for situation comedy,

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and in December that year came the first sitcom

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to be set in the North of England.

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Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais,

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The Likely Lads centred on the lives of two young men in Tyneside,

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set against the background of the huge social and economic revolution

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of the '60s and '70s.

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I was talking to somebody the other day who was saying

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when his dad first saw The Likely Lads,

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he was thrilled just to see his part of the world on the screen.

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I thought you might fancy this at half-time.

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It's not my birthday, is it?

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The original Likely Lads ran for three series

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and dealt with the friendship of Bob and Terry

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as they navigated the changing times of the '60s.

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# Oh, what happened to you?

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# Whatever happened to me? #

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These two Geordie characters returned to our screens in 1973

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in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?,

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delivering not just laughs, but also powerful social commentary.

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And of course, they've moved on, or Bob certainly has,

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and Terry is the one wishing it were not that way.

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The fact that he'd been out of the UK for five years

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automatically meant you were going to touch on the social landscape,

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social issues, because Terry was new to it all.

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He felt that he'd missed it.

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Death of censorship. A new morality.

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Oh, Calcutta! Topless waitresses in see-through knickers.

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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They never caught on.

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The topless waitresses.

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Well, that's a crumb of comfort.

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At least, I'd like to have been here to see them not catching on!

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Permissive society, I missed it all.

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It provided a commentary on these people who were...

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who were trying to improve themselves,

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and drink wine with their meals.

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Now, I've got white, red or fizzy rose.

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Well, Thelma prefers white.

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It's a very interesting vignette of what, perhaps, was going on

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at the time socially, with groups of people thinking,

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"I just don't want to be like that any more.

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"I want to improve myself, I want to get on,"

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and yet, there was Terry reminding us,

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"Are you sure? Is that what you want?"

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Oh, and these lovely table mats. These are new.

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Wow, hunting scenes.

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Just haven't had them out before.

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They were a present from Auntie Elsie.

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Oh, your auntie Elsie.

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How is she, Brenda? Is she still a cleaner down the brewery?

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The social and political change in Britain of the '60s and '70s

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also inspired one of the most opinionated characters ever seen

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in a British sitcom.

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No-one was quite prepared for the force of nature

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that was Alf Garnett.

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Johnny Speight said to me one day,

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cos I was his agent as well,

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"I want to write a series about, um...

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"a family where the father keeps arguing with the son-in-law."

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So I said that to the BBC and they said,

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"Oh, well, we'll do that, then."

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The series addressed political issues at a difficult time

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in British society. As a result of post-war government policy,

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the number of migrants to Britain rose in the '50s and '60s

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and with mass immigration came the rise of racial prejudice,

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a subject which was directly addressed in the show.

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Look what's happening to your National Health Service! See?

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In Till Death Us Do Part, conservative Alf Garnett

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was constantly at war with his more progressive and socially liberal

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daughter, Rita, and his son-in-law, Mike.

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Look, up £100 million in one year, the cost of your health service!

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100 million increase on it, innit?

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-So?

-So? That's all your bloody foreigners, innit?

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And all the antibiotics

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for all their new diseases they're bringing...

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He was a very political writer, and Till Death,

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it was a very political show.

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It felt very real.

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It felt like the conversations people were having...

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in their sitting rooms and kitchens and bedrooms around the country.

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Johnny Speight was doing the most difficult thing,

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which is treading the line of irony, really,

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in which you have to be careful that you don't write characters

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that are so awful that a percentage of your audience think,

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"I like this guy. He's... Finally, there's a man on television

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"speaking the truth."

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The ingenious thing about Speight

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is that he'll put in a couple of things that would just tickle the,

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you know, the nation's conscience and so, you'd be laughing with him,

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too, because he'll say things that people said, felt,

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but daren't say. But on the whole, yeah, you were laughing at him.

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The tricky question of whether the audience was laughing

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at Alf Garnett or with him was addressed by Johnny Speight himself

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in a 1973 interview with Michael Parkinson.

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I often wonder about Garnett.

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Was he a throwback to your childhood,

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or is he a discernible character that you see around you?

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I see him around me all the time, not only in the East End.

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I see him in the middle classes, the working...the upper classes,

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I think there's too many Garnetts around. You know?

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Far too many ignorant, bigoted people.

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Johnny Speight did not escape criticism

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when Till Death Us Do Part was broadcast.

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Mary Whitehouse and the Clean Up TV campaign

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were not amused by Alf Garnett.

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However, Mary wasn't troubled so much by his shocking views

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as by his shocking language.

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Today's post brings a flood of letters bitterly criticising

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remarks made in the previous week's Till Death Us Do Part.

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All of them, I think, objecting to the blasphemy.

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"The reason why God and the Virgin Mary hadn't had any more children,

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"except Jesus Christ, was perhaps because they were on the pill."

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People who pontificate about things like Alf Garnett,

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"We shouldn't let him go on television," say, they themselves

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are never affected by it, but they believe that everybody else is.

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They're speaking on behalf of people they don't know.

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And they're assuming the audience is idiots.

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Well, of course, the audience

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are smarter than anybody who sets themselves up as an arbiter

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of what should or shouldn't be allowed to be said on television.

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Johnny Speight responded to the criticism from Mary Whitehouse

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in the most powerful way he could -

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by making Alf Garnett her number one fan.

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You want to read something a bit edifying, something a bit educative?

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-Educative?

-Yeah.

-Well, what are you reading anyway, Mickey Spillane?

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No. No, not Mickey Spillane.

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Mrs Whitehouse, innit?

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Mrs Mary Whitehouse.

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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And the thing about Alf Garnett, he was weak.

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He was vulnerable. You know.

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And his way of dealing with that was to attack. Was to...

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was to apport blame to immigrants, or, you know...

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And it was a big political statement at the time.

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But I think the thing about these monster characters,

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who sometimes will say the most ridiculous things,

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the important thing is, they don't get away with it.

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You're Jewish, aren't you?

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I AM NOT JEWISH!

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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You are!

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You know you are.

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They all know you, round this area.

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And listen, your grandfather's name was Solly Diamond!

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LIES! It's all lies!

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-Lies! Lies!

-It is not lies!

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Race has probably moved on in the last half-century,

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more than quite a few other attitudes.

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And so the attitude to race then looks...bad, you know?

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But it doesn't look as bad as Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes

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in Curry And Chips.

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Curry And Chips was a short-lived sitcom from 1969,

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based on an idea by Spike Milligan and written by Johnny Speight,

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starring Milligan as an Asian immigrant.

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Short-lived, and indeed, more than a little ill-judged.

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Curry And Chips wasn't received all that well at the time,

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and probably cos it wasn't quite up to standard, to be honest.

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I hardly remember it, that's not a good sign, is it?

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Hey!

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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What's your name?

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O'Grady.

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

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Kevin O'Grady.

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That's an Irish name.

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Yes, I'm Irish.

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How did Spike Milligan get away with that?

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But, you know, I speak to my mum and my aunts,

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and they talk about watching that.

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You know, and they said, "Yeah, we did watch Curry And Chips.

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"We watched it." And...

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But I think, because there was no representation at all of diversity,

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I think they felt, "Well, yeah, OK, we will watch this and, you know..."

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But, yeah, I do look back at that now and go,

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"I'm not quite sure how you got away with that."

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It wasn't that it was racist or homophobic or anything terrible,

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it just wasn't very good.

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The show came to the attention

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of the Independent Television Authority

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and they declared that it was offensive,

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and it was cancelled after just six episodes.

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The subject of race was at the core of another sitcom,

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broadcast on the ITV network from 1972.

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Love Thy Neighbour was written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and

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it explored the tensions that arose

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when a black couple moved next door

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to a suburban, white working-class couple in south London.

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We must face the facts fairly and squarely.

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A coloured family have come to live next door,

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and it's up to us to come to terms with it.

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We'll move.

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AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

0:16:410:16:42

And that was a real issue, I think, in the '70s.

0:16:420:16:46

And you know, you heard words like "Paki" and "whitey" and "honky",

0:16:480:16:52

and all these words, which you heard on the street or at the office,

0:16:520:16:57

but you didn't see on television.

0:16:570:16:58

And it was a breath of fresh air.

0:16:580:17:00

I don't understand you, Eddie Booth. For years,

0:17:000:17:02

you've been shooting off your mouth about socialism and equality.

0:17:020:17:05

"Equal rights for all."

0:17:050:17:06

Equal rights does not entitle nig-nogs to move next door.

0:17:060:17:09

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

0:17:090:17:10

With Love Thy Neighbour, I thought it was very...

0:17:100:17:12

It was...mild.

0:17:120:17:13

You know? The fact is, they're only calling me a nig-nog.

0:17:130:17:16

Compared to the names we were getting in the classroom,

0:17:160:17:18

on the playground, in the streets, you know...

0:17:180:17:21

This was a very, very mild show.

0:17:210:17:23

What's wrong with me being a blood donor?

0:17:230:17:25

I do have blood, you know.

0:17:250:17:27

Yes.

0:17:270:17:28

I know that, but it's coloured blood.

0:17:280:17:30

Love Thy Neighbour has been criticised for its

0:17:300:17:33

politically incorrect handling of issues of racism,

0:17:330:17:36

and is one of a number of sitcoms that are no longer repeated

0:17:360:17:39

as a result of changing attitudes.

0:17:390:17:41

We did watch it, and, yes, you look back, and you go...

0:17:410:17:45

Some of that stuff definitely wouldn't sit right today.

0:17:450:17:48

But, in a funny kind of way, it had its place at that time.

0:17:480:17:51

Our blood has matured over thousands of years.

0:17:510:17:55

You make it sound like wine!

0:17:550:17:56

Exactly.

0:17:560:17:57

You could say it's more like vintage champagne.

0:17:570:18:00

Yeah, you could...

0:18:000:18:01

And what's ours? Brown ale?

0:18:010:18:03

They might have been very big, stereotypical characters,

0:18:050:18:07

they might have been the butt of jokes at times,

0:18:070:18:10

but it was somebody who looked like our uncle.

0:18:100:18:13

You know? And that was...!

0:18:130:18:15

There's something quite warming and quite, you know...

0:18:150:18:17

There's quite a connection in that, really.

0:18:170:18:19

As well as dramatic changes in race relations,

0:18:200:18:23

the 1960s saw a transformation in the role of women in society.

0:18:230:18:26

There was a boom in the number of jobs available to young,

0:18:260:18:29

single women, and more girls went on to higher education.

0:18:290:18:33

Having lived away from home and with greater intellectual

0:18:330:18:36

and financial independence,

0:18:360:18:37

many women could now have aspirations

0:18:370:18:39

beyond being a wife or mother.

0:18:390:18:42

And in 1969, a sitcom came along that reflected just that.

0:18:420:18:47

The Liver Birds was written by a young Liverpudlian, Carla Lane.

0:18:550:18:59

And in another first, the script put two women at the heart of the story.

0:18:590:19:03

It took a woman writer, Carla Lane, to really put women

0:19:030:19:08

at the centre of the screen, and write fully-rounded women.

0:19:080:19:13

And explore their problems and issues and conflicts

0:19:130:19:16

from a woman's point of view.

0:19:160:19:18

How do I look?

0:19:180:19:20

Well, you won't exactly make Queen Magazine.

0:19:200:19:23

I'll be lucky if I make Horse And Hound in this!

0:19:230:19:26

Women had always been girlfriends and wives and sisters before,

0:19:260:19:31

and we were the first women who were actually the so-called stars of it.

0:19:310:19:37

Remember your mum when Gloria got engaged?

0:19:370:19:40

"Oh, my daughter, my innocent little daughter!"

0:19:400:19:43

Yeah, and there was our Gloria,

0:19:430:19:44

scoffing her pill with her elevenses.

0:19:440:19:46

Carla did tap in on the gradual emancipation of women, really.

0:19:480:19:55

That women were beginning to feel,

0:19:550:19:59

"Actually, we stand on our own two feet."

0:19:590:20:02

I tell you what, I'm going dead off this marriage lark.

0:20:020:20:05

The only ring I'm going to wear is the ring of confidence.

0:20:050:20:08

Yes. Freedom...

0:20:080:20:09

And it was reflected right through, really, in the theatres,

0:20:090:20:12

in the television, and the politics, that women began to matter.

0:20:120:20:17

# I am what I am

0:20:170:20:20

# What I am

0:20:200:20:22

# What I am... #

0:20:220:20:23

Attitudes in society were changing,

0:20:230:20:25

some more quickly than others.

0:20:250:20:27

But lagging way behind the rest was the attitude towards homosexuality.

0:20:270:20:31

# People have the right

0:20:320:20:33

# To be just who they are... #

0:20:330:20:35

For a long time, gay men were either ignored,

0:20:350:20:38

warily alluded to,

0:20:380:20:39

or camped up to within an inch of their screen life.

0:20:390:20:42

Originally, a gay artist or whatever, it wasn't discussed much.

0:20:420:20:46

Some now and again, I think it was rather hidden.

0:20:460:20:49

As though it was not going to be acceptable, or normal, or whatever.

0:20:490:20:53

So, with Frankie Howerd, for example...

0:20:530:20:57

..it wasn't referred to, but you would... He would use gestures...

0:20:580:21:02

..over the top.

0:21:040:21:06

And that's where the humour came from. You know.

0:21:060:21:09

John Inman used to do that, really over the top.

0:21:100:21:13

Mr Humphreys, are you free?

0:21:130:21:15

I'm busy pricing my ties, Captain Peacock.

0:21:150:21:17

The gentleman wishes to try on a dress.

0:21:170:21:19

I'm free!

0:21:190:21:20

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

0:21:200:21:21

I think the popular thing to do is to diss them,

0:21:210:21:24

but, you know... If your only experience of what...

0:21:240:21:27

What a gay man is like is Melvyn Hayes

0:21:280:21:32

in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum... I clung to them.

0:21:320:21:35

I've warned you once before!

0:21:350:21:37

Next time, I'll...

0:21:370:21:38

-Knock it off!

-He nearly did!

0:21:380:21:40

We needed more, we needed better.

0:21:400:21:43

The bottom line was they were funny,

0:21:430:21:44

so it didn't really bother me too much.

0:21:440:21:46

It took until 1979 for sitcom to give us the first witty,

0:21:460:21:51

non-camp gay couple,

0:21:510:21:53

when Michael Grade commissioned the sitcom Agony.

0:21:530:21:55

# I'm feeling kind of on the shelf

0:21:550:21:58

# Sometimes I... #

0:21:580:21:59

The show featured Maureen Lipman as an agony aunt who lived

0:21:590:22:02

next door to Rob and Michael,

0:22:020:22:04

her more down-to-Earth neighbours.

0:22:040:22:07

We wanted two guys who looked like they had ordinary jobs,

0:22:070:22:11

and loved each other.

0:22:110:22:12

Well, now, how long has it been for you two?

0:22:120:22:15

-It's three years today since you introduced us.

-No!

0:22:150:22:18

And you're still happily unmarried?

0:22:180:22:20

Made for each other.

0:22:200:22:21

The only reason we row is because we enjoy kissing and making up.

0:22:210:22:24

It seemed to us that if we could establish these people

0:22:240:22:28

as nice people, that would be good.

0:22:280:22:31

-Home-made nut roast.

-Ooh!

-It's organic.

0:22:310:22:34

Not to make them saints, but to say,

0:22:340:22:36

as we had all said to each other in private conversation,

0:22:360:22:40

"You could live next door, you'd never know."

0:22:400:22:42

I keep thinking of Lawrence having a great time

0:22:420:22:44

with a different girl each night,

0:22:440:22:45

and me sitting at home with two gay boys. Nothing personal.

0:22:450:22:48

No, no.

0:22:480:22:49

To see the first gay couple that felt real, rather than...

0:22:500:22:53

..the more Dick Emery version of it, you know,

0:22:540:22:56

was to some people shocking, and some people just unusual,

0:22:560:23:00

and to some people a brilliant move. You know.

0:23:000:23:02

It... But it was definitely something that made you go,

0:23:020:23:04

you know, "I've not seen that before."

0:23:040:23:06

-I've got the answer.

-What was the question?

0:23:060:23:08

The question of cheering you up!

0:23:080:23:10

Why don't you become gay and forget about men altogether?

0:23:100:23:13

Didn't work for you, did it?

0:23:130:23:14

People seemed to like it, too. People enjoyed it.

0:23:160:23:18

Not just the gay community, who finally found expression

0:23:180:23:22

on television in a way that wasn't, kind of, music hall.

0:23:220:23:25

It was real.

0:23:250:23:26

But also, the whole audience enjoyed it,

0:23:280:23:30

and I think it did move sitcom forward quite a bit.

0:23:300:23:35

As the sexual and social revolution progressed,

0:23:350:23:38

sitcoms continue to explore a wide range of themes and attitudes.

0:23:380:23:42

But there was one British preoccupation

0:23:420:23:44

that was returned to again and again and again.

0:23:440:23:47

Class.

0:23:470:23:48

If you're writing fiction in this country, for a British audience,

0:23:480:23:53

you have to be very secure in what class your characters sit.

0:23:530:23:58

Otherwise, the audience doesn't know where they are.

0:23:580:24:00

And, you know, if it's a cosy, middle-class show like...

0:24:010:24:06

..Terry And June, that's fine.

0:24:070:24:09

It knows where it sits in the hierarchy.

0:24:090:24:13

Despite the economic woes of the '70s,

0:24:170:24:19

there was a rise in consumerism

0:24:190:24:22

and increased spending on leisure activities and foreign holidays.

0:24:220:24:26

As a result, middle-class sitcoms were springing up quicker

0:24:260:24:29

than you could say, "Avocado bathroom suite".

0:24:290:24:32

Terry And June, Butterflies and The Good Life

0:24:320:24:35

all became huge hits.

0:24:350:24:37

If you look at the '70s sitcoms, stuff like The Good Life,

0:24:380:24:41

they're obsessed with class.

0:24:410:24:43

The point is, Barbara, I got it home, I put it on,

0:24:430:24:46

and I said to myself,

0:24:460:24:47

"Margo, that simply looks cheap and nasty."

0:24:470:24:50

So I wondered if you'd like it?

0:24:500:24:51

Class is a subject that absolutely runs through British comedy.

0:24:510:24:55

Because comedy at some point, in some way, is always about

0:24:550:24:59

conflict, and about wanting to get somewhere where you can't go.

0:24:590:25:03

And class, in the past, not so much now, I don't think,

0:25:030:25:06

has always been the great barrier to it, isn't it?

0:25:060:25:10

You know, you can't... Posh is a club you can't join.

0:25:100:25:12

Top of almost every classic British sitcom list is Fawlty Towers.

0:25:150:25:19

And in Basil Fawlty, we found the epitome of the class-obsessed,

0:25:190:25:23

frustrated, social-climbing middle Englander.

0:25:230:25:26

I don't think there can be a greater example of someone who was

0:25:280:25:32

trying to improve their social status than Basil Fawlty.

0:25:320:25:36

Beg your pardon?

0:25:360:25:37

Would you put both your names, please?

0:25:370:25:39

Well, would you give me a date?

0:25:390:25:41

I only use one.

0:25:410:25:42

You don't have a first name?

0:25:420:25:44

No, I am Lord Melbury, so I simply sign Melbury.

0:25:440:25:46

Go away.

0:25:500:25:52

He's fooled by anyone who's in a higher status than him,

0:25:520:25:55

as happens when the aristocrat comes to stay

0:25:550:25:58

and tries to borrow money.

0:25:580:26:00

And Fawlty does it, simply because he thinks this man is an aristocrat,

0:26:000:26:04

and therefore, he's to be trusted, there's no questions about it.

0:26:040:26:08

Lord Melbury, may I offer you a little aperitif, as our guest?

0:26:080:26:11

That's very kind of you. Dry sherry, if you please.

0:26:110:26:14

What else?

0:26:140:26:16

What's more interesting, to me, is, we're still talking about that,

0:26:160:26:19

as a thing. And we are still...

0:26:190:26:22

Sort of, even at a subconscious level, looking, immediately,

0:26:220:26:25

at a character and going, "What class are they?

0:26:250:26:27

"What do they say?" You know,

0:26:270:26:28

"What's their thing?" And it's often defined by that.

0:26:280:26:31

At the beginning of the 1980s, the new Conservative government

0:26:320:26:35

brought sweeping changes to Britain.

0:26:350:26:37

They moved to liberalise the economy through privatisation

0:26:370:26:41

and the promotion of entrepreneurialism.

0:26:410:26:44

It was a profound change that was quickly incorporated

0:26:440:26:46

into the world of sitcom.

0:26:460:26:48

The country seemed to be in the thrall of this new Prime Minister.

0:26:480:26:52

There was a whole sway, a whole generation of people,

0:26:520:26:55

who were very much anti-Thatcherite,

0:26:550:26:57

and a, sort of, groundswell of political activism,

0:26:570:26:59

especially with young people and students that sort of...

0:26:590:27:02

were very vociferous in their... antiestablishment-ism.

0:27:020:27:06

# Once in every lifetime

0:27:070:27:09

# Comes a love like this... #

0:27:100:27:11

When The Young Ones came along, to me it was a real revelation,

0:27:120:27:16

because I was a student at the time,

0:27:160:27:20

and it seemed to voice all the things I was preoccupied with,

0:27:200:27:23

in a way that many other sitcoms hadn't,

0:27:230:27:25

because they were different times.

0:27:250:27:28

It wasn't a sitcom for the people who'd been watching sitcoms.

0:27:280:27:32

It wasn't a family sitcom, it wasn't a middle-aged sitcom,

0:27:320:27:35

it wasn't a, "Let's sit cosy in front of the fire

0:27:350:27:37

"and all laugh at this" sitcom.

0:27:370:27:39

It was for teenagers, wasn't it?

0:27:390:27:41

No! No!

0:27:420:27:43

We are not watching The bleeding Good Life!

0:27:430:27:46

Bloody, bloody, bloody!

0:27:460:27:49

I hate it! It's so bloody nice!

0:27:490:27:53

When Ade Edmonson smashes through the titles of The Good Life,

0:27:530:27:57

and goes, "This is rubbish!",

0:27:570:27:59

I found myself going, "Yeah, it's rubbish, The Good Life.

0:27:590:28:02

"I'm going to be one of these people

0:28:020:28:03

"that thinks The Good Life is rubbish."

0:28:030:28:05

Even though I didn't think that.

0:28:050:28:06

It made me think I should think that way.

0:28:060:28:09

And now, as you're older, you go, God, The Good Life was brilliant!

0:28:090:28:12

And it's definitely, it's probably stood the test of time

0:28:120:28:15

more than The Young Ones. But I still love The Young Ones for...

0:28:150:28:17

You know, just shaking it all up.

0:28:190:28:20

Well, how ruddy considerate, Vivian!

0:28:260:28:28

Thank you very much!

0:28:280:28:30

Yeah, thanks, Viv, that petrol bomb's really cleared my sinuses.

0:28:300:28:33

The Young Ones was a show made by

0:28:330:28:35

a group of young and left-leaning comedians.

0:28:350:28:37

It threatened the middle-class and suburban status quo

0:28:370:28:40

that dominated British comedy in the 1970s,

0:28:400:28:43

and was aimed squarely at the next generation.

0:28:430:28:45

Well, then, I shall write to the lead singer

0:28:450:28:47

of Echo and the Bunnymen!

0:28:470:28:48

I remember, when I first saw the first episode, thinking,

0:28:480:28:51

"Oh, there are other people like me, who think like that."

0:28:510:28:54

And that was quite encouraging to me, from a creative standpoint,

0:28:540:28:58

because it felt like the attitudes I had

0:28:580:29:02

would resonate with other people.

0:29:020:29:03

My parents wouldn't get it, and that made its appeal all the greater.

0:29:030:29:08

-Hello, Vivian.

-Piss off!

0:29:080:29:10

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

0:29:100:29:12

That's no way to talk to your mother, Vivian!

0:29:120:29:14

All right, then.

0:29:140:29:15

Piss off, Mum.

0:29:150:29:17

Viv was such an exaggeration of the punk cliche,

0:29:180:29:22

and Rick was such a great, still valid,

0:29:220:29:27

caricature of right-on politics.

0:29:270:29:30

Well, I'm going to tell Thatcher that we've got a bomb.

0:29:300:29:33

And that if she doesn't do something to help the kids

0:29:330:29:35

by this afternoon...

0:29:350:29:36

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

0:29:360:29:38

..we're going to blow up England!

0:29:380:29:39

There are perfect episodes of The Young Ones,

0:29:390:29:41

and I just loved the...

0:29:410:29:44

..utter energy of it, and the stupidity of it,

0:29:450:29:48

and the violence of it.

0:29:480:29:50

-Here goes...

-I'm completely bloody sick of this!

0:29:500:29:53

# Gotta get up... #

0:29:560:29:57

While The Young Ones' rebellion set the tone for much of the

0:29:570:30:00

alternative comedy to come in the '80s, more mainstream sitcoms

0:30:000:30:04

were also dealing with the fallout of the new political regime.

0:30:040:30:07

Carla Lane set her 1980s sitcom in a period of mass unemployment

0:30:070:30:12

in her native Liverpool.

0:30:120:30:15

Bread was on the runway when I arrived as controller of BBC One.

0:30:150:30:19

I was a huge fan of Carla's,

0:30:190:30:21

and I looked at it and thought, "Yeah, this is a really great show."

0:30:210:30:24

Bread was firmly set in Thatcher's Britain,

0:30:240:30:27

and charted the ups and downs of the larger-than-life Boswell family.

0:30:270:30:30

Number one.

0:30:300:30:32

House!

0:30:320:30:34

With most of the family out of work, they relied on trading stolen goods,

0:30:340:30:38

and getting every last penny they could from the benefits office.

0:30:380:30:42

She got a lot of criticism for writing about scroungers,

0:30:420:30:44

you know, they were living off the Welfare State.

0:30:440:30:47

I had friends who were like,

0:30:470:30:48

"Oh, it's a dreadful representation of unemployed people.

0:30:480:30:51

"Dreadful representation of Liverpool!"

0:30:510:30:54

But it still made me laugh.

0:30:540:30:55

We have got a case of incontinence in the family,

0:30:550:31:00

and I understand you have a special allowance for this?

0:31:000:31:02

We do, yes.

0:31:020:31:05

But owing to the sudden rush of incontinent 19-year-olds,

0:31:050:31:09

we're only giving it to those who qualify.

0:31:090:31:12

The benefit culture in Liverpool was something Carla recognised,

0:31:120:31:17

understood and felt confident enough to write about.

0:31:170:31:20

But again, it was a family, so they were very much redeemed,

0:31:200:31:26

because they were all struggling to survive,

0:31:260:31:28

and make their way in the world.

0:31:280:31:30

Another family adapting to the new political landscape in the 1980s

0:31:320:31:36

were the Trotters from Peckham.

0:31:360:31:38

In Only Fools And Horses,

0:31:380:31:40

Del Boy embraced the Conservative ideals with open arms,

0:31:400:31:43

and approached life with an entrepreneurial spirit

0:31:430:31:46

that Thatcher would surely have been proud of.

0:31:460:31:49

# Cos where it all comes from is a mystery... #

0:31:490:31:51

He was definitely a Thatcherite, wasn't he?

0:31:510:31:53

He would definitely have voted Tory at that point -

0:31:530:31:58

and constantly wanting...

0:31:580:32:00

It was all about self-improvement and dragging yourself up.

0:32:000:32:03

Tremendously British theme to it, wasn't it?

0:32:030:32:06

Executive mobile phone.

0:32:060:32:08

State-of-the-art.

0:32:080:32:09

You can phone someone from the top of a mountain

0:32:090:32:11

with one of these, you know.

0:32:110:32:13

It's all to do with... statellites or something.

0:32:130:32:16

My dad, who's a kind of old hippy left-winger,

0:32:160:32:19

hates Margaret Thatcher, loves Del Boy.

0:32:190:32:22

There's something about him - it's given a kind of human face

0:32:220:32:24

to that kind of money-grabbing, '80s Toryism, really.

0:32:240:32:29

It was about seeing a barrow boy

0:32:290:32:33

and wondering what his world was like, and going into that -

0:32:330:32:35

and the sort of pathos of someone's ambition.

0:32:350:32:38

Tell you what, I'll show you how it works,

0:32:380:32:39

I'll give you a little demonstration.

0:32:390:32:41

First of all, press that...

0:32:410:32:43

KEYPAD BEEPS

0:32:430:32:44

You'd see those characters make idiots of themselves,

0:32:510:32:53

again and again and again -

0:32:530:32:55

but half the time you felt for them, as well, you felt it,

0:32:550:32:59

and that's what makes it so good.

0:32:590:33:01

It's not just someone that you don't know or care about slipping up,

0:33:010:33:04

it's someone that you actually kind of do care about.

0:33:040:33:08

# From the long warm nights with the ocean breeze

0:33:080:33:10

# To the damp and to the rain of London city... #

0:33:100:33:12

Meanwhile, in another part of Peckham in the 1980s,

0:33:120:33:15

more history was being made.

0:33:150:33:17

Desmond's was the first sitcom to feature a predominantly black cast

0:33:170:33:21

in the workplace, and portray the black community

0:33:210:33:23

within a British context.

0:33:230:33:25

Based in a south London barbershop,

0:33:250:33:27

it would go on to become Channel 4's longest-running sitcom.

0:33:270:33:31

The whole family thing

0:33:310:33:32

was the fact about just reflecting the black experience

0:33:320:33:36

in this country,

0:33:360:33:38

and it's one of mobility, of education, of wanting to do well,

0:33:380:33:43

and every family felt that.

0:33:430:33:45

Hah!

0:33:450:33:46

-Father, I can't read the paper...

-You can't read?

0:33:470:33:49

After all the education I gave you,

0:33:490:33:52

my son, the bank manager, can't read?

0:33:520:33:54

The show looked at the differing experiences

0:33:540:33:57

of the original immigrant members of the family

0:33:570:34:00

and their children, who were growing up in Britain,

0:34:000:34:02

and it remains one of the most successful sitcoms

0:34:020:34:05

that Channel 4 has ever made.

0:34:050:34:06

What's your paper called?

0:34:080:34:09

I never wrote Desmond's for black people.

0:34:110:34:13

We know who we are.

0:34:130:34:14

I wrote them for white people, so they can know who we are.

0:34:140:34:17

There goes my street cred.

0:34:200:34:21

It was from a completely different world

0:34:210:34:23

to what I was living in in Devon -

0:34:230:34:25

but the thing about a sitcom is,

0:34:250:34:26

because you're welcomed into that world,

0:34:260:34:28

it kind of brings other areas into your living room

0:34:280:34:33

that you can't see on a day-to-day basis,

0:34:330:34:36

and it's a very good way of creating social integration

0:34:360:34:39

without people even realising what they're watching.

0:34:390:34:42

Listen, you two, after you've had this,

0:34:420:34:44

I want you to go.

0:34:440:34:45

This is not a cafe, you know.

0:34:450:34:46

Come on, Shirl, don't be like that -

0:34:460:34:48

it's people like us that keep this shop going.

0:34:480:34:50

Without us, this place wouldn't be the same.

0:34:500:34:52

Without you, this place would be a barbershop.

0:34:520:34:55

Instead of a bookie and a social club.

0:34:560:34:59

Where we lived, in a little village outside of High Wycombe,

0:34:590:35:02

was not particularly diverse -

0:35:020:35:04

and here was a world that I was not exposed to,

0:35:040:35:08

yet here are characters that I absolutely love

0:35:080:35:11

and associate with.

0:35:110:35:13

I've got a couple of tickets

0:35:130:35:14

for me boxing club dinner and dance in a couple of weeks' time.

0:35:140:35:17

I'm fighting, I'll knock him out first round if you come.

0:35:170:35:19

How about it, then, eh?

0:35:190:35:20

SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

0:35:210:35:23

But even as an Asian family, we would connect with that,

0:35:250:35:28

we really would connect with that.

0:35:280:35:29

We felt it was talking about us, in a way.

0:35:290:35:32

We felt it was saying something about the immigrant life in Britain.

0:35:320:35:37

The great thing about Desmond's, and comedy specifically,

0:35:370:35:40

it gave you a platform to ridicule, debate or, indeed, expand on -

0:35:400:35:44

not necessarily your view,

0:35:440:35:46

but the collective view of your culture at the time.

0:35:460:35:49

# They say I might as well face the truth... #

0:35:510:35:54

Writers have often used sitcom to study our attitudes

0:35:540:35:56

to different sections of society,

0:35:560:35:58

and, in 1990, David Renwick decided it was time

0:35:580:36:01

to investigate how we treat our senior citizens.

0:36:010:36:04

Of course, the biggest problem of all

0:36:040:36:06

was - how do you ever replace a man

0:36:060:36:08

like Victor Meldrew?

0:36:080:36:09

Well, basically, with this box...

0:36:090:36:11

Because Meldrew is in that position of having to retire early,

0:36:110:36:16

you've still got a very active mind,

0:36:160:36:18

and someone who's full of creativity, if you like,

0:36:180:36:22

and doesn't have any focus for that.

0:36:220:36:25

So his domestic life becomes a drama around him, because of that.

0:36:250:36:30

Afternoon!

0:36:360:36:37

I think, after Del Boy falling through the bar,

0:36:370:36:40

the greatest moment ever in British sitcom

0:36:400:36:42

is Victor Meldrew picking up the small dog -

0:36:420:36:44

which I watch on YouTube once a month.

0:36:440:36:45

PHONE RINGS

0:36:450:36:46

4291?

0:36:470:36:49

Where the bloody hell did you come from?

0:36:510:36:54

PHONE RINGS

0:36:540:36:55

Bugger off!

0:36:550:36:58

A lot of people didn't actually realise

0:36:580:37:00

how subversive One Foot In The Grave is.

0:37:000:37:03

It's an extraordinarily surreal sitcom.

0:37:030:37:05

I've certainly wheeled a lot of old ladies about, Mrs Meldrew.

0:37:050:37:10

But who's going to wheel me about?

0:37:120:37:14

The show challenged the traditional boundaries

0:37:140:37:17

of more conventional sitcoms,

0:37:170:37:19

dealing with subjects such as death and old age

0:37:190:37:21

with pathos and black comedy.

0:37:210:37:23

Victor!

0:37:310:37:33

I think the marvellous thing about Victor Meldrew

0:37:340:37:38

was that, there but for the grace of God go I.

0:37:380:37:43

The things that irritated him actually irritated nearly everybody.

0:37:430:37:47

I was out the back working in the garden when he arrived,

0:37:470:37:50

so I asked him if, for the time being,

0:37:500:37:51

he'd put in the downstairs toilet for me.

0:37:510:37:53

And you know what he's done?!

0:37:530:37:55

He's only planted it in the bowl!

0:37:550:37:57

He's trapped by the conventions of old age, isn't he?

0:37:590:38:03

Trapped by the idea that you have to be a particular sort of person.

0:38:030:38:07

But also playing fantastically on the idea that, as you get older,

0:38:070:38:11

you really don't care much any more,

0:38:110:38:12

so you can just be as rude as you like.

0:38:120:38:14

In the 1990s, Britain was awash with a new sense of optimism.

0:38:160:38:21

New Labour were on the rise, Britpop was cool,

0:38:210:38:24

and, for a while, it seemed that things could only get better.

0:38:240:38:27

Likewise, many of the hit sitcoms of the era

0:38:270:38:29

were big, bold and even brash.

0:38:290:38:32

Brightest of all was a satire on excess,

0:38:320:38:34

which started out life as a sketch

0:38:340:38:36

from two of the country's funniest women -

0:38:360:38:38

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

0:38:380:38:41

Where is it you're going?

0:38:410:38:43

-Aberdeen.

-Aber-bloody-deen!

0:38:430:38:46

I don't know anybody

0:38:460:38:48

in Aber-bloody-deen, darling!

0:38:480:38:51

I think the '90s was quite a kind of surface, kind of facile decade.

0:38:510:38:57

It was kind of between the fear of the Cold War

0:38:570:39:00

and the fear of post-9/11,

0:39:000:39:02

there was this era which was obsessed with celebrity and fashion

0:39:020:39:07

and kind of just having fun.

0:39:070:39:09

# Wheels on fire... #

0:39:110:39:14

You talk about a sitcom that completely caught the moment

0:39:140:39:17

and absolutely bottled it, and that was it.

0:39:170:39:19

When we started it, I remember the late George Melly on a review show

0:39:190:39:24

saying, "Dear, oh, dear, oh, dear,

0:39:240:39:26

"there is nothing funny about recovering alcoholics."

0:39:260:39:29

To which my response is, "Who said they were recovering?"

0:39:290:39:32

You're not eating, Patsy?

0:39:320:39:33

No, liquid lunch for me, Mrs M.

0:39:330:39:35

Ab Fab is just about excess, isn't it?

0:39:350:39:38

And that feeling, which I think was very prevalent at that point,

0:39:380:39:41

of how things looked being the most important thing.

0:39:410:39:45

Opening a shop, Pats.

0:39:450:39:47

Ooh, what are you going to sell?

0:39:470:39:48

-Ooh, just gorgeous things, you know.

-Ooh, lovely!

0:39:480:39:50

What sitcom's brilliant at

0:39:500:39:53

is identifying a kind of social movement or type and skewering it,

0:39:530:39:58

and going, "This is stupid."

0:39:580:40:00

What we need is a princess with a press following

0:40:000:40:02

and a designer dress on her back!

0:40:020:40:04

Jonathan Swift said satire is a glass

0:40:040:40:07

wherein each man sees every face except his own -

0:40:070:40:11

and it's an interesting thing,

0:40:110:40:13

that when you set out with something like Ab Fab,

0:40:130:40:15

which is about a bit of an industry, if you like,

0:40:150:40:18

and you're poking fun at it.

0:40:180:40:20

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

0:40:200:40:21

-They loved it, they loved it.

-No, they hated me, they hated me!

0:40:210:40:24

No, they love, love, loved... Oh!

0:40:240:40:26

When Jennifer wrote it, what she was really trying to do, I think,

0:40:260:40:30

was to say, "Look at these people, they are a waste of space,

0:40:300:40:33

"they're a waste of air.

0:40:330:40:35

"PR is a kind of nonevent."

0:40:350:40:39

I'm going down in history, Pats,

0:40:390:40:41

as the woman that put Princess Anne in a Vivienne Westwood basque!

0:40:410:40:44

But it was interesting,

0:40:440:40:45

how the people who immediately embraced Ab Fab

0:40:450:40:49

and took it to their bosoms were, first, people in fashion and PR.

0:40:490:40:53

So either we got it wrong - which I don't think we did -

0:40:530:40:56

or are they just went, "Hooray! PR, you noticed! We're valuable!

0:40:560:41:01

"We're useful to the community."

0:41:010:41:02

What do you see when you look in the mirror, darling?

0:41:020:41:04

Me looking fabulous, what do you see?

0:41:040:41:06

It also objectified the time, which was materialistic,

0:41:060:41:11

it was putting the wrong emphasis on labels, and...

0:41:110:41:16

You know, not the sort of thing that was meaningful, really.

0:41:160:41:21

It wasn't very meaningful -

0:41:210:41:23

but she was being meaningful... flagging it up. Clever girl.

0:41:230:41:28

BOTH: # They say our love won't pay the rent... #

0:41:280:41:31

I'm Cher, Patsy!

0:41:310:41:33

I'm doing the Cher bit.

0:41:330:41:35

While Jennifer captured the zeitgeist

0:41:350:41:37

with her satire of the fashion and PR worlds,

0:41:370:41:39

her comedy partner, Dawn, was equally timely

0:41:390:41:42

with a sitcom about a very different issue affecting Britain at the time.

0:41:420:41:46

Good evening. Centuries of tradition and decades of campaigning

0:41:460:41:50

came to an end tonight

0:41:500:41:51

when the Church of England ordained its first women priests.

0:41:510:41:55

# The Lord is my shepherd... #

0:41:550:41:56

Just eight months after the historic ordination

0:41:560:41:59

of women in the Church of England,

0:41:590:42:01

the Vicar Of Dibley arrived on BBC One.

0:42:010:42:04

Written by Richard Curtis, the show introduced us to Geraldine Granger,

0:42:040:42:08

the surprise arrival in a small English village.

0:42:080:42:11

-Oh, dear.

-Oh, my God!

0:42:110:42:13

You were expecting a bloke?

0:42:150:42:16

Beard, Bible, bad breath?

0:42:160:42:18

-Yes, that sort of thing.

-Yeah.

0:42:180:42:20

And instead, you've got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom.

0:42:200:42:23

So I see.

0:42:230:42:24

The argument was in the air,

0:42:240:42:26

and I was very interested in the argument,

0:42:260:42:28

and I got to know a woman called Joy Carroll,

0:42:280:42:31

who was a female vicar, and I remember going to see her

0:42:310:42:35

in one of the synods where they were all arguing about the issue,

0:42:350:42:38

so I knew a fight was on,

0:42:380:42:40

and it was always my feeling

0:42:400:42:42

that if someone could just see a woman in that job,

0:42:420:42:45

their doubts would instantly evaporate,

0:42:450:42:47

and I think that was one of the helpful things

0:42:470:42:49

about The Vicar Of Dibley -

0:42:490:42:51

people just knew, "Oh, no, it makes total sense" -

0:42:510:42:53

in fact, it makes no sense that you would say a woman can't do this job.

0:42:530:42:56

I did actually write The Vicar Of Dibley

0:42:560:42:57

in order to try and win the argument.

0:42:570:43:00

Ah, Owen, this is Geraldine -

0:43:000:43:04

she's the new vicar.

0:43:040:43:05

Hello.

0:43:050:43:07

No, she isn't.

0:43:070:43:08

Why not?

0:43:080:43:09

She's a woman!

0:43:090:43:10

Oh, you noticed!

0:43:100:43:12

These are such a giveaway, aren't they?

0:43:120:43:14

It's a studio sitcom, it's family-orientated.

0:43:140:43:17

You kind of forget that the idea of a woman vicar,

0:43:170:43:21

at the time, felt kind of controversial -

0:43:210:43:26

or it was a new thing.

0:43:260:43:29

It's kind of amazing that sitcom can take an idea like that

0:43:290:43:34

and smuggle it in to 8:30 on a Thursday night on BBC One,

0:43:340:43:38

or whenever it was on, and make that feel normal and accepted,

0:43:380:43:42

and that's kind of a brilliant thing

0:43:420:43:44

that Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, who wrote it, did.

0:43:440:43:47

The idea that, having seen Geraldine Granger at work,

0:43:470:43:51

you would ever think, "Well, of course there shouldn't..."

0:43:510:43:53

You know, "The idea of women priests is nonsense."

0:43:530:43:56

She's unanswerable, really. Every parish should be so lucky.

0:43:560:44:00

-RAPS:

-Nothing could be hotter Nothing could be slicker

0:44:000:44:02

Lock up your son and daughter Cos here comes the vicar!

0:44:020:44:06

I was really keen, in The Vicar Of Dibley,

0:44:060:44:08

to write someone nice and funny -

0:44:080:44:10

because I think that's the British joke, really,

0:44:100:44:13

which is that we're always in trouble trying to be nice -

0:44:130:44:16

we can never break the truth to people.

0:44:160:44:18

And there is great tradition of angry people in sitcoms.

0:44:180:44:22

You know, the Arthur Lowe, Basil Fawlty -

0:44:220:44:26

the greatest of them all -

0:44:260:44:28

One Foot In The Grave. Blackadder's in that tradition,

0:44:280:44:30

and I was really glad to be in the nice tradition, as well.

0:44:300:44:33

While Dibley was quietly subversive on the subject of women vicars,

0:44:350:44:39

another clerical comedy was about to air

0:44:390:44:41

which was equally subversive,

0:44:410:44:43

and had much to say about our neighbours in Ireland

0:44:430:44:46

and the role religion played in national life.

0:44:460:44:49

We originally thought no-one would want to do a sitcom

0:44:490:44:52

about Irish people,

0:44:520:44:53

so we wrote it in the form of a series of mock documentaries

0:44:530:44:56

with a different character every week -

0:44:560:44:58

and the one we handed in as an example was Father Ted.

0:44:580:45:01

They liked it, but they said,

0:45:010:45:04

"No-one will want to see a different character every week.

0:45:040:45:07

"Can you do this character and do him every week?"

0:45:070:45:10

And we were like, "Really?!"

0:45:100:45:11

They actually asked us for an Irish sitcom.

0:45:110:45:14

..eck! Arse!

0:45:150:45:17

These really do work, don't they, Dougal?

0:45:170:45:19

Oh, you're right, there, Ted.

0:45:190:45:20

Feck! Arse! Feck!

0:45:200:45:23

The British-Irish relationship has not always been a happy one.

0:45:230:45:28

I can well see why the idea of putting across these stereotypes

0:45:280:45:33

almost in an ironic sense, "OK, if you want that kind of Irishmen,

0:45:330:45:38

"here they are," you know?

0:45:380:45:39

We used to like taking the extreme approach to everything.

0:45:390:45:44

So, if Jack was going to be an alcoholic,

0:45:440:45:47

then he was going to drink things like Toilet Duck.

0:45:470:45:49

-Oh, no, Ted. Look at this.

-Oh, God...

0:45:490:45:52

And if Dougal was going to be stupid,

0:45:520:45:55

then he was going to be stupid to an extent

0:45:550:45:57

that you've never seen before.

0:45:570:45:58

Like, someone who, when you turn out the light, turn it back on again,

0:45:580:46:02

he thinks he's had a sleep.

0:46:020:46:03

Anyway, night, Dougal.

0:46:030:46:05

Night, Ted.

0:46:050:46:06

Oh, damn!

0:46:080:46:10

Oh...

0:46:100:46:11

Ahh!

0:46:120:46:14

'To be able to go in and explode a few myths...'

0:46:180:46:21

DOUGAL WHISTLES

0:46:210:46:22

No, Dougal it's not morning.

0:46:220:46:23

'..we built him in an image that we liked

0:46:230:46:26

'and we had fun with.'

0:46:260:46:27

I don't know, it was healthy.

0:46:270:46:29

The larger than life approach to sitcom would continue

0:46:290:46:32

throughout the decade,

0:46:320:46:33

and was exemplified by the outrageous flat-share sitcom

0:46:330:46:36

Gimme Gimme Gimme.

0:46:360:46:38

Following in the footsteps of the huge characters

0:46:380:46:40

in Absolutely Fabulous, Tom Farrell and Linda La Hughes

0:46:400:46:44

were queenie, camp and a long, long way over the top.

0:46:440:46:47

The show revelled in innuendo,

0:46:470:46:49

and in Tom it also gave us the most out and proud gay character

0:46:490:46:53

we'd seen in British sitcom.

0:46:530:46:55

# Gimme, gimme, gimme a man! #

0:46:550:46:58

The differentiation between him and, say, John Inman's character

0:46:580:47:00

in Are You Being Served? was at least Tom had a dick

0:47:000:47:04

and he was going out and he was copping off, and he was openly gay.

0:47:040:47:08

He wasn't in the closet.

0:47:080:47:09

'He was an actively sexual gay man,

0:47:110:47:15

'so that was the difference for me -

0:47:150:47:17

'that that step forward was being taken.

0:47:170:47:19

'The gay press hated it.'

0:47:200:47:22

I had done that play and film, Beautiful Thing,

0:47:220:47:25

which had a rose-tinted ending and positive role models

0:47:250:47:28

for young gay people, and then here I write a...

0:47:280:47:32

a comedy show about a vile, camp queen,

0:47:320:47:35

and I suppose they were hoping it would be the next role model,

0:47:350:47:38

but it wasn't.

0:47:380:47:39

Did you have a good evening, sir?

0:47:390:47:41

I am twatted.

0:47:410:47:43

Is that a Welsh name, sir?

0:47:430:47:44

Linda and Tom are not an ideal couple...

0:47:450:47:49

Do you have to eat with your mouth open?!

0:47:490:47:51

How else am I supposed to get the bleedin'...?

0:47:510:47:53

'..but we love them.'

0:47:530:47:55

We love them for the extremity of what they do.

0:47:550:47:58

I'm reading my stars. Shush.

0:47:580:48:00

Is the moon in Uranus?

0:48:000:48:02

One was not quite as pretty as she thought she was,

0:48:020:48:04

and neither was the other.

0:48:040:48:06

# Knowing me, knowing you

0:48:060:48:07

# Ah-ha... #

0:48:070:48:09

Towards the end of the decade,

0:48:090:48:11

we got another sitcom character with ideas above his station.

0:48:110:48:15

We'd previously seen and heard Alan Partridge on a radio show,

0:48:150:48:19

in a sketch show and a mock chat show.

0:48:190:48:22

You'd better believe it, babe. There's a new chat in town.

0:48:220:48:25

His latest incarnation, I'm Alan Partridge,

0:48:250:48:28

explored the character who was trying to change with the times -

0:48:280:48:31

and usually got it wrong.

0:48:310:48:33

Current affairs...

0:48:330:48:34

Would it be terribly rude to stop listening to you

0:48:340:48:36

and go and speak to somebody else?

0:48:360:48:38

'The character's definitely evolved.'

0:48:380:48:40

The pathos creeps in more and more as the years go on.

0:48:400:48:44

He's playing catch-up with changing social attitudes,

0:48:440:48:47

and when we write the character, we grapple with those things.

0:48:470:48:50

We're not gay!

0:48:500:48:52

I've nothing against them, it's just...

0:48:520:48:54

As I see it, God created Adam and Eve.

0:48:540:48:56

He didn't create Adam and Steve.

0:48:560:48:59

Whereas before, it would have been funny to laugh at someone

0:48:590:49:01

who was just prejudiced and narrow-minded,

0:49:010:49:03

it was funny to see Alan struggle with attitudes

0:49:030:49:06

that maybe don't come naturally to him,

0:49:060:49:08

but he tries to be modern, if you like.

0:49:080:49:11

-Can I have a sniff?

-Yeah, sure.

-Great.

0:49:110:49:13

HE SNIFFS

0:49:130:49:14

Mm...

0:49:140:49:15

Actually, sorry, I shouldn't touch members of staff -

0:49:150:49:17

unless I'm reprimanding them,

0:49:170:49:19

and then I'll put you across my knee and smack your bare bottoms.

0:49:190:49:23

Normally, comic characters live within their thing and their world,

0:49:230:49:27

and that's where it exists.

0:49:270:49:29

It is incredibly rare to have a character

0:49:290:49:32

just to span...a lifetime within your lifetime

0:49:320:49:37

and never, ever let you down.

0:49:370:49:39

-Ben, can you take this up to my room?

-Yeah, sure, no problem.

0:49:390:49:42

Cheers.

0:49:420:49:44

Cheers.

0:49:440:49:45

'There's something about...'

0:49:450:49:47

putting it in a comedy, also, which allows you licence

0:49:470:49:50

to talk about things that, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to.

0:49:500:49:54

# Curly, black and kinky...

0:49:540:49:56

# Mixed with yellow chinky. #

0:49:560:49:59

Can you still say that?

0:49:590:50:01

Oh, you're all right with that, like,

0:50:010:50:03

cos it's a race of people, AND it's a food.

0:50:030:50:05

Chinese...

0:50:050:50:07

Yeah, you're absolutely right, yeah.

0:50:070:50:08

'Alan Partridge, in his ignorance, can say things'

0:50:080:50:11

which reflect deeply held prejudices,

0:50:110:50:14

and can say them out loud, and people will laugh at them

0:50:140:50:18

because they realise the joke is on Alan.

0:50:180:50:20

If I were to say some of the things Alan said,

0:50:200:50:23

as myself, unironically, I'd be in deep trouble.

0:50:230:50:26

You're listening to North Norfolk Digital,

0:50:260:50:29

Norfolk's...North Norfolk's best music mix.

0:50:290:50:31

In his modern incarnation,

0:50:310:50:33

he tries to reflect those social changes,

0:50:330:50:35

so Alan is aware that, for example, it's OK to be gay,

0:50:350:50:40

'so he tries to reflect those things.

0:50:400:50:42

'He's aware of the zeitgeist, and tries to fit in with it.'

0:50:420:50:46

..kicking off your shoes and socks

0:50:460:50:47

and sharing an expensive bottle of wine with the woman in your life.

0:50:470:50:51

Or the man in your life, if you're a woman.

0:50:510:50:53

Or, the man in your life, if you're gay.

0:50:530:50:55

Yeah - oh, y-yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely, yes. Um...

0:50:550:50:59

I will be the first to hold my hands up and say,

0:50:590:51:02

in the past, circa 1983, I developed a fairly robust dislike

0:51:020:51:08

for the gay community -

0:51:080:51:09

but that was before I met Dale Winton.

0:51:090:51:12

The '90s was the era of outrageous characters

0:51:140:51:17

and exaggerated situations,

0:51:170:51:19

but the following decade saw a distinct change in direction,

0:51:190:51:22

and a new realism began to appear in sitcom.

0:51:220:51:25

Characters still had their flaws,

0:51:250:51:27

but now they found themselves in more naturalistic surroundings.

0:51:270:51:31

Ten years ago, the big things in British sitcom

0:51:310:51:35

were The Royle Family and The Office.

0:51:350:51:37

It set an agenda to be very naturalistic and real.

0:51:370:51:41

Are you going to make that cup of tea, Barb, or what?

0:51:410:51:44

The Royle Family, I think,

0:51:450:51:47

is probably the most important comedy that I ever watched.

0:51:470:51:55

It was the first time I had ever seen on TV...

0:51:550:51:59

a family like mine, watching TV.

0:51:590:52:04

The feeling of my dad in his regular seat, my mum there,

0:52:040:52:08

one or both of my sisters,

0:52:080:52:10

me, and then watching almost this sort of mirror image,

0:52:100:52:15

not in terms of situation or set, but just the dynamics of family.

0:52:150:52:22

Dad! Stop fiddling with yourself.

0:52:220:52:25

I'm not fiddling with meself.

0:52:250:52:27

I paid a quid for these underpants.

0:52:270:52:28

I've got 50-pence worth stuck up me arse.

0:52:280:52:30

I think if it hadn't been for The Royle Family, I don't know if...

0:52:300:52:33

I don't know if Gavin & Stacey would exist.

0:52:330:52:36

One of the great things about sitcom is we've been able to fit in...

0:52:360:52:39

We haven't got imprisoned by the form,

0:52:390:52:42

which you sometimes think American sitcoms have,

0:52:420:52:44

that they expect a certain level of brightness

0:52:440:52:47

and a certain level of noise,

0:52:470:52:48

and I think one of the brilliant things

0:52:480:52:50

that particularly the BBC has done

0:52:500:52:52

is experiment with the shape, form and texture of sitcom

0:52:520:52:56

over the years.

0:52:560:52:57

One of the boldest sitcoms the BBC has ever produced

0:52:570:53:00

turned out to be one of the most successful.

0:53:000:53:02

The Office was a mockumentary set in the Slough branch

0:53:020:53:05

of the Wernham Hogg paper company.

0:53:050:53:07

While the format was relatively new,

0:53:070:53:10

the themes that the show dealt with were familiar to British audiences.

0:53:100:53:13

Lovely Dawn.

0:53:130:53:15

Dawn Tinsley. Receptionist...

0:53:150:53:17

Social awkwardness, self-importance,

0:53:170:53:19

frustration and desperation.

0:53:190:53:21

I'd say, at one time or another,

0:53:210:53:23

every bloke in the office has woken up at the crack of dawn.

0:53:230:53:25

-HE SNIGGERS

-What?!

0:53:250:53:27

The Office would have captured that feeling at the time

0:53:280:53:32

of the early noughties, of kind of, you know, "Why have a job?

0:53:320:53:36

"Why have a career?

0:53:360:53:38

"Why do you want to spend your life doing this?"

0:53:380:53:41

And that does reflect that people are no longer

0:53:410:53:44

going in to having a job for life, you know?

0:53:440:53:47

It was saying, "Hey, look, it's all changed

0:53:470:53:49

"and we haven't even noticed."

0:53:490:53:51

There's these brilliant kind of examinations of people's attitude

0:53:510:53:56

to things like race and sexism,

0:53:560:54:00

and how that laddishness of the '90s

0:54:000:54:03

against the politically correct movement in the '90s

0:54:030:54:06

clashed together.

0:54:060:54:07

Do you mind kissing me on the nose?

0:54:070:54:08

-No. Put your quid in.

-OK.

0:54:080:54:11

-Kiss me on the nose.

-Ooh!

0:54:110:54:13

Hey, what do I get for a tenner?

0:54:130:54:15

-Oh, no!

-Squeal, piggy, squeal.

0:54:150:54:17

HE SQUEALS

0:54:170:54:19

..and I think David Brent and the character Finchy

0:54:190:54:22

embody that really well, and there's just really good little set pieces

0:54:220:54:25

that actually deal with things

0:54:250:54:28

that maybe, you know, it would take someone to write a 10,000-word thesis

0:54:280:54:32

at university to deal with,

0:54:320:54:34

and they deal with it in six lines, or something.

0:54:340:54:37

Real lives were back in vogue,

0:54:390:54:42

and another hugely relatable situation -

0:54:420:54:44

the classic boy meets girl story -

0:54:440:54:46

was playing out in both Essex and South Wales.

0:54:460:54:49

WOMAN LAUGHS

0:54:490:54:50

Stop it!

0:54:530:54:54

Everyone's looking at me.

0:54:560:54:58

Another big hit, this sitcom was about the modern experience

0:54:580:55:01

of parenthood, family life, loyalty, friendship and love.

0:55:010:55:05

It was unconventional in that it didn't rely on

0:55:050:55:07

the anguish or frustration of the central characters for laughs.

0:55:070:55:11

Oh, can you believe we're actually going to meet tomorrow?

0:55:110:55:14

Only 17 hours to go now, babes.

0:55:140:55:17

For a British sitcom, it was remarkably pain free.

0:55:170:55:20

One of the things about sitcom is it can be as far away,

0:55:200:55:23

like Blackadder, as you like, from any life that you know,

0:55:230:55:27

and then incredibly close -

0:55:270:55:28

and just the kind of intimate realism of Gavin & Stacey I adore.

0:55:280:55:32

I also love the fact that Gavin & Stacey is nice.

0:55:320:55:34

That's one of the great things about sitcom -

0:55:340:55:36

it doesn't need to point towards catastrophe.

0:55:360:55:38

It can point towards resolution, unlike most drama.

0:55:380:55:42

Stacey.

0:55:420:55:44

Oh, my God!

0:55:440:55:45

Hiya.

0:55:450:55:47

-When did you get here?

-I thought you weren't going to come.

0:55:470:55:49

-Of course I was going to come.

-I've only been here ten minutes.

0:55:490:55:52

-I like your cardie.

-Cheers. River Island.

0:55:520:55:55

Oh, so is my belt! Amazing.

0:55:550:55:57

I don't think we set out to make a show that was warm,

0:55:570:56:02

but we definitely wanted to make a show that had a heart in it.

0:56:020:56:07

What's all the noise?

0:56:070:56:08

Everything all right?

0:56:080:56:09

Oh, don't worry, Pam, your little prince is fine!

0:56:090:56:11

It was about people

0:56:110:56:13

who loved each other, mostly.

0:56:130:56:14

Even when they would have rows or not get on,

0:56:140:56:17

it was still from a place of warmth, you know?

0:56:170:56:20

Very, very unusual in British comedy to be completely positive.

0:56:200:56:24

You've got to have a character who's annoyed or upset

0:56:240:56:27

or hasn't achieved - but it didn't have any of those.

0:56:270:56:29

It was just a really sweet love story

0:56:290:56:34

peopled by very funny characters.

0:56:340:56:37

Don't promise me nothing.

0:56:370:56:39

If this is all it's meant to be, I'm still so happy I met you.

0:56:390:56:43

I think there has always been shows that have

0:56:450:56:47

reflected where we're at as a country.

0:56:470:56:50

I mean, if we sat down to try and write Gavin & Stacey today,

0:56:500:56:53

it would be a very different show - purely because of social media.

0:56:530:56:58

You know, you can't make a boy meets girl...

0:56:580:57:03

Characters who don't...

0:57:030:57:05

Who've only seen a photo of each other,

0:57:050:57:06

and don't know much about each other's life,

0:57:060:57:09

because you are in a world of Facebook and googling people

0:57:090:57:12

and Skype and FaceTime, and all of those things,

0:57:120:57:14

and Twitter feeds and stuff like that, so...

0:57:140:57:18

that, on a very linear level, will always reflect the times.

0:57:180:57:23

If you say it, I'll say it back.

0:57:230:57:25

-I love you.

-I love you too.

-Ooh!

0:57:280:57:30

In the last 60 years,

0:57:310:57:32

British sitcom has entertained and challenged in equal measure,

0:57:320:57:36

and done an excellent job of showing us who we are.

0:57:360:57:40

The gift of making the whole nation laugh

0:57:400:57:42

for half an hour every week is a very special moment.

0:57:420:57:46

Light, light...

0:57:460:57:48

The great sitcom characters can have as much impact on our lives

0:57:480:57:51

as real people.

0:57:510:57:54

I do think about Jim Royle.

0:57:540:57:56

I wonder if Anthony went to university.

0:57:560:57:58

I hope he did. Do you know what I mean?

0:57:580:58:01

There's something profoundly satisfying

0:58:010:58:03

about the way that sitcoms are shaped.

0:58:030:58:05

If you had to say... What I watch now most on TV,

0:58:050:58:08

we're in a golden age

0:58:080:58:10

of situation comedy, or half-hour comedy.

0:58:100:58:12

British sitcom continues

0:58:120:58:13

to point out our strengths and our faults,

0:58:130:58:16

and proves time and again

0:58:160:58:18

that the best way to take on a serious subject

0:58:180:58:20

is to make it funny.

0:58:200:58:22

If you can make someone laugh,

0:58:220:58:24

it is a pleasure that doesn't cost any money,

0:58:240:58:26

so it's a life-affirming thing

0:58:260:58:28

that you can do...that you don't need any equipment for.

0:58:280:58:33

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