0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09For 50 years, sex has defined the British sitcom, as much by its absence as its presence.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11People who have good sex lives aren't comedy writers.
0:00:11 > 0:00:17For 50 years, sitcom man has loved, lusted and usually lost out.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22We could see the depiction of sex in the British sitcom as highly tragic throughout,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24and yet we're happy to laugh about that.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28So, how has sitcom reflected Britain's changing sexual mores?
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Nowadays, there seems to be very little limit
0:00:32 > 0:00:34as to how far you can go.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38How has sitcom woman responded to the sexual revolution?
0:00:38 > 0:00:40She wanted more excitement in her life,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42which she didn't really get from her husband.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46She took what she wanted, when she wanted it. She just wants men.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Have we finally conquered our inhibitions?
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Or will our attitude to sex always be laughable?
0:00:53 > 0:00:54Cor!
0:00:54 > 0:00:58This programme contains some strong language.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03The heroes of British sitcom come in all shapes and sizes,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07but we've had more loveable losers than Lotharios,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09more mummies' boys than ladies' men.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11I've learned a lot about sex from sitcoms.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13I've learned that it's wrong,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15I've learned that it's grubby
0:01:15 > 0:01:17and that it's not going to happen to you.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20This is a journey into frustration.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24Censorship and scheduling have helped emasculate sitcom man,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26but the malaise runs deeper,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28to the heart of our comic sensibility
0:01:28 > 0:01:30and to the birth of the genre.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36In Britain, when we finally cracked sitcom in '56
0:01:36 > 0:01:38with Hancock's Half Hour,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41what you're looking at is a comedy of desperation, really.
0:01:41 > 0:01:42We dealt with losers,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44we dealt with people whose lives were flawed.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48I think it was the same with their sex lives - their sex lives were flawed.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51So the comedy came out of them not getting any sex,
0:01:51 > 0:01:52not getting any action.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55- Have you ever been married? - No.- Engaged?
0:01:55 > 0:01:57- No.- Regular girlfriends?
0:01:57 > 0:02:00- No.- Casual girlfriends?
0:02:00 > 0:02:03No.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06- Do you like women?- Yes.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08The scene in The Ladies Man
0:02:08 > 0:02:10where he's being asked for a description of himself
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and he's reeling off all these terrible qualities.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16That sums up what Hancock was like
0:02:16 > 0:02:19and that sums up the type of character that we've had in sitcoms
0:02:19 > 0:02:21over the last few decades.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Can you interest women conversationally?
0:02:23 > 0:02:26No.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28Can you amuse them?
0:02:28 > 0:02:31No.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Captain Mainwaring, or Basil Fawlty, or David Brent,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36they're all flawed, imperfect human beings
0:02:36 > 0:02:38and you wonder if they can form a relationship.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42- Do they laugh at you?- Yes!
0:02:42 > 0:02:45- In which way? - In the worst possible way!
0:02:47 > 0:02:49And the more things changed,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52the more things stayed the same.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55The Swinging Sixties were a time of liberation,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57experimentation and free love...
0:02:57 > 0:02:59but not on Sitcom Street.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03It is fashionable to regard the '60s
0:03:03 > 0:03:06as a period when, quote, "It all hung out",
0:03:06 > 0:03:09which always sounds dreadfully uncomfortable to me!
0:03:09 > 0:03:14But, actually, I think it takes the better part of the decade
0:03:14 > 0:03:18to trickle down to people who are not living in metropolitan London,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21who don't have jobs of choice, who aren't uniquely beautiful.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23Just because a bloke in West London
0:03:23 > 0:03:26is having sex with his hippy girlfriend and smoking dope
0:03:26 > 0:03:30doesn't mean someone at TV Centre is going to slap this on our screens.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Things move slowly - or they did then.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37Mostly, comedy deals with suburban life more than urban life.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40There was a show called Meet The Wife
0:03:40 > 0:03:43with Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46A northern couple, entirely benign.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Sex, I don't think, was even alluded to in any way, shape or form,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52let alone shown and/or done.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Occasionally it's called "it", I seem to remember.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57- Here's your cocoa. - Oh, thanks, Freddie.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Or there was a show called All Gas And Gaiters...
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Four men in a bishopric, as it were.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Sex, as far as I remember, is never alluded to,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10except as a kind of, "It's a temptation and I must avoid it".
0:04:10 > 0:04:16In fact, a battle was raging for the very soul of television.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19We saw a programme that started at 6.35
0:04:19 > 0:04:22and it was the dirtiest programme
0:04:22 > 0:04:25that I have seen for a very long time.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29But, for now, sitcom sat on the sidelines.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32The more serious dramas, the Armchair Theatres, the Wednesday Plays -
0:04:32 > 0:04:36sex is part and parcel of the subjects they tackled.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39But sitcom is always considered to be more family orientated,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42it's more about getting the people together to watch it.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Most comedies played early evening for a family audience
0:04:46 > 0:04:48and that was who you were appealing to.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50The late night satire shows
0:04:50 > 0:04:52could afford to take more risks,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56but even here the "it" word dare not speak its name.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58I started with That Was The Week That Was
0:04:58 > 0:05:02and I did a sketch in which Lance Percival was the driver
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and Millicent Martin was the engine of the car
0:05:05 > 0:05:07and everything was a sexual innuendo.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Change gear.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Horn.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12HORN HONKS
0:05:12 > 0:05:13Oh, I like that!
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Innuendo would be sitcom's shorthand for sex
0:05:19 > 0:05:20for the next 20 years.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22I'm not sure why we, as a nation,
0:05:22 > 0:05:23like innuendo so much.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26For me, there's a sort of familiarity with it.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29There's this sort of comfort blanket feeling to it
0:05:29 > 0:05:31that reminds me of the Carry On films
0:05:31 > 0:05:33and the comedies that I loved, growing up.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Try another double bend!
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Kinky...
0:05:38 > 0:05:40People from other countries
0:05:40 > 0:05:44see innuendo as something that the British do all the time,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46on television and in film, in a sitcom,
0:05:46 > 0:05:47but also just in everyday lives.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It's one of the ways in which we talk.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52- I'm not stopping. - What are you doing?
0:05:52 > 0:05:54- Reversing.- Pervert!
0:05:54 > 0:05:55But in 1965,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59one writer did engage directly with the sexual revolution
0:05:59 > 0:06:02and put sitcom on the front line.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Till Death Us Do Part is perhaps the first adult sitcom.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Johnny Speight's scripts looked at politics,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11perhaps immigration and, inevitably, sex.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15I think the people who complain about sex are the ones who aren't getting enough.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The ones who are getting their share have no complaints,
0:06:18 > 0:06:19quite satisfied, well happy.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Till Death Us Do Part addressed the growing generation gap
0:06:23 > 0:06:25in our attitudes to sex.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Alf Garnett has this daughter who's young and hip and swinging,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30he has the randy Scouse git.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32From the writer's point of view,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35over there, young people are living a fantastic sexual life.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38We was decent brought up, we was, me and your mum.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40I mean I never... Well...
0:06:40 > 0:06:43In an episode entitled Sex Before Marriage,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45the older Garnetts come out foursquare
0:06:45 > 0:06:47against sex before marriage,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51thinking it should be something that should only be kept within the marriage vows.
0:06:51 > 0:06:58I mean, I never attempted to touch your mother...
0:06:58 > 0:07:01until after we was married.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04WELL after.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Alf Garnett, I don't think he gets his share of sex scenes at all.
0:07:10 > 0:07:16Actually, I would love to be able to do a show with him in bed
0:07:16 > 0:07:18trying to have it away with the missus.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21That could be hysterical, I think, very funny.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Look, you want to read something, sonny.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25You want to read something a bit edifying,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27- something a bit educative. - Educative?
0:07:27 > 0:07:31By making Alf a spokesman for Britain's moral majority,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Speight subverted sitcom's conservatism.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Mrs Whitehouse, innit?
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Mrs Mary Whitehouse!
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Say, a programme like Till Death Us Do Part...
0:07:42 > 0:07:47Brilliantly funny, brilliantly written.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51But you see, he was the one that stood for moral values,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53but he was the one
0:07:53 > 0:07:56people were supposed to feel a great dislike for.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59That woman is concerned
0:07:59 > 0:08:02for the moral welfare of your country, isn't she?
0:08:02 > 0:08:06The moral fibre that's being rotted away by your corrupt television.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15But the advances of the '60s could no longer be ignored,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and one advance in particular...
0:08:18 > 0:08:20The day is printed by the side of every pill,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23and providing she can remember what day it is,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26a woman can be sure whether or not she has taken today's pill.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28I think the impact of the pill was
0:08:28 > 0:08:31that for the first time in your life as a woman,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34if you were taking it regularly and weren't one of the minority
0:08:34 > 0:08:35who had a terrible time with it,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39you actually had unalloyed pleasure without guilt.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41And I happen to think that was very important.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47The pill would change the dynamic of sitcom relationships forever.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50British sitcoms before the advent of the pill,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52are entirely male-centric.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54The male character is the lead key,
0:08:54 > 0:08:55women are right at the edge.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59They're people who tell him what to do, they're objects of lust,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02but we see it entirely from his point of view. It's always him.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06You can see things changing towards the end of the '60s and early '70s.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling
0:09:08 > 0:09:11is a show which puts women together in a flat-share.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15These women seem more adult with their attitudes towards sex.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19It is the permissive age and this is one of the first shows to exploit that freedom.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23The librarian wishes to remind you that the following books are now overdue.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Portnoy's Complaint, Lady Chatterley's Lover,
0:09:26 > 0:09:28The Sensuous Woman and The Kinsey Report.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31I remember that last one.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35It said that married couples do it 2.8 times a week.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38I wonder what they do on the 0.8 occasion?
0:09:38 > 0:09:42'It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling was co-written by Jilly Cooper.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'Joanna Lumley is one of the stars and she's exploited'
0:09:45 > 0:09:49by wearing very few clothes throughout the entire surviving episode,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51which I think is something they did on purpose.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53How do you do?
0:09:54 > 0:09:56How do you do?
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Would you like to see something else?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04- Something else?- Well, I could show you if you liked.- Yes...
0:10:04 > 0:10:08'Perhaps they just wanted to show these women were less self-conscious'
0:10:08 > 0:10:11and perhaps were at home with the attractiveness of their body.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21As the pill and sexual liberation free women up
0:10:21 > 0:10:24to take control of making stuff and doing stuff, women are going,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27"We'll make the TV programmes and this is what's funny."
0:10:27 > 0:10:29What have you got there?
0:10:29 > 0:10:31- Sex in the Sev...- Sssh!
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Sex In The '70s.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Trust you!
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Liver Birds was a bit risque, they thought.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Sometimes I tried to be risque.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Go on, phone him.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48After all, you've got nothing to lose.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52You cheeky cow!
0:10:52 > 0:10:55'There were sexual references'
0:10:55 > 0:10:58and we did have lots of boyfriends,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02but you couldn't really go into it in detail
0:11:02 > 0:11:05or we'd be a couple of slags, wouldn't we, you know?
0:11:05 > 0:11:07I did enjoy the steak.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10I did enjoy the wine...
0:11:10 > 0:11:12They were naughty girls who lead men on
0:11:12 > 0:11:18and then, you know... don't give them satisfaction.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20So, what's for afters?
0:11:20 > 0:11:24I mean, no! No, Aubrey, we hardly know each other!
0:11:24 > 0:11:28It did have an innocence about it, which I wouldn't write now
0:11:28 > 0:11:31because it doesn't exist, either in me or the world.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34But there was an innocence in the world, then.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36But by the early '70s,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39innocence was under attack
0:11:39 > 0:11:41and the pace of change bewildering.
0:11:41 > 0:11:47Have we become a more civilized society with less hypocrisy, intolerance and repressiveness?
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Or have we become less civilized,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53with moral standards undermined and young people confused?
0:11:53 > 0:11:57- Beryl, we live in a permissive society.- Not on this street, we don't!
0:11:57 > 0:12:01- Everybody's at it! - Not with me, they're not.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Sex, detached from its purpose, which is procreation,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08and its condition, which is love,
0:12:08 > 0:12:09is a very horrible thing.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14- All girls are supposed to be crying out for it!- Not this one, Geoffrey. I'm the silent majority.
0:12:14 > 0:12:21I don't believe that sex should be restricted entirely to procreation.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Sex is one of the few pleasures...
0:12:24 > 0:12:27that practically everyone can indulge in.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31If Britain was confused, so too were its sitcoms.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The Permissive Society has its tentacles into comedy
0:12:34 > 0:12:38so that characters used the Swinging Sixties
0:12:38 > 0:12:41or the permissive society as a sort of excuse
0:12:41 > 0:12:45in trying to court a girl, or the other way round.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48As a sort of, "Oh, come on. We're allowed to do this stuff now."
0:12:48 > 0:12:49It's only manners, Beryl.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Total strangers do it now instead of shaking hands!
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The Permissive Society was now a hot topic
0:12:56 > 0:12:58in the most traditional sitcoms.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59What are you talking about?
0:12:59 > 0:13:03You don't think I'm looking forward to this orgy tonight, do you?
0:13:03 > 0:13:07You have talked about nothing else for the past fortnight.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10I've been trying to convince myself.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11Oh, Terry!
0:13:11 > 0:13:15You arranged it - you and Bernie.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Enid and I would rather that you took us to the pictures.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22You have been stocking up the drinks cupboard all week,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26you have filled the house with cheese straws!
0:13:26 > 0:13:28But our response to the sexual revolution
0:13:28 > 0:13:32got tangled up in sitcom's other obsession - social class.
0:13:32 > 0:13:33We've got company.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Have we? Who?
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Joyce and Edna, they're coming with us. Sort of training.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42They're thinking of issuing them with new equipment.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45I don't see why. Their old equipment looks good enough to me!
0:13:45 > 0:13:50While the permissive society was agonized over in the suburbs,
0:13:50 > 0:13:52over on ITV, blokes were just getting on with "it".
0:13:52 > 0:13:57For some reason ITV was much more interested in shagging and nooky,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00whereas the BBC wasn't. The BBC didn't like to talk about it.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03But ITV, probably because it had a more working-class demographic,
0:14:03 > 0:14:04found it funnier.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07The inside of the bus is my pitch, you've got the cab!
0:14:07 > 0:14:10What could I do inside a cab?
0:14:10 > 0:14:15Well, use your imagination!
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Phwoar!
0:14:17 > 0:14:201970s shows like On The Buses, like The Dustmen,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22all these shows were unashamedly
0:14:22 > 0:14:25about men who liked drinking and having it off.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27But the permissive society was middle class.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32It was Alan Bennett and Malcolm Bradbury writing about lecturers committing adultery
0:14:32 > 0:14:33and smoking pipes at the same time.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37You could only have sex with a woman if you'd read the Guardian,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41whereas on ITV you could only have sex with a woman if you'd eaten some chips.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43But when sex finally arrived in the suburbs...
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Bye, darling.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47..it caused a scandal.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51In most sitcoms the guy is a loser.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56If he's trying to get a woman he probably doesn't succeed, because that's where the comedy is.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58But then when you take a Lothario head-on,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01when you take someone who's got a recognizable, successful thing -
0:15:01 > 0:15:04as they did with Leslie Phillips in Casanova '73 -
0:15:04 > 0:15:06this was actually a new departure.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14He had a slight eye for the girls, if you know what I mean.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18I wouldn't have thought he was a libertine, exactly.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21He was a bit naughty...
0:15:21 > 0:15:26But no naughtier than most men I know!
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Here you've got someone who's a suave talker, who cheats on his wife all the time,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34who tries to have affairs with every woman going.
0:15:34 > 0:15:35It often gets him into bigger trouble,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39but what it was showing was someone that was quite comfortable with sex.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41We'll see what happens at the interview.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43How about tonight, six o'clock?
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Is six o'clock all right for you?
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Well, no, not at the office. No, no.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Do you happen to know The Ding-a-Ling Club?
0:15:52 > 0:15:58It was as much the fault of the ladies he picked up as his,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00because they picked him up as well,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02but they didn't worry about that side.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06I've always heard about you. All the women you've had -
0:16:06 > 0:16:08I used to lean over the banisters and hear them talk.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11The biggest lecher in Esher.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Am I really?
0:16:14 > 0:16:18Now it would probably be the wife who's having the affairs
0:16:18 > 0:16:20and the husband trying to sort it out.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26Please. I'll be eternally grateful to you. Please!
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Well, if I can help somebody as I pass along...
0:16:29 > 0:16:33'Casanova '73 broke the first commandment of sitcom -
0:16:33 > 0:16:34'thou shall not shag.'
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Here beginneth the first lesson.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41It lost its prime-time slot after just three episodes.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45There was a particular woman who used to shout and scream.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Mary Whitehouse, that was it.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52She used to scream if anything was remotely naughty.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56I think shows like Casanova '73 become controversial
0:16:56 > 0:17:00simply because people aren't used to that openness about sex.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Television's taken a long time to get there.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05It was just the wrong time,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09when they had rules that they no longer have now.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Now, please, look, Tessa...
0:17:11 > 0:17:12Ooh, I've got the cramp. Ooh!
0:17:12 > 0:17:16'I suppose we've all grown up, or something, I don't know.'
0:17:16 > 0:17:21But nowadays, there seems to be very little limit
0:17:21 > 0:17:23as to how far you can go.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29But for now, sitcom had learnt its lesson,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32retreating into the world of the double entendre,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35where nothing was quite what it seemed.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38If you liked innuendo,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40the '70s sitcom would give you one.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Let me proffer you a little dinky-donks.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47- Oh, no... - Dinky-dinky doo-dah! Come along.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50Oh, all right then, if it will give you pleasure.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Yeah, that's the general idea.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56Writing for Frankie Howerd, you sort of had to write it the way that he wanted it
0:17:56 > 0:18:01and I could only do it out loud, funnily enough, which could cause great embarrassments to my family.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04So I once went out and was doing it on the common outside my house
0:18:04 > 0:18:07where three policemen came up to me and thought I was a lunatic.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09"Ode to Ambrosia.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12"I love to kiss her golden hair
0:18:12 > 0:18:15"She sets me writing ditties..."
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Get ready, get ready!
0:18:20 > 0:18:22He had a very, very unique sense of humour
0:18:22 > 0:18:25that was, at its heart, suggestive.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28"But most of all I love to roam
0:18:28 > 0:18:33"Around her ample...
0:18:33 > 0:18:35"country estate."
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Up Pompeii was very formative for me,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39cos it was just very freewheeling
0:18:39 > 0:18:42and although it was, I gather, tightly scripted
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and incredibly controlled, in fact,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49it looked like a bit of a cabaret, in which cleavaged women bounced around
0:18:49 > 0:18:51and then bounced off again.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Actually, it's become a matter of some urgency.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Has it?
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Don't worry, dear, I shan't keep you long.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01I watched it again recently and it is a beautifully controlled piece of writing.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04But sex is very much at the heart of it.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07And even though - or perhaps because -
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Frankie Howerd, as we know now, was gay,
0:19:09 > 0:19:15and the last person to be leching after these toga-clad women.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21Frankie Howerd's whole act was sort of based on a fictional sexuality.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24What?
0:19:24 > 0:19:27He was almost the walking embodiment of the double entendre
0:19:27 > 0:19:29and he just played it for all it was worth.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Oh, bottoms up!
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Ooh, definitely, as soon as I get back!
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Sex was doomed to repeat itself,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40first as farce, then as tragedy.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44'70s sitcom was one long winter of discontent
0:19:44 > 0:19:48for men and women, inside the canon and out.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50In George and Mildred, they flip it.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53In a way, the jokes are the same, but the clever thing they do
0:19:53 > 0:19:55is it's Mildred who has the desires.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57She is a woman who wants to live
0:19:57 > 0:20:00a full sexual life, and her husband is
0:20:00 > 0:20:03terrified of sexuality, terrified of HER sexuality in particular.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Yootha Joyce just wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13but she was very attractive and very striking and very strong.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15She was always a very strong woman.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19You always felt like she was in control. You would have the very frequent bedroom scenes where
0:20:19 > 0:20:23they'd be switching the lights off to go to sleep
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and Mildred's quite horny and George just wants to go to sleep.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Thanks to the sexual revolution,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34we women were now free to be just as frustrated as the men.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37- Hello, George... - Oh, you're still awake?
0:20:37 > 0:20:41- I'm afraid so, yes.- Oh, Gawd.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44I don't know whether she struck a chord with middle-aged women
0:20:44 > 0:20:50up and down the country, but her sort of iconic sexual frustration
0:20:50 > 0:20:53was very sort of touching, but it was quite relentless
0:20:53 > 0:20:54and quite sort of broad.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58They won't have a very comfortable night in this single bed.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02- Oh, they're not going to sleep here, George. No, they're sleeping in our bedroom.- What for?
0:21:02 > 0:21:06- Well, because I'm not having her sneering at this one. - Well, where are we supposed to...
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Oh, no, no, no!
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Yes, George.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16No. I mean, we'll be squashed up against each other.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Yes, George.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22The thought that they had to share a bed - and I think, as he says in
0:21:22 > 0:21:26the scene, "But we might touch each other, we might accidentally touch"
0:21:26 > 0:21:29the awkwardness just sort of sends shivers down my spine.
0:21:29 > 0:21:36But it's a brilliantly done scene, and the dynamic with their relationship is quite subversive.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39It IS legal, George. I mean, we are married.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Yeah, I know, but it's your nylon nightie, see.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44- It gives me electric shocks. - I'll take it off.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47No!
0:21:47 > 0:21:53You can imagine a scene like that, if it was placed in a serious drama, being very tragic and being a very
0:21:53 > 0:21:58kind of serious revelation of a relationship which is in decline.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01I tell you what, the caravan. Yeah, I'll sleep in the caravan.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04- I'll sneak out there after they've gone to bed.- Oh, George!
0:22:04 > 0:22:08And this is one of the interesting things that sitcom can do,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11that it'll point out things which, really, actually are very tragic.
0:22:11 > 0:22:17But because those ideas are told in terms of comedy, for some reason
0:22:17 > 0:22:23that's seen as more comfortable to audiences, and we don't necessarily see the tragedy that runs through it.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28But we could see the history of the depiction of sex in the British sitcom
0:22:28 > 0:22:30as one which is highly tragic throughout.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35And yet we've been quite happy to laugh about that for the past fifty years.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Do you mind if I just check your paintwork while I'm here?
0:22:38 > 0:22:42- I thought it might need another coat. - It's had five already, Mr Rigsby.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I know, Miss Jones, but it's groaning for it.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Rising Damp's a lovely programme.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51I mean, really, you can see that it was a play.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54But it's got this fantastic, cramped little world,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59which is straight out of Harold Pinter, of bedsitting rooms
0:22:59 > 0:23:02and raggedy cardigans and unfulfilled desires.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06At least they don't have to draw diagrams for us, Rigsby.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09No-one has to tell us where the erogenous zones are.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13- Huh. The what? - The erogenous zones, Rigsby.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15- Oh.- He doesn't know where they are!
0:23:15 > 0:23:20Well, of course I do. Well, they're near the equator, aren't they?
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Rigsby wanted sex, really. He thought Miss Jones would give it to him.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29And she wanted it, but she didn't want it from him, she wanted it from Phillip.
0:23:29 > 0:23:30Phillip!
0:23:30 > 0:23:32And he didn't want to give it to her.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Alan wanted it from everyone.
0:23:34 > 0:23:40So, you know, there you go, that's what was swilling around underneath it all.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42You take the ear. That's an erogenous zone.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45You blow in Miss Jones's ear, and you'll be staggered at the results.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Now, you watch your tongue. This is a respectable house.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53I mean, Rigsby is really up there with the Mainwarings and the Basil Fawltys.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58And, I have to say, you know, the way Leonard Rossiter plays it is absolutely brilliant.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Where do I go wrong, Mr Rigsby?
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Perhaps I should be more permissive.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04- No.- No, no, no.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10No, no, you're an example to us all, Miss Jones, someone to look up to.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13It was always radically unlikely that he was going to get off with Miss Jones.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17You see, Miss Jones, there's no, er...
0:24:17 > 0:24:19And he does it in such a terrible way, such an awkward way.
0:24:19 > 0:24:25- In fact, the more sophisticated he tries to be, the more cack-handed he is.- Is there a draft in here?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28I don't think so, Miss Jones.
0:24:28 > 0:24:34But that was the joy of it. He was just such a failed little man but also kind of a very British hero.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38- Well, I'll be saying good night, then, Miss Jones. - Good night, Mr Rigsby.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Rossiter would soon move out to the suburbs and to the BBC,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56but sex would remain just a fantasy.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01Oh, the thing about Reggie Perrin and sex is that because David Nobbs had written that show about a man
0:25:01 > 0:25:05having a midlife crisis, which really chimed with people, and also because
0:25:05 > 0:25:09the 1970s were Britain's midlife crisis, sex had to come into it.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14Writing the book, which came before the series, I really was taken by the character of Joan.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18And I thought everybody has their relationship with the secretary,
0:25:18 > 0:25:24and Reggie being a sort of archetypal boss having a crisis, in a way, must go through that.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28What's quite nice is that Leonard Rossiter wasn't having sex with Sally Thomsett, he was having sex,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33or trying to have sex, with basically Audrey Roberts from Coronation Street.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36I said I'm ready.
0:25:38 > 0:25:39Ready for what?
0:25:39 > 0:25:44My first day, it was only Leonard and myself, on that day, that were called.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46To the chairman... Joan?
0:25:46 > 0:25:48- Yes, Mr Perrin? - You have lovely breasts.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Ooh!
0:25:50 > 0:25:56And we journeyed to this field a bit out of London, and the location,
0:25:56 > 0:26:02then it was all set up, and the next thing you know you're running towards each other and in huge clinches,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04and he was on top of me and I was on top of him!
0:26:04 > 0:26:10And that was my first meeting with Leonard. And lovely it was, too.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15And I thought, "I'll take it a stage further. I'll actually get him to invite her home."
0:26:15 > 0:26:17What is this crisis all about, Mr Perrin?
0:26:17 > 0:26:19There is no crisis, Joan. I'm sorry.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21I'm sorry. Forget it. I'm sorry.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23I'm awfully sorry. No, I'm terribly sorry.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26I shouldn't have...
0:26:26 > 0:26:33I remember leading Reggie upstairs, and he came rather like a lamb to the slaughter, if I remember the scene.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36His little shoulders went all hunched,
0:26:36 > 0:26:42and it was like dragging a naughty schoolboy upstairs.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44Rossiter lusts.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47He lusts in Perrin, he lusts in...
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Well, all his characters are lustful and yet at the same time convinced
0:26:51 > 0:26:56that when things go wrong, they will desperately go wrong. So they have to disguise, they have to hide things.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00He has to turn the Queen's portrait away, because he disapproves of what he's doing.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03He dislikes his own lusts and his own desires.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06I think he gets very frightened by what he's done.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09I can't go through with this. Yes, you can. No, I can't.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Yes, you can! No, I'm sorry, I can't.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14And the reality of it is not like the fantasy.
0:27:14 > 0:27:21I think it's a fantasy that should have remained a fantasy to him as well as to us. I mean, we see those
0:27:21 > 0:27:23famous fantasies when he's having sex on the desk,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26but I think that's how he likes it, really.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29And suddenly he realises, is this going to work in real life?
0:27:29 > 0:27:32He's terribly relieved to have an excuse.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35- DOORBELL RINGS - Oh. Oh, hell. Oh, damn. What a shame.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Oh, just our luck, eh?
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Oh, damn, damn, damn.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42You don't have to answer it.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Er, no, no, but I better had. It might be somebody.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48Reggie Perrin isn't that much about sex.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52What's funny is the idea that this middle-aged, buttoned-up man
0:27:52 > 0:27:56suddenly is overwhelmed by lust, and his lust is about as imaginary
0:27:56 > 0:27:58as his hippopotamus-incarnated mother-in-law.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00It's all in his head.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04- These are the Seventies, aren't they, Percy?- Yes.- Yes, exactly.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08But there was one practice that was guaranteed to raise a laugh.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13Taboos are breaking down, certain practices once considered horrifying
0:28:13 > 0:28:16are now de rigueur in certain circles, aren't they?
0:28:16 > 0:28:18I had a moment in the first Reggie,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22when Reggie is trying to destroy himself by being absurd,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26when he pretends to be madly in love with one of his shop managers,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29who returns the love, to Reggie's absolute horror.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31I'm free any night next week.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Oh, my God! Oh, next week? No, next week's out of the question.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40I think now that people would be just slightly worried that I was mocking homosexuality.
0:28:40 > 0:28:46But if television got laughs from homosexuality, it was also uniquely placed to combat the prejudice.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Agony, the LWT show,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52is a show that perhaps has been underwritten in the history of the sitcom,
0:28:52 > 0:28:56but if you look at sex in particular, it's an important, pivotal show.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00- Hello, Gary...- Maureen Lipman is the star, an agony aunt
0:29:00 > 0:29:02who talks candidly about sexual problems
0:29:02 > 0:29:05but also it has this homosexual couple in it,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09who aren't used for comedic value, who aren't there just to be camp and a laugh.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Let's begin at the beginning with Agony.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16We needed somebody who was sweet and kind and normal.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19It became the two gay boys.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21How long has it been for you two?
0:29:21 > 0:29:23It's three years today since you introduced us.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25No! And are you still happily unmarried?
0:29:25 > 0:29:29Made for each other. The only reason we row is because we enjoy kissing and making up.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31The second thing that was interesting was,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35the television company for which we worked had an extremely powerful
0:29:35 > 0:29:38homosexual group in its management.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41- Jane, if there's anything you want.- Anything at all.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44'We didn't overdo it, I don't think.'
0:29:44 > 0:29:47But we did try to suggest you could only be frightened
0:29:47 > 0:29:50of something you couldn't understand and these people
0:29:50 > 0:29:51were infinitely understandable,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54therefore you couldn't be frightened of them and you couldn't hate them.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58As we entered a new decade, sex was back stalking the suburbs.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Carla Lane's Butterflies told the story of a woman
0:30:01 > 0:30:03on the edge of an affair, and not just any woman!
0:30:03 > 0:30:09I'd been doing a lot of comedy and decided I'd like more serious work,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12but I wasn't getting offered
0:30:12 > 0:30:18serious work, because I'd done 25 series of silly mums.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24The thing about Rea was she was a dreamer and she wanted
0:30:24 > 0:30:27more excitement in her life and she wanted a bit of romance,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29which she didn't get from her husband.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31Right, that's lunch finished.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33I don't see how the word "finished" comes into it.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36You whipped mine away as I was approaching my third chip.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Someone like Wendy Craig was this figure
0:30:38 > 0:30:41who'd been in all these conventional sitcoms in the past,
0:30:41 > 0:30:43the very traditional suburban domestic sitcoms.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47And the idea she's going to play a woman having an illicit affair
0:30:47 > 0:30:50and is not judged within the script, is really revolutionary.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53I'm Leonard, by the way, Leonard Dunne.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57I'm Rea Parkinson.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01- Mrs Rea Parkinson. - How do you do?
0:31:01 > 0:31:02I took the idea to the BBC
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and the Head of Comedy went pale and anxious,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08practically collapsed, when I said I want to write about a woman
0:31:08 > 0:31:11who has a good marriage, but she falls in love.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15"Oh, we can't do that. Oh no, darling, that's for drama."
0:31:15 > 0:31:17They first put it out on BBC Two.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Then when they realised people were not shocked
0:31:20 > 0:31:22and writing to the papers
0:31:22 > 0:31:28from Godalming, or somewhere, they said, "OK, let's put it on BBC One"
0:31:28 > 0:31:30and it was away.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32Rea, these are the 1980s!
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Are they? Oh. Is there something special about that?
0:31:35 > 0:31:37It's the age of freedom.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41The age of not being scared of doing what you want to do.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45'You can see that Rea is a character who's responding to the sexual revolution.'
0:31:45 > 0:31:48You're going too fast.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51She feels like she's missing out on something,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53but she's not fully sure it's actually sex.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56It's just another room.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59'It's quite clear she still loves her husband,
0:31:59 > 0:32:00'and her husband loves her.'
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And there's lots of episodes where
0:32:03 > 0:32:06they're attempting to work out how to communicate.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08What happened?
0:32:08 > 0:32:10The world happened.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14So the problem she's got isn't necessarily with Ben, her husband,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17or her children, it's that institution of marriage
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and domesticity that destroys any kind of sexual relationship that most people have.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23It's marriage that's the problem, not sex!
0:32:23 > 0:32:25Much more special.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Rea wrestled with a dilemma, should she or shouldn't she?
0:32:29 > 0:32:33You want to, don't you?
0:32:33 > 0:32:38Yes, I want to!
0:32:38 > 0:32:44The first sentence I wrote, I knew they must never go to bed, not ever.
0:32:44 > 0:32:45What a shame, how cruel!
0:32:45 > 0:32:49We never got to bed, did we?
0:32:51 > 0:32:57No. No, we didn't.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03But by now the cosy world of sitcom was under attack.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Old school innuendo was giving way to something franker,
0:33:06 > 0:33:08and to a new generation, more honest.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13There's an air of complacency about some forms of comedy,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15just like there was in music.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17So the punk revolution came along and changed music,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and the alternative comedy revolution came along,
0:33:20 > 0:33:21both sides of the Atlantic, and changed the nature of comedy.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27I'm not a virgin! I am not a virgin!
0:33:29 > 0:33:31But by the time it reached television,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34the attitudes of alternative comedy seemed strangely familiar.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36All right, if I'm a virgin,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39how come I know what a girl's bottom looks like?
0:33:40 > 0:33:42From looking in the mirror.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46The Young Ones employed cartoon violence and cartoon action
0:33:46 > 0:33:48that you'd never find in The Good Life.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52It kicked the form around, and it was probably a darn sight ruder.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Missed me, virgin!
0:33:56 > 0:33:59But it wasn't, I don't think particularly groundbreaking
0:33:59 > 0:34:01in its treatment of sex.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10'The Rik Mayall character is about, again, the recurring theme of male sexual frustration.'
0:34:10 > 0:34:13He can never get laid. He doesn't quite understand sex.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16'There's a particular episode where Jennifer Saunders
0:34:16 > 0:34:20'appears as this character called Helen Back, who's snuck into Rik Mayall's bed.'
0:34:20 > 0:34:22And he believes he may have had sex with her, but may not,
0:34:22 > 0:34:26and he's trying to trade on this in a way which is almost old fashioned.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30At one stage, she even took her bra off!
0:34:30 > 0:34:36The need for sex is one of the things that propels them, but the idea that characters
0:34:36 > 0:34:39who are so, let's be kind and just say flawed,
0:34:39 > 0:34:43are ever going to find a happy relationship,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46particularly a sexual relationship with a woman,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49we know that's never going to happen.
0:34:49 > 0:34:50That's part of what the comedy is.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52With everyone at it,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56comedy writers had to devise situations where they weren't.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58It'd been done brilliantly in the '70s,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01could it still be done in the '90s?
0:35:01 > 0:35:07Birds of a Feather, you can almost see as the flip side of Porridge.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10What happens in Porridge is the men are in prison
0:35:10 > 0:35:14and sex is always on their minds.
0:35:14 > 0:35:15Birds of a Feather,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18we find out what was going on while they were in prison.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I just remember how bad I felt when Darryl went away.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Yeah, but it's only natural to feel lousy when your old man gets locked up.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29Quite often the comedy is between the respectable upright pair
0:35:29 > 0:35:31who are waiting for their men
0:35:31 > 0:35:34and this woman who wants and is going to take.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36What made Birds of a Feather new
0:35:36 > 0:35:41was the man-mad and married next door neighbour.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44I can't think of another character,
0:35:44 > 0:35:49either in a drama or a sitcom, that was quite so blatantly in your face.
0:35:49 > 0:35:56When she sang Like a Virgin she was in seventh heaven.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01That was to her, absolutely glorious.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Dorien's attitude towards sex was she took what she wanted
0:36:04 > 0:36:06when she wanted, and that was fine.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08She did it on her terms.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12She wasn't afraid to put herself out in the marketplace.
0:36:12 > 0:36:13She just wants men.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15Dorien is a surprising character
0:36:15 > 0:36:19because even though sometimes her sexual relationships go wrong,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23actually most of the time she's highly successful, she gets the men she wants,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26keeps them for as long as she wants and gets rid of them when she wants.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30If you saw a man doing that you wouldn't think twice about it, but when you see a woman doing it,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32suddenly she's this new word, she's a "cougar."
0:36:32 > 0:36:34I need an honest opinion from you.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37All right, you're an old trollop.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Well, that's how she lived her life.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43I think she was probably the original cougar.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47She's a rare character because she's successful in her pursuit of sex,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49she's not in the first flush of youth,
0:36:49 > 0:36:51she isn't an oil painting, but she makes it work for her.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53'I think Dorien was incredibly liberating,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55'both for herself and for other people.'
0:36:55 > 0:36:57I had letter upon letter saying,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01"I am just like you, everyone calls me Dorien."
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Or, "Oh, my goodness I wish I had had the bottle
0:37:05 > 0:37:08"to live my life as Dorien has lived hers."
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Mmm! Is that a gun in your pocket,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13or are you just pleased to see me?
0:37:14 > 0:37:16It's a gun, actually.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19But even in the '90s, sitcom could only go so far.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22To start with, hardly anything could actually be shown.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25'I think there was one scene with Chris Ellison where Dorien'
0:37:25 > 0:37:30was in bed with somebody and I think that's as far as you ever got.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33And could a promiscuous married woman
0:37:33 > 0:37:36ever be a happy and fulfilled sitcom character?
0:37:36 > 0:37:42There was a vulnerability to her and that's what made Dorien real.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45It wasn't just about getting the laugh,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47you saw the hurt behind that.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Don't you wish you'd ever had kids?
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Sometimes, when I need an excuse to see Bambi again.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58There was one moment when Sharon said, "Did you ever want children, Dorien?"
0:37:58 > 0:38:02and she said, "There comes a time in everyone's life when you have to choose children or beige carpets."
0:38:02 > 0:38:03I opted for carpets.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07So you don't regret it, then?
0:38:07 > 0:38:08Of course not.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19The '90s were full of women behaving badly,
0:38:19 > 0:38:22as in the fashion PR satire, Absolutely Fabulous.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26It was a show that was quite frank about sex.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31It usually called a spade a spade, but preferred it if the spade
0:38:31 > 0:38:33had been designed by Christian La Croix.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38This is Jeff, he's our dancer and this is Hilton, drama student,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40top of the line, cream of the crop.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42Fantastic. Hi, Hilton.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44'There's an episode called Sex
0:38:44 > 0:38:47'where it feels a good idea to give a sex party.'
0:38:47 > 0:38:48You've scored there already.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53And they invite two gigolos round, one of whom is played by,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56though he wasn't at the time, one of the future stars of The Wire.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Has anyone ever told you, you look a bit like Sean Connery?
0:38:59 > 0:39:02And I seem to remember quite a funny moment,
0:39:02 > 0:39:07and this may be of mild historical interest, the first time,
0:39:07 > 0:39:12I don't know what they're called, an erection stabiliser or something.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15It was a spray that keeps you hard
0:39:15 > 0:39:19and Edi thinks it's a breath freshener.
0:39:19 > 0:39:25His tongue becomes essentially stiff for quite a long time,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28which is useful and not useful!
0:39:32 > 0:39:34For all its outrageous behaviour,
0:39:34 > 0:39:39AbFab was a knowing '90s take on the sexual idealism of an earlier age.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Absolutely Fabulous is a sitcom about the consequences of the 1960s.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49It's the idea of what happened to the swinging '60s boomers in the 1990s.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51We see Edina has been a sexual character.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54She's lived, she's had ex-husbands, she's got a kid, she's been wild,
0:39:54 > 0:40:00but now, in a way, society's moved on and she slightly can't quite get it,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04why there's this new conservatism, why there's this new morality, as portrayed by Saffi, her daughter.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08It's disgusting, that is so degrading to women!
0:40:08 > 0:40:09What do you mean? She's got the whip.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13'It is a programme you could argue is highly conservative,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15'because what it does is say,'
0:40:15 > 0:40:18"Look at the ridiculous consequences of the sexual revolution."
0:40:18 > 0:40:22And so in that way it's quite a reactionary programme in which
0:40:22 > 0:40:25women who've come from the sexual revolution
0:40:25 > 0:40:28are actually punished and seen to be ridiculous.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31# We are sailing... #
0:40:31 > 0:40:33But for its sexual politics,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37one comedy famously captured the mood of the '90s like no other.
0:40:37 > 0:40:44# Home again, across the sea... #
0:40:44 > 0:40:45There's a thing with sitcoms
0:40:45 > 0:40:48that sometimes they come along exactly as people are thinking about
0:40:48 > 0:40:49the thing the sitcom's about.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52# We are sailing... #
0:40:52 > 0:40:54I have to use the word zeitgeist, I'm afraid.
0:40:54 > 0:40:55It taps into the zeitgeist.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59I think if I'd sat there at my desk in the early '90s and thought,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02"What is really going to sum up the decade?"
0:41:02 > 0:41:06I would probably have gone in a different direction.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13The 1990s was a time when we were almost self-consciously grown up
0:41:13 > 0:41:16and it was inevitable that in comedic terms
0:41:16 > 0:41:19we would have to have a reaction against that
0:41:19 > 0:41:22and the women had been, so it was the men's turn,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24and the men all pretended to be lads.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Dorothy, I've got my flap open and I'm begging you to let me enter.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31It certainly put its finger on
0:41:31 > 0:41:34something of the way men were behaving and it contributed to it.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39The characters in it became icons of that lad culture and they in turn
0:41:39 > 0:41:43fed into it and it affected the way people behaved.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Honey, we're home.
0:41:46 > 0:41:53It's about men trying to cope with that early '90s post-feminist women
0:41:53 > 0:41:54who are in charge of their careers
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and frankly don't particularly need the men in their lives.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07As the series progresses that becomes more and more farcical,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09so you get more and more laddish,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11boobs, birds, beer, that sort of thing.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15If women could only have either buttocks or breasts,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18what would you sacrifice?
0:42:18 > 0:42:21I'd be very sad to lose my buttocks.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25- I know you would, mate. - Can I have one of each?
0:42:27 > 0:42:31We were given pretty much a free hand actually by the BBC to be as rude as we wanted to be.
0:42:31 > 0:42:37# I'm a wanker, I'm a wanker... #
0:42:37 > 0:42:39But one infamous episode on Christmas Day attracted
0:42:39 > 0:42:42more complaints than any other sitcom of the age.
0:42:42 > 0:42:47It was an episode in which Dorothy wanted to have children
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and she'd given up on finding other men,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51so she asks Gary if he would...
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Fertilise me, Gary.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Fertilise me like you've never fertilised me before.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Of course when it came down to it, he didn't like the pressure,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04so he ended up trying to... I can't remember it was such a long time ago.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08It was an attempt by Gary to boost his sex drive, I think,
0:43:08 > 0:43:10and he used pornography.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21'Lots of sticky tissues was the nub of the problem,'
0:43:21 > 0:43:25particularly sticky tissues stuck to Dorothy's face.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33Understandably people thought, "I don't know if I want to see that when I'm surrounded by my loved ones"
0:43:33 > 0:43:36but you know what, I don't care.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38I think it happens and therefore we should show it.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42It was interesting because the response that came from
0:43:42 > 0:43:45the regulators and the BBC precisely said,
0:43:45 > 0:43:48"Perhaps this was the wrong thing to broadcast at Christmas."
0:43:48 > 0:43:52They said, "This was a perfectly appropriate thing for Men Behaving Badly to do, but at Christmas,"
0:43:52 > 0:43:56which has an assumption about familiness,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00"then that's not the right place to put it."
0:44:00 > 0:44:02I don't know how we took that long
0:44:02 > 0:44:05to really deal with the subject of masturbation,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08because frankly it's very central to young men's lives
0:44:08 > 0:44:12and therefore it was remiss of us to wait till Christmas 1999 to do it.
0:44:12 > 0:44:13Have you got a light, Tony?
0:44:13 > 0:44:15No, not that drawer, you can't!
0:44:15 > 0:44:17If we broke any ground
0:44:17 > 0:44:20it was in dealing with the delicate relationship
0:44:20 > 0:44:23between a mainstream audience and the subject matter.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26We dealt with pornography in an earlier episode.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Tony has a girlfriend, which is quite rare for him,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33who discovers that he's got a drawer full of pornography
0:44:33 > 0:44:36and he does, for him, quite an articulate defence.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38What's she got that I haven't?
0:44:38 > 0:44:42Nothing, it's just that, well, she folds up into a nice handy size
0:44:42 > 0:44:45and sits quietly in the drawer.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47And his girlfriend understandably says,
0:44:47 > 0:44:52"It's a deal breaker, I don't think you should be reading these things."
0:44:52 > 0:44:53Does that really turn you on?
0:44:53 > 0:44:56How can that possibly... Oh, yes, it does actually.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58How can it?
0:44:58 > 0:45:01She's naked!
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Yes, but she's obviously freezing to death.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07She's sitting on a fork lift truck feeling exposed and stupid
0:45:07 > 0:45:08and like a piece of meat.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10How can that turn you on?
0:45:10 > 0:45:13Well, she's naked!
0:45:13 > 0:45:17It's interesting to compare it with Friends, the American sitcom,
0:45:17 > 0:45:19in which pornography seemed to be
0:45:19 > 0:45:24tolerated and embraced by the female characters in Friends.
0:45:24 > 0:45:25We are looking at Playboy.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27Oh, I want to look, too.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32I don't know whether that says something about our sitcoms,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35or our culture, but I certainly was surprised that
0:45:35 > 0:45:37America seemed to be more liberal
0:45:37 > 0:45:41about pornography, at least if you use sitcoms as your guide.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44By the '90s we were waking up to an uncomfortable fact,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48American sitcoms were just as funny and maybe more daring.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51It's funny, because I grew up thinking American comedy
0:45:51 > 0:45:53and American TV in general,
0:45:53 > 0:45:57was more repressed, and more awkward about sex and sexuality than British
0:45:57 > 0:46:00television and then something like Seinfeld came along
0:46:00 > 0:46:03and completely blew my theory out of the water.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06I am never doing...THAT again!
0:46:06 > 0:46:08One episode of Seinfeld,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12The Contest, was entirely devoted to giving up masturbation.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Far from prompting complaints, it won an Emmy.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18- You don't think I can?- No chance! - Do you think you could?
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Well, I know I could hold out longer than you!
0:46:21 > 0:46:23Care to make it interesting?
0:46:23 > 0:46:26In that scene where they set the bet up,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29the men are surprised that Elaine wants to be involved.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33Clearly there's an assumption there, women don't masturbate,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35so she'd win the bet easily.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37I want to be in on this too!
0:46:37 > 0:46:43- No, it's a whole different thing because you're a woman!- So what?
0:46:43 > 0:46:47It's easier for a woman not to do it than a man.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50We have to do it, it's part of our lifestyle.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54I think it was really pioneering to do something like that and on
0:46:54 > 0:46:56a huge show that was a big mainstream success.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58Did you make it through the night?
0:46:58 > 0:47:03- Yes, I'm proud to say I did. - So you're still master of your domain?
0:47:03 > 0:47:07Yes, I am master of my domain!
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Even when they used phrases like master of their domain,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13everyone knew what they were talking about in Seinfeld.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17And again it's really clever because you have the woman, Elaine, actually losing the bet.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20'I think it's interesting to listen to the audience responses,
0:47:20 > 0:47:22'because there's a slow realisation,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24'you can hear that the audience laughter gets louder
0:47:24 > 0:47:27'as the realisation of the implication of what she's doing.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29- You caved?- It's over?
0:47:29 > 0:47:30You're out?
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Oh, my God, the Queen is dead!
0:47:34 > 0:47:37I think running through that, and running through the whole episode,
0:47:37 > 0:47:39is an interesting idea about gender.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Men Behaving Badly can have ideas of men masturbating,
0:47:43 > 0:47:49but the idea of women masturbating is still taboo in most cultures.
0:47:49 > 0:47:55- Any fun, fantasy type things?- No.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00Not sharing the British love of the loser,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04sex seemed ubiquitous in the most mainstream American sitcoms.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07If you tell me I might do it!
0:48:09 > 0:48:12In Friends, the idea that young people
0:48:12 > 0:48:16have sex with each other, just like everyone knows they do, is a given.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Sex isn't an issue. It's discussed in a minutiae of detail
0:48:19 > 0:48:23that in the British sitcom, particularly in the '90s,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26by the 1990s, we had no idea we could write that.
0:48:26 > 0:48:31There are scenes on prime time US Thursday night NBC
0:48:31 > 0:48:33where Ross and Rachel are in bed together,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36discussing sexual fantasies about what they're going to do next.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41OK, did you ever see Return Of The Jedi?
0:48:48 > 0:48:50Yeah.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56Do you remember the scene with Jabba The Hutt?
0:48:59 > 0:49:04Well, Jabba had as his prisoner, Princess Leia.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12Ross wants her to dress up as Princess Leia. Now in Britain, that would be a bit "Ooooh!"
0:49:12 > 0:49:16But in America that's just "well, what do you fancy?"
0:49:16 > 0:49:19They draw the comedy out of it, they make it funny,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22but it's not an issue, it's just there.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26Communication in American sitcom is in the end always possible.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29British sitcom seems to say communication is never
0:49:29 > 0:49:33fully possible, we can never fully understand each other
0:49:33 > 0:49:37and therefore if we can never fully understand each other, it becomes pointless trying to communicate.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39Oh, I've got something in my eye.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Back home Gimme Gimme Gimme seemed to catch Britcom at the crossroads,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46about to embrace the new freedom
0:49:46 > 0:49:49yet still rooted in the old world of innuendo and frustration.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Gimme Gimme Gimme was, I think,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55one of the most frank portrayals of sex in British sitcom.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59You know, Jonathan Harvey is a great writer, and I think he was very open
0:49:59 > 0:50:03about things, just when you think taboos can't be pushed any further.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05What's it like having a knob?
0:50:07 > 0:50:12The language of Gimme Gimme Gimme was sort of, erm...dirty!
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Bawdy. It's sort of in the vein of a slightly more up-to-date,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21slightly postmodern Carry On film.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24- Is he a ventriloquist? - Well, I wouldn't mind
0:50:24 > 0:50:28him sticking his hands up me skirt and making me lips move.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31Sex was really important to the characters,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34just because they were both single and both desperate.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36I haven't had it in weeks.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37The next bloke I meet
0:50:37 > 0:50:40is going to need a pickaxe and a Davy lamp to break his way in.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42I think the ideal man for her was Tom.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45It was just that she didn't really believe that gay existed.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48She thought he was just being slightly lazy.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55They did eventually kiss. In our millennium special episode,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58they did have a snog, which was fabulous for Linda
0:50:58 > 0:51:00but not so fabulous for Tom.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04In one respect, this co-hab comedy with a twist marked yet another
0:51:04 > 0:51:07step forward in sitcom's shedding of its inhibitions.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10I do think it's interesting, just from the point of view
0:51:10 > 0:51:13it was the first sitcom on British telly, a British sitcom, anyway,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15where one of the lead characters was gay.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17I mean, Queer as Folk had come out
0:51:17 > 0:51:19I think either the same year or the year before,
0:51:19 > 0:51:24so there was clearly an appetite for stuff with gay characters in.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27But this was the BBC, and this was quite mainstream.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Was he any good? Did he move your earth?
0:51:31 > 0:51:34He was a bit toothy.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Comedy had come a long way since the days of Mr Humphries. Or had it?
0:51:38 > 0:51:41There's a way in which it very explicitly throws back
0:51:41 > 0:51:45to stereotyped representations of homosexual characters,
0:51:45 > 0:51:49but in doing those very kind of knowingly and over the top,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52still now it's difficult to kind of work out if we can think of that
0:51:52 > 0:51:55as a progressive kind of deconstruction of,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59and deliberate over-the-top performance of camp stereotypes
0:51:59 > 0:52:04or whether it's just a rehash of those for a modern audience.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08In the new millennium, sitcom moved fast.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Adultery, sex before marriage and homosexuality
0:52:11 > 0:52:13were no longer its problem.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15And there'd soon be sitcoms
0:52:15 > 0:52:18that would make Gimme Gimme Gimme seem tame.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22There are people who are writing sitcoms who grew up in the middle of the 1990s.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24They've got no sense of that frustration
0:52:24 > 0:52:28which has been so central to the creation of British comedy.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32So now what you've got is you've got an amazing freedom in comedy where
0:52:32 > 0:52:36literally - sexually, at least - almost anything is possible.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40Hmm, women. There they are, walking around.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46And they've all got them, under their clothes, hiding there.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47But I know the secret.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Vaginas.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52It seemed sitcom man was free at last
0:52:52 > 0:52:54to say exactly what was on his mind.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58The whole premise of Peep Show is that we're hearing people's interior monologues,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and we're hearing the interior monologues of two young men,
0:53:02 > 0:53:03so it's no surprise that
0:53:03 > 0:53:06a lot of the time what they're thinking about is sex.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09She's definitely got one.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14She's trying to make out she hasn't got one, but I know she has.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Got to stop thinking about vaginas!
0:53:16 > 0:53:19You know, when they're walking around, when they go to a disco,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21at a gig, in a club, they're seeing women.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24All they can think about is sex all the time. And then he walks into the toilet.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29- What's going on?- Barney's only locked himself in the bloody bog. - What have you done to him?
0:53:29 > 0:53:31- Nothing. Jesus! - He's a fucker!
0:53:31 > 0:53:36- Has he been sucking you off? - No, course not.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39- Yeah.- Well, maybe once.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Sitcom's pushing back taboos all the time.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Maybe not so much in what they show,
0:53:44 > 0:53:46But they're pushing taboos back in what they talk about and the language they use.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51And, you know, whether it's The Inbetweeners talking about blow jobs
0:53:51 > 0:53:55or Peep Show talking about sucking off or just generally the sort of
0:53:55 > 0:53:57terms they use for sexual organs,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01this has changed a lot, particularly, I think, in the last decade.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04Don't suck him off, all right? And don't make him suck you off.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08Just get him out there without any more sucking off.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Of course, there were still rules about what you could say,
0:54:11 > 0:54:14but they'd changed a bit since Alf Garnett's day.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16We're rationed to 25 bloodys per script.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19And I remember once doing a deal with a BBC producer.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22It was four "bloodys" for two "tits".
0:54:22 > 0:54:27At the BBC now, you fill in a form that is essentially a fuck request.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31You ask the channel controller for a fuck,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35obviously in the nicest possible way!
0:54:35 > 0:54:38And it's their decision, as it were,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41the number of fucks they'll give you.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45I'm likely to use an awful lot of what we would call
0:54:45 > 0:54:47violent sexual imagery,
0:54:47 > 0:54:48and I just wanted to check
0:54:48 > 0:54:51that neither of you would be terribly offended by that.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54It seems to me one of the things
0:54:54 > 0:54:58that comedy has a sort of duty to do is to keep pushing,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02because comedy can say things
0:55:02 > 0:55:08which serious programmes can't, I think, sometimes.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10You look at a show like The Thick of It,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12where it's Malcolm Tucker's birthday,
0:55:12 > 0:55:14and his PA brings in a box.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17It's clearly a cake. And he opens it,
0:55:17 > 0:55:23and it says in icing on the cake, "Happy Birthday C-*-N-T."
0:55:23 > 0:55:25This could be from anybody.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Ah, it's from the Prime Minister.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30Clearly, for that audience,
0:55:30 > 0:55:35language isn't the great headache, or rather some language.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38You know, racial language now is much more frowned on
0:55:38 > 0:55:39than sexual language.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46So it's not that we're no longer offended,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48we're just offended by different things.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50- What's the- BLEEP- doing here?- Eh?
0:55:50 > 0:55:56There was a key moment in the 1990s in British comedy,
0:55:56 > 0:55:59which actually happens completely off screen.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01The Independent Television Commission,
0:56:01 > 0:56:03the body that regulates television,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07published its regular "what offends the viewers?"
0:56:07 > 0:56:09At some point in the mid-1990s,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13sex fell down the list and race went up the list, and that was
0:56:13 > 0:56:15when Britain started to find
0:56:15 > 0:56:19the idea of sex and rudity and nudity not that big a deal.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22But actually, it's quite a big deal to be racist.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Now, after that,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26comedy starts to move into a much more open direction.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28Wow. What's this?
0:56:28 > 0:56:32- I thought you might like to watch.- Really?- Yeah.
0:56:32 > 0:56:38In a sitcom like Him and Her on BBC Three in 2010, the key characters
0:56:38 > 0:56:42are a couple who just basically are in bed the whole time.
0:56:42 > 0:56:48- I don't mind, if you do something for me.- Like what?
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Still that programme is very much about the negotiation of sex
0:56:51 > 0:56:55between men and women, and the ways in which,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58quite often, women hold the strings in terms of sex.
0:56:58 > 0:57:04- Like letting Laura pop round? - Laura?!
0:57:04 > 0:57:08She's my sister, Steve. She's feeling really down about Paul.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11That's an idea that's been going on in sitcom for years,
0:57:11 > 0:57:15so the reasons why sex is funny are the same now as 50, 60 years ago.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Still, it seems an awfully long way from Hancock's Half Hour.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24And in today's multi-channel world, what will be the last taboo to go?
0:57:24 > 0:57:26"Taboo" is a funny word.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29There are a great many that remain,
0:57:29 > 0:57:34and there are things which can't be dealt with in sitcom.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37I was once approached by a man at Yorkshire Television,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42and he said to me, "David, we want to do a play about sex abuse,
0:57:42 > 0:57:45"and we immediately thought of you."
0:57:49 > 0:57:50I said no.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58But maybe comedy will be kept in check by the oldest taboo of all,
0:57:58 > 0:57:59not being funny.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03If you go further than the audience wants you to,
0:58:03 > 0:58:09either in language or material or just reference, they won't laugh.