0:00:02 > 0:00:04The situation comedy is one of the defining and most-enduring genres
0:00:04 > 0:00:06of British television.
0:00:06 > 0:00:07Oh...
0:00:07 > 0:00:08God...
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Al...mighty!
0:00:10 > 0:00:15I think people remember the sitcom landmarks of British television
0:00:15 > 0:00:18more than they remember anything else.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22I think the sitcom is kind of the Holy Grail of doing comedy.
0:00:23 > 0:00:24For 60 years, sitcom
0:00:24 > 0:00:27has brought us together and made us laugh.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:00:29 > 0:00:32Whoever you were, there are certain sitcom characters
0:00:32 > 0:00:34that everyone was familiar with.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37You felt like it was a, sort of, shared experience
0:00:37 > 0:00:39with other people who you couldn't see.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41It was a kind of feeling that you just don't get
0:00:41 > 0:00:43from any other form of television.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47It has shown us many aspects of the British character.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49You snobs!
0:00:49 > 0:00:52We like laughing at people who are rude to each other.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Bloody blasphemous Scouse git!
0:00:55 > 0:00:57We like seeing people in pain.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59Social discomfort.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01You're not going to lose your job.
0:01:01 > 0:01:02You're not going to lose your job.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04You know, you're not going to lose your job.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05Awkwardness.
0:01:05 > 0:01:06What?
0:01:08 > 0:01:09Don't matter.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11Someone who has fooled themselves into thinking
0:01:11 > 0:01:15that they can put themselves across as better than they are.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18That's automatically going to be funny.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Alan, you've, er... come free at the side.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23Oh! Sorry.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25One of the things I love about sitcom was I think,
0:01:25 > 0:01:26in some ways, it's often very realistic.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30I think sitcoms, particularly in Britain, reflect the world
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and the times that you're living in.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35That's what's so funny, quite often.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38They come over and get all their false teeth, false eyeballs...
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Sitcoms often challenge us directly
0:01:40 > 0:01:42to reconsider who we are and what we think.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Got their £2,000, go home,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46start up in business, a new man!
0:01:46 > 0:01:50Trying to find taboo subjects, and find a way of doing them
0:01:50 > 0:01:52so that no-one can be offended,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55is a very interesting challenge in sitcom.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57That's it, now. In you go.
0:01:57 > 0:01:58Isn't that better? Good man.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00This will keep you nice and warm.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Sitcoms, in particular, can give voice to...
0:02:05 > 0:02:07..attitudes that dare not speak their name.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11And in that way, it's quite cathartic, because once you've
0:02:11 > 0:02:12said things out in the open, you've acknowledged
0:02:12 > 0:02:16this prejudice that you have, you've sort of...anaesthetised it.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18This hasn't been cleaned out for years.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20Hey, there's a little Japanese soldier in here,
0:02:20 > 0:02:21still fighting the war.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23You daft racist.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27So the British sitcom is not just a way to lift the spirits,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29but a way to enlighten us, and tonight,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32we're going to look at how sitcom has dealt with everything
0:02:32 > 0:02:33from our obsession with class
0:02:33 > 0:02:36to our attitudes to homosexuality,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38and from gender politics to race.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41You've got it now, white boy.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55The roots of British sitcom are found in the work
0:02:55 > 0:02:57of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59These ground-breaking writers gave us
0:02:59 > 0:03:01the first landmark British sitcoms
0:03:01 > 0:03:04with Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe And Son,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07shows which created the blueprints for much of the comedy to come
0:03:07 > 0:03:09over the next 60 years.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11BBC television presents Tony Hancock in...
0:03:14 > 0:03:15Hancock's Half Hour.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17Hancock's Half Hour featured Tony Hancock
0:03:17 > 0:03:19as the central character,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a man with delusions of grandeur
0:03:23 > 0:03:26who was constantly thwarted by his own inadequacy.
0:03:30 > 0:03:31I loved Hancock...
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Stone me, this is hopeless.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39..because it perfectly captured a sort of Little Englander mentality
0:03:39 > 0:03:43that is both contemptible and lovable at the same time.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46- Everybody gets colds. - Not like I get them.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48- Oh, of course they do. - No, they don't.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49Samples, that's all they get.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Me, I get the full output of the entire germ kingdom.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57There's a slight inherent negativity,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02glass-half-empty attitude that Hancock had that permeates sitcoms
0:04:02 > 0:04:07right through the decades, and it's something that captures
0:04:07 > 0:04:09an essence of Britishness.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12The Hancock character always thought he should be living better
0:04:12 > 0:04:16than he was but, I mean, that's why he, at times,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18wore the astrakhan coat and the Homburg hat.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21It gave him that sense of success.
0:04:23 > 0:04:24BELL RINGS
0:04:27 > 0:04:28Good afternoon.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30I wish to fly to Australia.
0:04:30 > 0:04:31What, on that or the carpet?
0:04:33 > 0:04:37What I loved about Hancock in particular was that there was also
0:04:37 > 0:04:42an aspiration to be artistic, and what that allowed for is
0:04:42 > 0:04:47some material that was... that's ostensibly quite esoteric, like,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49you know, he'd have things about poetry,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54he'd talk about Bertrand Russell and make these references that,
0:04:54 > 0:04:59ordinarily, you might think were beyond the ken of most people
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and yet, that sitcom had huge viewing figures.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05As the good poet Oscar Khayyam put it...
0:05:05 > 0:05:06AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:05:06 > 0:05:08..you can fool some of the people half of the time,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10you can fool half of the people all of the time,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12but you cannot fool, all of the time, some of the people
0:05:12 > 0:05:15who last laughed. Good luck.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18After the success of Hancock's Half Hour,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Galton and Simpson created another pioneering sitcom.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Steptoe And Son gave us not only a mixture of laughter and pathos,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29but also British sitcom's first working class family.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34Steptoe And Son kind of broke the mould in that it was about,
0:05:34 > 0:05:40you know, real situations and a tricky relationship,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42and it was set on the streets of London.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45What was interesting about Steptoe And Son, for me,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48was that it just reflected an England that I saw then.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50There was the rag-and-bone man.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Steptoe And Son tapped into the intergenerational conflict
0:05:54 > 0:05:57that was increasingly common in 1960s Britain.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Harold Steptoe was an aspirational,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02if sometimes pretentious, man who dreamed of a better life.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06But in a decade when many people of his age were moving out
0:06:06 > 0:06:08and living independent lives,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Harold was stuck in a down-at-heel rag and bone yard
0:06:11 > 0:06:14with his grubby, lazy and stubborn father.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17With Steptoe, the father and son
0:06:17 > 0:06:23and love-hate relationship works so well because it was very funny,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25also quite sad at times...
0:06:25 > 0:06:29- I was thinking of going on holiday on my own this year, anyway.- Oh?
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Cos you saw this son trying to leave his environment, and yet,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37he couldn't really leave his father.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39He needed his father as well.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42We've been on holiday together since you was that high.
0:06:42 > 0:06:43I know we have, Dad.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45That's what I mean.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47He is trapped by his father,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49and this job that he doesn't really want to do,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51and he knows he's sort of, better than it,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53and he wants to move on and every time he does move on,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56you get the "Oh, don't leave me!"
0:07:01 > 0:07:06The more I see of Steptoe, the more I think it's in line with,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10you know, Harold Pinter and Noel Coward and stuff like that,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13in terms of, sort of, family and tension and torture.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16If you're mucking about, I'll wallop you!
0:07:16 > 0:07:17AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:07:17 > 0:07:19We were very honoured to have that on our screens.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24In 1964, with the arrival of BBC Two,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28television gained a new outlet for situation comedy,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30and in December that year came the first sitcom
0:07:30 > 0:07:32to be set in the North of England.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38The Likely Lads centred on the lives of two young men in Tyneside,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42set against the background of the huge social and economic revolution
0:07:42 > 0:07:44of the '60s and '70s.
0:07:44 > 0:07:46I was talking to somebody the other day who was saying
0:07:46 > 0:07:48when his dad first saw The Likely Lads,
0:07:48 > 0:07:54he was thrilled just to see his part of the world on the screen.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57I thought you might fancy this at half-time.
0:07:59 > 0:08:00It's not my birthday, is it?
0:08:00 > 0:08:03The original Likely Lads ran for three series
0:08:03 > 0:08:05and dealt with the friendship of Bob and Terry
0:08:05 > 0:08:08as they navigated the changing times of the '60s.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11# Oh, what happened to you?
0:08:11 > 0:08:13# Whatever happened to me? #
0:08:13 > 0:08:17These two Geordie characters returned to our screens in 1973
0:08:17 > 0:08:20in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24delivering not just laughs, but also powerful social commentary.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28And of course, they've moved on, or Bob certainly has,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32and Terry is the one wishing it were not that way.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36The fact that he'd been out of the UK for five years
0:08:36 > 0:08:39automatically meant you were going to touch on the social landscape,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41social issues, because Terry was new to it all.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43He felt that he'd missed it.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Death of censorship. A new morality.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Oh, Calcutta! Topless waitresses in see-through knickers.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:08:51 > 0:08:53They never caught on.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56The topless waitresses.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58Well, that's a crumb of comfort.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01At least, I'd like to have been here to see them not catching on!
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Permissive society, I missed it all.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08It provided a commentary on these people who were...
0:09:08 > 0:09:10who were trying to improve themselves,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12and drink wine with their meals.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Now, I've got white, red or fizzy rose.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Well, Thelma prefers white.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20It's a very interesting vignette of what, perhaps, was going on
0:09:20 > 0:09:24at the time socially, with groups of people thinking,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26"I just don't want to be like that any more.
0:09:26 > 0:09:27"I want to improve myself, I want to get on,"
0:09:27 > 0:09:29and yet, there was Terry reminding us,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31"Are you sure? Is that what you want?"
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Oh, and these lovely table mats. These are new.
0:09:34 > 0:09:35Wow, hunting scenes.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Just haven't had them out before.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40They were a present from Auntie Elsie.
0:09:40 > 0:09:41Oh, your auntie Elsie.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44How is she, Brenda? Is she still a cleaner down the brewery?
0:09:48 > 0:09:51The social and political change in Britain of the '60s and '70s
0:09:51 > 0:09:54also inspired one of the most opinionated characters ever seen
0:09:54 > 0:09:56in a British sitcom.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58No-one was quite prepared for the force of nature
0:09:58 > 0:10:00that was Alf Garnett.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02Johnny Speight said to me one day,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04cos I was his agent as well,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08"I want to write a series about, um...
0:10:08 > 0:10:12"a family where the father keeps arguing with the son-in-law."
0:10:15 > 0:10:17So I said that to the BBC and they said,
0:10:17 > 0:10:18"Oh, well, we'll do that, then."
0:10:21 > 0:10:24The series addressed political issues at a difficult time
0:10:24 > 0:10:28in British society. As a result of post-war government policy,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31the number of migrants to Britain rose in the '50s and '60s
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and with mass immigration came the rise of racial prejudice,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38a subject which was directly addressed in the show.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Look what's happening to your National Health Service! See?
0:10:43 > 0:10:46In Till Death Us Do Part, conservative Alf Garnett
0:10:46 > 0:10:49was constantly at war with his more progressive and socially liberal
0:10:49 > 0:10:52daughter, Rita, and his son-in-law, Mike.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Look, up £100 million in one year, the cost of your health service!
0:10:57 > 0:10:59100 million increase on it, innit?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02- So?- So? That's all your bloody foreigners, innit?
0:11:02 > 0:11:04And all the antibiotics
0:11:04 > 0:11:06for all their new diseases they're bringing...
0:11:06 > 0:11:10He was a very political writer, and Till Death,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12it was a very political show.
0:11:12 > 0:11:13It felt very real.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17It felt like the conversations people were having...
0:11:17 > 0:11:22in their sitting rooms and kitchens and bedrooms around the country.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Johnny Speight was doing the most difficult thing,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28which is treading the line of irony, really,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31in which you have to be careful that you don't write characters
0:11:31 > 0:11:37that are so awful that a percentage of your audience think,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40"I like this guy. He's... Finally, there's a man on television
0:11:40 > 0:11:41"speaking the truth."
0:11:41 > 0:11:43The ingenious thing about Speight
0:11:43 > 0:11:47is that he'll put in a couple of things that would just tickle the,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50you know, the nation's conscience and so, you'd be laughing with him,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53too, because he'll say things that people said, felt,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57but daren't say. But on the whole, yeah, you were laughing at him.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01The tricky question of whether the audience was laughing
0:12:01 > 0:12:04at Alf Garnett or with him was addressed by Johnny Speight himself
0:12:04 > 0:12:07in a 1973 interview with Michael Parkinson.
0:12:09 > 0:12:10I often wonder about Garnett.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11Was he a throwback to your childhood,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14or is he a discernible character that you see around you?
0:12:14 > 0:12:17I see him around me all the time, not only in the East End.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I see him in the middle classes, the working...the upper classes,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23I think there's too many Garnetts around. You know?
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Far too many ignorant, bigoted people.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Johnny Speight did not escape criticism
0:12:29 > 0:12:31when Till Death Us Do Part was broadcast.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Mary Whitehouse and the Clean Up TV campaign
0:12:34 > 0:12:36were not amused by Alf Garnett.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40However, Mary wasn't troubled so much by his shocking views
0:12:40 > 0:12:42as by his shocking language.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47Today's post brings a flood of letters bitterly criticising
0:12:47 > 0:12:51remarks made in the previous week's Till Death Us Do Part.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55All of them, I think, objecting to the blasphemy.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58"The reason why God and the Virgin Mary hadn't had any more children,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01"except Jesus Christ, was perhaps because they were on the pill."
0:13:01 > 0:13:04People who pontificate about things like Alf Garnett,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07"We shouldn't let him go on television," say, they themselves
0:13:07 > 0:13:10are never affected by it, but they believe that everybody else is.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13They're speaking on behalf of people they don't know.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15And they're assuming the audience is idiots.
0:13:15 > 0:13:16Well, of course, the audience
0:13:16 > 0:13:19are smarter than anybody who sets themselves up as an arbiter
0:13:19 > 0:13:22of what should or shouldn't be allowed to be said on television.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Johnny Speight responded to the criticism from Mary Whitehouse
0:13:25 > 0:13:27in the most powerful way he could -
0:13:27 > 0:13:30by making Alf Garnett her number one fan.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34You want to read something a bit edifying, something a bit educative?
0:13:34 > 0:13:37- Educative?- Yeah.- Well, what are you reading anyway, Mickey Spillane?
0:13:37 > 0:13:40No. No, not Mickey Spillane.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Mrs Whitehouse, innit?
0:13:42 > 0:13:44Mrs Mary Whitehouse.
0:13:44 > 0:13:45AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:13:45 > 0:13:48And the thing about Alf Garnett, he was weak.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51He was vulnerable. You know.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55And his way of dealing with that was to attack. Was to...
0:13:55 > 0:13:59was to apport blame to immigrants, or, you know...
0:13:59 > 0:14:02And it was a big political statement at the time.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05But I think the thing about these monster characters,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07who sometimes will say the most ridiculous things,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10the important thing is, they don't get away with it.
0:14:10 > 0:14:11You're Jewish, aren't you?
0:14:11 > 0:14:14I AM NOT JEWISH!
0:14:14 > 0:14:15AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:14:16 > 0:14:17You are!
0:14:17 > 0:14:19You know you are.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21They all know you, round this area.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26And listen, your grandfather's name was Solly Diamond!
0:14:26 > 0:14:29LIES! It's all lies!
0:14:29 > 0:14:32- Lies! Lies!- It is not lies!
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Race has probably moved on in the last half-century,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40more than quite a few other attitudes.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46And so the attitude to race then looks...bad, you know?
0:14:46 > 0:14:49But it doesn't look as bad as Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes
0:14:49 > 0:14:50in Curry And Chips.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55Curry And Chips was a short-lived sitcom from 1969,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58based on an idea by Spike Milligan and written by Johnny Speight,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01starring Milligan as an Asian immigrant.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Short-lived, and indeed, more than a little ill-judged.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Curry And Chips wasn't received all that well at the time,
0:15:08 > 0:15:13and probably cos it wasn't quite up to standard, to be honest.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16I hardly remember it, that's not a good sign, is it?
0:15:16 > 0:15:17Hey!
0:15:17 > 0:15:19AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:15:19 > 0:15:20What's your name?
0:15:20 > 0:15:21O'Grady.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:15:27 > 0:15:28Kevin O'Grady.
0:15:30 > 0:15:31That's an Irish name.
0:15:31 > 0:15:32Yes, I'm Irish.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34How did Spike Milligan get away with that?
0:15:34 > 0:15:37But, you know, I speak to my mum and my aunts,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39and they talk about watching that.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41You know, and they said, "Yeah, we did watch Curry And Chips.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42"We watched it." And...
0:15:42 > 0:15:47But I think, because there was no representation at all of diversity,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I think they felt, "Well, yeah, OK, we will watch this and, you know..."
0:15:51 > 0:15:53But, yeah, I do look back at that now and go,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55"I'm not quite sure how you got away with that."
0:15:55 > 0:16:00It wasn't that it was racist or homophobic or anything terrible,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02it just wasn't very good.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04The show came to the attention
0:16:04 > 0:16:06of the Independent Television Authority
0:16:06 > 0:16:08and they declared that it was offensive,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10and it was cancelled after just six episodes.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16The subject of race was at the core of another sitcom,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20broadcast on the ITV network from 1972.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Love Thy Neighbour was written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and
0:16:24 > 0:16:26it explored the tensions that arose
0:16:26 > 0:16:28when a black couple moved next door
0:16:28 > 0:16:31to a suburban, white working-class couple in south London.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33We must face the facts fairly and squarely.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36A coloured family have come to live next door,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38and it's up to us to come to terms with it.
0:16:40 > 0:16:41We'll move.
0:16:41 > 0:16:42AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:16:42 > 0:16:46And that was a real issue, I think, in the '70s.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52And you know, you heard words like "Paki" and "whitey" and "honky",
0:16:52 > 0:16:57and all these words, which you heard on the street or at the office,
0:16:57 > 0:16:58but you didn't see on television.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00And it was a breath of fresh air.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02I don't understand you, Eddie Booth. For years,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05you've been shooting off your mouth about socialism and equality.
0:17:05 > 0:17:06"Equal rights for all."
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Equal rights does not entitle nig-nogs to move next door.
0:17:09 > 0:17:10AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:17:10 > 0:17:12With Love Thy Neighbour, I thought it was very...
0:17:12 > 0:17:13It was...mild.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16You know? The fact is, they're only calling me a nig-nog.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Compared to the names we were getting in the classroom,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21on the playground, in the streets, you know...
0:17:21 > 0:17:23This was a very, very mild show.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25What's wrong with me being a blood donor?
0:17:25 > 0:17:27I do have blood, you know.
0:17:27 > 0:17:28Yes.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30I know that, but it's coloured blood.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Love Thy Neighbour has been criticised for its
0:17:33 > 0:17:36politically incorrect handling of issues of racism,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39and is one of a number of sitcoms that are no longer repeated
0:17:39 > 0:17:41as a result of changing attitudes.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45We did watch it, and, yes, you look back, and you go...
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Some of that stuff definitely wouldn't sit right today.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51But, in a funny kind of way, it had its place at that time.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Our blood has matured over thousands of years.
0:17:55 > 0:17:56You make it sound like wine!
0:17:56 > 0:17:57Exactly.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00You could say it's more like vintage champagne.
0:18:00 > 0:18:01Yeah, you could...
0:18:01 > 0:18:03And what's ours? Brown ale?
0:18:05 > 0:18:07They might have been very big, stereotypical characters,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10they might have been the butt of jokes at times,
0:18:10 > 0:18:13but it was somebody who looked like our uncle.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15You know? And that was...!
0:18:15 > 0:18:17There's something quite warming and quite, you know...
0:18:17 > 0:18:19There's quite a connection in that, really.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23As well as dramatic changes in race relations,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26the 1960s saw a transformation in the role of women in society.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29There was a boom in the number of jobs available to young,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33single women, and more girls went on to higher education.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Having lived away from home and with greater intellectual
0:18:36 > 0:18:37and financial independence,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39many women could now have aspirations
0:18:39 > 0:18:42beyond being a wife or mother.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47And in 1969, a sitcom came along that reflected just that.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59The Liver Birds was written by a young Liverpudlian, Carla Lane.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03And in another first, the script put two women at the heart of the story.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08It took a woman writer, Carla Lane, to really put women
0:19:08 > 0:19:13at the centre of the screen, and write fully-rounded women.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16And explore their problems and issues and conflicts
0:19:16 > 0:19:18from a woman's point of view.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20How do I look?
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Well, you won't exactly make Queen Magazine.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26I'll be lucky if I make Horse And Hound in this!
0:19:26 > 0:19:31Women had always been girlfriends and wives and sisters before,
0:19:31 > 0:19:37and we were the first women who were actually the so-called stars of it.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Remember your mum when Gloria got engaged?
0:19:40 > 0:19:43"Oh, my daughter, my innocent little daughter!"
0:19:43 > 0:19:44Yeah, and there was our Gloria,
0:19:44 > 0:19:46scoffing her pill with her elevenses.
0:19:48 > 0:19:55Carla did tap in on the gradual emancipation of women, really.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59That women were beginning to feel,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02"Actually, we stand on our own two feet."
0:20:02 > 0:20:05I tell you what, I'm going dead off this marriage lark.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08The only ring I'm going to wear is the ring of confidence.
0:20:08 > 0:20:09Yes. Freedom...
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And it was reflected right through, really, in the theatres,
0:20:12 > 0:20:17in the television, and the politics, that women began to matter.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20# I am what I am
0:20:20 > 0:20:22# What I am
0:20:22 > 0:20:23# What I am... #
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Attitudes in society were changing,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27some more quickly than others.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31But lagging way behind the rest was the attitude towards homosexuality.
0:20:32 > 0:20:33# People have the right
0:20:33 > 0:20:35# To be just who they are... #
0:20:35 > 0:20:38For a long time, gay men were either ignored,
0:20:38 > 0:20:39warily alluded to,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42or camped up to within an inch of their screen life.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Originally, a gay artist or whatever, it wasn't discussed much.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Some now and again, I think it was rather hidden.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53As though it was not going to be acceptable, or normal, or whatever.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57So, with Frankie Howerd, for example...
0:20:58 > 0:21:02..it wasn't referred to, but you would... He would use gestures...
0:21:04 > 0:21:06..over the top.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09And that's where the humour came from. You know.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13John Inman used to do that, really over the top.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Mr Humphreys, are you free?
0:21:15 > 0:21:17I'm busy pricing my ties, Captain Peacock.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19The gentleman wishes to try on a dress.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20I'm free!
0:21:20 > 0:21:21AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:21:21 > 0:21:24I think the popular thing to do is to diss them,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27but, you know... If your only experience of what...
0:21:28 > 0:21:32What a gay man is like is Melvyn Hayes
0:21:32 > 0:21:35in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum... I clung to them.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37I've warned you once before!
0:21:37 > 0:21:38Next time, I'll...
0:21:38 > 0:21:40- Knock it off!- He nearly did!
0:21:40 > 0:21:43We needed more, we needed better.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44The bottom line was they were funny,
0:21:44 > 0:21:46so it didn't really bother me too much.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51It took until 1979 for sitcom to give us the first witty,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53non-camp gay couple,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55when Michael Grade commissioned the sitcom Agony.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58# I'm feeling kind of on the shelf
0:21:58 > 0:21:59# Sometimes I... #
0:21:59 > 0:22:02The show featured Maureen Lipman as an agony aunt who lived
0:22:02 > 0:22:04next door to Rob and Michael,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07her more down-to-Earth neighbours.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11We wanted two guys who looked like they had ordinary jobs,
0:22:11 > 0:22:12and loved each other.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Well, now, how long has it been for you two?
0:22:15 > 0:22:18- It's three years today since you introduced us.- No!
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And you're still happily unmarried?
0:22:20 > 0:22:21Made for each other.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24The only reason we row is because we enjoy kissing and making up.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28It seemed to us that if we could establish these people
0:22:28 > 0:22:31as nice people, that would be good.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34- Home-made nut roast.- Ooh! - It's organic.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Not to make them saints, but to say,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40as we had all said to each other in private conversation,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42"You could live next door, you'd never know."
0:22:42 > 0:22:44I keep thinking of Lawrence having a great time
0:22:44 > 0:22:45with a different girl each night,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and me sitting at home with two gay boys. Nothing personal.
0:22:48 > 0:22:49No, no.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53To see the first gay couple that felt real, rather than...
0:22:54 > 0:22:56..the more Dick Emery version of it, you know,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00was to some people shocking, and some people just unusual,
0:23:00 > 0:23:02and to some people a brilliant move. You know.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04It... But it was definitely something that made you go,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06you know, "I've not seen that before."
0:23:06 > 0:23:08- I've got the answer. - What was the question?
0:23:08 > 0:23:10The question of cheering you up!
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Why don't you become gay and forget about men altogether?
0:23:13 > 0:23:14Didn't work for you, did it?
0:23:16 > 0:23:18People seemed to like it, too. People enjoyed it.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22Not just the gay community, who finally found expression
0:23:22 > 0:23:25on television in a way that wasn't, kind of, music hall.
0:23:25 > 0:23:26It was real.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30But also, the whole audience enjoyed it,
0:23:30 > 0:23:35and I think it did move sitcom forward quite a bit.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38As the sexual and social revolution progressed,
0:23:38 > 0:23:42sitcoms continue to explore a wide range of themes and attitudes.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44But there was one British preoccupation
0:23:44 > 0:23:47that was returned to again and again and again.
0:23:47 > 0:23:48Class.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53If you're writing fiction in this country, for a British audience,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58you have to be very secure in what class your characters sit.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Otherwise, the audience doesn't know where they are.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06And, you know, if it's a cosy, middle-class show like...
0:24:07 > 0:24:09..Terry And June, that's fine.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13It knows where it sits in the hierarchy.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Despite the economic woes of the '70s,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22there was a rise in consumerism
0:24:22 > 0:24:26and increased spending on leisure activities and foreign holidays.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29As a result, middle-class sitcoms were springing up quicker
0:24:29 > 0:24:32than you could say, "Avocado bathroom suite".
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Terry And June, Butterflies and The Good Life
0:24:35 > 0:24:37all became huge hits.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41If you look at the '70s sitcoms, stuff like The Good Life,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43they're obsessed with class.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46The point is, Barbara, I got it home, I put it on,
0:24:46 > 0:24:47and I said to myself,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50"Margo, that simply looks cheap and nasty."
0:24:50 > 0:24:51So I wondered if you'd like it?
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Class is a subject that absolutely runs through British comedy.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Because comedy at some point, in some way, is always about
0:24:59 > 0:25:03conflict, and about wanting to get somewhere where you can't go.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06And class, in the past, not so much now, I don't think,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10has always been the great barrier to it, isn't it?
0:25:10 > 0:25:12You know, you can't... Posh is a club you can't join.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Top of almost every classic British sitcom list is Fawlty Towers.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23And in Basil Fawlty, we found the epitome of the class-obsessed,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26frustrated, social-climbing middle Englander.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32I don't think there can be a greater example of someone who was
0:25:32 > 0:25:36trying to improve their social status than Basil Fawlty.
0:25:36 > 0:25:37Beg your pardon?
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Would you put both your names, please?
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Well, would you give me a date?
0:25:41 > 0:25:42I only use one.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44You don't have a first name?
0:25:44 > 0:25:46No, I am Lord Melbury, so I simply sign Melbury.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Go away.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55He's fooled by anyone who's in a higher status than him,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58as happens when the aristocrat comes to stay
0:25:58 > 0:26:00and tries to borrow money.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04And Fawlty does it, simply because he thinks this man is an aristocrat,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08and therefore, he's to be trusted, there's no questions about it.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Lord Melbury, may I offer you a little aperitif, as our guest?
0:26:11 > 0:26:14That's very kind of you. Dry sherry, if you please.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16What else?
0:26:16 > 0:26:19What's more interesting, to me, is, we're still talking about that,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22as a thing. And we are still...
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Sort of, even at a subconscious level, looking, immediately,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27at a character and going, "What class are they?
0:26:27 > 0:26:28"What do they say?" You know,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31"What's their thing?" And it's often defined by that.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35At the beginning of the 1980s, the new Conservative government
0:26:35 > 0:26:37brought sweeping changes to Britain.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41They moved to liberalise the economy through privatisation
0:26:41 > 0:26:44and the promotion of entrepreneurialism.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46It was a profound change that was quickly incorporated
0:26:46 > 0:26:48into the world of sitcom.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52The country seemed to be in the thrall of this new Prime Minister.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55There was a whole sway, a whole generation of people,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57who were very much anti-Thatcherite,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59and a, sort of, groundswell of political activism,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02especially with young people and students that sort of...
0:27:02 > 0:27:06were very vociferous in their... antiestablishment-ism.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09# Once in every lifetime
0:27:10 > 0:27:11# Comes a love like this... #
0:27:12 > 0:27:16When The Young Ones came along, to me it was a real revelation,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20because I was a student at the time,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23and it seemed to voice all the things I was preoccupied with,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25in a way that many other sitcoms hadn't,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28because they were different times.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32It wasn't a sitcom for the people who'd been watching sitcoms.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35It wasn't a family sitcom, it wasn't a middle-aged sitcom,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37it wasn't a, "Let's sit cosy in front of the fire
0:27:37 > 0:27:39"and all laugh at this" sitcom.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41It was for teenagers, wasn't it?
0:27:42 > 0:27:43No! No!
0:27:43 > 0:27:46We are not watching The bleeding Good Life!
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Bloody, bloody, bloody!
0:27:49 > 0:27:53I hate it! It's so bloody nice!
0:27:53 > 0:27:57When Ade Edmonson smashes through the titles of The Good Life,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59and goes, "This is rubbish!",
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I found myself going, "Yeah, it's rubbish, The Good Life.
0:28:02 > 0:28:03"I'm going to be one of these people
0:28:03 > 0:28:05"that thinks The Good Life is rubbish."
0:28:05 > 0:28:06Even though I didn't think that.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09It made me think I should think that way.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12And now, as you're older, you go, God, The Good Life was brilliant!
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And it's definitely, it's probably stood the test of time
0:28:15 > 0:28:17more than The Young Ones. But I still love The Young Ones for...
0:28:19 > 0:28:20You know, just shaking it all up.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28Well, how ruddy considerate, Vivian!
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Thank you very much!
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Yeah, thanks, Viv, that petrol bomb's really cleared my sinuses.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35The Young Ones was a show made by
0:28:35 > 0:28:37a group of young and left-leaning comedians.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40It threatened the middle-class and suburban status quo
0:28:40 > 0:28:43that dominated British comedy in the 1970s,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45and was aimed squarely at the next generation.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47Well, then, I shall write to the lead singer
0:28:47 > 0:28:48of Echo and the Bunnymen!
0:28:48 > 0:28:51I remember, when I first saw the first episode, thinking,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54"Oh, there are other people like me, who think like that."
0:28:54 > 0:28:58And that was quite encouraging to me, from a creative standpoint,
0:28:58 > 0:29:02because it felt like the attitudes I had
0:29:02 > 0:29:03would resonate with other people.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08My parents wouldn't get it, and that made its appeal all the greater.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10- Hello, Vivian.- Piss off!
0:29:10 > 0:29:12AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:29:12 > 0:29:14That's no way to talk to your mother, Vivian!
0:29:14 > 0:29:15All right, then.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17Piss off, Mum.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22Viv was such an exaggeration of the punk cliche,
0:29:22 > 0:29:27and Rick was such a great, still valid,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30caricature of right-on politics.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33Well, I'm going to tell Thatcher that we've got a bomb.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35And that if she doesn't do something to help the kids
0:29:35 > 0:29:36by this afternoon...
0:29:36 > 0:29:38AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:29:38 > 0:29:39..we're going to blow up England!
0:29:39 > 0:29:41There are perfect episodes of The Young Ones,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44and I just loved the...
0:29:45 > 0:29:48..utter energy of it, and the stupidity of it,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and the violence of it.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53- Here goes...- I'm completely bloody sick of this!
0:29:56 > 0:29:57# Gotta get up... #
0:29:57 > 0:30:00While The Young Ones' rebellion set the tone for much of the
0:30:00 > 0:30:04alternative comedy to come in the '80s, more mainstream sitcoms
0:30:04 > 0:30:07were also dealing with the fallout of the new political regime.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Carla Lane set her 1980s sitcom in a period of mass unemployment
0:30:12 > 0:30:15in her native Liverpool.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19Bread was on the runway when I arrived as controller of BBC One.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21I was a huge fan of Carla's,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and I looked at it and thought, "Yeah, this is a really great show."
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Bread was firmly set in Thatcher's Britain,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30and charted the ups and downs of the larger-than-life Boswell family.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Number one.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34House!
0:30:34 > 0:30:38With most of the family out of work, they relied on trading stolen goods,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42and getting every last penny they could from the benefits office.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44She got a lot of criticism for writing about scroungers,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47you know, they were living off the Welfare State.
0:30:47 > 0:30:48I had friends who were like,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51"Oh, it's a dreadful representation of unemployed people.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54"Dreadful representation of Liverpool!"
0:30:54 > 0:30:55But it still made me laugh.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00We have got a case of incontinence in the family,
0:31:00 > 0:31:02and I understand you have a special allowance for this?
0:31:02 > 0:31:05We do, yes.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09But owing to the sudden rush of incontinent 19-year-olds,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12we're only giving it to those who qualify.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17The benefit culture in Liverpool was something Carla recognised,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20understood and felt confident enough to write about.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26But again, it was a family, so they were very much redeemed,
0:31:26 > 0:31:28because they were all struggling to survive,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30and make their way in the world.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Another family adapting to the new political landscape in the 1980s
0:31:36 > 0:31:38were the Trotters from Peckham.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40In Only Fools And Horses,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Del Boy embraced the Conservative ideals with open arms,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46and approached life with an entrepreneurial spirit
0:31:46 > 0:31:49that Thatcher would surely have been proud of.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51# Cos where it all comes from is a mystery... #
0:31:51 > 0:31:53He was definitely a Thatcherite, wasn't he?
0:31:53 > 0:31:58He would definitely have voted Tory at that point -
0:31:58 > 0:32:00and constantly wanting...
0:32:00 > 0:32:03It was all about self-improvement and dragging yourself up.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Tremendously British theme to it, wasn't it?
0:32:06 > 0:32:08Executive mobile phone.
0:32:08 > 0:32:09State-of-the-art.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11You can phone someone from the top of a mountain
0:32:11 > 0:32:13with one of these, you know.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16It's all to do with... statellites or something.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19My dad, who's a kind of old hippy left-winger,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22hates Margaret Thatcher, loves Del Boy.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24There's something about him - it's given a kind of human face
0:32:24 > 0:32:29to that kind of money-grabbing, '80s Toryism, really.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33It was about seeing a barrow boy
0:32:33 > 0:32:35and wondering what his world was like, and going into that -
0:32:35 > 0:32:38and the sort of pathos of someone's ambition.
0:32:38 > 0:32:39Tell you what, I'll show you how it works,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41I'll give you a little demonstration.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43First of all, press that...
0:32:43 > 0:32:44KEYPAD BEEPS
0:32:51 > 0:32:53You'd see those characters make idiots of themselves,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55again and again and again -
0:32:55 > 0:32:59but half the time you felt for them, as well, you felt it,
0:32:59 > 0:33:01and that's what makes it so good.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04It's not just someone that you don't know or care about slipping up,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08it's someone that you actually kind of do care about.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10# From the long warm nights with the ocean breeze
0:33:10 > 0:33:12# To the damp and to the rain of London city... #
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Meanwhile, in another part of Peckham in the 1980s,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17more history was being made.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Desmond's was the first sitcom to feature a predominantly black cast
0:33:21 > 0:33:23in the workplace, and portray the black community
0:33:23 > 0:33:25within a British context.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27Based in a south London barbershop,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31it would go on to become Channel 4's longest-running sitcom.
0:33:31 > 0:33:32The whole family thing
0:33:32 > 0:33:36was the fact about just reflecting the black experience
0:33:36 > 0:33:38in this country,
0:33:38 > 0:33:43and it's one of mobility, of education, of wanting to do well,
0:33:43 > 0:33:45and every family felt that.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46Hah!
0:33:47 > 0:33:49- Father, I can't read the paper... - You can't read?
0:33:49 > 0:33:52After all the education I gave you,
0:33:52 > 0:33:54my son, the bank manager, can't read?
0:33:54 > 0:33:57The show looked at the differing experiences
0:33:57 > 0:34:00of the original immigrant members of the family
0:34:00 > 0:34:02and their children, who were growing up in Britain,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and it remains one of the most successful sitcoms
0:34:05 > 0:34:06that Channel 4 has ever made.
0:34:08 > 0:34:09What's your paper called?
0:34:11 > 0:34:13I never wrote Desmond's for black people.
0:34:13 > 0:34:14We know who we are.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17I wrote them for white people, so they can know who we are.
0:34:20 > 0:34:21There goes my street cred.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23It was from a completely different world
0:34:23 > 0:34:25to what I was living in in Devon -
0:34:25 > 0:34:26but the thing about a sitcom is,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28because you're welcomed into that world,
0:34:28 > 0:34:33it kind of brings other areas into your living room
0:34:33 > 0:34:36that you can't see on a day-to-day basis,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39and it's a very good way of creating social integration
0:34:39 > 0:34:42without people even realising what they're watching.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Listen, you two, after you've had this,
0:34:44 > 0:34:45I want you to go.
0:34:45 > 0:34:46This is not a cafe, you know.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48Come on, Shirl, don't be like that -
0:34:48 > 0:34:50it's people like us that keep this shop going.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52Without us, this place wouldn't be the same.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Without you, this place would be a barbershop.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Instead of a bookie and a social club.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02Where we lived, in a little village outside of High Wycombe,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04was not particularly diverse -
0:35:04 > 0:35:08and here was a world that I was not exposed to,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11yet here are characters that I absolutely love
0:35:11 > 0:35:13and associate with.
0:35:13 > 0:35:14I've got a couple of tickets
0:35:14 > 0:35:17for me boxing club dinner and dance in a couple of weeks' time.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19I'm fighting, I'll knock him out first round if you come.
0:35:19 > 0:35:20How about it, then, eh?
0:35:21 > 0:35:23SHE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:35:25 > 0:35:28But even as an Asian family, we would connect with that,
0:35:28 > 0:35:29we really would connect with that.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32We felt it was talking about us, in a way.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37We felt it was saying something about the immigrant life in Britain.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40The great thing about Desmond's, and comedy specifically,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44it gave you a platform to ridicule, debate or, indeed, expand on -
0:35:44 > 0:35:46not necessarily your view,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49but the collective view of your culture at the time.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54# They say I might as well face the truth... #
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Writers have often used sitcom to study our attitudes
0:35:56 > 0:35:58to different sections of society,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and, in 1990, David Renwick decided it was time
0:36:01 > 0:36:04to investigate how we treat our senior citizens.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Of course, the biggest problem of all
0:36:06 > 0:36:08was - how do you ever replace a man
0:36:08 > 0:36:09like Victor Meldrew?
0:36:09 > 0:36:11Well, basically, with this box...
0:36:11 > 0:36:16Because Meldrew is in that position of having to retire early,
0:36:16 > 0:36:18you've still got a very active mind,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22and someone who's full of creativity, if you like,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25and doesn't have any focus for that.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30So his domestic life becomes a drama around him, because of that.
0:36:36 > 0:36:37Afternoon!
0:36:37 > 0:36:40I think, after Del Boy falling through the bar,
0:36:40 > 0:36:42the greatest moment ever in British sitcom
0:36:42 > 0:36:44is Victor Meldrew picking up the small dog -
0:36:44 > 0:36:45which I watch on YouTube once a month.
0:36:45 > 0:36:46PHONE RINGS
0:36:47 > 0:36:494291?
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Where the bloody hell did you come from?
0:36:54 > 0:36:55PHONE RINGS
0:36:55 > 0:36:58Bugger off!
0:36:58 > 0:37:00A lot of people didn't actually realise
0:37:00 > 0:37:03how subversive One Foot In The Grave is.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05It's an extraordinarily surreal sitcom.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10I've certainly wheeled a lot of old ladies about, Mrs Meldrew.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14But who's going to wheel me about?
0:37:14 > 0:37:17The show challenged the traditional boundaries
0:37:17 > 0:37:19of more conventional sitcoms,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21dealing with subjects such as death and old age
0:37:21 > 0:37:23with pathos and black comedy.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Victor!
0:37:34 > 0:37:38I think the marvellous thing about Victor Meldrew
0:37:38 > 0:37:43was that, there but for the grace of God go I.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47The things that irritated him actually irritated nearly everybody.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I was out the back working in the garden when he arrived,
0:37:50 > 0:37:51so I asked him if, for the time being,
0:37:51 > 0:37:53he'd put in the downstairs toilet for me.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55And you know what he's done?!
0:37:55 > 0:37:57He's only planted it in the bowl!
0:37:59 > 0:38:03He's trapped by the conventions of old age, isn't he?
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Trapped by the idea that you have to be a particular sort of person.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11But also playing fantastically on the idea that, as you get older,
0:38:11 > 0:38:12you really don't care much any more,
0:38:12 > 0:38:14so you can just be as rude as you like.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21In the 1990s, Britain was awash with a new sense of optimism.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24New Labour were on the rise, Britpop was cool,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27and, for a while, it seemed that things could only get better.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29Likewise, many of the hit sitcoms of the era
0:38:29 > 0:38:32were big, bold and even brash.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34Brightest of all was a satire on excess,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36which started out life as a sketch
0:38:36 > 0:38:38from two of the country's funniest women -
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Where is it you're going?
0:38:43 > 0:38:46- Aberdeen.- Aber-bloody-deen!
0:38:46 > 0:38:48I don't know anybody
0:38:48 > 0:38:51in Aber-bloody-deen, darling!
0:38:51 > 0:38:57I think the '90s was quite a kind of surface, kind of facile decade.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00It was kind of between the fear of the Cold War
0:39:00 > 0:39:02and the fear of post-9/11,
0:39:02 > 0:39:07there was this era which was obsessed with celebrity and fashion
0:39:07 > 0:39:09and kind of just having fun.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14# Wheels on fire... #
0:39:14 > 0:39:17You talk about a sitcom that completely caught the moment
0:39:17 > 0:39:19and absolutely bottled it, and that was it.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24When we started it, I remember the late George Melly on a review show
0:39:24 > 0:39:26saying, "Dear, oh, dear, oh, dear,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29"there is nothing funny about recovering alcoholics."
0:39:29 > 0:39:32To which my response is, "Who said they were recovering?"
0:39:32 > 0:39:33You're not eating, Patsy?
0:39:33 > 0:39:35No, liquid lunch for me, Mrs M.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Ab Fab is just about excess, isn't it?
0:39:38 > 0:39:41And that feeling, which I think was very prevalent at that point,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45of how things looked being the most important thing.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Opening a shop, Pats.
0:39:47 > 0:39:48Ooh, what are you going to sell?
0:39:48 > 0:39:50- Ooh, just gorgeous things, you know. - Ooh, lovely!
0:39:50 > 0:39:53What sitcom's brilliant at
0:39:53 > 0:39:58is identifying a kind of social movement or type and skewering it,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00and going, "This is stupid."
0:40:00 > 0:40:02What we need is a princess with a press following
0:40:02 > 0:40:04and a designer dress on her back!
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Jonathan Swift said satire is a glass
0:40:07 > 0:40:11wherein each man sees every face except his own -
0:40:11 > 0:40:13and it's an interesting thing,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15that when you set out with something like Ab Fab,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18which is about a bit of an industry, if you like,
0:40:18 > 0:40:20and you're poking fun at it.
0:40:20 > 0:40:21DANCE MUSIC PLAYS
0:40:21 > 0:40:24- They loved it, they loved it. - No, they hated me, they hated me!
0:40:24 > 0:40:26No, they love, love, loved... Oh!
0:40:26 > 0:40:30When Jennifer wrote it, what she was really trying to do, I think,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33was to say, "Look at these people, they are a waste of space,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35"they're a waste of air.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39"PR is a kind of nonevent."
0:40:39 > 0:40:41I'm going down in history, Pats,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44as the woman that put Princess Anne in a Vivienne Westwood basque!
0:40:44 > 0:40:45But it was interesting,
0:40:45 > 0:40:49how the people who immediately embraced Ab Fab
0:40:49 > 0:40:53and took it to their bosoms were, first, people in fashion and PR.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56So either we got it wrong - which I don't think we did -
0:40:56 > 0:41:01or are they just went, "Hooray! PR, you noticed! We're valuable!
0:41:01 > 0:41:02"We're useful to the community."
0:41:02 > 0:41:04What do you see when you look in the mirror, darling?
0:41:04 > 0:41:06Me looking fabulous, what do you see?
0:41:06 > 0:41:11It also objectified the time, which was materialistic,
0:41:11 > 0:41:16it was putting the wrong emphasis on labels, and...
0:41:16 > 0:41:21You know, not the sort of thing that was meaningful, really.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23It wasn't very meaningful -
0:41:23 > 0:41:28but she was being meaningful... flagging it up. Clever girl.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31BOTH: # They say our love won't pay the rent... #
0:41:31 > 0:41:33I'm Cher, Patsy!
0:41:33 > 0:41:35I'm doing the Cher bit.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37While Jennifer captured the zeitgeist
0:41:37 > 0:41:39with her satire of the fashion and PR worlds,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42her comedy partner, Dawn, was equally timely
0:41:42 > 0:41:46with a sitcom about a very different issue affecting Britain at the time.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Good evening. Centuries of tradition and decades of campaigning
0:41:50 > 0:41:51came to an end tonight
0:41:51 > 0:41:55when the Church of England ordained its first women priests.
0:41:55 > 0:41:56# The Lord is my shepherd... #
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Just eight months after the historic ordination
0:41:59 > 0:42:01of women in the Church of England,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04the Vicar Of Dibley arrived on BBC One.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08Written by Richard Curtis, the show introduced us to Geraldine Granger,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11the surprise arrival in a small English village.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13- Oh, dear.- Oh, my God!
0:42:15 > 0:42:16You were expecting a bloke?
0:42:16 > 0:42:18Beard, Bible, bad breath?
0:42:18 > 0:42:20- Yes, that sort of thing.- Yeah.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And instead, you've got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom.
0:42:23 > 0:42:24So I see.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26The argument was in the air,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28and I was very interested in the argument,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and I got to know a woman called Joy Carroll,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35who was a female vicar, and I remember going to see her
0:42:35 > 0:42:38in one of the synods where they were all arguing about the issue,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40so I knew a fight was on,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42and it was always my feeling
0:42:42 > 0:42:45that if someone could just see a woman in that job,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47their doubts would instantly evaporate,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49and I think that was one of the helpful things
0:42:49 > 0:42:51about The Vicar Of Dibley -
0:42:51 > 0:42:53people just knew, "Oh, no, it makes total sense" -
0:42:53 > 0:42:56in fact, it makes no sense that you would say a woman can't do this job.
0:42:56 > 0:42:57I did actually write The Vicar Of Dibley
0:42:57 > 0:43:00in order to try and win the argument.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Ah, Owen, this is Geraldine -
0:43:04 > 0:43:05she's the new vicar.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07Hello.
0:43:07 > 0:43:08No, she isn't.
0:43:08 > 0:43:09Why not?
0:43:09 > 0:43:10She's a woman!
0:43:10 > 0:43:12Oh, you noticed!
0:43:12 > 0:43:14These are such a giveaway, aren't they?
0:43:14 > 0:43:17It's a studio sitcom, it's family-orientated.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21You kind of forget that the idea of a woman vicar,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26at the time, felt kind of controversial -
0:43:26 > 0:43:29or it was a new thing.
0:43:29 > 0:43:34It's kind of amazing that sitcom can take an idea like that
0:43:34 > 0:43:38and smuggle it in to 8:30 on a Thursday night on BBC One,
0:43:38 > 0:43:42or whenever it was on, and make that feel normal and accepted,
0:43:42 > 0:43:44and that's kind of a brilliant thing
0:43:44 > 0:43:47that Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, who wrote it, did.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51The idea that, having seen Geraldine Granger at work,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53you would ever think, "Well, of course there shouldn't..."
0:43:53 > 0:43:56You know, "The idea of women priests is nonsense."
0:43:56 > 0:44:00She's unanswerable, really. Every parish should be so lucky.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02- RAPS:- Nothing could be hotter Nothing could be slicker
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Lock up your son and daughter Cos here comes the vicar!
0:44:06 > 0:44:08I was really keen, in The Vicar Of Dibley,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10to write someone nice and funny -
0:44:10 > 0:44:13because I think that's the British joke, really,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16which is that we're always in trouble trying to be nice -
0:44:16 > 0:44:18we can never break the truth to people.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22And there is great tradition of angry people in sitcoms.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26You know, the Arthur Lowe, Basil Fawlty -
0:44:26 > 0:44:28the greatest of them all -
0:44:28 > 0:44:30One Foot In The Grave. Blackadder's in that tradition,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33and I was really glad to be in the nice tradition, as well.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39While Dibley was quietly subversive on the subject of women vicars,
0:44:39 > 0:44:41another clerical comedy was about to air
0:44:41 > 0:44:43which was equally subversive,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46and had much to say about our neighbours in Ireland
0:44:46 > 0:44:49and the role religion played in national life.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52We originally thought no-one would want to do a sitcom
0:44:52 > 0:44:53about Irish people,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56so we wrote it in the form of a series of mock documentaries
0:44:56 > 0:44:58with a different character every week -
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and the one we handed in as an example was Father Ted.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04They liked it, but they said,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07"No-one will want to see a different character every week.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10"Can you do this character and do him every week?"
0:45:10 > 0:45:11And we were like, "Really?!"
0:45:11 > 0:45:14They actually asked us for an Irish sitcom.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17..eck! Arse!
0:45:17 > 0:45:19These really do work, don't they, Dougal?
0:45:19 > 0:45:20Oh, you're right, there, Ted.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Feck! Arse! Feck!
0:45:23 > 0:45:28The British-Irish relationship has not always been a happy one.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33I can well see why the idea of putting across these stereotypes
0:45:33 > 0:45:38almost in an ironic sense, "OK, if you want that kind of Irishmen,
0:45:38 > 0:45:39"here they are," you know?
0:45:39 > 0:45:44We used to like taking the extreme approach to everything.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47So, if Jack was going to be an alcoholic,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49then he was going to drink things like Toilet Duck.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52- Oh, no, Ted. Look at this. - Oh, God...
0:45:52 > 0:45:55And if Dougal was going to be stupid,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57then he was going to be stupid to an extent
0:45:57 > 0:45:58that you've never seen before.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Like, someone who, when you turn out the light, turn it back on again,
0:46:02 > 0:46:03he thinks he's had a sleep.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05Anyway, night, Dougal.
0:46:05 > 0:46:06Night, Ted.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10Oh, damn!
0:46:10 > 0:46:11Oh...
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Ahh!
0:46:18 > 0:46:21'To be able to go in and explode a few myths...'
0:46:21 > 0:46:22DOUGAL WHISTLES
0:46:22 > 0:46:23No, Dougal it's not morning.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26'..we built him in an image that we liked
0:46:26 > 0:46:27'and we had fun with.'
0:46:27 > 0:46:29I don't know, it was healthy.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32The larger than life approach to sitcom would continue
0:46:32 > 0:46:33throughout the decade,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36and was exemplified by the outrageous flat-share sitcom
0:46:36 > 0:46:38Gimme Gimme Gimme.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40Following in the footsteps of the huge characters
0:46:40 > 0:46:44in Absolutely Fabulous, Tom Farrell and Linda La Hughes
0:46:44 > 0:46:47were queenie, camp and a long, long way over the top.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49The show revelled in innuendo,
0:46:49 > 0:46:53and in Tom it also gave us the most out and proud gay character
0:46:53 > 0:46:55we'd seen in British sitcom.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58# Gimme, gimme, gimme a man! #
0:46:58 > 0:47:00The differentiation between him and, say, John Inman's character
0:47:00 > 0:47:04in Are You Being Served? was at least Tom had a dick
0:47:04 > 0:47:08and he was going out and he was copping off, and he was openly gay.
0:47:08 > 0:47:09He wasn't in the closet.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15'He was an actively sexual gay man,
0:47:15 > 0:47:17'so that was the difference for me -
0:47:17 > 0:47:19'that that step forward was being taken.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22'The gay press hated it.'
0:47:22 > 0:47:25I had done that play and film, Beautiful Thing,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28which had a rose-tinted ending and positive role models
0:47:28 > 0:47:32for young gay people, and then here I write a...
0:47:32 > 0:47:35a comedy show about a vile, camp queen,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and I suppose they were hoping it would be the next role model,
0:47:38 > 0:47:39but it wasn't.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41Did you have a good evening, sir?
0:47:41 > 0:47:43I am twatted.
0:47:43 > 0:47:44Is that a Welsh name, sir?
0:47:45 > 0:47:49Linda and Tom are not an ideal couple...
0:47:49 > 0:47:51Do you have to eat with your mouth open?!
0:47:51 > 0:47:53How else am I supposed to get the bleedin'...?
0:47:53 > 0:47:55'..but we love them.'
0:47:55 > 0:47:58We love them for the extremity of what they do.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00I'm reading my stars. Shush.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02Is the moon in Uranus?
0:48:02 > 0:48:04One was not quite as pretty as she thought she was,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06and neither was the other.
0:48:06 > 0:48:07# Knowing me, knowing you
0:48:07 > 0:48:09# Ah-ha... #
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Towards the end of the decade,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15we got another sitcom character with ideas above his station.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19We'd previously seen and heard Alan Partridge on a radio show,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22in a sketch show and a mock chat show.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25You'd better believe it, babe. There's a new chat in town.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28His latest incarnation, I'm Alan Partridge,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31explored the character who was trying to change with the times -
0:48:31 > 0:48:33and usually got it wrong.
0:48:33 > 0:48:34Current affairs...
0:48:34 > 0:48:36Would it be terribly rude to stop listening to you
0:48:36 > 0:48:38and go and speak to somebody else?
0:48:38 > 0:48:40'The character's definitely evolved.'
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The pathos creeps in more and more as the years go on.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47He's playing catch-up with changing social attitudes,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50and when we write the character, we grapple with those things.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52We're not gay!
0:48:52 > 0:48:54I've nothing against them, it's just...
0:48:54 > 0:48:56As I see it, God created Adam and Eve.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59He didn't create Adam and Steve.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Whereas before, it would have been funny to laugh at someone
0:49:01 > 0:49:03who was just prejudiced and narrow-minded,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06it was funny to see Alan struggle with attitudes
0:49:06 > 0:49:08that maybe don't come naturally to him,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11but he tries to be modern, if you like.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13- Can I have a sniff?- Yeah, sure. - Great.
0:49:13 > 0:49:14HE SNIFFS
0:49:14 > 0:49:15Mm...
0:49:15 > 0:49:17Actually, sorry, I shouldn't touch members of staff -
0:49:17 > 0:49:19unless I'm reprimanding them,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23and then I'll put you across my knee and smack your bare bottoms.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27Normally, comic characters live within their thing and their world,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29and that's where it exists.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32It is incredibly rare to have a character
0:49:32 > 0:49:37just to span...a lifetime within your lifetime
0:49:37 > 0:49:39and never, ever let you down.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42- Ben, can you take this up to my room?- Yeah, sure, no problem.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Cheers.
0:49:44 > 0:49:45Cheers.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47'There's something about...'
0:49:47 > 0:49:50putting it in a comedy, also, which allows you licence
0:49:50 > 0:49:54to talk about things that, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56# Curly, black and kinky...
0:49:56 > 0:49:59# Mixed with yellow chinky. #
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Can you still say that?
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Oh, you're all right with that, like,
0:50:03 > 0:50:05cos it's a race of people, AND it's a food.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07Chinese...
0:50:07 > 0:50:08Yeah, you're absolutely right, yeah.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11'Alan Partridge, in his ignorance, can say things'
0:50:11 > 0:50:14which reflect deeply held prejudices,
0:50:14 > 0:50:18and can say them out loud, and people will laugh at them
0:50:18 > 0:50:20because they realise the joke is on Alan.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23If I were to say some of the things Alan said,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26as myself, unironically, I'd be in deep trouble.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29You're listening to North Norfolk Digital,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31Norfolk's...North Norfolk's best music mix.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33In his modern incarnation,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35he tries to reflect those social changes,
0:50:35 > 0:50:40so Alan is aware that, for example, it's OK to be gay,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42'so he tries to reflect those things.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46'He's aware of the zeitgeist, and tries to fit in with it.'
0:50:46 > 0:50:47..kicking off your shoes and socks
0:50:47 > 0:50:51and sharing an expensive bottle of wine with the woman in your life.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53Or the man in your life, if you're a woman.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55Or, the man in your life, if you're gay.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59Yeah - oh, y-yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely, yes. Um...
0:50:59 > 0:51:02I will be the first to hold my hands up and say,
0:51:02 > 0:51:08in the past, circa 1983, I developed a fairly robust dislike
0:51:08 > 0:51:09for the gay community -
0:51:09 > 0:51:12but that was before I met Dale Winton.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17The '90s was the era of outrageous characters
0:51:17 > 0:51:19and exaggerated situations,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22but the following decade saw a distinct change in direction,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25and a new realism began to appear in sitcom.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27Characters still had their flaws,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31but now they found themselves in more naturalistic surroundings.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35Ten years ago, the big things in British sitcom
0:51:35 > 0:51:37were The Royle Family and The Office.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41It set an agenda to be very naturalistic and real.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Are you going to make that cup of tea, Barb, or what?
0:51:45 > 0:51:47The Royle Family, I think,
0:51:47 > 0:51:55is probably the most important comedy that I ever watched.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59It was the first time I had ever seen on TV...
0:51:59 > 0:52:04a family like mine, watching TV.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The feeling of my dad in his regular seat, my mum there,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10one or both of my sisters,
0:52:10 > 0:52:15me, and then watching almost this sort of mirror image,
0:52:15 > 0:52:22not in terms of situation or set, but just the dynamics of family.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Dad! Stop fiddling with yourself.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27I'm not fiddling with meself.
0:52:27 > 0:52:28I paid a quid for these underpants.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30I've got 50-pence worth stuck up me arse.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33I think if it hadn't been for The Royle Family, I don't know if...
0:52:33 > 0:52:36I don't know if Gavin & Stacey would exist.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39One of the great things about sitcom is we've been able to fit in...
0:52:39 > 0:52:42We haven't got imprisoned by the form,
0:52:42 > 0:52:44which you sometimes think American sitcoms have,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47that they expect a certain level of brightness
0:52:47 > 0:52:48and a certain level of noise,
0:52:48 > 0:52:50and I think one of the brilliant things
0:52:50 > 0:52:52that particularly the BBC has done
0:52:52 > 0:52:56is experiment with the shape, form and texture of sitcom
0:52:56 > 0:52:57over the years.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00One of the boldest sitcoms the BBC has ever produced
0:53:00 > 0:53:02turned out to be one of the most successful.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The Office was a mockumentary set in the Slough branch
0:53:05 > 0:53:07of the Wernham Hogg paper company.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10While the format was relatively new,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13the themes that the show dealt with were familiar to British audiences.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15Lovely Dawn.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17Dawn Tinsley. Receptionist...
0:53:17 > 0:53:19Social awkwardness, self-importance,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21frustration and desperation.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23I'd say, at one time or another,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25every bloke in the office has woken up at the crack of dawn.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27- HE SNIGGERS - What?!
0:53:28 > 0:53:32The Office would have captured that feeling at the time
0:53:32 > 0:53:36of the early noughties, of kind of, you know, "Why have a job?
0:53:36 > 0:53:38"Why have a career?
0:53:38 > 0:53:41"Why do you want to spend your life doing this?"
0:53:41 > 0:53:44And that does reflect that people are no longer
0:53:44 > 0:53:47going in to having a job for life, you know?
0:53:47 > 0:53:49It was saying, "Hey, look, it's all changed
0:53:49 > 0:53:51"and we haven't even noticed."
0:53:51 > 0:53:56There's these brilliant kind of examinations of people's attitude
0:53:56 > 0:54:00to things like race and sexism,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and how that laddishness of the '90s
0:54:03 > 0:54:06against the politically correct movement in the '90s
0:54:06 > 0:54:07clashed together.
0:54:07 > 0:54:08Do you mind kissing me on the nose?
0:54:08 > 0:54:11- No. Put your quid in.- OK.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13- Kiss me on the nose.- Ooh!
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Hey, what do I get for a tenner?
0:54:15 > 0:54:17- Oh, no!- Squeal, piggy, squeal.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19HE SQUEALS
0:54:19 > 0:54:22..and I think David Brent and the character Finchy
0:54:22 > 0:54:25embody that really well, and there's just really good little set pieces
0:54:25 > 0:54:28that actually deal with things
0:54:28 > 0:54:32that maybe, you know, it would take someone to write a 10,000-word thesis
0:54:32 > 0:54:34at university to deal with,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37and they deal with it in six lines, or something.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42Real lives were back in vogue,
0:54:42 > 0:54:44and another hugely relatable situation -
0:54:44 > 0:54:46the classic boy meets girl story -
0:54:46 > 0:54:49was playing out in both Essex and South Wales.
0:54:49 > 0:54:50WOMAN LAUGHS
0:54:53 > 0:54:54Stop it!
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Everyone's looking at me.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Another big hit, this sitcom was about the modern experience
0:55:01 > 0:55:05of parenthood, family life, loyalty, friendship and love.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07It was unconventional in that it didn't rely on
0:55:07 > 0:55:11the anguish or frustration of the central characters for laughs.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Oh, can you believe we're actually going to meet tomorrow?
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Only 17 hours to go now, babes.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20For a British sitcom, it was remarkably pain free.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23One of the things about sitcom is it can be as far away,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27like Blackadder, as you like, from any life that you know,
0:55:27 > 0:55:28and then incredibly close -
0:55:28 > 0:55:32and just the kind of intimate realism of Gavin & Stacey I adore.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34I also love the fact that Gavin & Stacey is nice.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36That's one of the great things about sitcom -
0:55:36 > 0:55:38it doesn't need to point towards catastrophe.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42It can point towards resolution, unlike most drama.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44Stacey.
0:55:44 > 0:55:45Oh, my God!
0:55:45 > 0:55:47Hiya.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49- When did you get here? - I thought you weren't going to come.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52- Of course I was going to come. - I've only been here ten minutes.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55- I like your cardie. - Cheers. River Island.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Oh, so is my belt! Amazing.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02I don't think we set out to make a show that was warm,
0:56:02 > 0:56:07but we definitely wanted to make a show that had a heart in it.
0:56:07 > 0:56:08What's all the noise?
0:56:08 > 0:56:09Everything all right?
0:56:09 > 0:56:11Oh, don't worry, Pam, your little prince is fine!
0:56:11 > 0:56:13It was about people
0:56:13 > 0:56:14who loved each other, mostly.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17Even when they would have rows or not get on,
0:56:17 > 0:56:20it was still from a place of warmth, you know?
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Very, very unusual in British comedy to be completely positive.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27You've got to have a character who's annoyed or upset
0:56:27 > 0:56:29or hasn't achieved - but it didn't have any of those.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34It was just a really sweet love story
0:56:34 > 0:56:37peopled by very funny characters.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39Don't promise me nothing.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43If this is all it's meant to be, I'm still so happy I met you.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47I think there has always been shows that have
0:56:47 > 0:56:50reflected where we're at as a country.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53I mean, if we sat down to try and write Gavin & Stacey today,
0:56:53 > 0:56:58it would be a very different show - purely because of social media.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03You know, you can't make a boy meets girl...
0:57:03 > 0:57:05Characters who don't...
0:57:05 > 0:57:06Who've only seen a photo of each other,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and don't know much about each other's life,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12because you are in a world of Facebook and googling people
0:57:12 > 0:57:14and Skype and FaceTime, and all of those things,
0:57:14 > 0:57:18and Twitter feeds and stuff like that, so...
0:57:18 > 0:57:23that, on a very linear level, will always reflect the times.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25If you say it, I'll say it back.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30- I love you.- I love you too.- Ooh!
0:57:31 > 0:57:32In the last 60 years,
0:57:32 > 0:57:36British sitcom has entertained and challenged in equal measure,
0:57:36 > 0:57:40and done an excellent job of showing us who we are.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42The gift of making the whole nation laugh
0:57:42 > 0:57:46for half an hour every week is a very special moment.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48Light, light...
0:57:48 > 0:57:51The great sitcom characters can have as much impact on our lives
0:57:51 > 0:57:54as real people.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56I do think about Jim Royle.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58I wonder if Anthony went to university.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01I hope he did. Do you know what I mean?
0:58:01 > 0:58:03There's something profoundly satisfying
0:58:03 > 0:58:05about the way that sitcoms are shaped.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08If you had to say... What I watch now most on TV,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10we're in a golden age
0:58:10 > 0:58:12of situation comedy, or half-hour comedy.
0:58:12 > 0:58:13British sitcom continues
0:58:13 > 0:58:16to point out our strengths and our faults,
0:58:16 > 0:58:18and proves time and again
0:58:18 > 0:58:20that the best way to take on a serious subject
0:58:20 > 0:58:22is to make it funny.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24If you can make someone laugh,
0:58:24 > 0:58:26it is a pleasure that doesn't cost any money,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28so it's a life-affirming thing
0:58:28 > 0:58:33that you can do...that you don't need any equipment for.