Your List of Worst British Comedies

Declan A Walsh

Following on from a reference in another thread, what British comedies do you hate/dislike the most?

Here are ones that spring to mind for me:

Last of the Summer Wine - Number 1 in any of my lists!

Hi-de-Hi

Allo Allo

It Aint Half Hot Mum - I did give it a chance for a while and then I thought what am I doing with myself!

Citizen Smith

You can always tell a British comedy by it not being funny.

L1011

Heil Honey I'm Home has to be up there.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117927979#Comment_117927979

Not really fair. Of course there are lots and lots of unfunny British comedies, but most of the best comedies are British also. Fawlty Towers, Royle Family, The Office, Spaced, Blackadder, Phoenix Nights, to name but a few off the top of my head.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928124#Comment_117928124

Gavin & Stacey, Only Fools & Horses - yes, but they're the exceptions that prove the rule. They're also mostly quite old now.

Ashbourne hoop

Miranda is awful. Also thought Dad's Army was pure crap.

De Bhál

is mrs brown's boys British...if so then that

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058210090/your-list-of-worst-british-comedies

Hmm, Citizen Smith captures that whole absurdity of a 1970s urban revolutionary brilliantly! There is plenty of really awful and completely non-PC stuff from the early seventies. Last of the Summer Wine would be on my list, never got its popularity at all. The Brittas Empire would also be on it. Mrs Brown too, even though I know it appeals to a lot of people. To finish off the list I'd add Lunch Monkeys and an Amanda Holden thing called Mad about Alice.

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928168#Comment_117928168

Miranda is getting US remade but yes it was bad

whisky_galore

Oh No it's Selwyn Froggitt.

On the Buses.

Goodnight Sweetheart.

Last of the summer wine was sh1t

Dishonourable mention Mrs Brown

Didn't particularly like Keeping Up Appearances, one joke: snobby housewife vs dole jockey relatives done to death.

gmisk

2 point 4 children it ran for a bizarrely long time and was truly awful.

Last of the summer wine was tripe...how many times can a group of old men go down a hill in a bathtub with some tuba music in the background...

Allo Allo makes me laugh though....

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928433#Comment_117928433

Us remake will likely be even worse...there remakes are generally abysmal...skins...Kath and Kim...Gavin and Stacey...

CaboRoig

I saw a thing called Semi Detached last night with Lee Mack in it. Dreadful.

Strumms

Gavin and Stacey - mind numbingly boring storylines and poorly acted hammy rubbish... nothing funny about it.

Miranda - not a single character was likable or relatable just a bunch of really annoying people and the set looked like it might fall apart if you put the radio on too loud.. Miranda = quirky is not the same as Miranda = funny....

cml387

Most Roy Clarke sitcoms always left me cold:

He wrote the aforementioned "Last Of The Summer Wine", as well as "Oh No! It's Selwyn Froggit", "Open All Hours" and "Keeping Up Appearances".

Strumms

Summer Wine in its heyday was very funny I thought, a bit obvious and repetitive at times but Bill Owen, Brian Wilde, Peter Sallis, Kathy Staff, that era but by the time it finished it was clearly just a poor and unfunny pastiche of its past, the humor was forced, the acting poor and hammy... Roy Clarke should have known when to finish, he didn’t... Russ Abbot was fûcking beyond dreadful in it, as was Brian Murphy, neither could act, the originals certainly could act and the writers trying to slowly turn Glenda into her mother was a dreadful and not good weird idea.

Nyum Nyum

Love to see a list of Irish comedies.

The formulaic stuff repeated over the decades like George and Mildred, Ever decreasing circles, Terry and June, Keeping Up Appearances, etc are dreadful.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928735#Comment_117928735

Leave it to Mrs O'Brien.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928735#Comment_117928735

80-90% of those are awful anyway.

Way more misses than hits.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928168#Comment_117928168

it's hard to judge stuff from that far back though that was really popular at the time like Dads Army, Steptoe, On The Buses, etc - it made me laugh at the time (then again I was < 10 for most of it) but now it mostly looks very meh. Audience tastes have changed greatly from that kind of holiday park humour.

Fionne

Outnumbered.

Benidorm.

Blackadder.

'Allo 'Allo

Comedy is so subjective though, what I find funny, someone else will think diabolical. We can't all like the same things. I love Friday Night Dinner but know that some people would rather pull their toenails out than watch it.

Any of those middle class comedies from the BBC with Judi Dench or Geoffrey Palmer,I couldnt stand them!

Declan A Walsh

It seems that I could be in a minority in liking Keeping Up Appearances. It would not feature in my Top 10 of all time, but I do get a laugh out of it. Ditto for George and Mildred.

There is a point well made by a poster about audience's tastes changing. I think my own taste changed in relation to Dad's Army. I liked it when I first saw the series, but, over the years, I have gone off it. It's a bit like the chewing gum losing it's taste! I would hesitate to put it in the top tier of worst comedies, but it could be on the reserve list!

As regards Open All Hours, I have to say I liked it quite a bit. I think it was Ronnie Barker that made it. However, the recent sequel series Still Open All Hours is awful, or at least the bit I saw.

On the Buses was just bland. I didn't hate it but I wasn't particularly mad about it either.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929005#Comment_117929005

'Allo 'Allo is a classic though it did get repetitive in the last few seasons. If you had seen the earlier show that it parodied it was even funnier.

cml387

Someone mentioned It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

I heard an interview with Sanjeev Bhaskar recently who said that that programme was very popular among the Indian community.

Even though Alan Bates may well have played the part of an Indian, in blackface, but he spoke fluent Hindi and dropped phrases and sentences in Hindi into the script which gave the Indian audience much amusement.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929341#Comment_117929341

That was me that mentioned it, in my original post! It made me cringe I have to say, but, basically, I just did not it find it funny. It was Michael Bates, by the way, not Alan Bates!

Mr.Nice Guy

Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. There was a time when this was quite popular and I could never figure out why.

silliussoddius

Orrible with Johnny Vaughan certainly lived up to its name. There was a Rowan Atkinson one called The Thin Blue Line which was pretty sh!te.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929396#Comment_117929396

Yep. Michael Nates, who was also the original cast member of LOTSW. Mental note: always check😫😁

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929511#Comment_117929511

Nearly there - Michael Bates - not Nates!!

Hangdogroad

Was never mad about Are You Being Served. In fact other than Dads Army I'm not a fan of Loyd & Crofts sitcoms but I accept thats subjective.

Some truly awful ones include any of the ones Jim Davidson did, especially Up The Elephant And Round The Castle. As funny as a toddlers funeral.

May To December.

Slingers Day.

On The Busses.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117929453#Comment_117929453

Thin Blue Line was just pure terrible. Doing some reading the critics at the time absolutely hated it but the viewing figures were decent, lasted two series and you literally never hear anybody mention it now...

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928475#Comment_117928475

I didn't realise until recently when my mother was watching Last of the Summer Wine was how repetitive it was. Literally every episode was the same, with the main gag been them going down a hill in something with no brakes. Not sure if it's the worst, it probably isn't but it certainly went on far too long.

igCorcaigh

Whatever that one was with Mrs Beaucee... not funny.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930421#Comment_117930421

It ran for an unbelievable length of time too, 1973 to 2010.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928911#Comment_117928911

It's hard to make middle class England funny. But I loved The Royale Family, and its portrayal of working class England. It was done in such a knowing, unpatronising way. RIP Caroline :(

storker

Mixed Blessings. Absolute drivel

So Haunt Me. The premise might provided some laughs if someone else had done the writing.

Last of the Summer Wine. This might be down to me, but I never got it. My parents loved it, though. Maybe you have to be retired.

I don't know anyone who does comedy as well as the British, with some American exceptions, but they have produced their fair share of turkeys too.

Degag

While subjectivity is always a thing with comedy; Blackadder should not be appearing on any list in this thread. Ever.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930363#Comment_117930363

Are You Being Served had only two jokes, John Inman camping it up, and Mrs Slocombe's "pussy".

Hangdogroad

One show that I loved as a young child was Some Mothers Do Ave Em. Now I find it virtually unwatcheable. The stunts he did are the high point, some of them are incredible, but as a comedy its aged really badly.

osarusan

Just saw this thread on 'Newest posts'. Don't think I have ever posted in this forum before but had to come in to say 'The Brittas Empire'.

pavb2

Birds of a Feather

silverharp

most of the comedies mentioned were great fun in their day, all ye are basically saying is they didnt age well

blackcard

The Young Ones, dire stuff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117930820#Comment_117930820

I can still watch faulty towers, python, blackadder etc.

storker

Red Dwarf, but mostly because I can't stand Craig Charles.

Hangdogroad

Special mention for terrible sitcoms which managed to spawn even worse spinoffs.

Don't Drink The Water. Hitler moustache guy from On The Busses moves to Spain with his sister.

Yus My Dear, excerable spin off from the very poor Romany Jones. Doesnt help that star Arthur Mullard was exposed after his death as having been a child molester and wife beater.

JeffKenna

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928467#Comment_117928467

Goodnight Sweetheart is one of the best shows ever made. Would recommend anyone to give season 1 episode 2 a watch. Very similar to the last few episodes of Blackadder that were set in WW2.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928154#Comment_117928154

Gavin and Stacey is one of the worst TV shows ever made.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117928168#Comment_117928168

Dad's Army was brilliant.