Little Britain

Monty Pythons Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a British sketch comedy series created by the comedy group Monty Python and broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines. It also featured animations by Terry Gilliam, often sequenced or merged with live action. The first episode was recorded on 7 September and broadcast on 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. The show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated. Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam is an Occidental College graduate. Their comedy is often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his ground breaking series Q5, rather than the traditional sketch show format. The team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective "Pythonesque" was invented to define it and, later, similar material.
TV Show Star Rating : 8.2  Read More

The League of Gentlemen

The League of Gentlemen is a British comedy television series that premiered on BBC Two in 1999. The show is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in Northern England based on Bacup, Lancashire. It follows the lives of dozens of bizarre townspeople, most of whom are played by three of the show's four writers—Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith—who, along with Jeremy Dyson, formed the League of Gentlemen comedy troupe in 1995. The series originally aired for three series from 1999 until 2002 followed by a film in 2005. A three-part revival mini-series was broadcast in December 2017 to celebrate the group's 20th anniversary.
TV Show Star Rating : 7.4  Read More

The Benny Hill Show

The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show that starred Benny Hill and aired in various incarnations between 15 January 1955 and 30 May 1991 in over 140 countries. The show focused on sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody, and double-entendre. Thames Television cancelled production of the show in 1989 due to declining ratings and large production costs at £450,000 per show.
TV Show Star Rating : 6  Read More

The Two Ronnies

The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show which aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.
TV Show Star Rating : 8  Read More

That Mitchell and Webb Look

That Mitchell and Webb Look is a British television sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Shown on BBC Two since 2006, its first two series were directed by David Kerr, who also directed Mitchell and Webb's previous television sketch show The Mitchell and Webb Situation, whereas series 3 and 4 are directed by Ben Gosling Fuller. As well as Mitchell and Webb themselves, the writers include Jesse Armstrong, James Bachman, Sam Bain, Mark Evans, Olivia Colman, Toby Davies, Chris Pell, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Joel Morris, Jason Hazeley, Simon Kane, John Finnemore and others. It is produced by Gareth Edwards. Colman, Bachman, and Evans were also members of the cast alongside Abigail Burdess, Gus Brown, Sarah Hadland and Paterson Joseph. Many of its characters and sketches are first featured in the duo's radio show That Mitchell and Webb Sound. First aired on 14 September 2006, a second series was commissioned later that same year and shown between 21 February 2008 and 27 March 2008. The third series began on 11 June 2009. Since series two, the production has also been broadcast on BBC HD. The first series won a BAFTA award in 2007. The third series started airing on BBC America on 14 April 2010. The fourth series premiered on BBC Two and BBC HD on 13 July 2010 with a total of 6 episodes commissioned by the BBC. In a November 2011 interview, Webb stated that there are "no plans, sadly, for another series of sketches" continuing to say that "you'd have to ask the BBC" about further series.
TV Show Star Rating : 8  Read More

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

A Bit of Fry & Laurie is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and totalled 26 episodes, including a 35 minute pilot episode in 1987. As in The Two Ronnies, elaborate wordplay and innuendo were staples of its material. It frequently broke the fourth wall; characters would revert into their real-life actors mid-sketch, or the camera would often pan off set into the studio. In addition, the show was punctuated with non-sequitur vox pops in a similar style to those of Monty Python's Flying Circus, often making irrelevant statements, heavily based on wordplay. Laurie was also seen playing piano and a wide variety of other instruments and singing comical numbers.
TV Show Star Rating : 8  Read More

Bo Selecta!

Bo' Selecta! is a British sketch show written and performed by Leigh Francis, which lampoons popular culture and is known for its often surreal, abstract toilet humour.
TV Show Star Rating : 7  Read More

The Fast Show

The Fast Show is a multi BAFTA award winning sketch comedy show written and produced by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson.
TV Show Star Rating : 7.6  Read More

Smack the Pony

Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that ran from 1999 until 2003 on Channel 4. The main performers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan, and Sally Phillips. There were also regular appearances from Sarah Alexander, Darren Boyd, and Cavan Clerkin. The show's popular theme tune was Dusty Springfield's song In the Middle of Nowhere, sung by Jackie Clune. As well as the three principal cast members, the show was written by a large number of writers, the core of which went on to write Green Wing and Campus. In Germany, the first transmission of the show aired on ProSieben, where the theme tune was changed to Texas' 2001 version of I Don't Want a Lover, and featured a different title sequence. Among the show's regular themes were unsuccessful relationships, competition in the workplace and latent lesbianism, but sketches would also dip into the surreal; such as two women jumping from their car as they neared a parking space, and brushing in front of the path of their car to help it move further forward, as in curling. Two regular strands involved a series of different women making dating agency videos about their general likes and dislikes, and a musical parody that would close the show.
TV Show Star Rating : 8  Read More

French & Saunders

French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act.
TV Show Star Rating : 6.7  Read More

Not The Nine OClock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC2 from 1979 to 1982. Originally shown as a comedy alternative to the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, and spoof television formats. The show featured Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, and Griff Rhys Jones, as well as Chris Langham in the first series. The format was a deliberate departure from the Monty Python's Flying Circus stream-of-consciousness meta-comedy, returning to a more conventional sketch show format. Sketches were mostly self-contained, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes and often had a degree of naturalism in performance. The series launched the careers of several high-profile actors and writers, and also led to other comedy series including Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and Alas Smith and Jones.
TV Show Star Rating : 6  Read More