October 8, 2025 • 23 mins
Dave Griffiths and Harley Woods bring us a list of the Best British TV Comedies of all time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, listen as we're going to do something special on
the show now, Harley and I are going to take
a look at our favorite British comedies, the TV shows
that we kind of all grew up with over the years.
But we're actually doing this off the back of something
pretty sad that happened on the Weekend, aren't we, Harley.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that you know it was coming
and it was still a shock though.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah. So, Patricia Rouliedge, or if you want to use
her official title, Dame Catherine Patricia Ruledge, passed away on
the Weekend age ninety six years. And of course many
of you would know her from Keeping up appearances where
she played Hyacinth Buquet, but she was in a lot
(00:53):
of other TV shows too, wasn't she Halley.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, she.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
First kind of got fame when she just played a
big part on what was it called Coronation Street, that
very long running soap opera from the UK, and everyone
loved her characters so much they wanted her to stay on,
but she wasn't interested. So for years they were just
having oh we just got a phone call or a
(01:21):
letter from such and such, you know, just to keep
her alive until they eventually decided to recast to bring
the character back.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And yeah, Hetty Wayinthro, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Hetty Wayinthrop. That was like one of my favorite shows.
I'm just I was so sad that there wasn't more
of that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, So I guess that leads us into I know,
keeping Up Appearances is one of my favorite British shows.
So let's start with you, Hally, what were some of
your favorite British comedies that you grew up watching and loving.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, this is so hard because there are so many.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I mean, okay, one of the big ones that I'm
sure most people know, absolutely fabulous. Yeah, it's such a
great series. The characters are amazing, even at their worst,
their brilliant.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I never get sick of that show. I've rewatched it
so many times and still love it. There was one
I used to watch when I was a kid and
I've never seen it kind of repeated since that time.
It's called Metal Nicky and it's about this family who
had this robot living with them called Nicky. It's really
(02:46):
hard to remember much of it now, especially because I've
never seen it since. I mean, I think like they
repeated it at the time. But then since those years
it was probably like late eighties, early nineties or something. Yeah,
it's just not been back on that I've seen, and
I just thought that was such a fun show. So
(03:06):
if anyone knows how to get a hold of that,
go and check it out. It was a lot of fun,
absolute classic Faulty Towers. That's just brilliant. Like I love
Monty Python Flying Circus. So you know, anything those guys
do usually ends up being brilliant. So John clease as
(03:30):
special Faulty, absolutely brilliant show.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Why it's just universally regarded as a classic. Only like
twelve episodes, but you just want more. But at the
same time, it is so good and so rewatchable. That's
that's the mark of a really good comedy show.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
What was another one? I was going to mention, Oh
made Marion and Her Merry Men? Did you see that one?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
No? I don't think I did.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It used to be well here in Australia was on
the ABC like after school.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Taking the Robin Hood and His Merry Men kind of thing,
flipping it on its head where it's maid Marion who
actually runs the show, but Robin Hood is this complete goofball,
but for some reason he always gets the credit of
being the hero and the leader of the resistance and
all this stuff. You've got what's his name, Tony is
(04:39):
it Robinson? He played in Blackadder Blackader, which is another
good one. By the way, I've suddenly blanked on his name. Yeah,
he played Baldric in Blackadder, but he plays the Sheriff
of Rottingham. And you've got you know, the bad King
who's like really punk and everything, and these couple of
(05:03):
knights that worked for them, who were completely useless, all
these village people who kind of lived throughout Sherwood Forest.
And instead of little John, it's a little Ron and
he's like this midget guy who's like, you know, really fierce.
The characters who were just so great. It's so much fun.
(05:25):
I've got I managed to get the first season on DVD,
but not the rest of it, and I'm dying to
see more of it because I loved this as a kid.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Made Marian and a marry men.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
That's that's one to recommend. And I think there was
something else I was going to mention as well, and
it completely got on a Red Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Red Dwarf is a great one.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's just it kind of came at that time where
you know, Doctor Who had been on TV but it
was having trouble, so they thought they'd rested for a
couple of years, and a couple of years turned into
like five six and then another decade after that, and
(06:11):
it just goes to show that they could actually have
done stuff because Red Dwarf is a science fiction comedy
and it's really good at what it does. Yeah, it
just kind of sort of took over. It became the
new kind of thing for a while. We're getting into that.
(06:34):
It had these elements of being set down to Earth,
that's what you know. The the British populace was kind
of like in these characters and the way they speak
and act, but it was set in the future and
you know, all the kind of down and out and
disenfranchise kind of characters that are in there now suddenly
(06:58):
running things on this ship that everyone just suddenly died
except for one person and a cat that you know,
gave birth the kittens that mutated over the years into
humanoid beings, and it's just a really interesting concept in it. Then,
you know, even after it finished, they brought it back
for more later on to kind of advance it further.
(07:22):
It's really interesting. It's worth a deep dive. But yeah,
those are some of my favorites. What about you, Dave.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, Look, I grew up with an interesting family in
that sense that my parents were very much into the
British shows, and my grandmother and was very much into
the American show. So for me, it was always I
watched all the classic British shows with my parents, so
(07:49):
things like some mothers do have them. I'm trying to
think Robin's Nest, George and Mildred, Are you being?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That was one of the ones I was going to mention. Yeah,
that's my one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, so I grew up watching all of those, and
I think that kind of shaped my comedy in a
sense as well, like because I always found the British
shows were more laugh out loud than the American shows.
Like I loved Perfect Strangers and stuff like that, and
I loved Friends, but I always found that the British
(08:25):
shows were what I would laugh out loud to even today,
Like I was a.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Bit more sort of intelligence or something, wasn't it? There
was more to appeal to you rather than just kind
of the surface level. I think that's what made it
so good.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And I guess friends did this as well. But shows
like especially Robin's Nest, they knew how to bring drama
and comedy into a show like so there would be
like a fight between between couples or something like that
in the show, and but they knew how to do it,
but they knew how to do it so that there
(09:04):
was still something there that you could laugh at as well.
And I guess, uh, yeah, like I'm trying to think,
I have the names gone out of my head? Now
are you being served? Was very good at that as well,
where they would touch on things like feminism, for example,
but still put a laugh in there as well. It
(09:28):
was interesting to watch shows like that and then compare
it to what was happening with American television as well.
I also was a huge fan of Haile and Pace.
I used to watch that with my dad, and and
then of course going into Little Britain as well, which
are all the shows that you can't put on television
anymore because they're considered politically incorrect. But even the goodies,
(09:52):
like I remember I used to watch Home from from
School to watch the Goodies, but yeah, Keep Up Appearances
as probably my favorite ever. That was one of those
shows where even my grandma liked that, even though she
wasn't really into the British stuff. I just I just
remember all the characters, like everybody talks about Hyacinth, but
(10:16):
but even like, yeah, Daddy, Daddy was just a pervert.
But like, that was a show that I felt and
I actually went and bought the script book because of
this reason. I thought it was the perfect way to
(10:37):
write comedy in that you did have this over the top,
larger than life character like Hyacinth, but they surrounded her
with so many characters as well, like Emmett from next Door.
I'm trying to think, what's Emmett's sister's name, the one
that can't be in the room with Hyacinth without dropping
(10:58):
things and stuff. And then you had the Vicar, like
she was always after the vicar. And then as you said, yeah,
Rose and Onslow and Daisy like they all had their
own thing. Like Onslow proved to be such a popular
character that when Keeping Up Appearance has ended, they basically
took that actor and put him in Heartbeat, but he
(11:19):
was pretty much playing Onslow in Heartbeat as well, even
though they gave him a different name. It was but
to me that was the perfect comedy. There was also
Birds of a Feather, which.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I know that you as well.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I was just thinking of it the other day, I think,
probably after we're talking about doing this, and totally forgot
to mention it.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Such a great series.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
One Foot in the Grave, which was about a recently
retired man who's just grumpy at the world and his
wife is really nice and he's yelling at teenagers and
yelling at yelling at like the next door neighbor. You
mentioned Dwarf, which I also loved, But there was also
another one called hyper Drive. I don't know if you
(12:04):
watched that, but that was where so that had Nick
Frost in it. That was another comedy set in space,
which was a pretty good comedy. But yeah, I guess
I guess they are my favorites. But like I said,
there's just there's so many, like when I sat down
to this, like and because, like I said, we had
(12:27):
a very brittish upbringing, so we watched things like Upstairs, Downstairs,
Step Tomas On, all of that, all of that. Yeah,
but even Benny Hill, which is another one that you
can't show today, but like.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I grew up watching Benny Hill and that is still
some of the cleverest, you know, sketch kind of stuff
I've ever seen done. He is an absolute master. Like, yeah,
I want to watch all that again. They you know what,
that's what the British did well. They usually would have
(13:05):
like a comedy character or usually it was a comedy pairing,
like you said, Hale and Peace, French and Saunders. They've
done so much. They have a lot of these pairings
and they're always so good with all the sketches and
the things that they do and create. The young ones,
you know, a lot of them went on to do
(13:26):
this sort of stuff too.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
There's a lot of yeah, crossovers there as well. I
mean you said French and Saunders, and of course keeping
up appearances and the Vicar of Dibley. You've got black
Adder and mister Bean like as Yeah, and we should
mention mister Bean because that was universal, like for a
(13:48):
character that barely speaks to be able to have a
television show where he just has people in stitches, and
a lot of people don't realize. I think there was
only ever seven or eight episodes of Mister Bean. It's
like Faulty Towers. Everybody loves it so much. They kind
of it feels like that they were on for years,
but there was only like seven or eight episodes.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
They were repeated like frequently, and then they did a
couple more episodes and it was like, oh, great new
mister Bean. But yeah, it was never very many. It's
just a handful. That's why you just sort of see
them over and over.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But oh, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
What, I just realized, I absolutely forgot one of my
all time favorites, Hello Hello, Yes, I even appeared in
a stage production.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
How could I forget that?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But I actually went to the original cast live stage
play of Hello Alo when they came to Australia. Only
the lead actor who pleased Rene was not there because
he had unfortunately been caught in a cyclone and was recovering.
(14:57):
So the series wasn't even on air for a couple
of years while he recovered, and thankfully he did and
they came back for a couple of extra series and yeah,
so for those who don't know Alo Alo, it's set
during World War Two. It's the French resistance trying to,
you know, fight against the nazis trying to contact British
(15:18):
agents to come over and help and you know, try
to win the war. But unfortunately, this poor cafe owner
is dragged into the middle of things and all he
wants to do is run around and have a bit
of fun on the side with his waitress, you know,
without his wife knowing. But he's been dragged into all
this intrigue and fighting the Germans. And the characters are amazing,
(15:43):
Like everyone who took part in that just should be
applauded for all they did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It is such a great series.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I've got two more here as well, and one of
them almost rivals Keeping Up Appearances as my favorite. But
first of all, the Catherine Tate.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sho of course, yes she's not brilliant.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Which was another for some reason that used to be
on TV here straight after Little Britain, so it was
like he used to get the double schedule. And another one.
I'll give you a couple of hints to see if
you can guess this one. A couple of lines from
the show Bus.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Wankers, the in Betweeners.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that would nearly be right up there for me
with Keeping Up Appearances, because it is such an iconic show.
And like it's coming back. And I think someone said
the other day that ever since they announced that it's
coming back, the amount of people that have like been
(16:46):
searching for information about it coming back has been one
of the largest things looked for on Google and stuff
like that. So how did you feel about that show?
I know it was a show that not everybody liked.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
No, I loved it at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I remember not being able to kind of watch it
regularly whenever it was on, so I I had no
episodes here and there. Maybe I'd seen like the full
first series or something, but it was only when I
could sort of catch it there after. And it was
(17:26):
only in slightly more recent years that I finally was
able to find somewhere to watch the whole thing through,
although I haven't properly watched the movies.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
They even came to Australia to do one of the movies.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, I know, and it's it's so frustrating because every
time they're on, like I catch bits of them, but
I want to watch the full things start to finish.
So yeah, so I've got to work that one out.
But yeah, I thought it was really good. It's that
it's there different like compared to most of what we've mentioned.
It's a totally different area of humor, but it still
(18:07):
works so well.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
There wasn't that other show, Misfits, Do you remember that one?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, all the people suddenly developed superpowers during this incident,
and of course they were all a bunch of misfits
and tearaways, and that was such a good series.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I especially loved that.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
And that kind of had that same kind of vein
with the way their characters were and everything.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, there's something about it.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's kind of it has it appears, so yeah, I'd
be really interested to see, you know, the new series
of this.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Simon Byrd from The in Between Us also did another
show after The in Between has finished, called Friday Night Dinner,
which is absolutely hilarious as well. It's about two brothers
who every Friday night go back to their family home
to have dinner with their mum and dad, and their
dad's just this guy that tries to be cool all
(19:03):
the time, but it backfires. The mom's like this sweet lady,
and then they've got this crazy next door neighbor who
is a little bit politically incorrect because I would probably
dare say that the poor guy's had a brain injury
at some stage in his life, but he always comes
over and makes a mess at the house, or he's
(19:24):
got the hots for the mum, so he's like he's
always like trying to seduce her, but she's got no
idea what he's trying to do. But yeah, if you
if you get a chance, sit down. And I don't
know if it's got a regular television one. Here, I
was watching it online and then somebody gave me box
set of the DVDs. But yeah, Friday Night Dinner is
(19:44):
another classic if you like that in between us kind
of comedy.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Actually there's a little bit of a share out I
should give as well, because I grew up watching repeats
of the carry On movies.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I love those so much.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
My mother always gets annoyed that I'm so into them,
and I'm like that you must have introduced me to them,
Like why do you hate me? I saw them on
TV because you guys were watching them. I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I love that about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
But they actually had a TV series, Like there was
a carry On TV series where they do installments each
week or something. So if you get like the big
box set of all the movies, you'll get this TV
series along with it. So but the actors who were
in that, like Sid James even had you know, his
own shows and stuff that I used to sort of catch.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
After school or in the evenings or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And but there was one that was on a few
years back. Jones Sin, who was in a lot of
the carry On movies. She was in this series with
what's that guy's name, Dennis Waterman I think, and another
(21:06):
guy who was in the original lineup of a Loolo
and it was it was a good sort of drama,
but it was also very comedy based as well. And
so jones In was like the housekeeper for this guy
who would sort of newly rich. He'd you know, developed
a business and become successful, but you know his marriage
(21:29):
is sort of broken down, and but you're just getting
this kind of relationship between him and the two staff
that worked for him. And I just love jones In
in that series. And it's called On the Up. So
if you get a chance to check out On the Up,
really really good show.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I think the other thing too about British shows is
their their cats phrases and their lines that stick with people,
Like I mean, people always say computer says no, which
of course is from Little Britain. My friends and I
whenever one of us says like I've just got to go,
I'm gonna go see my friend. We all did a
(22:09):
bit from in between Us where it's like, oh friend
like that. It's like and my mom, like even my
mom will quote like Hyacinth. If if you're like being
slow at doing something, my mom will go, come on, Richard, now,
don't did it badly? Like it's it's everybody. And of
course my dad likes to do some of the lines
(22:32):
from Missus Slocum from Are You Being Served, which we
probably can't say in this time slot. That's yeah. I
think that's the other thing to it. It stays with people,
and I'm sure like that's one of the things that's
been so heartbreaking about Patricia Relige dying this week is
that at least she has this character that's gonna live
(22:53):
on for generations to come. And she said that in
an interview where someone that meant about how old she
was getting and she said, well, at least I know
when I pass away, Hyacinth will live on. And I
think that's true. So Valet to Patricia Rulich, But Harley,
it's been great being able to talk about British TV,
(23:15):
hasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, it's so much fun. I kind of want to
binge watch everything we just spoke about.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, now we've got something very very special for all
the ab fab fans out there right now. So here
we go.
Well, listen as we're going to do something special on
the show now, Harley and I are going to take
a look at our favorite British comedies, the TV shows
that we kind of all grew up with over the years.
But we're actually doing this off the back of something
pretty sad that happened on the Weekend, aren't we, Harley.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that you know it was coming
and it was still a shock though.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah. So, Patricia Rouliedge, or if you want to use
her official title, Dame Catherine Patricia Ruledge, passed away on
the Weekend age ninety six years. And of course many
of you would know her from Keeping up appearances where
she played Hyacinth Buquet, but she was in a lot
(00:53):
of other TV shows too, wasn't she Halley.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, she.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
First kind of got fame when she just played a
big part on what was it called Coronation Street, that
very long running soap opera from the UK, and everyone
loved her characters so much they wanted her to stay on,
but she wasn't interested. So for years they were just
having oh we just got a phone call or a
(01:21):
letter from such and such, you know, just to keep
her alive until they eventually decided to recast to bring
the character back.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And yeah, Hetty Wayinthro, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Hetty Wayinthrop. That was like one of my favorite shows.
I'm just I was so sad that there wasn't more
of that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, So I guess that leads us into I know,
keeping Up Appearances is one of my favorite British shows.
So let's start with you, Hally, what were some of
your favorite British comedies that you grew up watching and loving.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, this is so hard because there are so many.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I mean, okay, one of the big ones that I'm
sure most people know, absolutely fabulous. Yeah, it's such a
great series. The characters are amazing, even at their worst,
their brilliant.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I never get sick of that show. I've rewatched it
so many times and still love it. There was one
I used to watch when I was a kid and
I've never seen it kind of repeated since that time.
It's called Metal Nicky and it's about this family who
had this robot living with them called Nicky. It's really
(02:46):
hard to remember much of it now, especially because I've
never seen it since. I mean, I think like they
repeated it at the time. But then since those years
it was probably like late eighties, early nineties or something. Yeah,
it's just not been back on that I've seen, and
I just thought that was such a fun show. So
(03:06):
if anyone knows how to get a hold of that,
go and check it out. It was a lot of fun,
absolute classic Faulty Towers. That's just brilliant. Like I love
Monty Python Flying Circus. So you know, anything those guys
do usually ends up being brilliant. So John clease as
(03:30):
special Faulty, absolutely brilliant show.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Why it's just universally regarded as a classic. Only like
twelve episodes, but you just want more. But at the
same time, it is so good and so rewatchable. That's
that's the mark of a really good comedy show.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
What was another one? I was going to mention, Oh
made Marion and Her Merry Men? Did you see that one?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
No? I don't think I did.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It used to be well here in Australia was on
the ABC like after school.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Taking the Robin Hood and His Merry Men kind of thing,
flipping it on its head where it's maid Marion who
actually runs the show, but Robin Hood is this complete goofball,
but for some reason he always gets the credit of
being the hero and the leader of the resistance and
all this stuff. You've got what's his name, Tony is
(04:39):
it Robinson? He played in Blackadder Blackader, which is another
good one. By the way, I've suddenly blanked on his name. Yeah,
he played Baldric in Blackadder, but he plays the Sheriff
of Rottingham. And you've got you know, the bad King
who's like really punk and everything, and these couple of
(05:03):
knights that worked for them, who were completely useless, all
these village people who kind of lived throughout Sherwood Forest.
And instead of little John, it's a little Ron and
he's like this midget guy who's like, you know, really fierce.
The characters who were just so great. It's so much fun.
(05:25):
I've got I managed to get the first season on DVD,
but not the rest of it, and I'm dying to
see more of it because I loved this as a kid.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Made Marian and a marry men.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
That's that's one to recommend. And I think there was
something else I was going to mention as well, and
it completely got on a Red Dwarf.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Red Dwarf is a great one.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's just it kind of came at that time where
you know, Doctor Who had been on TV but it
was having trouble, so they thought they'd rested for a
couple of years, and a couple of years turned into
like five six and then another decade after that, and
(06:11):
it just goes to show that they could actually have
done stuff because Red Dwarf is a science fiction comedy
and it's really good at what it does. Yeah, it
just kind of sort of took over. It became the
new kind of thing for a while. We're getting into that.
(06:34):
It had these elements of being set down to Earth,
that's what you know. The the British populace was kind
of like in these characters and the way they speak
and act, but it was set in the future and
you know, all the kind of down and out and
disenfranchise kind of characters that are in there now suddenly
(06:58):
running things on this ship that everyone just suddenly died
except for one person and a cat that you know,
gave birth the kittens that mutated over the years into
humanoid beings, and it's just a really interesting concept in it. Then,
you know, even after it finished, they brought it back
for more later on to kind of advance it further.
(07:22):
It's really interesting. It's worth a deep dive. But yeah,
those are some of my favorites. What about you, Dave.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, Look, I grew up with an interesting family in
that sense that my parents were very much into the
British shows, and my grandmother and was very much into
the American show. So for me, it was always I
watched all the classic British shows with my parents, so
(07:49):
things like some mothers do have them. I'm trying to
think Robin's Nest, George and Mildred, Are you being?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That was one of the ones I was going to mention. Yeah,
that's my one of my favorites.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, so I grew up watching all of those, and
I think that kind of shaped my comedy in a
sense as well, like because I always found the British
shows were more laugh out loud than the American shows.
Like I loved Perfect Strangers and stuff like that, and
I loved Friends, but I always found that the British
(08:25):
shows were what I would laugh out loud to even today,
Like I was a.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Bit more sort of intelligence or something, wasn't it? There
was more to appeal to you rather than just kind
of the surface level. I think that's what made it
so good.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And I guess friends did this as well. But shows
like especially Robin's Nest, they knew how to bring drama
and comedy into a show like so there would be
like a fight between between couples or something like that
in the show, and but they knew how to do it,
but they knew how to do it so that there
(09:04):
was still something there that you could laugh at as well.
And I guess, uh, yeah, like I'm trying to think,
I have the names gone out of my head? Now
are you being served? Was very good at that as well,
where they would touch on things like feminism, for example,
but still put a laugh in there as well. It
(09:28):
was interesting to watch shows like that and then compare
it to what was happening with American television as well.
I also was a huge fan of Haile and Pace.
I used to watch that with my dad, and and
then of course going into Little Britain as well, which
are all the shows that you can't put on television
anymore because they're considered politically incorrect. But even the goodies,
(09:52):
like I remember I used to watch Home from from
School to watch the Goodies, but yeah, Keep Up Appearances
as probably my favorite ever. That was one of those
shows where even my grandma liked that, even though she
wasn't really into the British stuff. I just I just
remember all the characters, like everybody talks about Hyacinth, but
(10:16):
but even like, yeah, Daddy, Daddy was just a pervert.
But like, that was a show that I felt and
I actually went and bought the script book because of
this reason. I thought it was the perfect way to
(10:37):
write comedy in that you did have this over the top,
larger than life character like Hyacinth, but they surrounded her
with so many characters as well, like Emmett from next Door.
I'm trying to think, what's Emmett's sister's name, the one
that can't be in the room with Hyacinth without dropping
(10:58):
things and stuff. And then you had the Vicar, like
she was always after the vicar. And then as you said, yeah,
Rose and Onslow and Daisy like they all had their
own thing. Like Onslow proved to be such a popular
character that when Keeping Up Appearance has ended, they basically
took that actor and put him in Heartbeat, but he
(11:19):
was pretty much playing Onslow in Heartbeat as well, even
though they gave him a different name. It was but
to me that was the perfect comedy. There was also
Birds of a Feather, which.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I know that you as well.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I was just thinking of it the other day, I think,
probably after we're talking about doing this, and totally forgot
to mention it.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Such a great series.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
One Foot in the Grave, which was about a recently
retired man who's just grumpy at the world and his
wife is really nice and he's yelling at teenagers and
yelling at yelling at like the next door neighbor. You
mentioned Dwarf, which I also loved, But there was also
another one called hyper Drive. I don't know if you
(12:04):
watched that, but that was where so that had Nick
Frost in it. That was another comedy set in space,
which was a pretty good comedy. But yeah, I guess
I guess they are my favorites. But like I said,
there's just there's so many, like when I sat down
to this, like and because, like I said, we had
(12:27):
a very brittish upbringing, so we watched things like Upstairs, Downstairs,
Step Tomas On, all of that, all of that. Yeah,
but even Benny Hill, which is another one that you
can't show today, but like.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
I grew up watching Benny Hill and that is still
some of the cleverest, you know, sketch kind of stuff
I've ever seen done. He is an absolute master. Like, yeah,
I want to watch all that again. They you know what,
that's what the British did well. They usually would have
(13:05):
like a comedy character or usually it was a comedy pairing,
like you said, Hale and Peace, French and Saunders. They've
done so much. They have a lot of these pairings
and they're always so good with all the sketches and
the things that they do and create. The young ones,
you know, a lot of them went on to do
(13:26):
this sort of stuff too.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
There's a lot of yeah, crossovers there as well. I
mean you said French and Saunders, and of course keeping
up appearances and the Vicar of Dibley. You've got black
Adder and mister Bean like as Yeah, and we should
mention mister Bean because that was universal, like for a
(13:48):
character that barely speaks to be able to have a
television show where he just has people in stitches, and
a lot of people don't realize. I think there was
only ever seven or eight episodes of Mister Bean. It's
like Faulty Towers. Everybody loves it so much. They kind
of it feels like that they were on for years,
but there was only like seven or eight episodes.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
They were repeated like frequently, and then they did a
couple more episodes and it was like, oh, great new
mister Bean. But yeah, it was never very many. It's
just a handful. That's why you just sort of see
them over and over.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But oh, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
What, I just realized, I absolutely forgot one of my
all time favorites, Hello Hello, Yes, I even appeared in
a stage production.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
How could I forget that?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But I actually went to the original cast live stage
play of Hello Alo when they came to Australia. Only
the lead actor who pleased Rene was not there because
he had unfortunately been caught in a cyclone and was recovering.
(14:57):
So the series wasn't even on air for a couple
of years while he recovered, and thankfully he did and
they came back for a couple of extra series and yeah,
so for those who don't know Alo Alo, it's set
during World War Two. It's the French resistance trying to,
you know, fight against the nazis trying to contact British
(15:18):
agents to come over and help and you know, try
to win the war. But unfortunately, this poor cafe owner
is dragged into the middle of things and all he
wants to do is run around and have a bit
of fun on the side with his waitress, you know,
without his wife knowing. But he's been dragged into all
this intrigue and fighting the Germans. And the characters are amazing,
(15:43):
Like everyone who took part in that just should be
applauded for all they did.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It is such a great series.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I've got two more here as well, and one of
them almost rivals Keeping Up Appearances as my favorite. But
first of all, the Catherine Tate.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sho of course, yes she's not brilliant.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Which was another for some reason that used to be
on TV here straight after Little Britain, so it was
like he used to get the double schedule. And another one.
I'll give you a couple of hints to see if
you can guess this one. A couple of lines from
the show Bus.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Wankers, the in Betweeners.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that would nearly be right up there for me
with Keeping Up Appearances, because it is such an iconic show.
And like it's coming back. And I think someone said
the other day that ever since they announced that it's
coming back, the amount of people that have like been
(16:46):
searching for information about it coming back has been one
of the largest things looked for on Google and stuff
like that. So how did you feel about that show?
I know it was a show that not everybody liked.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
No, I loved it at the time.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I remember not being able to kind of watch it
regularly whenever it was on, so I I had no
episodes here and there. Maybe I'd seen like the full
first series or something, but it was only when I
could sort of catch it there after. And it was
(17:26):
only in slightly more recent years that I finally was
able to find somewhere to watch the whole thing through,
although I haven't properly watched the movies.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
They even came to Australia to do one of the movies.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, I know, and it's it's so frustrating because every
time they're on, like I catch bits of them, but
I want to watch the full things start to finish.
So yeah, so I've got to work that one out.
But yeah, I thought it was really good. It's that
it's there different like compared to most of what we've mentioned.
It's a totally different area of humor, but it still
(18:07):
works so well.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
There wasn't that other show, Misfits, Do you remember that one?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, all the people suddenly developed superpowers during this incident,
and of course they were all a bunch of misfits
and tearaways, and that was such a good series.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I especially loved that.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
And that kind of had that same kind of vein
with the way their characters were and everything.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, there's something about it.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's kind of it has it appears, so yeah, I'd
be really interested to see, you know, the new series
of this.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Simon Byrd from The in Between Us also did another
show after The in Between has finished, called Friday Night Dinner,
which is absolutely hilarious as well. It's about two brothers
who every Friday night go back to their family home
to have dinner with their mum and dad, and their
dad's just this guy that tries to be cool all
(19:03):
the time, but it backfires. The mom's like this sweet lady,
and then they've got this crazy next door neighbor who
is a little bit politically incorrect because I would probably
dare say that the poor guy's had a brain injury
at some stage in his life, but he always comes
over and makes a mess at the house, or he's
(19:24):
got the hots for the mum, so he's like he's
always like trying to seduce her, but she's got no
idea what he's trying to do. But yeah, if you
if you get a chance, sit down. And I don't
know if it's got a regular television one. Here, I
was watching it online and then somebody gave me box
set of the DVDs. But yeah, Friday Night Dinner is
(19:44):
another classic if you like that in between us kind
of comedy.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Actually there's a little bit of a share out I
should give as well, because I grew up watching repeats
of the carry On movies.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I love those so much.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
My mother always gets annoyed that I'm so into them,
and I'm like that you must have introduced me to them,
Like why do you hate me? I saw them on
TV because you guys were watching them. I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I love that about it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
But they actually had a TV series, Like there was
a carry On TV series where they do installments each
week or something. So if you get like the big
box set of all the movies, you'll get this TV
series along with it. So but the actors who were
in that, like Sid James even had you know, his
own shows and stuff that I used to sort of catch.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
After school or in the evenings or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And but there was one that was on a few
years back. Jones Sin, who was in a lot of
the carry On movies. She was in this series with
what's that guy's name, Dennis Waterman I think, and another
(21:06):
guy who was in the original lineup of a Loolo
and it was it was a good sort of drama,
but it was also very comedy based as well. And
so jones In was like the housekeeper for this guy
who would sort of newly rich. He'd you know, developed
a business and become successful, but you know his marriage
(21:29):
is sort of broken down, and but you're just getting
this kind of relationship between him and the two staff
that worked for him. And I just love jones In
in that series. And it's called On the Up. So
if you get a chance to check out On the Up,
really really good show.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I think the other thing too about British shows is
their their cats phrases and their lines that stick with people,
Like I mean, people always say computer says no, which
of course is from Little Britain. My friends and I
whenever one of us says like I've just got to go,
I'm gonna go see my friend. We all did a
(22:09):
bit from in between Us where it's like, oh friend
like that. It's like and my mom, like even my
mom will quote like Hyacinth. If if you're like being
slow at doing something, my mom will go, come on, Richard, now,
don't did it badly? Like it's it's everybody. And of
course my dad likes to do some of the lines
(22:32):
from Missus Slocum from Are You Being Served, which we
probably can't say in this time slot. That's yeah. I
think that's the other thing to it. It stays with people,
and I'm sure like that's one of the things that's
been so heartbreaking about Patricia Relige dying this week is
that at least she has this character that's gonna live
(22:53):
on for generations to come. And she said that in
an interview where someone that meant about how old she
was getting and she said, well, at least I know
when I pass away, Hyacinth will live on. And I
think that's true. So Valet to Patricia Rulich, But Harley,
it's been great being able to talk about British TV,
(23:15):
hasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, it's so much fun. I kind of want to
binge watch everything we just spoke about.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, now we've got something very very special for all
the ab fab fans out there right now. So here
we go.
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