Sushi For Breakfast

As part of the Great Loft Clearout Of 2012, my parents handed me the comedy scrapbooks which I maintained during my teens and early twenties (late 1980s to mid 1990s). In order to preserve what I cannot keep physically, I have scanned all the major articles and many of the smaller items, and I now present these to share with whoever may find them of interest.

( A few important points first )

Merry Christmas!

I've been downloading loads of comedy stuff from YouTube, and I came across some old Rowan Atkinson live performances which I've mostly never seen before, so I thought I'd share. Starting with ones I know, from 1979's Secret Policeman's Ball:

The Schoolmaster


( More here )

I had no idea that last item existed. One of the funniest things I've seen ever.

A few days ago, I promised you some Morcambe and Wise, the viewing of their Christmas Specials having developed into a fierce Christmas tradition during the 1970s, one which broadcasters like to follow all these years later. So, here is my version.

( There's No Answer To That )

I tried to find a good copy of their closing the show with "Bring Me Sunshine" complete with their signature skipping off stage, but no luck :( But I hope you like these items.

Inspired by a conversation on Twitter, I hunted down this Two Ronnies sketch:



Which had me looking for more Two Ronnies sketches I remember - I love the wordplay they used so much, like these:

( Here )

Endeavour has landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California, but NASA TV has gone all shy & quiet on us, so I thought it was time for some YouTubery. I've been watching my DVDs of Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV rather a lot recently, so here are a few items:

( That's why we come out, to get away from all the legs )

Tonight BBC2 is devoting itself to a tribute to Geoffrey Perkins. There's a special edition of Comedy Connections tracing his career, plus episodes of The Fast Show and The Catherine Tate Show. Meanwhile, I'm getting in the mood with some Father Ted eps.

If you have access to iPlayer, look out for Comedy Connections soon. Will be worth watching I'm sure.

Edit: it was good. Lots of Radio Active / KYTV stuff (I planned to post some YouTubed KYTV here but couldn't find any decent quality files). They showed Father Ted, too (The Passion of St Tibulus, which this icon is taken from) - C4 gave the BBC permission to screen an ep given the special circumstances.

You may recall (or may heard of) a little poll back in 2004 that the BBC did, known as Britain's Best Sitcom. At long last I have finalised my list of top 100 British sitcoms, which I present to you now.

Please note the definitions: all are produced in the UK; all are sitcoms (although one was originally more of a sketch show which morphed into sketch/sitcom hybrid), so no comedy-dramas such as Jeeves and Wooster or Auf Wiedersehen, Pet; all are aimed at the adult/family viewership, so no children's sitcoms such as Maid Marian and her Merry Men. Nor does it include any sitcoms that never made it past the pilot episode (ie no Mirrorball).

I know there will be wild disagreements of the "How can _______ be so low down the list?" variety. In compiling this list, I'm going on what I've seen of the programme. In some cases I've seen less than a whole episode, while others I know all the words off by heart. In many cases I haven't seen the programme in question for twenty years or more, others get bumped up the list somewhat on the merits of familial comfort rather than sitcom craftsmanship. I've no doubt that if I was more familiar with many of the programmes lower down the list - the newer ones in particular - I would have placed them higher, but I have to go on what I've seen. Conversely, some programmes are so striking that they're pretty highly listed when I've only seen a couple of episodes.

So here goes:

( Obviously, Number One is Blackadder )

So... there you are. I'd be interested to hear your lists/views.