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- Fawlty Towers. John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Connie Booth. 1,202 votes. A brilliantly crafted farce, Fawlty Towers stars the incomparable John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the perpetually flustered and hapless hotel manager.
- Steptoe and Son. Wilfrid Brambell, Harry H. Corbett. 418 votes. This gritty comedy-drama centres on father-and-son rag-and-bone men Albert (Wilfrid Brambell) and Harold Steptoe (Harry H. Corbett), whose bitter relationship drives the show's dark humour.
- Porridge. Ronnie Barker, Brian Wilde, Fulton Mackay. 748 votes. Set within the confines of HM Slade Prison, Porridge is led by Ronnie Barker's iconic portrayal of inmate Norman Stanley Fletcher.
- Are You Being Served? Trevor Bannister, John Inman, Wendy Richard. 1,076 votes. An ensemble sitcom set in a department store, Are You Being Served? features an unforgettable cast of eccentric characters led by the charmingly snobbish Mrs Slocombe (Mollie Sugden) and her colourful wigs.
Popular UK Seventies TV Programmes. elow are 66 of the most popular British TV programmes of the 1970s. They are listed with their country of origin, production company, UK channel and first and last transmission dates (only the original transmissions [not repeats] have been charted). Major production credits, centring on creators, writers and ...
Britain's Favourite 70s Sitcoms. TV documentary; Channel 5; 2023; 1 episode; A look at the best sitcoms of the 1970s. Features Rowland Rivron, William Roache, Simon O'Brien, Ann Bell, Lesley Garrett and more.
- Butterflies
- Are You Being Served?
- Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads?
- Porridge
- The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
- The Good Life
- George & Mildred
- The Goodies
- Rising Damp
- Fawlty Towers
Carla Lane's great comedy of the late 70s and early 80s told the story of the potential a woman has to escape from the boredom of her domesticity and a husband who takes her for granted by having an affair. Not a new idea (Noel Coward's Brief Encounter notably told the story in the 1940s), but one that was pressing in the 1970s when divorce rates w...
This sitcom was set inside a department store, and was written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, who would go on to write ‘Allo ‘Allo together the following decade. Ideas of English class and snobbery are at the forefront again, as the shop is for a particular standard of clientele. Double entendres, often pertaining to Mrs Slocombe's pussy, reign s...
The sequel to The Likely Lads is much better-remembered, largely because the original black and white episodes largely no longer exist. Returning in colour, and catching up with Terry and Bob when they are older, but no wiser, the continuing adventures of two working class men in the north east and their respective partners/spouses, in common with ...
A great idea for a sitcom, which has to be set in one primary location in which the main characters are, at least in some sense, trapped, is to place them inside a prison, which is exactly what Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais did for their next big sitcom. Ronnie Barker was already a huge star and rightly considered one of Britain's greatest comedy...
If the Second World War (Dad's Army), poverty (Steptoe & Son) and life in prison (Porridge) seemed unusually dark ideas for extremely successful situation comedies, then the unravelling mind of a suicidal middle-aged man having a mid-life crisis is arguably the bleakest premise to turn into a subject of mirth. Outstanding comedy character actor Leo...
Tom and Barbara Good are determined to be self-sufficient, and produce all of their own food. The tension arises because their hippy lifestyle conflicts with that of their next-door neighbours, the Leadbetters, who are socially conservative. Way ahead of its time on environmentalism and food faddishness, The Good Life has stood the test of time. On...
In a classic role reversal, the mild-mannered George (the ever-affable Brian Murphy) has a very low sex drive, whilst his wife Mildred (Yootha Joyce) is insatiable. Add in Mildred's desire to be upwardly socially mobile and George's simple ways that she finds endlessly embarrassing, and class snobbery as well as sexual tension once again plays a ro...
One of the comedies that defined the decade, The Goodies can fairly fall into situation comedy territory (where Monty Python's Flying Circus cannot) because there were plots upon which the episodes were based, rather than just sketches and songs, and the trio usually started the episode at their HQ. Again, class played its part, with Bill Oddie as ...
Leonard Rossiter's other huge success playing a leading role in situation comedy came with Rising Damp. His downtrodden, deceitful, cowardly landlord Rupert Rigsby is one of the all-time unforgettable comedy creations – grotesque, yet oddly sympathetic, perhaps because he's such a pitiful character. Race relations stayed omnipresent but in the back...
It's hard to put anything else in the top spot, because John Cleese's sitcom about a frustrated hotelier in Torquay tore up the rule book and left an almighty shadow of influence on modern British comedy. All of the old tropes are there – Basil Fawlty is trapped in a life he hates, in a barren, loveless marriage to Sybil (Prunella Scales) and in a ...
- Greg Jameson
- 29 min
Mind Your Language: Created by Vince Powell. With Barry Evans, George Camiller, Jacki Harding, Zara Nutley. A diverse group of immigrants and foreigners learn English at an adult education school in London.
- (9.9K)
- 1977-12-30
- Comedy
- 30
Apr 22, 2012 · A look at some of the best British TV shows and series from the 1970s and 1980s, including "The Benny Hill Show," "The Young Ones," "The Persuaders," and David Attenborough's "Life On Earth."
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Intergalactic action thriller from the creators of Thunderbirds. Discover our best Best of the 70s shows. ITVX - the home of ITV on demand and live TV.
