Best British and Irish comedies
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- StarsRichard AyoadeMatt BerryMatthew HolnessThis parody series is an unearthed 80s horror/drama, complete with poor production values, awful dialogue and hilarious violence. The series is set in a Hospital in Romford, which is situated over the gates of Hell.Darkplace is presented as a lost classic: a television series produced in the 1980s, though never broadcast at the time. The presentation features commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as "Marenghi" and "Learner" reflect on making the show. Darkplace parodies numerous aspects of '80s low-budget television, including fashion, special effects, production gaffes, and music, as well as the widespread practice of including commentary tracks on DVD releases of old films and television shows.
- StarsPeter SerafinowiczNigel LambertRobert PopperA parody of educational programs. Just don't believe anything in the show is true.In the first series, the episodes ("modules") satirise and pay homage to late 1970s and early 1980s educational films and school programmes such as ITV's "Experiment" series and BBC's "For Schools and Colleges", which were re-run for many years after they were made. The second series is composed of six 30-minute episodes and is presented in the pop-science vein of programmes such as Tomorrow's World
- StarsStewart LeeChristopher MorrisPaul PutnerThe exciting return to television of the comedians comedian Stewart Lee.Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle is a BBC Two comedy series created by Stewart Lee. It features standup comedy and sketches[1] united by a theme for each episode.
- StarsChristopher MorrisMark HeapKevin EldonControversial spoof of current affairs television, and the role of celebrity in the UK.Brass Eye is a UK television series of satirical news magazines. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. It satirised media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism and creation of moral panics.
- StarsSteve CooganSimon GreenallFelicity MontaguA failed television presenter, now presenting a programme on local desperately tries to revive his broadcasting career.I'm Alan Partridge is a BBC situation comedy starring Steve Coogan, The series followed the titular Alan Partridge, a failed television presenter whose previous exploits had featured in the chat-show parody Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, and who is now presenting a programme on local radio in Norwich.
- StarsChristopher MorrisSteve CooganPatrick MarberA spoof of the British style of news broadcasting - including ridiculous stories, patronising vox pops, offensively hard-hitting research and a sports presenter clearly struggling for metaphors.The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris.
- CreatorGraham ChapmanEric IdleTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseTerry GilliamThe original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe.Monty Python’s Flying Circus (known during the final series as just Monty Python) 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
- StarsMartin MaloneyOwen ColganChris TordoffFour lads from Ireland wanting nothing but good craic.Hardy Bucks is an Irish mockumentary television programme. It started out as a series of largely improvised online. A six-part webisode series went on to win the 2009 Storyland competition held by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ Television. Hardy Bucks is set in the fictional town of Castletown (Swinford) in West Ireland, following the misadventures of five hapless men down on their luck, trying to leave their backwards rural home town and attempt to reach America and sample modern civilization
- StarsCaroline AherneCraig CashSue JohnstonA British sitcom about the everyday life of a working-class family in Northwest England: watching telly, smoking, drinking, and bickering.The Royle Family is a British television sitcom produced by Granada Productions for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 to 2012.[1][2] It centres around the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, comprising family patriarch Jim Royle (Ricky Tomlinson), his wife Barbara (Sue Johnston), their daughter Denise (Caroline Aherne), their son Anthony (Ralf Little) and Denise's fiancee (later husband) Dave (Craig Cash).
The series features simple production values and a stereotypical portrayal of low income family life at the turn of the millennium. It therefore has something in common with kitchen sink drama. The scripts contain often banal conversations. Almost all of the episodes take place in the Royles' home; most centre on the telly-centric living room. Aherne and Cash co-wrote every episode, along with Henry Normal (series one), Carmel Morgan (series two), and Phil Mealey (five Christmas specials) - CreatorJesse ArmstrongSam BainAndrew O'ConnorStarsDavid MitchellRobert WebbMatt KingMark and Jez are a couple of twenty-something roommates who have nothing in common - except for the fact that their lives are anything but normal. Mayhem ensues as the pair strive to cope with day-to-day life.Peep Show follows the lives of two men from their twenties to thirties. Mark Corrigan (Mitchell), who has steady employment for most of the series, and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Webb), an unemployed would-be musician, are the main characters of the show.[2][3] The pair met at the fictional Dartmouth University, and now share a flat in Croydon, South London. Mark is initially a loan manager at the fictional JLB Credit, later becoming a waiter and then a bathroom supplies salesman. He is financially secure but awkward and socially inept, with a pessimistic and cynical attitude. Jeremy, having split up with his girlfriend Big Suze prior to the first episode, now lives in Mark's spare room. He usually has a much more optimistic and energetic outlook on the world than Mark, yet his self-proclaimed talent as a musician has yet to be recognised, and he is not as popular or attractive as he would like to think himself, although he is more successful with women than Mark
- StarsSimon PeggJessica HynesJulia DeakinFriends Tim and Daisy, 20-something North Londoners with uncertain futures, must pretend to be a couple to live in the only apartment they can afford.Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stevenson) and Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) are two London twenty-somethings who meet by chance in a café while both are flat-hunting. Despite barely knowing each other, they conspire to pose as a young professional couple in order to meet the requisites of an advertisement for a relatively cheap flat in the distinctive building at 23 Meteor Street, Tufnell Park, which is owned by and also houses the landlady, Marsha Klein (Julia Deakin). Also in the building is Brian Topp (Mark Heap), an eccentric conceptual artist who lives and works on his various pieces in the ground floor flat.[ep 1] Frequent visitors are Daisy's best friend, Twist Morgan (Katy Carmichael) and Tim's best friend, Mike Watt (Nick Frost), who ends up becoming a lodger after Marsha's daughter Amber Weary "flies the nest"
- CreatorArmando IannucciStarsChris AddisonJames SmithPeter CapaldiThe Minister for Social Affairs is continually harassed by Number 10's policy enforcer and dependent on his not-so-reliable team of civil servants.The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. The series has been described as the 21st century's answer to Yes Minister, highlighting the struggles and conflicts between politicians, party spin doctors, advisers, civil servants and the media. As with Yes Minister, the political parties involved are never mentioned by name, although the context makes clear which is which. Iannucci describes it as "Yes Minister meets Larry Sanders". The journalist and former civil servant Martin Sixsmith is an adviser to the writing team, giving some of the storylines an element of realism. The series has become well known for its profanity and for featuring storylines which have mirrored, or in some cases predicted real-life policies, events or scandals
- StarsDermot MorganArdal O'HanlonFrank KellyThree misfit priests and their housekeeper live on Craggy Island, not the peaceful and quiet part of Ireland that it seems to be.Set on the fictional Craggy Island, a remote location off Ireland's west coast, the show starred Dermot Morgan as the eponymous Father Ted Crilly, alongside fellow priests Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly). Exiled on the island for various past incidents, the priests live together in the parochial house with their housekeeper Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn).
- CreatorRicky GervaisStephen MerchantStarsRicky GervaisAshley JensenStephen MerchantAndy Millman is an actor with ambition and a script. Reduced to working as an extra with a useless agent, Andy's attempts to boost his career invariably end in failure and embarrassment.The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star; a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their famous public personas.
- StarsJulian BarrattNoel FieldingMichael FieldingSurreal British comedy in which Vince Noir and Howard Moon have adventures filled with oddball characters while working as Zoo Keepers, before pursuing a musical career and running a second-hand shop.The Mighty Boosh is a comic fantasy containing humour and pop-culture references. Episodes often featured elaborate musical numbers in different genres, such as electro, heavy metal, funk, and rap. The show has been known for popularising a style called "crimping"; short a cappella songs which are present throughout all three series. Julian Barratt wrote the music within the show, and performs it with Noel Fielding
- StarsChris O'DowdRichard AyoadeKatherine ParkinsonThe comedic misadventures of Roy, Moss and their grifting supervisor Jen, a rag-tag team of IT support workers at a large corporation headed by a hotheaded yuppie.Set in the London offices of the fictional Reynholm Industries, the show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department: a geeky genius named Maurice Moss (Richard Ayoade), the work-shy Roy Trenneman (O'Dowd), and Jen Barber (Parkinson), the department head/relationship manager, who knows nothing about IT. The show also focuses on the bosses of Reynholm Industries: Denholm Reynholm (Chris Morris) and later, his son Douglas (Matt Berry)
- CreatorRicky GervaisStephen MerchantStarsRicky GervaisMartin FreemanMackenzie CrookThe story of an office that faces closure when the company decides to downsize its branches. A documentary film crew follow staff and the manager David Brent as they continue their daily lives.the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character, David Brent. Although fictional and scripted, the programme takes the form of a documentary (a fictional documentary, i.e. a mockumentary), with the presence of the camera often acknowledged
- StarsRichard AyoadeMatthew HolnessSatu SuominenLive from his luxury apartment in London's glittering East End, Dean Learner (Club owner, Celebrity Manager, Entrepreneur and Publisher of high-class gentleman's magazines) invites you to meet some of his closest friends, Man to Man.Man to Man with Dean Learner is a British comedy chat show that was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 20 October 2006 and released on DVD on 3 September 2007. It features comedians Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness.
Originally called Deano's After Dark, the show features Dean Learner (Ayoade) chatting to a range of guests (all played by Ayoade's co-writer, Matthew Holness) including Merriman Weir and Garth Marenghi. - StarsMatt BerryRich FulcherTerry WadeTwo hangmen (Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher) compete for women, money and happiness, venturing deeper in the ocean of depravity than any friends should in a whisky-fuelled, cross-cultural friendship.
- StarsNicholas BurnsJulian BarrattClaire KeelanAfter publishing a rant about 'idiots' - frantically hip, ignorant scenesters - Dan Ashcroft finds these same people embracing him as his idol and his nerves constantly tested by his biggest fan, moronic scene personality Nathan Barley.Nathan Barley is a Channel 4 sitcom written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, starring Nicholas Burns, Julian Barratt and Claire Keelan. The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4. Described by his creator as a "meaningless strutting cadaver-in-waiting", the character originated on Brooker's TVGoHome – a website parodying television listings – as the focus of a fly-on-the-wall documentary called *beep*
- StarsDavid MitchellRobert WebbJames BachmanA comedy sketch show featuring David Mitchell and Robert Webb.That Mitchell and Webb Look is a British television sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Shown on BBC Two since 2006
- StarsCharlie BrookerAl CampbellDavid FirthSatirical TV show critique.Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is a British television review programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker and broadcast on BBC Four. The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced.
- StarsCharlie BrookerTim KeyDoug StanhopeHosted and written by Charlie Brooker, this sardonic series follows and critiques both current news stories and the way television portrays them.Newswipe with Charlie Brooker was a British news review programme broadcast on BBC Four written and presented by Charlie Brooker. It is similar to Brooker's Screenwipe series which is also shown on BBC Four.
- StarsCharlie BrookerLiz May BriceKevin EldonA comedic documentary series in which Charlie Brooker uses a mix of sketches and jaw-dropping archive footage to explore the gulf between real life and television.How TV Ruined Your Life is a six-episode BBC Two television series written and presented by Charlie Brooker. Charlie Brooker, whose earlier TV-related programmes include How to Watch Television, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and You Have Been Watching, examines how the medium has bent reality to fit its own ends. Produced by Zeppotron, the series aired its first episode in January 2011
- CreatorDylan MoranStarsDylan MoranBill BaileyTamsin GreigBernard Black runs a book shop, though his customer service skills leave something to be desired. He hires Manny as an employee. Fran runs the shop next door. Between the three of them many adventures ensue.Black Books was a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004. Starring Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, the series is set in the eponymous London bookshop Black Books and follows the lives of its owner Bernard Black (Moran), his assistant Manny Bianco (Bailey) and their friend Fran Katzenjammer (Greig)
- StarsChristopher MorrisAmelia BullmoreDavid CannA surreal, ambient mix of bleak comedy sketches.Jam is a postmodern British dark comedy series created, written and directed by Chris Morris, and was broadcast on Channel 4 during March and April 2000. It was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam, and consisted of a series of unsettling sketches unfolding over an ambient soundtrack
- StarsSteve CooganTim KeySimon GreenallFamous DJ Alan Partridge gives us an insight into what happens behind the microphone at North Norfolk digital radio.Mid Morning Matters is a British mockumentary sit-com written by Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons and Armando Iannucci, produced by Baby Cow Productions and funded by the British arm of Australian lager company Foster's, starring Coogan as fictional radio DJ Alan Partridge. The first of twelve 15-minute episodes was uploaded to the Foster's Funny website on 5 November 2010, and then available on YouTube. Six 30-minute episodes titled Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters: Special Edition, edited from the web series, began airing on Sky Atlantic HD in July 2012 as part of a deal between producers Baby Cow and BSkyB. Mid Morning Matters 2 began filming a new six part series in February 2012.
- StarsArmando IannucciRichard AyoadeAdam BuxtonA T.V sketch show set in the future looking back over the beginning of the 21st century, between 2005 and 2030.Time Trumpet is set in the year 2031 and is a retrospective documentary on the first thirty years of the 21st century. Actors and actresses played the parts of 'today's stars' thirty years on, who were interviewed as part of the show. These 'older selves' included David Beckham, Anne Robinson, David Cameron, Sebastian Coe, Charlotte Church, Ant & Dec, June Sarpong, Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Charles Clarke, Noel Edmonds, Chris Moyles, Gordon Brown, David Miliband, Bob Geldof, Natasha Kaplinsky, Prince Harry, Jamie Oliver and The Woman who released the Doves at the end of the Michael Jackson trial.
The show also included interviews with comedians, billed in the show as "top cultural commentators slash TV pundits", speaking about the events of the past. These included Stewart Lee (also appearing as the baldheaded 'Stu Lee', the implication being that he was contractually obliged to shave his head and change his name), Richard Ayoade, Jo Enright, Matthew Holness, Adam Buxton, Mark Watson and David Sant, who was billed as 'European Footballer of the Year 2021'. - StarsSteve CooganRob BrydonClaire KeelanSteve is asked to review restaurants for the UK's Observer who is joined on a working road trip by his friend Rob who fills in at the last minute when Coogan's romantic relationship falls apart.The Trip is a 2010 British television sitcom series directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves on a restaurant tour of northern England. The series was edited into a feature film and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010. The full series was first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom in November 2010
- StarsHarry HillSteve BenhamRonne CoylesHarry Hill stars in this surreal comedy show, revolving around the previous week's shows on British television.Harry Hill's TV Burp (also known as TV Burp) is a British television comedy programme that ran for 11 years from 2001 to 2012. It was produced by Avalon Television for ITV and written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances.
- StarsSteve CooganRebecca FrontPatrick MarberAlan Partridge hosts his own chat show on the BBC. He insults and belittles almost all of his guests and is humiliated by the rest.
- CreatorPeter FluckRoger LawStarsSteve NallonKate RobbinsChris BarrieA satire show using puppets that are caricatures of major public figures.The show was a parody of a chat show. It featured a live audience whose laughter meant that viewers could not mistake the show for a real chat show. Alan went on to appear in two series of the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge, following his life after both his marriage and TV career come to an end
- StarsDavid McSavageJohn CollearyPatrick McDonnellThe show is a satirical and often surreal examination of subjects close to the hearts of the Irish people. It takes the form of a fake anthropological documentary as if made by British television. Each show explores one subject from its history through to the present, covering 6 or 7 topics (or subheadings) using voxpops and informed opinion to inspire comedy sketches and unflinching rants from numerous created characters. The third series is performed by comedians David McSavage, John Colleary, Pat McDonnell, and Dermot McMorrow among others. The topics we are covering this year range from Media and Politics to Christmas and Family.The Savage Eye is an Irish sketch comedy television series that airs on RTÉ Two. It was created by David McSavage, an Irish comedian.
The show is a satirical and often surreal examination of subjects close to the hearts of the Irish people. It takes the form of a fake anthropological documentary as if made by British television. Each show explores one subject from its history through to the present covering six or seven topics (or subheadings) using voxpops and informed opinion to inspire comedy sketches and unflinching rants from numerous characters. - CreatorGraham LinehanArthur MathewsStarsKevin EldonMark HeapSimon PeggA British sketch comedy show where people in ordinary situations suddenly find themselves in absurd situations.Following in the tradition of Monty Python, the comedy of Big Train is based on the subversion of ordinary situations by the surreal or macabre. For example, one scene features a bad-mannered man casually stabbed to death by his embarrassed wife at a dinner party. In a recurring sketch from the first series, an animated staring contest is accompanied by commentary from BBC football commentators Barry Davies and Phil Cornwell. The stare-out Championship was based on a self-published comic book by Paul Hatcher and was animated by Chris Shepherd.
- StarsScott AdsitDaryl EdwardsEd HerbstmanA T.V sketch show set in the future looking back over the beginning of the 21st century, between 2005 and 2030.
- StarsPeter SerafinowiczBelinda Stewart-WilsonPaul PutnerA series of sketches by British comedian Peter Serafinowicz