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A British sitcom is a situation comedy ( sitcom) produced in the United Kingdom. The genre can be difficult to classify as it covers a wide range of styles and situations. A common factor is the exploration of social mores, often with a healthy dollop of satire or bathos, in contrast to the sometimes uplifting sentiments of many American sitcoms. British comedies are typically produced in series of six episodes each. In the United States, British sitcoms are rarely seen on the commercial networks, but are often seen on the Public Broadcasting Service and increasingly on cable television, including BBC America.1 Subgenres
As the 'Brit-com' is traditionally produced by just one or two writers, it is often the case that its comedy is of a less exuberant nature than television comedies from elsewhere. Sitcoms produced by teams of writers creating jokes in the competitive atmosphere of a writers' room will naturally have a high ratio of punchlines. Although it may be argued that a sitcom's raison d'etre is to pack as many gags as possible into a half hour, the more measured approach engendered by a single writer or a close writing partnership permits greater control over the programme's direction and a more structured approach to character and plot development. The need for rapid-fire jokes can make the establishment of multi-dimensional characters much harder.
It is often the everyday wit and wordplay traditionally attributed to pubs, shopfloors and staffrooms up and down the country which provides much of the comedy in many Brit-coms. The most sedately written British sitcoms repudiate structured jokes altogether and attempt to reproduce an everyday environment with the intention of also reproducing its comedy. Examples of this hyperreal approach include The Royle Family and Last of the Summer Wine as well as many British comedy-dramas. They rely on character-led rather than plot-led humour which requires strongly defined characters with whom the audience can identify.
Fewer writers also means that more unusual and complex fantasy worlds can be created with less dilution by others. A significant subset of British comedy therefore consciously avoids traditional sitcom themes and storylines to branch out into more unusual topics or narrative methods. Such freedom and experimentation is one of the benefits of the British approach and has produced such series as The League of Gentlemen, Marion and Geoff and I Am Not An Animal .
Novel approaches to comedy such as those taken by Blackadder, I'm Alan PartridgeI'm Alan Partridge is a British sitcom. Two series were produced, the first in 1997 and the second in 2002. Six episodes were produced for each series. Steve Coogan stars as Alan Partridge. Both series were written by Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Pe and Yes, MinisterYes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister are British sitcoms about the struggle between James "Jim" Hacker (played by Paul Eddington), the government minister of the (fictional) department of Administrative Affairs (and later as Prime Minister) an have challenged the idea of what constitutes a sitcom and have also injected variety into the often bland mainstream. Many started life on radio, building up a cult following before being remade for television. Publicly funded BBC radio is an important source of new sitcom talent although other broadcasters such as Channel 4Channel 4 is a television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television), launched on November 2, 1982. Like the BBC, it has a public service remit and is operated by a non-profit corporation, Channel 4 Television Corporation. Unlike the BBC, also actively encourage new writers to produce possibly challenging work.
FarceDefinition A farce is a comedy written for the stage, or a film, which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely and extravagant yet often possible situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, w is also a common theme in British sitcoms, exemplified by Fawlty TowersFawlty Towers is a British sitcom made by the BBC, about a fictional hotel named Fawlty Towers in Torquay in Devon on "the English Riviera". The hotel is owned and operated by the eccentric Basil Fawlty and his censorious wife Sybil, with maid Polly, port. The Restoration comedyGeorge Etherege's Love in a Tub musicians and well-bred ladies surround a man who is wearing a tub because he has lost his pants. Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1700. tradition of bawdiness and innuendo has also been well served through series such as Are You Being Served? and Up PompeiiUp Pompeii was a British television comedy series of 1970. Written by the Carry On films' Talbot Rothwell, it starred Frankie Howerd. Set in ancient Pompeii (pre-eruption) Howerd played a slave, Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io . The other main characters were. Other programmes such as Coupling and My Family have attempted to mimic American sitcoms although Britain has never produced successful rivals to the most popular US shows such as The Simpsons.
