Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 7 2009, 7:06 PM BST

Depends on where you live in the UK. Near me it would be the following -

Goodness Gracious Me
The Real McCoy
Afghanistan's Got Talent

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Honky.

Mind Your Language

Gavin & Stacey.
Men Behaving Badly.

I haven't really thought this through to be honest

Quote: Oldrocker @ August 7 2009, 8:55 PM BST

I suppose the answer is 'Depends'

You'll get a different slant on Britishness from To the Manor Born.

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Ruislip Manor?

Quote: Marc P @ August 7 2009, 10:05 PM BST

Ruislip Manor?

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Sorry, over my head.

Quote: gardenshed @ August 7 2009, 4:20 PM BST

Which British sitcoms would help a newcomer to best understand the national character, identity and history?

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Mind Your Language.

Quote: Tim Walker @ August 8 2009, 12:57 AM BST

Mind Your Language.

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See above.

If you're going down that route, Curry & Chips.

Oops, sorry Clockface, my eyes must have slipped.

I'd say that Till Death Us Do Part, Fawlty Towers and The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin are the sitcoms that for me best reflect the British (certainly the English) psyche.

No problem, Tim. Another one for the list: Are You Being Served?.

It's a bloody hard question, to which I just typed a considered response worthy of Slagg A in terms of length and reasonable thought.
But then I read it back and it was bollocks, so I'm going to go with Dad's Army. It's an old sitcom but I think the Mainwaring character still holds true to the basic national character. It's like we pretend to be socially-enlightened but we'd all be secretly-proud to have Mainwaring as our dotty old uncle.

I <3 this thread.

If you wanted to write a sitcom with the purpose of demonstrating the British character, what would it be like?

The Royle Family.

Quote: Oldrocker @ August 7 2009, 8:55 PM BST

(Interestingly the spell checker is suggesting Brutishness instead of Britishness ! I expect the Mayor of Riga may agree judging by his recent comments !)

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LOL. Full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8185159.stm
(softened one, as the quote should read:
"The only problem is that the proportion of British tourists is very high here. If we had other tourists as well those Britons who are pissing around would not be so visible. It will not be politically correct, but sadly, this is their specialization.")

On topic: I'm very interested in your answers. Seriously.
What about Blackadder as epitome of Britishness? Or Victor Meldrew?