The Top 50 British TV Sitcoms
Below is a list of the top 50 British TV sitcoms. This list was determined using the results from a massive public poll conducted in 2004 by BBC2. Like pretty much any countdown voted for by the public, the results should be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, this particular poll seems to un-fairly favour modern sitcoms and BBC shows.
The Top 50 British Sitcoms
| 1 | 
|
Peckham market trader Derek Trotter and his brother Rodney are always on the lookout for the best way to make a bit of easy cash. |
| 2 | 
|
The Blackadder dynasty has run through English history since time immemorial, seemingly always hampered by a Baldrick, and often a Percy and Melchett. |
| 3 | 
|
Geraldine Grainger is the jolly, down-to-earth female vicar of Dibley, a small country village inhabited by oddballs. After overcoming the town's initial shock at her gender Geraldine helps to improve the village. |
| 4 |  |
Dad's Army The Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard, led by Captain Mainwaring, are totally ill-prepared for an attack from the Nazis and none are fit to fight. |
| 5 | 
|
One of Britain's most loved sitcoms. Hotel owner Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) is a man of infinite rudeness with a rabid dislike of almost all guests. |
| 6 | 
|
Political satire in which well-meaning MP Jim Hacker has a fast introduction to the world of Whitehall and struggles against the Civil Service. |
| 7 | 
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Ronnie Barker stars as Norman Stanley Fletcher, trying to keep his nose clean, and guiding his young 'roomie' Godber, whilst residing in HMP Slade. |
| 8 | 
|
Mean-yet-loveable northern shopkeeper Arkwright is allergic to spending money - much to the trouble of his put-upon nephew and sole employee Granville. |
| 9 | 
|
After Tom Good becomes dissilusioned with his life, he packs in his job and he and his wife attempt to live a completely self-sufficient life. |
| 10 | 
|
The grumpy complainer and accident prone Victor Meldrew takes early retirement and finds he has far too much time on his hands. His long suffering wife and neighbours just have to grin and bear it. |
| 11 | 
|
Fathers Ted Crilly, Dougal McGuire and Jack Hackett are the inept priests of Craggy Island, banished from the mainland in various circumstances. |
| 12 |  |
Keeping Up Appearances Suburban snob Hyacinth Bucket devotes her time to monitoring 'standards' and attempting to impress 'influential' people. |
| 13 | 
|
René Artois, proprietor of Café René in Nazi-occupied France, struggles to keep the business running whilst keeping the resistance and the army happy. |
| 14 | 
|
Gentle sitcom following a group of pensioners living in Yorkshire. This show is Britain's longest-running comedy programme. |
| 15 | 
|
Albert Steptoe and his son Harold run a rag and bone business. Harold wants to move on in the world and leave home but his plans are always thwarted. |
| 16 |  |
Men Behaving Badly Gary and his lodger Tony like their alcohol, women and lazing about. Dorothy and Deborah are their long-suffering other halves. |
| 17 | 
|
Public relations maven Edina and best friend Patsy drive sensible daughter Saffron up the wall with their self-absored, substance-abusing escapades. |
| 18 | 
|
Science fiction sitcom based in space. The crew aboard the damaged mining spaceship Red Dwarf are doomed to drift in space for the rest of eternity. |
| 19 | 
|
The Royles are a family of couch potatoes who watch television in their dirty living room whilst chatting, arguing, and drinking copious amounts of tea and alcohol. |
| 20 | 
|
Mr Grainger and his staff learn they must share their floor with the Ladies' Intimate Apparel department at Grace Brothers, a London department store. |
| 21 | 
|
Riches-to-rags-to-riches romantic tale of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, forced to sell her beloved stately home to pay off her late husband's debts. |
| 22 | 
|
Accident-prone Frank Spencer creates havoc wherever he goes; wife Betty can only stand by and watch as he ruins everything. |
| 23 | 
|
Bob and Terry are two lads from the North East with contrasting desires and ambitions - except when it comes to chatting up girls. |
| 24 | 
|
A long-running, high rating BBC One sitcom about an average middle class family. Stars Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker. |
| 25 | 
|
A BBC documentary team film the office of David Brent, manager from hell: he's tactless and talentless, yet somehow thinks everyone loves him. |
| 26 | 
|
Sitcom set in Globelink News, a TV news station which is ordered to start taking a sensationalist stance to the news by its new owner. |
| 27 | 
|
Rupert Rigsby is the grubby landlord of a seedy boarding house. His put-upon tenants inclue students Philip and Alan, and the glamourous Miss Jones. |
| 28 | 
|
The day-to-day work lives of the kitchen staff in a factory canteen. The staff are managed by Tony who is in love with dinnerlady Bren. |
| 29 | 
|
Lionel and Jean were young lovers until accidentally losing touch. Years later they meet again by chance and unexpectedly rekindle their romance. |
| 30 | 
|
Tony Hancock stars in Galton & Simpson's comic masterpiece, with his delusions of grandeur and acquaintances at the root of his every downfall. |
| 31 | 
|
Hippy Neil, nerdy Cliff Richard obsessed Rick, psychopathic punk Vyvyan and smooth Mike share a squalid and collapsing student house together. |
| 32 | 
|
Opinionated Alf Garnett regularly reels off a string of misinformed, bigoted, reactionary opinions each week - his long-suffering wife Else mostly turns a deaf ear. |
| 33 | 
|
Ria Parkinson is married to Ben, a butterfly-collecting dentist who takes her for granted. Feeling dissatisfied with her life Ria meets Leonard and spends the next few years wondering whether or not to have an affair with him. |
| 34 | 
|
Police Inspector Raymond Fowler is in charge of the uniformed police officers at Gasforth Police Station. They include the very camp Kevin Goody, Constable Gladstone and brainy Constable Habib. Meanwhile bitter Derek Grim runs the station's yobbish CID team. |
| 35 |  |
The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin Bored, middle-aged executive Reginald Perrin fakes his own suicide and returns as "Martin Wellbourne" his non-existent best friend. Under the new identity he has a relationship with his wife and returns to work at the factory. |
| 36 |  |
Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights Bad-tempered, wheelchair-bound Brian Potter runs a Bolton social club called The Phoenix. The struggling Phoenix club is staffed by an odd bunch including licensee Jerry St Clair. |
| 37 | 
|
Sitcom about two elderly delinquents determined to grow old disgracefully at the Bayview Retirement Home. |
| 38 | 
|
Sharon and Tracey are sisters who lead very different lives - until their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery, forcing them to live together. |
| 39 | 
|
Liverpudlian Boswell family are experts at exploiting the system to get by in life, with plenty of dodgy deals and government handouts to help. |
| 40 | 
|
Jeffrey Fairbrother takes a job as entertainment manager at Maplins Holiday Camp where the guests are the last thing on the mind of the staff. |
| 41 | 
|
Royston Vasey is a grim frightening isolated Northern community where dark, perverted and horrifying things happen behind closed doors, strangers are certainly not welcome. The townsfolk are all odd, from the transsexual taxi driver to the wife kidnapping circus owner Papa Lazarou. |
| 42 | 
|
Deluded, insincere, tactless and largely talentless TV chat show host Alan Partridge is reduced to hosting a back-water local radio show. |
| 43 | 
|
Vince and Penny were about to get married when he got cold feet and left her waiting at the church. Five years later they bump into each other again. |
| 44 | 
|
The Porters seem to be a perfectly average bunch - mum, dad, son and daughter. This family, however, are anything but ordinary. |
| 45 | 
|
Best friends Richie Richard and Eddie Hitler are a couple of rude, dirty, disgusting, nasty, anti-social losers who do nothing but hang round their unhygienic flat insulting and hitting each other. |
| 46 | 
|
India, 1944 - a Royal Artillery Concert Party try to avoid going in to action by performing for the troops with their brand of camp entertainment!. |
| 47 | 
|
Gordon Brittas is the manager of the Whitbury-Newtown Leisure Centre. Despite his ambition and good intentions, everything seems to go wrong when he's around. While Brittas is busy dreaming up new ways to make the lives of his staff more difficult, his assistant Laura does her best to keep the Leisure Centre operational. |
| 48 |  |
Gimme Gimme Gimme Linda La Hughes, a repulsive, overweight, loudmouth shares a flat with Tom Farrell, a very camp gay man. Linda and Tom are both obsessed with men. |
| 49 | 
|
Long-running Scottish sitcom starring Gregor Fisher as Rab C Nesbitt, a rude, dirty, lazy, foul-mouthed, sexist alcoholic. |
| 50 | 
|
Whilst walking around the East End, TV repairman Gary Sparrow is transported back to 1940 where he begins to live a second life. |
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