20 years of BCG

Well, crikey. You read that right - today marks a full 20 years since the first incarnation of British Comedy Guide's earliest form launched.

Mark and I have poured hours and hours (in fact, very literally, years!) of time into this passion, celebrating and supporting comedy through a variety of means. We've come a huge way to what you see today: an ever-growing encyclopaedia, newspaper and feature magazine devoted to all aspects of British comedy, for now, for the past, and for the future.

Perhaps most notably for this post, our forums and membership opened three short years later, with some of you having been around right since that very first day: 18th August 2006.

Both in our mid-/late-30s today, it's consumed the entire working lives of Mark and myself, and very similar for some of the various contributors who have helped to make BCG what it is.

However, we wanted to pay particular thanks here to all of you who've posted over the years, contributing to the fun (and arguments), asking questions, and sharing your thoughts about comedies old and new. We're grateful you've found value in what we do - and particularly humbled by those who've been dedicated enough to help us survive these 20 years by donating through our Supporters' programme.

If you'd like to read a bit more about the last two decades (!) and see some statistics from our databases, you can head to this new feature.

For the decades ahead, if you'd like to continue to help ensure BCG exists we can always do with more donations; and we've got plenty of plans on the horizon for both further expansion and continued comedy coverage, as the article above hints at. So - cheers! Here's to you, us, comedy, and another two decades of laughs.

Not right from the start but I've been here quite a while.

I can't see when my first (pointless) post was and thought it may show somewhere on my profile.

Anyway I'm no longer really trying to break into comedy scripting but I've still got a couple of novels on the go - if I didn't keep wasting my time making more (pointless) posts.

I've been posting here for 17 years?

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Congratulations to Aaron and Mark! (If you'd been married for 20 years the gift would be china.)

And congratulations to all of us, for putting up with each other for so long without anyone getting murdered!

Quote: zooo @ 1st August 2023, 7:44 PM

And congratulations to all of us, for putting up with each other for so long without anyone getting murdered!

That you know of, there's been a lot of BCGers who've mysteriously stopped posting over the years (and some of us have been very murderable).

Congratulations to Aaron, Mark and all who've kept it going! And also to those of the old guard who are still active.

And now a moment to remember those we've lost (cue a montage of people who've left, like 'a horseradish').

Quote: chipolata @ 1st August 2023, 8:12 PM

That you know of, there's been a lot of BCGers who've mysteriously stopped posting over the years (and some of us have been very murderable).

You do make a very good point.

Are we having a party then? Inviting Badge or Sootyj or Charley?

I was late to the party, only 13 years under my belt๐Ÿ˜. I don't post that often nowadays but I do lurk a lot. Well done Aaron & Mark.

Quote: Aaron @ 1st August 2023, 3:53 PM

Both in our mid-/late-30s today, it's consumed the entire working lives of Mark and myself

About time you got a proper job then ๐Ÿ˜Š

2010 for me.

Congratulations Aaron, Mark and the website! I remember writing some parts of the Porridge page many years ago, possibly when it was still the British Sitcom Guide. And then a few years back I rediscovered the site and became a big fan all over again. So happy to be one of the quiz setters these days too. Looking foward to the next 20 years ๐Ÿฅณ

Quote: Chappers @ 1st August 2023, 9:15 PM

Are we having a party then? Inviting Badge or Sootyj or Charley?

Can't believe you left me out of that venerable list Dave. Were all those affectionate bald jokes I cracked back in the day wasted? And Sootyj, great as he was and is, came over on one of the small boats from Chortle in 2008, he wasn't here in the early days, when we literally had to carve each post out of granite with our bare hands.

Not a very Godot thing to say but I genuinely cherish this forum and some of the people on it. Massive thanks and congratulations to Aaron and Mark, the only Tory boys I've ever loved. Their achievement is immense and obvious, although don't be fooled by their begging and pleas of poverty; Mark drives a Bentley Continental and Aaron starts the day in a Hugo Boss dressing gown and Burberry slippers.

Hi to Chipolata, and Zoo - especially, who I met once and can confirm is a real person and not just the PR for a string of quirkily good-looking male actors.

2007, young'uns.

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Quote: Godot Taxis @ 2nd August 2023, 4:09 PM

Hi to Chipolata, and Zoo - especially, who I met once and can confirm is a real person and not just the PR for a string of quirkily good-looking male actors.

Laughing out loud

Wish I bloody was.
Hi, Godot!