Quote: Pingl @ October 23 2012, 4:55 PM BST

They were never as funny as they thought they were. Mostly good ideas but never fully realised.

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I agree totally!

I like nearly all the original half hour episodes,of the later ones Mr Jolly,The Bullsitters,and Detectives on the verge of a nervous breakdown stand out,with an honourable mention for Didn't you kill my brother.

Quote: Nil Putters @ July 1 2008, 10:51 PM BST

Bad News & More Bad News were fantastic. The others, including Mr Jolly, I can take or leave. Highly overrated me thinks.

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I'm with Nil on this matter (and one other). Bad News and More Bad News had so many quotable lines that I still bore people with them to this day.

As for the others, I found them too self indulgent and the pacing / formats were all over the place. That's not to say there weren't gems amongst the pig muck.

Every time I think of Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson as Ken Livingstone living by the Thames spearing fish and telling Cher 'This river gives me everything I need', I always laugh.

Quote: Tursiops @ October 23 2012, 1:38 PM BST

Sounds interesting, but like you I don't do pay TV. For a cracking famous five spoof try John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. Actually, I can't recall whether it was the episode still available on iPlayer or the previous week, but the show is worth listening to anyway.

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Or the Famous Five bits in the latest 'Live from Kirrin Island' podcast: http://kirrinislandpodcast.com/the-podcasts/

Band News and More Bad News are the two I still think hold up really well after all this time, and good to know someone other than me is still quoting them (hopefully with more recognition than I get). Mr Jolly may be the same, but haven't seen that lately.

My favourites are:
Dirty Movie
Four Men In A Plane
The Yob
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door
Susie

Four Men in a Car

Private Enterprise

War

These are my all time favourites.

The recent one, Five Go to Rehab, had one laugh-out-loud line, by Julian (Peter Richardson) in the pub when they were interrogating the landlady (Nigel Planer): "Let me handle this George, [orders a bunch of drinks]."

I watched Mr Jolly last weekend and still really enjoyed it. But I was sad to realise that Rik and Ade's voice (that they do in Young Ones and Bottom) now grate on me when they go on for a whole hour. I think this makes me officially old.

My favourite is Dirty Movie, which I always think is a really tight farce that takes a lot from 70s sitcom set-ups. And Dawn French looks surprisingly saucy in that traffic warden uniform

GLC was brilliant, with people playing different people playing yet more different people.

The GLC one was kinda special not least of all because it had a pretty hard serious edge

Let's face it, The Comic Strip is better in the memory than in the present. It was pretty hit and miss, mostly miss. At its worst it was self absorbed, lazy, self important and unfunny. At its best vaguely amusing with the core of a good idea either stretched to breaking point or mishandled.

My Top 5

Are

Mr Jolly
Eddie monsoon: a life
Gregory diary of a nutcase
Fistful of travellers cheques
Dirty Movie

Scattergun comedy

Some moments of brilliance - "GLC", "The Strike", some absolute catflaps "Fistful of Travellers Cheques" and "Didn't You Kill My Brother"

I Like the one where they go to rehab that was pretty funny.