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Britain's Best Sitcom - Wikipedia

  • ️Sat Jan 10 2004

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Britain's Best Sitcom
GenreDocumentary
Written by
Directed by
  • Andy Devonshire
  • Steve Franklin
  • Carry John Hughes
  • Norman Hull
  • Becky Martin
  • Andrew Nicholson
Presented bySee list of episodes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes12 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Robin Ashbrook
  • Ricky Kelehar
Producers
  • Gerard Barry
  • Karina Brennan
  • Will Bryant
  • Stephen Franklin
  • Alex Hardcastle
  • Garry John Hughes
  • Norman Hull
  • Shirley Hunt Benson
  • Verity Maidlow
  • Stephen McGinn
  • Andrew Nicholson
  • Matt O'Casey
  • Cybele Rowbottom
  • Elaine Shepherd
  • Mark Turnbull
Running time60 minutes
(180-min. premiere; 90-min. finale)
Production companyBBC Manchester
Original release
NetworkBBC Two
Release10 January[1] –
27 March 2004

Britain's Best Sitcom was a BBC media campaign in which television viewers were asked to decide the best British situation comedy. Viewers could vote via telephone, SMS, or BBC Online.[2] This first round of voting was conducted in 2003, after which the BBC published a list of the top 100 selections.[3][4] From this list, they produced a 12-episode television series broadcast by BBC Two from January through to March 2004.[1]

The series was a retrospective that examined the history and qualities of the contending programmes. In the first episode, Jonathan Ross summarised the progress of the poll and presented video clips from the 50 sitcoms that received the most votes.[2] Each of the next ten weekly episodes, one hour in length, focused on one sitcom.[1][2] In each episode, a different celebrity presenter advocated a particular sitcom, delivering 20 reasons why it deserved viewers' votes.[1][2] The sitcom's writers and actors, as well as celebrity viewers, also shared their own perspectives and memories. In the 90-minute series finale, transmitted live, Jonathan Ross announced the top sitcom to be Only Fools and Horses, with Blackadder in second place and The Vicar of Dibley in third place.[5]

Notably, all finalists were BBC productions, with ITV and Channel 4 sitcoms not appearing (Father Ted, the highest-ranked non-BBC sitcom, was at number 11).

  1. ^ a b c d "BBC TWO asks the nation what is Britain's Best Sitcom?". BBC Online. BBC. 30 December 2003. Archived from the original on 18 April 2005. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "The battle of the sitcoms begins..." (Press release). London: BBC. 10 January 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Britain's Best Sitcom: The Top 10". bbcattic.org. London: BBC. 2004. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  4. ^ "Britain's Best Sitcom: Top 11 to 100". bbcattic.org. London: BBC. 2004. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  5. ^ a b "The Final Top Ten Sitcoms". bbcattic.org. London: BBC. 2004. Archived from the original on 13 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  6. ^ Webber, Richard (2000). "A Celebration of The Good Life". Orion Books.
  7. ^ Croft, Perry, and Webber (2003). "Dad's Army: The Complete Scripts". Orion Books.