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Lets have a wee bit of light hearted fun. Every day for the next few days I will post something called a favourite what?.

Please do not make fun of it and please do not turn it in to politics!!. This is designed to get the members of the forum talking and laughing without biting each others heads off scoring points with cynical putdowns.

Tonight I will be asking your opinion on.................

"YOUR FAVORITE BRITISH COMEDY SERIES OF ALL TIME"

Ready steady go!!!

Steptoe and Son. Absolutely brilliant. That and the last series of Blackadder.

Cuntybollocks wrote:

> Lets have a wee bit of light hearted fun. Every day for the
> next few days I will post something called a favourite what?.
>
> Please do not make fun of it and please do not turn it in to
> politics!!. This is designed to get the members of the forum
> talking and laughing without biting each others heads off
> scoring points with cynical putdowns.
>
> Tonight I will be asking your opinion on.................
>
> "YOUR FAVORITE BRITISH COMEDY SERIES OF ALL TIME"
>
> Ready steady go!!!

My favourite? Can't pick one
Dad's Army
Only Fools & Horses
Get Some In! (which I am just rewatching)
The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs
Yes Minister/Prime Minister!
Allo, Allo
I could go on...

That's very interesting Essex Lad, you rarely hear about "Get some in". Tony Selby just happens to be my mothers cousin.

Many a pint I have had with him!!

I have to say Max this is my all time fav too!!.

Harry H Corbett is superb but Wilfred Brambell was a class act.

A very private man in real life and collector of fine antiques he was so far removed from the character he played. Just goes to show what a talented man he was!!

Keeping Up Appearances had one joke - Hyacinth Bucket pronounced bouquet.

In the first Get Some In, "My name is Marsh ? B-A-S-T-A-R-D ? Marsh!" but unlike KUA it wasn't a one-joke series. Perhaps because it was set in 1955, it stands the test of time (like Dad's Army).

Fawlty Towers
Blackadder
The Young Ones

Harry and Wilfred were major TV stars of their era, they were apparently the first TV stars ever to earn over ?1,000 a week (this was 50 years ago) and they got that for the Steptoe series'. Harry H Corbett lived in a huge house in St Johns Wood - one of London's poshest neighbourhoods, and Wilfred Brambell lived in a flat in Pimlico - a reasonably affluent area, not far from Westminster, where lots of MP's live. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue about their relationship: some people say they hated each other, other people say it wasn't true and they got on fine. They had little association off-screen though, Brambell said after Corbett died "we only met when we were working" but paid tribute to him. Brambell had a sad life really, as many gay people did then, he had to keep it a secret and he even married a woman - something a lot of gay people did in those days. I remember seeing a documentary about them, about 10 years ago, and it was mentioned that his wife got preggers by the lodger and a child was born. Brambell left her and moved into the spare room of his (female) manager. This woman appeared on the programme and said she would often hear Brambell crying in the night. All very sad. I'm pleased gay people don't have it so difficult these days. I suspect part of the reason Brambell drank heavily was because of the negative feeling towards gay people then, how being gay could ruin your career and social standing, and how society implied it was something to be ashamed of. Both Corbett and Brambell hated how synonymous they became with their characters, so much so they would be type-casted a lot in later roles they were offered. They didn't mind the money Steptoe brought them though.

The BBC did a series of plays about famous sitcom actors such Kenneth Williams and one about steptoe and son starring Jeremy issacs as Harry h Corbett.

It's really worth tracking down as it was a revaluation to me about the actors and the show itself.

From what it depicted Harry h Corbett was a stage actor in the vein of marlon Brando and was destined for great things but due to doing the show which was originally a play for the day style affair it destroyed his stage career and found himself trapped doing this.

Jason Isaacs played Harry H Corbett; Jeremy Isaacs was the head of Channel 4.

If you can find a copy, you'll be very lucky as it was the subject of legal action by the Corbett family and was withdrawn.

It was according to his daughter a complete farrago of the truth. She says that Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell did get on. They didn't live in each other's pockets but then Morecambe and Wise only met when they were working, they didn't socialise outside of work. Same, I believe, with The Two Ronnies.