Favorite British TV Shows

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Loved British T.V., when I watched T.V.. Rate favorites...

Father Brown
Midsomer Murders
Last of the Summer Wine
Miss Marple
Hercule Poirot
Cadfael

I love British TV shows but weirdly enough I have only heard of one in the poll, which is Keeping Up Appearances.

But you can't beat British humour (except for
cartoons, I like American cartoon sitcoms).
I love Inbetweeners, Outnumbered, Friday Night Dinner, On The Buses, Absolutely Fabulous, Bottom, Birds Of A Feather, and One Foot In The Grave.

I forgot Benidorm.So funny.
Madge lol

The only British shows I find funny are "Are You Being Served?" & "Coupling". The rest just make me wonder "how is this at all funny", or I end up doing a lot of eye-rolling. Hubs loves "Red Dwarf" tho.

I liked the episode where someone pooped in the swimming pool. It was just like the scene in Caddyshack.

Utopia was great.
Waiting for God
Mr Bean
Downton Abbey
Sherlock Holmes , both the old and the new.
Gardner’s World
Other gardening shows
All Creatures Great and Small, watched it on tv when I was a kid.

Red Dwarf [1988-?], also: Last of the Summer Wine [1973–2010] and Doctor Who [timeless].

Honorable mention:
=>- The Avengers [1961–1969],
=>- Monty Python's Flying Circus [1969–1974],
=>- Jeremy Brett's "Sherlock Holmes" [1984...1994], and
=>- Poirot [1989–2013].

That's right, you're bringing up some good ones I had forgotten about, especially Sherlock Holmes (better than the books IMO). Outnumbered was the only British T.V. show I liked when I stopped watching T.V. Ballykissangel was really good too.

Outnumbered seems so underrated.

They tried to do an American version of Coupling, but it only lasted a few episodes, and it didn't even air in Salt Lake City (their NBC affiliate is owned by the Mormon church).

With some trepidation, I would like to also mention Benny Hill's body of work.

I have some trepidation in listing him because his body of work was so often inappropriate. It was sexist and did not hesitate to apply offensive stereotypes to different racial and national groupings. But, off-screen, it appears he was not sexist. The gals that worked with him liked him, liked working with him, and noted that in the skits they always won...Benny and the other guys were the losers. I suspect the offensive aspects of his humor were there because he thought that was how he was supposed to do it and that was what the audiences wanted.

There are some indications Benny Hill might have been an Aspie. But, right or wrong, he was clearly a genius who lead a secluded private life. And whose work can make me laugh.

One of the Hill's Angels was Jane Leeves (Daphne on Frasier).

I really struggle to objectively analyse Benny Hill. I grew up watching his shows and being hugely entertained by him. I believe he was a genuinely sweet man who just wanted to make people laugh.

And you're right, with sex the joke was always on him. It was always the male sex drive making men behave like idiots that was the joke - the reduction of man to beast. The racial stuff is harder to defend. It was of its time is just about all you can say.

But even the sex stuff, if not intended to be harmful, and even if no one involved felt unsafe at the time, contributed to a general pardoning of inappropriate behaviour by men. It's the idea that men have no control over their behaviour in the presence of a women they find sexually attractive. And therefore can't be blamed for anything they do or say. And that is harmful. Because it isn't true. But for a long time people thought it was, and many still do, and that suits some men very well. So you get Trump's "Grab 'em by the p****" line dismissed as "Locker room talk". People roll their eyes at Boris Johnson's repeated infidelities and numerous illegitimate children and still think he's basically a good fellow. You get people who think girls who get sexually assaulted were asking for it because they were wearing revealing clothing. It all contributes to a culture.

But also I think we lost something when sex stopped being silly. The only time you see sex now on TV is either when it has massive emotional consequences. It's either the culmination of a relationship (usually that's been drawn out for ages) or it's a sex crime that ruins peoples lives. The possibilty that sex can be fun, sex can be inconsequential, sex can be silly seems to have been erased from our culture. I think porn is unfortunately filling that void (oh dear) a bit now.

I don't know where the balance is there but I do think, despite the negatives, there was also something positive about Benny Hill's (and Carry On etc.) approach to making light of sex.

Also this thread needs more Lovejoy:



The finest TV show that England ever produced. Antiques and mysteries, what could be better?

Fawlty Towers
Like Benny Hill ,some episodes are not politically correct now.The episode with the moose head comes to mind.
We watched Benny Hill when I was a teenager, we piled into a friend’s bedroom, sparked up a joint and laughed our asses off.