Britcom

A Britcom is a Sit Com made in the UK. Britcoms differ from other countries' sitcoms by being much, much more British.

Britcoms are often quite bawdy, playing against the stereotype of British Stuffiness. The typical Britcom takes a negative worldview, with the lead characters usually lonely, miserable, doomed to failure or just plain weird.

The standard length for a UK TV "season" (called a "series" in the UK) is 6 to 8 episodes. British shows tend to be written by just one or two people, often long term collaborators such as Gaulton and Simpson.

UK production companies will usually let a show end when it's over, rather than running successful franchises well into the ground. Thus, Fawlty Towers was a major hit and still ended in two series. There are exceptions such as Last of the Summer Wine, which lasted for 37 years, ending in 2010.

US remakes of Britcoms are usually Lighter and Softer and more Hollywood Homely, with less scope to make characters into Butt Monkeys or have unhappy endings for episodes. Americans can sometimes see Britcoms on Adult Swim, PBS stations or BBC America.

Expect to see a lot of Black Comedy, Double Entendre, surrealism and Refuge in Audacity.

Examples are, naturally, numerous (but feel free to start making lists).


 * Two Point Four Children
 * Fifteen Storeys High
 * Absolutely Fabulous
 * Allo Allo
 * Are You Being Served
 * As Time Goes By
 * Blackadder
 * Black Books
 * Bottom
 * The Brittas Empire
 * Cabin Pressure
 * Chef
 * Citizen Smith
 * Coupling
 * Dads Army
 * Dear John
 * Desmonds
 * Drop the Dead Donkey
 * Extras
 * The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
 * Father Ted
 * Fawlty Towers
 * Filthy Rich and Catflap
 * A Fine Romance
 * Fortysomething
 * Friday Night Dinner
 * Getting On
 * The Good Life
 * Half of The Goodies
 * Goodnight Sweetheart
 * Goodness Gracious Me
 * Grandmas House
 * The Great Outdoors
 * Hi De Hi
 * Hancocks Half Hour
 * Him and Her
 * How Not to Live Your Life
 * I'm Alan Partridge
 * The Inbetweeners
 * The IT Crowd
 * It Aint Half Hot Mum
 * Keeping Up Appearances
 * Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge, I'm Alan Partridge
 * KYTV
 * Last of the Summer Wine
 * Lead Balloon
 * Let Them Eat Cake
 * Man About the House
 * May to December
 * Men Behaving Badly
 * Miranda
 * Mongrels
 * My Spy Family
 * The New Statesman
 * No Heroics
 * Not Going Out
 * The Office
 * The Old Guys
 * On the Buses
 * One Foot in The Grave
 * Only Fools and Horses
 * Open All Hours
 * Outnumbered
 * Peep Show
 * Phone Shop
 * Please Sir
 * Porridge
 * Pramface
 * Private Schulz
 * Rab C Nesbitt
 * Red Dwarf
 * Rev
 * Roger and Val Have Just Got In
 * The Royle Family
 * Sirens
 * So Haunt Me
 * Some Mothers Do Ave Em
 * Spaced
 * Steptoe and Son
 * Sykes
 * The Thick of It
 * The Thin Blue Line
 * To the Manor Born
 * The Trip
 * Trollied
 * Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps
 * Up Pompeii
 * The Vicar of Dibley
 * Waiting for God
 * Whites
 * Yes Minister
 * You Rang M Lord
 * The Young Ones