Abigoliah: Hello there! This is All British Comedy Explained, the podcast in which I finally learn about all the British comedy shows I’ve been missing out on. I am stand-up comedian Abigoliah Schamaun and my guide through the comedy labyrinth is writer Tom Salinsky.
Tom: Hello there.
Abigoliah: Hello.
Tom: Here we are. End of season one.
Abigoliah: We did it. We did eight shows.
Tom: Nine. If you include the Christmas special.
Abigoliah: Yeah. Well. Oh, yeah. Duh. I was like, we did eight shows about shows and then an intro, but we did nine, including the magical Christmas special. And what do you think of—how do you think it went? Yeah. So here’s my question for you, Tom, going back and watching these shows, did it inspire anything in you? Did it make you think anything? Did you go back and watch something and go, oh, I don’t like this as much as I used to? Or what did going back and watching them feel like for you?
Tom: I mean, for this first batch of shows, I definitely picked what for me are pretty cast iron favourites. I’m not by nature a contrarian, so I’m very happy that my tastes coincide with a lot of other people’s. That’s something I’m very cool with. But a couple of things were even better than I remembered them being. I think The Day Today was even better than I remembered it being. And it was really fun for me to go back and listen to some really old I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clues to try and pick those out. Yeah. I’ve never been the world’s hugest fan of The Goon Show. I had to include that because it’s the kind of the root of the British comedy family tree. It wasn’t a surprise to me that you didn’t quite gel with it, but one of the things I wanted to do in this episode is pick up on some loose ends.
Abigoliah: Okay.
And one of those is a few times after we’ve watched stuff or we listened to stuff, you said, I’m going to go and listen to more of that. So I wasn’t surprised you wanted to go and see more of The Young Ones because you absolutely loved that.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: You did say you were going to listen to some more Goon Shows.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: Did you?
Abigoliah: No.
Tom: Fair enough.
Abigoliah: The Goon Show is on Audible, and it’s for free. You don’t have to use any credits. So I was like, great, I can listen to it. You know, when usually I’m listening to a podcast and I specifically at the gym is like when I’ll listen to a podcast and it’s like I avoided going to the gym to avoid…
Tom: Listening to The Goon Show.
Abigoliah: And I’m not saying like, oh God, it’s horrible. I didn’t like it. I think it’s just like it felt like work to listen to more of it. I’ll probably revisit it eventually, but I just couldn’t—I just couldn’t bring—it sounds so awful. I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to more. I did watch more Victoria Wood. I watched more Victoria Wood episodes. I haven’t finished As Seen on TV, but I’ve watched more and love it. And I finished The Young Ones and over Christmas break, my mother and my sister were in town, and so I showed them the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special.
Tom: The same one that we watched?
Abigoliah: The same one, because I was like, I want them to watch this one and then we’ll watch another one. And Andre Previn walked on stage and I went to turn to them to explain who he is. And my mom just went, oh, he used to be married to Mia Farrow.
Tom: There you go.
Abigoliah: So she knew exactly who he was.
Tom: In fact, there’s a story I didn’t tell you that because they didn’t know if he would be interested in doing it. They didn’t know if he would have the comedy chops to do it. So I think it was maybe the producer and Eddie Braben, the producer, and somebody, maybe the producer and Morecambe and Wise, I can’t remember, went to see him and Mia Farrow was absolutely having a tantrum about something very inappropriate because there are guests and flounces upstairs in a terrible huff, and Andre Previn just turns to them and goes, “Ladies and gentlemen, the wife.” And they went, “Oh, you’re funny. This will work if you’re willing to do it.” One of the things I said to you is Andre Previn, to a certain generation of British people, is most famous for being in that episode of Morecambe and Wise. And I said, go and talk to Tom Watts and say Andre Previn to him and see what he says. Did you do that?
Abigoliah: He didn’t know who he was.
Tom: Oh, okay.
Abigoliah: He didn’t. But you know, that’s just one person.
Tom: Did the rest of your family enjoy?
Abigoliah: Yeah, they really enjoyed it. But I was like, shall we watch another? And they were like, no, I’m good. Yeah. I will say a correction which my mother gave me. In the Christmas special episode, I said that American TV shows don’t really do Christmas specials.
Tom: Right.
Abigoliah: And my mom was like, you’re too young to remember. But we used to have variety shows, and we used to have Christmas specials, like the what are they called, the Christy Minstrels and Carol Burnett and—oh, she named some. I should have written them down, but she was like, it used to be a thing, and we used to have variety shows, which kind of made me think how even in Britain, we don’t have like, variety shows anymore.
Tom: No. Not anymore.
Abigoliah: We have reality shows and we have quiz shows and game shows. But I do miss the variety show. As we were watching them, I was like, we need more of this.
Tom: Now, the other weird thing about that particular episode of Morecambe and Wise is Morecambe and Wise have this signature theme song and this signature thing that they do, this funny dance where they put alternate hands like this as they skip off towards the back of the set, and they do it in every single episode except the 1971 Christmas special, for some bizarre reason, where they sing a different song and just stand there singing it instead. And you asked me, do they sing that song at the end of every episode? And I said, we’ll talk about that later. And then I forgot. So the song they always sing, except on that show is “Bring Me Sunshine”.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: So if you want to do a little Google, you can see Morecambe and Wise singing “Bring Me Sunshine”—why they opted not to do it on that show. And that’s like two other shows in the entire BBC run. I don’t know, but they didn’t.
Abigoliah: Interesting.
Tom: You can see them, like in silhouettes doing this dance thing on the back of the DVD, for example.
Abigoliah: Yeah, I’ve seen the still of that, so that makes sense now. Maybe they just want to try something different. They’re like, let’s go wild.
Tom: Yes.
Abigoliah: And do a different song.
Tom: Yeah. Called “Following You Around”, which doesn’t sound creepy when they sing it, but clearly is creepy.
Abigoliah: Yeah. I didn’t actually as we were watching it, I didn’t think about it. I was like, oh, here’s just two nice men singing a nice song.
Tom: So anything else stand out from The Young Ones if you finish watching all of that?
Tom: Did you decide whether Rik Mayall or Dudley Moore was going to be your boyfriend?
Abigoliah: I mean, here’s the thing. I loved The Young Ones, but it is like an intense watch. It is being like being screamed at for a half hour, you know, each episode. Whereas Dudley Moore and Peter Cook are more of a gentle watch and very silly. And I think in my day-to-day life I’d rather be with Dudley Moore than Rik Mayall.
Tom: Oh, so, Dudley Moore’s your husband. This is shag, marry kill, isn’t it?
Abigoliah: Oh. I didn’t I didn’t think about it as that. But. Oh, by the way, here’s a loose end. When we had Ben Elton on, I asked him, shag, marry, kill: Neil, Rick or Vyvyan. And I said, there is a right answer, but I never told him the right answer, which he got it wrong.
Tom: Oh, okay.
Abigoliah: Yeah. So he said he’d marry Neil, which is correct. Yeah. And he said he’d—yeah. He said he’d shag and kill Vyvyan. And that is wrong. You would shag Vyvyan and kill Rick, cause no one wants to shag a poet like… That is the most insufferable thing. Whereas Vyvyan would be a ride. Yeah. So that’s my loose end. Is Ben Elton got his shag marry kill game wrong.
Tom: And then the other loose end I’ve got down here is you said Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are much more relaxing, but have you tracked down any of Derek and Clive?
Abigoliah: No. Every time someone’s like, have you watched Derek and Clive yet? I’m like, no, I haven’t. And I keep meaning to and I keep forgetting. There’s only so much time in the day.
Tom: It’s true, it’s true. And you can’t spend all of it just listening to old comedy.
Abigoliah: Yeah. Which I’d rather do.
Tom: Wouldn’t we all?
Abigoliah: But yeah, Derek and Clive are still on the to do list. Are they more—are they more shout-y?
Tom: It’s not shouting. It’s still very kind of relaxed and laid back but it’s very—to use the old fashioned term, it’s very blue.
Abigoliah: Okay. Blue I can handle. It’s the—
Tom: But it’s sort of—
Abigoliah: It’s the frenetic energy of The Young Ones that is like—don’t. I loved it, but I found myself being like, you know, I love a binge. And I was like, I can’t binge this. I need a moment afterwards.
Tom: There’s a couple of shows coming up in season two, which I wonder if you’ll have a similar reaction to.
Abigoliah: Okay
Tom: This is amazing, but one at a time would be fine. Thank you.
Abigoliah: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is how TV is supposed to be viewed, like these were weekly shows. You aren’t supposed to sit down and watch you know, nine episodes in a row.
Tom: All right, so the other kind of overarching loose end is we said you’d have the power to go back and revisit the Shelf Of Fame and make some final for now, choices about what goes where. We’ve currently filled six slots and you have The Morecambe and Wise Show on layaway because you didn’t think it was fair to judge them on a Christmas special. And there are eight more shows coming up in season two, so we’re really getting to the point fairly soon where all the slots will be filled. But of course you could at this point if you chose to take something off the Shelf Of Fame. So looking at it now, what do you think? Did you get it right or do you want to make some changes?
Abigoliah: I think, on further reflection, that Morecambe and Wise should be on the shelf of fame, because I really did like them. And in making up our video clips, by the way, please subscribe on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. We also have all the other socials, but I forget to post on them. I watch just little more clips going through and finding stuff, so I think Morecambe and Wise should go on, and I think they should go at number—this is when it gets hard.
Tom: It’s gonna get harder.
Abigoliah: You know what? I’m going to put them at number seven because I’ve still only watched that one special. But it was good enough to watch twice. Like I was like, I’m gonna show it. So I’m gonna put them at number seven. And that means, to review… the Shelf Of Fame is Victoria Wood, As Seen on TV, The Day Today, Not Only… But Also, I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, The Office, The Young Ones and now Morecambe and Wise.
Tom: Very good. But no reprieve for Monty Python or The Goons?
Abigoliah: No. Someone in our social media comments argued that everyone should be on the Shelf Of Fame in this first thing, because we have ten slots and we only did nine shows. But it’s my Shelf Of Fame. Yes, exactly. And I know what I want to do with it. So yeah.
Tom: I’m curating based on what I think is an important show for you to watch. You’ll decide based on your reaction to it, your taste, whether it goes on your shelf or not.
Abigoliah: I mean, listen, if I had listened to more of The Goon Show between now and then, that might have changed my mind. But the fact that I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it, I think that kind of says something. And that means it probably shouldn’t be on the shelf of fame, because it’s not to my taste. Not to insult anyone else. And I realise they’re the cornerstone of British comedy, but they did it first, so they didn’t do it best.
Tom: That’s what we’re looking at. They did it for a long time, to be fair. All right. I have something extra for you.
Abigoliah: Oh, wait. Real quick. Another thing that came up in the comments was when you were like, do you know who Julie Walters is? And I was like, I have no clue who this woman is. And people were commenting. They were like, yes, you do. She was in Billy Elliot and she played the mom of—what’s the Weasley mom?
Tom: In Harry Potter?
Abigoliah: Harry Potter? And I only know her as, like, an older woman. Yeah, and once someone was like, that’s her. I was like, oh, my God, I know exactly who she is. So yeah, I have seen Julie Walters in other stuff.
Tom: It’s amazing watching those early Victoria Woods because Julie Walters was such a—is such a chameleon, and she’s perfectly capable of playing very glamorous parts and utter grotesques. And she has the opportunity to do both in those shows.
Abigoliah: She’s great. I mean, that show is still my favourite and…
Tom: Have you watched all of those?
Abigoliah: Not all of them yet.
Tom: The Christmas Special is particularly good.
Abigoliah: Okay, I’ll have to check that out, but she’s just—the fact that she wrote it all. And so I was watching it, and Tom kind of didn’t want to watch it with me. Tom, my partner, not Tom, my podcast partner for those listening at home. And she’s doing her monologue. And what usually happens when I watch TV and Tom doesn’t, he goes, I don’t want to watch that. And then he stands over my shoulder and watches the whole thing and comments, and he was like, there is no fat on her jokes. It is so streamlined. And one thing this series our podcast has kind of made me think about is watching comedy makes you want to do comedy. And I just found her to be such an inspiration. Like I’m like, okay, in 2026, in the new year, I want to start trying to trim as much fat as Victoria Wood trims her stuff down to. I really want to make that a goal in my own writing is not to write like her, but to write like her.
Tom: Did you watch the Victoria Wood’s Secret List on BBC over Christmas?
Abigoliah: Not yet. Not yet.
Tom: It won’t be on iPlayer for long, so watch it soon if you want to. It’s really good.
Abigoliah: Maybe I’ll watch it today. Because the thing is, is because my family was in town, all of my plans to watch television was thwarted by their wants to watch television. So instead of watching Victoria Wood, I watched the Indiana Hoosiers play in the Rose Bowl.
Tom: That’s a sportsball game?
Abigoliah: Yeah, that’s American football. It was a big deal. It’s college football. You know what? We’re not going to have this conversation because not only do you not care, our listeners don’t care.
Tom: I wouldn’t have thought so. I think the overlap is going to be very small.
Abigoliah: Then after years of having a football team known for basketball, Indiana has a really, really good football team and no one saw it coming. It’s a very big deal.
Tom: I mean, I’m happy for the people for whom it means something.
Abigoliah: They beat New Orleans. Or was it Atlanta? I can’t remember. Okay, sorry. You can cut all that out, by the way.
Tom: All right. Now, a few times over the course of our first series, you’ve sort of jokingly, like, called me professor, written notes in your notebook. You’ve never quite asked me, will this be on the test?
Abigoliah: Oh, no.
Tom: And maybe you should.
Abigoliah: No, we’re doing a test?
Tom: Because I’m going to do a little quiz to see if any of this has gone in.
Abigoliah: Oh my God, now I wish I had listened to all of our episodes before this.
Tom: Okay, so three questions on each show that we watched.
Abigoliah: Jesus.
Tom: Here we go. For Monty Python’s Flying Circus, can you name any two members of Monty Python?
Abigoliah: Terry Gilliam?
Tom: Yes.
Abigoliah: And John Cleese. Yeah. I am very nervous about this.
Tom: Which member of the Monty Python team did not go to either Oxford or Cambridge University?
Abigoliah: Terry Gilliam.
Tom: Exactly right. And name any method of torture employed by the Spanish Inquisition.
Abigoliah: They pillow fought the old lady or they stabbed her with a pillow.
Tom: I’ll give you that. Yeah. The soft cushion.
Abigoliah: Soft cushion?
Tom: Yeah, it was the rack, the soft cushion and the comfy chair.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: All right. Good. Three out of three. The Young Ones. Which quiz show is parodied in the episode Bambi?
Abigoliah: University Challenge.
Tom: Correct. After oil was discovered in the cellar, how did Vyvyan start referring to Mike?
Abigoliah: Oh, I have no memory of this at all. Tycoon Mike?
Tom: He called him El Presidente.
Abigoliah: El Presidente? Yeah, I wasn’t gonna get that one.
Tom: Who holds the record for stuffing marshmallows up one nostril?
Abigoliah: Vyvyan
Tom: Toxteth O’Grady, USA.
Abigoliah: What is that? I have no memory of this.
Tom: Vyvyan has his book of world records that he’s going through when they’re mugging up for—
Abigoliah: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s on the train. Okay. Yeah.
Tom: All right. Not Only… But Also. For which role was Dudley Moore’s unidexter auditioning?
Abigoliah: Oh. Was it Hamlet?
Tom: No.
Abigoliah: Hold on. Wait a minute.
Tom: “A role for which two legs would seem to be the minimum requirement.”
Abigoliah: Tarzan.
Tom: Yes. Exactly right. According to Peter Cook’s character, how did his son come to be… brought about?
Abigoliah: I know it was a lot of sexy innuendos, wasn’t it? This is the one where they’re in, like the parlour, right? Or like an office?
Tom: Yeah. He calls his son in, wants to have a bit of a chat with him about the birds and the bees.
Abigoliah: I can’t remember.
Tom: His mother sat on a chair, still warm from his body.
Abigoliah: Oh, okay. Yeah. I’m not doing well on this.
Tom: Name any of the female movie stars that bothered Pete and Dud by tapping on the window?
Abigoliah: I can’t.
Tom: Bloody Betty Grable. Bloody Gina Lollobrigida. Bloody Greta Garbo, bloody Jane Russell.
Abigoliah: Okay, I’m—yeah. Here’s the problem. I think even when they said it, all I remember is Betty Grable. And I couldn’t understand the rest of what he said.
Tom: All right, let’s try The Goon Show. Okay. Who was the original fourth member of The Goon Show?
Abigoliah: I don’t remember his name.
Tom: You know the other three?
Abigoliah: Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe?
Tom: And the fourth was—I thought that would be too easy for you.
Abigoliah: Russell Brand.
Tom: Michael Bentine.
Abigoliah: Of course, of course.
Tom: What time is it? According to Eccles, who has writted it down on a piece of paper?
Abigoliah: Oh, I don’t know. I was like, I couldn’t focus at all during this.
Tom: Eight o’clock.
Abigoliah: Eight o’clock.. Okay.
Tom: Name either of the two musicians who regularly featured on Goon Show episodes.
Abigoliah: The harmonica guy?
Tom: Yeah. His name is.
Abigoliah: Andre Previn. No. I don’t remember his name.
Tom: His name was Max Geldray.
Abigoliah: Max Geldray.
Tom: Ray Ellington.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: All right. See if you do better on Victoria Wood. Name any one of the characters from Acorn Antiques.
Abigoliah: Oh, I don’t remember their names.
Tom: I used their names quite a lot in the dialogue.
Abigoliah: Well, it doesn’t matter. No, I can’t. I’m doing so bad on this.
Tom: You could have had Mrs. Overall.
Abigoliah: Mrs. Overall!
Tom: Mr. Clifford.
Abigoliah: Of course.
Tom: Miss Babs, Miss Berta, Trixie or Derek.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: The song, often called “Let’s Do It”, is properly known as the Ballad of Who and Who?
Abigoliah: Franny and Frankie. Freddy. Freddy and Freda. Freda.
Tom: Yes, Freda and…?
Abigoliah: …and Frankie?
Tom: It’s not alliterative.
Abigoliah: It’s not?
Tom: No.
Abigoliah: And… Barry!
Tom: Barry and Freda. Exactly.
Abigoliah: There we go.
Tom: Name either of the optional extras at the very ordinary school.
Abigoliah: This was the last sketch of one of the episodes.
Tom: Yeah. The documentary.
Abigoliah: Yeah. I don’t remember.
Tom: You could have had scuba diving or hot air ballooning.
Abigoliah: Okay. Yeah, I wasn’t gonna get that one.
Tom: All right. The Office, who directed The Office alongside Ricky Gervais?
Abigoliah: Stephen Merchant.
Tom: Exactly. Okay, which department of the paper company did Emma Manton’s character work in?
Abigoliah: Accounts.
Tom: Accounts? And how did Tim prank Gareth in episode one?
Abigoliah: By putting his stapler in Jell-O.
Tom: Exactly right. Three out of three. The Day Today. Who is the innovative producer who partnered with Chris Morris to create The Day Today?
Abigoliah: Hold on—
Tom: You’ve got it. I believe in you.
Abigoliah: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s right there. It’s Armando… Iannucci.
Tom: Exactly right.
Abigoliah: Yes. Okay, I said it right.
Tom: All right. Name any reporter or correspondent that we saw on The Day Today, apart from Alan Partridge.
Abigoliah: I again, I don’t remember their names.
Tom: My Substack post for this episode is all about how different comedy writers have different ways of coming up with silly names for characters. Yeah. And on The Day Today you could have had, among others, Peter O’Hanraha-Hanrahan, Collaterlie Sisters, Sylvester Stewart, Barbara Wintergreen, Ted Maul, Colin Popshed or Spartacus Mills. And there were others besides, but I won’t read out the whole list. What’s the title of the soap opera which we saw clips of on The Day Today?
Abigoliah: What was the soap opera? Was that where they’re in the money exchange thing?
Tom: So what was it called?
Abigoliah: I—
Tom: It was just called The Bureau.
Abigoliah: The Bureau?
Tom: And finally, I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue. Can you name any two of the six people from the classic lineup of I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue?
Abigoliah: So I can’t say Clive Anderson or Pippa Evans?
Tom: No. You can’t.
Abigoliah: Nope, I don’t remember.
Tom: I don’t remember the chairman’s name.
Abigoliah: No, because I haven’t edited those YouTube clips yet.
Tom: Humphrey Lyttelton.
Abigoliah: Humphrey Lyttelton.
Tom: Barry Cryer…
Abigoliah: How did I forget Barry Cryer?
Tom: Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Willie Rushton and Colin Sell on the piano.
Abigoliah: I feel like this podcast has been really rewarding to me, and I am not proving it at all. I test poorly, I think we should know that. I’ve always tested poorly.
Tom: Okay, playing Mornington Crescent. If you go from Chalfont Square to Highbury and Islington, is that on a diagonal?
Abigoliah: Yes. Because it doesn’t matter. We’re making it up.
Tom: And final question for I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue. Okay. Can you sing the words of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?
Abigoliah: Oh my God.
Tom: To the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
Abigoliah: I didn’t know you were gonna have the words for me. And may I say that saved my bacon.
Tom: I’m pretty sure that when Pippa and co do it, they have the words.
Abigoliah: Yeah. I think you’re right. I think they do.
Tom: Well, I think you get all the points for that.
Abigoliah: Oh, cool. Good. Do you have my actual score? Were you keeping score?
Tom: I— don’t.
Abigoliah: I think it’s poor. I think I got half of them right. I think I may have got half of them right. We’ll have to go back in the edit and figure that out.
Tom: Right. Are you ready to start looking forward to season two?
Abigoliah: Before we do that, though my question for you about season one was you said that you liked everything, and some of it you found you liked more. Did anything in your research surprise you? Did you learn anything you didn’t know about these shows or the people who made them?
Tom: Oh, plenty. Yeah. There’s always interesting stuff. It was fascinating talking to Ben and reading his book and discovering things about The Young Ones I didn’t know. It’s also fascinating to me which parts of The Young Ones story Ben doesn’t know. So he wrote the scripts and went away. And he knows nothing, apparently, about everything that was going on with Peter Richardson getting The Comic Strip onto Channel 4 and that kind of twisting the BBC’s arm and meaning that suddenly they had to do The Young Ones much more quickly. That’s nothing to do with him. And he doesn’t talk about it, but I had no idea that he wanted to play Mike. That’s extraordinary.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: That’s brand new information to me.
Abigoliah: And I think it would have been really interesting if he had played Mike. Oh, we have a cat on the table. Cat on the table.
Tom: You’re not in the podcast, little guy.
Abigoliah: Nope. Keep him in. It’ll be great. For reels. People love cats.
Tom: And I remember being very struck by finding out that Victoria Wood had seen Joyce Grenfell live in concert when she was a little girl. I had no idea about that because I kept thinking, like, who are her role models? Who is she…? What is she seeing that makes her think she can do this? Is it just this extraordinary self-belief? Yeah, and it was mainly. But seeing Joyce Grenfell when she was nine years old was an important moment in her life. And I can understand why.
Abigoliah: Cool. Is there anything that in your research that made you kind of disappointed you in any way like, oh I thought—oh, I thought they these people got along better or oh, I thought, I don’t know.
Tom: No, I don’t think so. I’m a bit surprised that Ben Elton isn’t more of a fan of The Young Ones. And his feeling like that was taken away from me and my version would have been better, which we’ll never know. Yeah. And to be fair to him, he does also say you can’t argue with a hit.
Abigoliah: Well and in Ben’s defence which by the way when we had him on the podcast—those listening now if you haven’t listened to the Ben Elton interview, please do. It was so great that he made time for us. But I mean, kind of probably with a lot of these guys, but with Ben especially like he wrote on the show, but he didn’t write it the way he wanted to, and it was one of the first things he ever did. So cut to—I mean, how long ago—it came out in the 80s. So yeah, 40 years after it comes out we’re like, we would like to talk about The Young Ones. And he’s like—we both read his book. The guy has done everything since. And he’s like, well, I’ve done other stuff too, you know, I’m sure he likes it. I’m sure he’s just has had other projects in the last 40 years that he’s a little bit more fond of or remembers more.
Tom: That feel more him.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: But I think one of the things that bugs him about The Young Ones is, on the one hand, it’s not all him. There are other voices in the mix, so it doesn’t feel pure, unadulterated Ben. On the other hand, there are so many things that he did create, which I think he feels he isn’t given credit for. And it’s rare, really rare in any writer’s career to put something down, like once in one script, give it to one actor and have it become part of the language. And Ben Elton has done that multiple times.
Abigoliah: Yeah, yeah, that’s a good point. I think one thing I took away from specifically our interviews and the one with Andrew Gillman, is his approach as a director seems to be in pure play and mischievousness. And I think that led to a lot of success for The Day Today is, as Geoff said in his interview, comedy is not funny when you’re making it, which I totally agree with. And I think people get so bogged down in that. But then talking to Andrew, he just seems like he’s playful all the time. And that’s another thing. Like as a comedian going into this new year, I want to take more play. I want to write like Victoria Wood, and I want to play like Andrew Gillman. That’s what I want to do.
Tom: Great stuff.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: All right. Season two.
Abigoliah: Yeah. Season two. Let’s talk about it.
Tom: So several times, as you and I have discussed this project both on mic and off, you’ve referred to—just casually, you’ve referred to the shows that we’ve been watching as sitcoms. But in fact, I’d say barely anything from season one is, strictly speaking, a sitcom. Like maybe The Office. The Young Ones, just about, if you squint at it. But because we decided to start with ground-breakers, that’s meant lots of playing with the form, and it’s meant lots of young people doing early professional work. That often means sketch and parody rather than narrative. So I think it’s time to do sitcoms.
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: So every one of the eight shows I’ve picked for season two is a classic, typical situation comedy. It’s the same people in the same location every episode. There’s a studio audience. Everyone knows what they’re getting into. It’s pure sitcom.
Abigoliah: Now for series slash season one of All British Comedy Explained the theme was groundbreaking. All those shows broke ground in a different way. For the sitcoms, the theme is sitcoms, but would you say these are the best sitcoms or are they the most well known? Is there something about these sitcoms that are similar to you in a way?
Tom: I mean, kind of, they’re like eight favourites of mine. Okay. But we are ticking off some big hitters. So there was an exercise that the BBC did in 2004. It was a months long campaign to find Britain’s best sitcom. And the public voted to decide the winner. And you can find a ranked list of the top 100 online. Of the eight shows—and I didn’t know this when I was picking them, by the way. I just picked eight shows I thought would be interesting and fun for us to watch. Of the eight shows I picked, all of them are in the upper half of that list.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: And five of them are in the top ten. So we are ticking off some really big hitters, and I will be breaking another one of my self-imposed rules. And you can figure out which rule it is as we go through them.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: So shall I give you the list?
Abigoliah: Yes.
Tom: All right. We’re going to start with Fawlty Towers.
Abigoliah: “Don’t mention the war.” That’s all I remember from that one.
Tom: But I’m not going to show you that episode. I’m going to show you two different episodes.
Abigoliah: Okay, fair.
Tom: Then we’ll do The Good Life. Have you ever heard of that?
Abigoliah: No, I don’t know anything about it.
Tom: So this was a show that at its peak, and it only ran for 3 or 4 years, but at its peak was getting audiences of 20 million viewers. And its final episode was a slightly bizarre Royal Command Performance.
Abigoliah: What’s a Royal Command Performance?
Tom: They brought the Queen to Television Centre.
Abigoliah: Wait. The real Queen?
Tom: The real Queen to watch an extra episode. Kind of. After they’d finished the series, she was like, one would like another episode of The Good Life, please.
Abigoliah: That’s what I thought Morecambe and Wise were gonna do.
Tom: Then Absolutely Fabulous. How could we not?
Abigoliah: Cannot wait.
Tom: And then this is the lowest ranked on that BBC list, but a real favourite of mine, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
Abigoliah: Which sounds epic.
Tom: Well, it is. It’s epically odd, and I think it’s a really—example of The Young Ones was reacting against this kind of cosy, middle class suburban sitcom where every set looks the same. It’s a sofa in front of French windows, and Reginald Perrin is an example of how you can take that formula and just make it really strange and still put it out mainstream BBC.
Abigoliah: Who made… We’ll get to it when we get to it.
Tom: Then we’ll do Hancock’s Half Hour, which is a really early show. It has a claim to be the first proper British television sitcom. There are other shows that would be competing for that claim, but Hancock definitely is in the conversation. And then we’ll do The Vicar of Dibley.
Abigoliah: Okay.
Tom: Which actually beat Fawlty Towers in that poll.
Abigoliah: That’s the one on my other podcast, Neurodivergent Moments. Please listen. Joe Wells is just upset when I didn’t know what The Vicar of Dibley was, so he’s going to be real excited this is on the list. And that’s with Dawn French.
Tom: Dawn French. Yes. So we have French and Saunders in our list of top sitcoms. Then we’ll do probably my favourite, Yes Minister.
Abigoliah: Yes. I can’t wait to see Yes, Minister. This one I’ve been very curious about.
Tom: And then we’ll finish with Dad’s Army, which—
Abigoliah: Is a classic. It keeps coming up. All last season we kept being like, okay, like in Dad’s Army. Well, in Dad’s Army. Now I get to see what it is.
Tom: And Dad’s Army is the root of another incredibly successful comedy partnership. There’s a whole kind of family tree of ensemble sitcoms that come from Dad’s Army, from writer-producer David Croft.
Abigoliah: So it had a lot of spin off series?
Tom: Not spin offs, but the same team and the same approach was deployed in at least half a dozen other very successful sitcoms after Dad’s Army.
Abigoliah: Okay, cool.
Tom: And I noticed only very recently as well—all 17 shows now. So the nine we’ve done, the eight we have planned. They have something else in common which I didn’t realize until literally a few days ago. Any guesses?
Abigoliah: They’re all British television shows.
Tom: Not just British. They’re all BBC shows. Which actually, like I said, I hadn’t planned. So for season three, should we get that far, we’ll definitely try and include some ITV and Channel 4 stuff. But I think it is worth noting that the whole of the top ten in that 2004 survey was BBC.
Abigoliah: I wonder if, especially back in the ye olde days, as we’ve talked about, there were only four channels.
Tom: Three before 1982.
Abigoliah: Yeah, before 1982, when the fourth channel, Channel 4 came about. But—
Tom: And Father Ted on Channel 4 is at number 11 in that list, so you don’t have to wait very long to get some commercial channels. The highest ranked pure ITV sitcom, because there’s a show called Men Behaving Badly, which started on ITV and then moved to BBC. But people remember the BBC version. The highest ranked ITV sitcom is—and I’ll just pause here for listeners to try and guess—at number 27 on that poll, Rising Damp was an ITV sitcom.
Abigoliah: I don’t know. When did that come out?
Tom: That would have been late 70s.
Abigoliah: Okay. That is a horrible title.
Tom: Well, it was about a kind of sleazy landlord.
Abigoliah: Yeah, I guess. Okay.
Tom: The people who lived in his slightly rundown building.
Abigoliah: Maybe we’ll do that as a bonus, because just the title alone makes me go, no, I don’t want to watch Rising Damp.
Tom: Written by Eric Chappell and starring Leonard Rossiter.
Abigoliah: Oh, very nice, very nice. But that is not on the list?
Tom: Not, no this time—
Abigoliah: Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Absolutely Fabulous, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Hancock’s Half Hour, The Vicar of Dibley, Yes Minister, Dad’s Army. And you had certain rules for things we weren’t going to cover. One was no quiz shows.
Tom: That’s right.
Abigoliah: Which we sort of broke that with I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, but it’s not really a quiz show, you know?
Tom: No.
Abigoliah: Nothing that’s currently on television. No cartoons. Was there another rule?
Tom: There are at least two more rules.
Abigoliah: Okay. What were the other two rules?
Tom: I haven’t got them written in front of me, but from memory I think I said no children’s shows.
Abigoliah: No children’s shows.
Tom: No adaptations.
Abigoliah: Okay. I think either one of these is a cartoon or one of them is an adaptation.
Tom: We’ll see.
Abigoliah: Oh, you’re not gonna tell me which rule you broke? Oh, God. Tune in for eight freaking shows to find the answer, kids.
Tom: And we’ll try and do some more interviews along the way as well. We haven’t got any of those planned so far, but I think it’d be nice to carry on doing that. Some of the interviews have been really fun.
Abigoliah: Yeah, they’ve been really insightful. And yeah, we’ll start searching those people out as well. So the podcast, to remind those and maybe some people joining for the first time comes out every two weeks. And then when we can get an interview in, it’ll come out between those two weeks.
Tom: So we’ll have a couple of weeks off before we come back with season two. But when we do, it’ll be Fawlty Towers. And if you want to do your homework, listeners, we’re going to watch series one, episode four, and series two, episode four. I am not going to give the titles, which, by the way, were made up by BBC Video in the 80s.
Abigoliah: Okay, so—
Tom: They don’t appear on screen, but I think both the titles are slight spoilers. Okay, so I’m not going to give them away to you, Abigoliah.
Abigoliah: Okay. Fair enough.
Tom: But they’ll be in the show notes.
Abigoliah: All right. And thank you guys so much for joining us on series… season one of All British Comedy Explained. As always, we so appreciate you listening. If you can go into your podcatcher app, rate and review our podcast. That helps other people find it. Or recommend it to a friend. We’ve now released nine episodes plus interviews. Share one. Share your favourite one with a friend. You know, we’re an independent podcast, so you helping us spread the word is the best way to share the podcast with more people.
Tom: Lovely stuff.
Abigoliah: Yeah. Thank you so much. We’ll see you in a couple of weeks with season two.
Tom: Bye for now.
Abigoliah: Bye.