Comedies Ripe for Revival
ATV Today casts its eye over the world of comedy and plucks those it believes are Ripe for Revival such as Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances and Spitting Image.
Spitting Image (Central Television 1984 – 1996)
For some time now we at ATV Today have been saying that it’s a shame that this political satire show isn’t around now. Spitting Image would have had a field day with the MP’s expenses scandal, the formation of the coalition government and more recently the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World that continues to threaten David Cameron’s premiership because of his close links with News International. Just imagine what Spitting Image would have made of it all – the jokes, the cutting sketches and the puppets. We can imagine Nick Clegg as a puppet, after all its not hard, but Cameron as a puppet – we’re quite sure we know who Spitting Image would have had pulling his strings……work it out for yourself….
Are You Being Served? (BBC One (1972 – 1985)
Comedy set in a London department store starring John Inman, Trevor Bannister, Mollie Sugden, Wendy Richards, Frank Thornton and Nicholas Smith. While the recession may have dented profits for the big department stores such as John Lewis and Debenhams they are still a vital part of the high street and ripe for comedy – we all know the kind of characters we encounter amongst the staff when we venture into such places and we all know the rivalry that exists between different sections within these stores. The clash of personalities and the inner-store rivalries are a prime setting for a comedy.
Please Sir (LWT, 1968 – 1972)
Nothing much has really changed since Please Sir first aired in the late 60s and early 70s. There’s still ‘troubled’ comprehensive schools out there that are considered to be “failing” by the educational authorities – though most are surely being closed down by now to form “academies” that will somehow rectify all the problems of “failing” schools. Please Sir was set in a inner-city comprehensive with unruly pupils and teachers who struggled to keep control – as we said, nothing much has changed at all – school life is nothing like BBC One’s Waterloo Road. However, would teachers accept a comedy poking fun at them and will the media like a comedy that shows pupil’s various antics as a source of comedy?
Keeping Up Appearances (BBC One, 1990 – 1995)
A comedy all about middle class snobbery and showing it up – the pretentious Mrs Bucket (Patricia Routledge) was a social climber of the highest order who wouldn’t miss any opportunity to try and get herself up the social ladder. Her attempts usually involved her long-suffering husband Richard (Clive Swift) and her infamous “candle-lit suppers”. Grown men feared her the approach of Mrs Bucket. The snobbery of the Daily Mail reading middle classes is, as ever, a prime ground for comedy even in the middle of a recession. Ridiculing those who are desperate to ‘keep up appearances’ by any means necessary, such as shopping at Lidl but using Waitrose bags, is pure comedy gold.
Fawlty Towers (BBC One, 1975 – 1979)
We’ve all stayed in Hotels or Bed & Breakfasts that have been run by men like Basil Fawlty (John Cleese). We all know such establishments exist where the management is ineffective and the staff equally so. Fawlty Towers was pure comedy genius when it first aired and perhaps the beauty of the series is it did only run for 12 episodes. Some comedies are dragged out season after season (numerous examples, far too many to name) but Fawlty Towers, much like the equally excellent Dinnerladies, ended while it was still good. Even so the prospect of seeing an elderly Fawlty and Sybil (Prunella Scales) still running the hotel – into the ground – is appealing.
Do you agree with our selection of comedies ripe for revival or do you think we’ve missed off a classic series? Post your suggestions and comments below.
