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What are good British TV comedies that are not too specific to the UK?
By "not too specific to the UK", I mean something that can be enjoyed and understood (on a cultural level, not the language - subtitles take care of that) by someone who is not part of that culture. For reference, I really enjoyed The IT Crowd and Peep Show. Thanks!
I would say that The IT Crowd and Peep Show are, culturally speaking, incredibly British so if you liked those then there probably isn't much you won't enjoy. I assume you have "sources" to find most things (I don't remotely mind paying my license fee so non-Brits can pirate UK TV, fwiw)
A non-exhaustive list then, off the top of my head and in no particular order:
Derry Girls (you might need subs for that, I struggle!); Staph Lets Flats; Friday Night Dinner; This Country; Spaced; People Just Do Nothing; Dead Pixels; Raised by Wolves (not the sci-fi thing from Ridley Scott); The Inbetweeners; Dinnerladies; Bottom; Flowers (super weird and dark as hell but still funny); Fawlty Towers; Drifters; Back; Motherland; Black Books; Green Wing; Bluestone 42; 15 Storeys High (feat Benedict Wong from the MCU, I still think of him as Errol to this day).
Should keep you going for a little while. I'm sure I've missed a lot of other great things.
That list doesn't include panel shows, which are very much a staple of British comedy TV. But that's probably a different post. As is sketch comedy.
If you're interested I could put together a list of radio comedy, which is a particularly favourite format of mine.
So I'm a great fan of British panel shows as @cfabbro knows. Some of them are pretty UK-specific, but I would say that Would I Lie To You? and 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown are both fantastic shows. Taskmaster is also something very special and hilarious.
I recommend all three, they're pretty global-audience-friendly but with pointed british humours from the comedians. That said, you have to enjoy the panel show format (which, again, very british).
Also adding QI to the panel show format which is pretty universally enjoyable, funny, and informative.
I just wish that QI (and honestly, most British TV shows in general) were easier to access in the US. It seems like BBC is trying to get their content more available outside of the country but even if you buy a subscription to BritBox, it is still missing a lot of episodes. It kind of feels like they're trying to bring back the "Disney Vault".
Yeah, unfortunately almost every UK channel (BBC, Dave, Channel 4, ITV, Sky) is terrible at distribution outside the UK. It's why I pay for a dedicated UK IP address on my VPN, and used my old UK address when registering on their streaming sites, so I can still watch my favorite UK shows here in Canada.
On the plus side though, they're also not very litigious or strict about piracy, so pretty much every episode of QI (including XL versions) and many other UK panel shows (8o10c, Taskmaster, Big Fat Quiz, Buzzcocks, WILTY, etc) are on YouTube. Not legally, but they are available if you search for them by name, season, and episode number.
I like panel shows! Saw a bunch of clips on YouTube. It's awesome.
Curious as to whether you're aware that Countdown (without the 8 of 10 Cats) is a long running - it's 40 years old this year - non-comedy quiz show?
I know there's a lot of Catsdown clips around so I often wonder if non-Brits know that it originated from something much more staid and far less sweary, very much an afternoon TV institution. Susie and Rachel are both on the daytime version, Jimmy Carr is not.
If you like Taskmaster I can recommend the Kiwi version, which there are two seasons of. It's a bit of a slow start but very funny once they find their feet. New UK Taskmaster starts next thursday.
Of course i am ;) did you know it's a french show originally? I used to watch Des Chiffres et des Lettres as a kid on France 2!
I recall a joke on CDC where an Australian guest said that they had Countdown down in Oz as well, but it made them sound so primitive because it was called "Letters and Numbers". Finding out that the original was called that as well adds a new layer to it.
Hehehe I remember that joke too. Made me laugh :)
I had no idea! That's really cool, thanks for letting me know.
I don't watch much, but can recommend "Black Books." There were some jokes that didn't seem tonland squarely, but it wasn't like every joke required you to be British to get. The creators are Irish, but it was run in the UK).
Dylan Moran (who stars with Bill Bailley) and Graham Linehan (The IT Crowd) created it.
Seconding Black Books.
Also to anybody who might be put off by Graham Linehan's involvement, from stuff I've seen about Black Books it was much more Dylan Moran's show than Linehan's, and Linehan wasn't involved at all after the first series.
Even for the stuff Linehan was a large part of (The IT Crowd), it's not like it consists entirely of objectionable content. There's maybe two "bad" IT Crowd episodes. Then, it's the issue of separating the art and the artist, even if the rest of the art isn't itself controversial.
Oh I know, I just know some folks don't want to watch stuff that he was involved in because he's made such an absolute ass of himself the last few years.
All that, and it pisses me off beyond reason that his surname isn't Lineham and thus considerably easier to pronounce.
The most accessible comedy of all would probably have to be Mister Bean. No subtitles required. There's rarely even a single word uttered.
Coupling!
I would recommend Coupling too! Funny stuff.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace! You can watch it on youtube. Its the best. If you like that style, you can take it a step further and get into Danger 5 (from Australia.)
I always thought Darkplace owed a lot to another Aussie classic, Let The Blood Run Free, which is by no means a bad thing. Both were great shows.
yes! 100%. good call -- I totally forgot about Let the Blood Run Free.
Red Dwarf is a futuristic classic sci fi comedy show.
Black Adder is a historical comedy series. Season 1 is more Mr Bean, I much prefer the more sarcastic Seasons 2,3 & 4.
I tried Black Adder. I didn't really get it.
Red Dwarf is interesting and right up my alley, I knew about it but never watched. Should I watch it from the start, or just the more recent seasons?
Not who you asked, but IMO the new seasons are kinda shit. Starting from the beginning would be my recommendation.
The first season is pretty wobbly too, but it is worth sticking with because the next five or six are superb.
Not sure where you can find episodes these days, but if you enjoyed Matt Berry from IT Crowd and "pitch black dark British comedy" I'd recommend "Snuff Box".
Speaking of Matt Berry, Toast of London was pretty funny too.