Coming Up On the BBC: Comedy

Cleese: 'Ee, Ah wor 'ungry-loike! --Image via Wikipedia

My childhood wasn’t really that weird. I was never abused, I didn’t grow up on the International Space Station, my parents weren’t celebrities but it did have a few quirks. One of which is the fact that I grew up on BBC Comedies. There was PBS of course but my formative television years all involve people with British accents shrieking at each other, falling into puddles and tearing off their neighbor’s shirts. In fact, one of my earliest memories is watching Black Adder (played by Rowan Atkinson) dressed up as a Nun to escape some horrid fate.

By the time I was in Grammar School “Bloody hell” was as familiar as John Cleese’s mustache and I could understand Yorkshire accents as if they were speaking the Queen’s English. This could easily explain my different humor choices than most of my peers. To this day I can sort of appreciate some of their humor but nothing sends me into hysterics better than a dry voice or an elderly woman in a big hat throwing things at her neighbors.

This isn’t to say that I’m an expert on British Comedy. While I do know some of the more obscure ones (My Hero) I was only introduced to Doc Martin at the beginning of the month and All Creatures Great and Small on Christmas Day.

Please know I’m getting to the purpose of this post. In fact, here’s the purpose right now. I present to you a list of my top ten BBC Comedy shows (roughly in order of my favorites):

1. Keeping Up Appearances
2. Waiting For God
3. Fawlty Towers
4. Black Adder II
5. Black Adder the Third
6. Are You Being Served?
7. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
8. Last of the Sumer Wine (Not exactly a comedy show per say)
9. Good Neighbors
10. Chef!