A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Richard David Briers was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund after his death in 1989, and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.
The Good Life is a British sitcom, produced by BBC television. It ran from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978 on BBC 1 and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. Opening with the midlife crisis of Tom Good, a 40-year-old plastics designer, it relates the joys and setbacks he and his wife Barbara experience when they attempt to escape a modern "rat race" lifestyle by "becoming totally self-sufficient" in their suburban house in Surbiton. In 2004, it came 9th in Britain's Best Sitcom. The lead roles are taken by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.
Felicity Ann Kendal is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, but the role that brought attention to her career was that of Barbara Good in the 1975 television series The Good Life.
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton is an English actress.
To the Manor Born is a BBC television sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special one-off episode was produced in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the final episode in 1981 was written by script associate Christopher Bond. The title is a play on the phrase "to the manner born," from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Esmonde and Larbey were a British television screenwriting duo, consisting of John Gilbert Esmonde and Robert Edward Larbey, who created popular sitcoms starting from the mid-1960s until the mid-1990s such as Please Sir!, The Good Life, Get Some In!, Ever Decreasing Circles, and Brush Strokes.
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 128 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.
Paul Clark Eddington was an English actor best known for playing Jerry Leadbetter in the television sitcom The Good Life (1975–1978) and politician Jim Hacker in the sitcom Yes Minister (1980–1984) and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988).
Harold Edward Snoad is a British television producer, writer and director. He is best known for the television sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, starring Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift. He is also well known for having directed and produced Ever Decreasing Circles starring Richard Briers and Peter Egan, as well as Don't Wait Up starring Tony Britton and Nigel Havers.
James Perry was an English scriptwriter and actor. He devised and co-wrote the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army (1968–1977), It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981), Hi-De-Hi (1980–1988) and You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993), all with David Croft. Perry co-wrote the theme tune of Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?" along with Derek Taverner, for which Perry received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1971.
Mulberry is a fantasy sitcom written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey that aired on BBC 1 in the early 1990s. Mulberry ran for two series: the first series of six episodes ran from 24 February to 30 March 1992, and the second series of seven episodes ran from 8 April to 25 May 1993. A third series was planned which would have concluded the story and wrap up the plotlines established in the first two series, but was cancelled before production began. As a result, the story never reached a conclusion.
The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. Table Manners is set in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden in the garden.
Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A29 road at its crossroads with the A272, 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Horsham and 5.5 miles (9 km) north-east of Pulborough.
Ann Cuerton Briers, better known by her stage name Ann Davies, was an English actress. Davies was the wife of actor Richard Briers until his death in February 2013, and the mother of actress Lucy Briers and Kate Briers. She acted with her husband in the films Peter's Friends (1992), In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) and Run for Your Wife (2012).
Down to Earth is a British television situation comedy, aired in 1995 on BBC One. It was devised by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. It starred Richard Briers, who also featured in Esmonde and Larbey's earlier series called The Good Life (1975-1978) and Ever Decreasing Circles (1984-1989). One series consisting of seven episodes was produced.
Sophie Rundle is an English actress, best known for portraying Ada Thorne in the BBC One historical crime drama television series Peaky Blinders, Ann Walker in BBC One and HBO's period drama Gentleman Jack, Vicky Budd in the BBC television series Bodyguard, code-breaker Lucy in the ITV drama series The Bletchley Circle and Labia in the British/American television sitcom Episodes. She also played Alice in Sky One's 2017 drama Jamestown.
Room at the Bottom is a British comedy television series which originally aired as a pilot in 1966 on the Comedy Playhouse and a single series of seven episodes on BBC 1 the following year. Set in the maintenance department of a large company tower block, it was the first sitcom by the writing team of John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. All episodes from this series are currently believed to be lost due to wiping.
The Other One is a British sitcom, produced by BBC Television. It ran from 1977 to 1979, a total of 13 episodes were produced over two series and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. The series was a follow up vehicle for Richard Briers who recently had success in the sitcom The Good Life (1975–1978). The premise for the series initially focussed on two passengers Ralph Tanner (Briers) and Brian Bryant who meet at Gatwick Airport, en-route on holiday to Spain. They soon find themselves on the same flight and eventually the same hotel. Although they come from different walks of life, they soon bond and form a close friendship, as they embark on a series of misadventures.
