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.
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.
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.
John Esmonde may refer to:
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 (1975–78) and politician Jim Hacker in the sitcom Yes Minister (1980–84) and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986–88).
Ever Decreasing Circles is a British sitcom which ran on BBC1 between 1984 and 1989, consisting of four series and one feature-length special. It was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, and it reunited them with Richard Briers, who had starred in their previous hit show The Good Life.
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.
Brian Trevor John Murphy is an English actor and comedian. He is best known as the henpecked husband George Roper in the popular sitcom Man About the House and its spin-off series George and Mildred. He also played Alvin Smedley in Last of the Summer Wine. Other notable roles include Stan the shopkeeper in the 1990s children's series Wizadora and in the comedy drama series The Booze Cruise.
Brush Strokes is a British television sitcom, broadcast on BBC television from 1986 to 1991. Written by Esmonde and Larbey and set in South London, it depicted the (mostly) amorous adventures of a wisecracking house painter, Jacko. There were 40 episodes spread over five series.
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is a 1971 British sketch comedy film directed and produced by Graham Stark. Its title is a conflation of The Magnificent Seven and the seven deadly sins. It comprises a sequence of seven sketches, each representing a sin and written by an array of British comedy-writing talent, including Graham Chapman, Spike Milligan, Barry Cryer and Galton and Simpson. The sketches are linked by animation sequences overseen by Bob Godfrey's animation studio. The music score is by British jazz musician Roy Budd, cinematography by Harvey Harrison and editing by Rod Nelson-Keys and Roy Piper. It was produced by Tigon Pictures and distributed in the U.K. by Tigon Film Distributors Ltd.
All in Good Faith is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1985 to 1988. Starring Richard Briers, it was written by John Kane. All in Good Faith was made for the ITV network by Thames Television.
Double First is a 1988 British television sitcom that aired seven episodes on BBC 1. Written by the comedy writing duo Esmonde and Larbey, the series was directed by Gareth Gwenlan. It starred Michael Williams as N. V. Standish, Ann Bell as Mary Webster, Jennifer Hilary as Louise Hobson, Holly Aird as Ellen Hobson, Clive Merrison as Derek, and Peter Tuddenham as William.
The Fenn Street Gang is a British television sitcom which ran for three seasons between 1971 and 1973. Created by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, it was a spin-off from their popular Please Sir! series.
Get Some In! is a British television sitcom about National Service life in the Royal Air Force, broadcast between 1975 and 1978 by Thames Television. Scripts were by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, the team behind sitcoms such as The Good Life.
Ronald Baddiley was an English actor. He was best known for his roles in the early days of the long-running British radio drama The Archers, and as Under-Secretary, Sir Gregory Pitkin, CBE in the BBC comedy The Men from the Ministry.
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.
