A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Are You Being Served? is a British television sitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written by David Croft, who also served as executive producer and director, and Jeremy Lloyd. Michael Knowles and John Chapman also wrote certain episodes. Produced by the BBC, the series starred Mollie Sugden, Trevor Bannister, Frank Thornton, John Inman, Wendy Richard, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, Larry Martyn, Harold Bennett and Arthur English.
Meet the Wife is a 1960s BBC situation comedy written by Chesney and Wolfe, which featured Freddie Frinton as Freddie Blacklock with Thora Hird as his tyrannical wife, Thora. It ran for five series.
Citizen Smith is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980.
Johnny Speight was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.
Chesney and Wolfe, were a British television comedy screenwriting duo consisting of Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe. They were best known for their sitcoms The Rag Trade, Meet the Wife (1963–1966), On the Buses (1969–1973) and Romany Jones (1972–1975). When their partnership began in the mid-1950s, Chesney was already known to the public as a harmonica player.
Alan John Clarke was an English television and film director, producer and writer.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
On the Buses is a British television sitcom that was broadcast on ITV from 1969 to 1973. It was created by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, who wrote most of the episodes. It spawned three spin-off feature films and a stage version. Despite the writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife with the BBC, the corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to Frank Muir, Head of Entertainment at London Weekend Television (LWT), who loved the idea; the show was accepted, and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers.
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted regularly from October 1965 to May 1979, before returning for the summer seasons of 1982 and 1983. The producer most associated with the Play of the Month series was Cedric Messina. Thirteen productions were also shown previously or subsequently on BBC2 in the period 1971-73 under Stage 2. Productions were broadcast in colour from November 1969.
Reginald Alfred Varney was an English actor, entertainer and comedian. He is best remembered for having played the lead role of bus driver Stan Butler in the LWT sitcom On the Buses (1969–73) and its three spin-off feature films. Having performed as a music hall entertainer, Varney first came to national recognition as factory foreman Reg Turner in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade (1961–63). He appeared in further sitcoms including Beggar My Neighbour (1966–1968) and On the Buses stardom facilitated overseas cabaret tours.
Sykes and a... is a black-and-white British sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques that aired on BBC 1 from 1960 to 1965. It was written by Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight, John Antrobus and Spike Milligan. Sykes and a... was the first television series to feature both Sykes and Jacques, who later starred in Sykes and a Big, Big Show and Sykes, the latter of which featured the same characters and reused some of the same scripts.
Nearest and Dearest is a British television sitcom that ran from 1968 to 1973. A total of 45 episodes were made, 18 in monochrome and 27 in colour. The series, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network, starred Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel as squabbling middle-aged siblings Nellie and Eli Pledge who ran a family pickle business in Colne, Lancashire, in the North West of England.
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketches typified by slapstick, mime, parody, and double entendre.
Ann Harrison McCall, professionally known as Anna Karen, was a British actress best known for playing Olive Rudge in the ITV sitcom On the Buses from 1969 to 1973 including its film spin-offs and stage version and Aunt Sal in the BBC soap opera EastEnders on a recurring basis from 1996 to 2017. She also reprised the role of Olive Rudge in The Rag Trade from 1977 to 1978, while her film roles included parts in two Carry On films: Carry On Camping (1969) and Carry On Loving (1970).
Wild, Wild Women is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC from 1968 to 1969. Shot in black-and-white, it starred Barbara Windsor and was written by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney.
Curry and Chips is a British television sitcom broadcast in 1969 which was produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network.
Peter Geoffrey Francis Jones was an English actor, screenwriter and broadcaster.
The first series of On the Buses originally aired between 28 February 1969 and 11 April 1969, beginning with "The Early Shift". The series was produced and directed by Stuart Allen. The designer for the first three episodes was David Catley, and Andrew Gardner for the rest of the episodes. All the episodes in this series were written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe.
"The Rag Trade" was the theme song to the 1977 revival of The Rag Trade, a British TV comedy made by the London Weekend Television (LWT) production company for ITV. The song was written by Lynsey de Paul, but the vocals are credited to Joan Brown singing "It's the rag trade" over a quirky tune, sounding remarkably like de Paul. Indeed, some sources credit the vocal performance of the song to de Paul. The recording was arranged by John Bell and the conductor was Denis King. It was released on an album of TV themes on the DJM Records subsidiary label Weekend Records. The DVD set featuring all 22 episodes of the LWT episodes, with the theme music at the beginning and ending of every episode, was released by Network. The original version of "The Rag Trade" can be heard on de Paul's official website.
