British Sitcom History Podcast

In part 2 of our look at Victoria Wood's dinnerladies, we take a closer look at Julie Walters and Maxine Peake and see how the series came to an end.

This week we start our look at Victoria Wood's dinnerladies. In many ways it is classic sitcom in its purest form but does it also break the rules occasionally?

In part 2 of our look at The Army Game, we focus more on the second generation cast and the spin off success of Bootsie and Snudge. Is this a rare example of a show getting better after a big cast change?

This week we look at ITV's first sitcom, The Army Game. Starting in 1957, the show was a huge hit and made stars of Charles Hawtrey, William Hartnell, Bernard Bresslaw and many others. But how does it hold up in 2023?

This week it's part 2 of our look at Porridge in which we go a bit deeper on Brian Wilde and his wife's gammon steak hawaii. We also continue our look at the episode Just Desserts and then throw cheap shots at Kevin Bishop.

We're back and we're starting the new series with an absolute classic. Clement and La Frenais' Porridge was a vehicle designed for Ronnie Barker but is just as well remembered for its stellar supporting cast. Part one takes a look at the careers of Barker and Fulton Mackay and we start to comb through one of the episodes.

It's Christmas time again and that means all the most reputable people in society are going down the pub. We go back to the pub by the gas works to see how the Pub Landlord is handling Christmas with his mother.

Once again we delve into the world of film spin offs as we take a look at the pretty solid Till Death Us Do Part film and the absolutely woeful The Alf Garnett Saga.

As usual, we are joined by film expert Sol Harris from Diminishing Returns Podcast. Having not seen much of the original series, he's coming into the films from an unbiased position, but how will that affect his feelings?

Gareth continues his look at what The Young Ones did after The Young Ones with Roll Over Beethoven. A Liza Goddard vehicle that in retrospect feels like Nigel Planer should have been the bigger name, Roll Over Beethoven ran for two (rushed) series in 1985. Written by the esteemed Marks and Gran, it has no laugh track and not that many laughs and it falls apart half way through. But is it worth a re-evaluation?

It's Part 2 of our look at Extras and we continue to journey through the Patrick Stewart episode and look at all the things that changed in series 2. Was it for the better? No. But we'll go into a bit more detail than that.