It’s no secret that the UK has a penchant for genius comic storytelling, whether that be classics like Monty Python’s Flying Circus or modern hits like Shameless. Often with a wry smile and dry nod to the audience, British comedies have had such an impact on our global TV landscape that they regularly turn into international spin-offs, some of which go on to become legendary in their own right.
In the 21st Century, British comedy certainly hasn’t taken its foot off the pedal, with some of the most beloved exports of the genre coming in the past 24 years. By bringing names such as Ricky Gervais, Matt Berry, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge to the masses, there is certainly plenty to thank British comedy for, not least the hilarious meze of enigmatic characters and laugh-out-loud set pieces that the country’s best comedic exports are famous for.
Despite being a relatively new addition to the world of comedy, Ghosts‘ worldwide appeal cannot be understated. Created by an enormously talented troop of Brits who have worked together on television for over 15 years, Ghosts first aired to an unsuspecting BBC audience as a light-hearted sitcom featuring some of Britain’s friendliest faces. The series stars Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe as young couple Alison and Mike, who move into an abandoned country house left to Alison by her distant Aunt Heather after she dies. Little do they know that the house is anything but abandoned and contains the spirits of some of the many people who have died between its walls. After an accident in which Alison falls out a window and only temporarily dies, she returns to the house to find that she can see and even speak to the ghosts, sparking up an unlikely and comically endearing bond with them.
Brimming with the potential to take over your vocabulary with an amalgamation of witty one-liners and clever catchphrases, the main cast of Ghosts is where the true genius lies, with the cast using their well-versed knowledge of the past thanks to their work in Horrible Histories to craft a set of characters that feel both historically accurate and brilliantly unique. In a media landscape dominated by often vulgar and certainly NSFW comedy, Ghosts offers a sigh of relief with a wholesome but no-less hilarious 5 seasons that will restore your faith in the fact that you don’t have to be edgy to be funny. Nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Scripted Comedy, Ghosts has even stretched into a successful American spin-off, such is the strength of its premise.
A group of spirits restlessly squabble in an abandoned country house. To their despair, a young couple inherits the house with hopeful plans to renovate it into a luxury hotel.
Featuring one of modern British comedy’s best ensembles, Green Wing, created by the hilarious team behind Smack the Pony, is set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital and follows the somewhat melodramatic and always side-splitting lives of those within it. From Tamsin Greig‘s always-embarrassed doctor Caroline to the lion-like mane of Julian Rhind-Tutt‘s Mac Macartney, the constant ebbing and flowing of Britain’s most hapless hospital makes for 18 episodes of pure comedy gold.
With a supporting cast that boasts the likes of Olivia Colman, Mark Heap, Michelle Gomez, Stephen Mangan, and Sarah Alexander, Green Wing‘s choice to blend comedic genres and always stay on the side of surreal makes for an addictive viewing experience that never seems to sit still. From Sue White’s (Gomez) enormous arms to Guy (Mangan) bringing his keyboard into the theatre, a plethora of iconic moments line the indulgent episodes of Green Wing, with fans of the series always finding new clever touches of comedic excellence upon any re-watch.
One of the most enigmatic series ever crafted, The Mighty Boosh reigns supreme as the wackiest show to come out of British comedy in the 21st Century. Created by and starring Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding as Howard Moon and Vince Noir respectively, the surreal series follows the pair as they get up to all sorts of mischief whilst struggling to maintain a smorgasbord of jobs and coming face-to-face with a plethora of oddball characters.
A winner of multiple awards, The Mighty Boosh is unapologetic in its intention to bring the offbeat thoughts of its creators to life. Daring and unique, the series would take both Barratt and Fielding and thrust them into the mainstream, with Fielding in particular having a subsequent career that, quite pertinently, features an unexpected journey to hosting the Great British Bake Off. Sculpted on stage, honed on radio, and perfected on television, there certainly wasn’t anything like The Mighty Boosh before it, and most likely won’t be anything like it again.
Before he was a hotshot Late Night talk show host, James Corden was creating comedy genius alongside the equally talented Ruth Jones back in 2007. Off the back of the pair’s success on Kay Mellor‘s sitcom Fat Friends, the duo sat down to pen a series dedicated to telling the ups, downs, and in-betweens of two lovers who have never even met. The show follows the titular Gavin (Matthew Horne) and Stacey (Joanna Page), as they go from first connecting over the phone to finally meeting and, admittedly very quickly, getting engaged. However, it is the joining of their two families, the startlingly named Shipmans and Wests, and the coming together of their friends that creates the relatable and ever-so-quotable spine of the series.
Putting both Jones and Corden on the map, Gavin and Stacey intelligently blends both relatable and quirky comedy, with its now iconic soundtrack a perfect time capsule of mid-noughties Britain. With three BAFTAs, a British Comedy Award, and a National Television Award under its belt, Gavin and Stacey captured the hearts of a nation upon its arrival, with the unknown events of the fishing trip and its surrounding mystery still gripping fans to this day. With whispers of one final special ready to be produced by Corden, Jones, and the team, Gavin and Stacey may not be done just yet, but, if it was, its timeless legacy is already secured. Just one question – did Smithy say yes?
This triple BAFTA-winning comedy began life when creator Graham Linehan was visited by a computer repair technician with a lack of social awareness. From that moment on, the idea for The IT Crowd was born, with Linehan moving swiftly into writing the script. The show stars the now iconic trio of Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, and Katherine Parkinson as Roy, Moss, and Jen respectively, three members of the IT department at the fictional Reynholm Technologies. Choosing to follow a normal sitcom structure, the series features the inevitable mishaps and surprisingly relatable personal quirks of these intelligently fleshed-out characters, with only Matt Berry’s womanizer Douglas ever threatening to steal the show from the protagonists.
Linehan’s incredible back catalog of adored British comedies is simply eye-watering, with many considering this to be his best. What begins life as a seemingly two-dimensional character comedy about the technology community quickly evolves into a sometimes touching and often idiosyncratic story about friends and identity, with those who love the show the most falling head over heels with the sheer depth of much of its content.
The quintessential comedy for a generation of British teenagers, The Inbetweeners starred the unknown foursome of Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, and Joe Thomas, with each quickly propelled to the top of British comedy. Socially marginalized and bullied by the terrors that come with British high school, The Inbetweeners follows the four friends as they attempt to find romance, come of age, and avoid their parents against the backdrop of a classic noughties soundtrack.
For every iconic quote in The Inbetweeners‘ catalog, all of which are most definitely unrepeatable, The Inbetweeners has influenced the lexicon of an entire generation, with its staying power on television, despite only having three seasons, proof of its everlasting popularity. Not afraid to touch on some of the more controversial modern subjects, the show never does so without meaning, perfectly capturing the cringe-inducing thoughts and zeitgeist fears of young people growing up in noughties Britain. Put simply, The Inbetweeners is a comedy you may view with one hand over your eyes, but there’s no chance of wanting to ever look away.
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This highly innovative series takes some of the best comedic dialogue of the noughties and frames it via a fresh cinematic style that places the audience in the eyes and minds of the central characters, Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb). In their twenties and stumbling through a menial life, Mark and Jez are roommates who seemingly have absolutely nothing in common, except perhaps their desire to find their one true love, with Mark’s coming in the form of Olivia Colman’s Sophie.
Breaking the mold of modern British comedy, Peep Show actually ran for a staggering nine seasons, making it one of the longest-running British comedies of all time. This is simply a showcase of its genius, managing to evolve and innovate at a rate that didn’t disappoint an often cutthroat British television industry, and even winning two BAFTAs along the way. Featuring an extremely flawed and always-relatable central duo, the series remarkably manages to stay both fresh and never lose its identity, with both Mitchell and Webb growing as characters and actors into adored individuals both on and off-screen.
Mark and Jez are a couple of twenty-something roommates who have nothing in common – except for the fact that their lives are anything but normal. Mayhem ensues as the pair strive to cope with day-to-day life.
Doctor Wholike you’ve never seen him before. Some four years prior to the enormous critical success of the biting comedy In the Loop, Armando Iannucci and his band of politically motivated comedians brought The Thick of It to British television. Starring Peter Capaldi as the foul-mouthed and endlessly quotable Malcolm Tucker, the series revolves around the British government, specifically the Minister for Social Affairs and his often incompetent team of morally questionable politicians.
Always with one eye on satirizing its current political climate, The Thick of It took some of the best British comics of the time and thrust them into a fast-paced cocktail of heavy insults and remarkable mishandlings. The star of the show is Capaldi’s performance as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, with his wild and unique barrage of insults so meticulously rehearsed they feel spontaneous. Sadly, the hilarious one-liners and genius put-downs are, frankly, too obscene to discuss, with the simple way to enjoy them in all their vulgar glory is by watching the show.
Before there was Michael Scott, there was David Brent. Written by and starring Ricky Gervais, this iconic sitcom sees the comedian play the aforementioned Brent, the boss of paper company Wernham Hogg. Mundanely mockumenting the day-to-day lives of the company and its employees, the show follows Brent’s comical and often unbearable mishaps around the workplace, whilst also slowly detailing the will-they/won’t-they romance of Tim (Martin Freeman) and Dawn (Lucy Davis).
Although The Office didn’t revolutionize the mockumentary genre, it certainly brought it to the masses, with thousands of British homes declaring after finishing the pilot episode that they had just seen the strangest documentary ever, such is the realism of the show. From Brent’s legendary dance to the quiz night embarrassment, many of The Office‘s funniest moments are etched into the annals of British television history, with the final Christmas special that sees all the threads tied putting smiles on the faces of viewers that simply haven’t yet left. Painfully real and intelligently hilarious, this series also birthed one of the greatest shows to ever air in the US, and, just for that alone, it deserves enormous applause.
Simply put, Fleabag is one of the greatest shows of all time. Beginning life as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s excellent one-woman show that won a Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Fringe 2013, it wasn’t long before the series was making its quiet debut on BBC Three in the UK. Fleabag follows the life of an unnamed woman, known only as Fleabag, and her outrageous attempts to cope with modern life as a wannabe feminist consumed by grief. Whilst attempting to juggle romance, a failing business, the loss of her best friend, and a troubled family life, Fleabag uses us, the audience, as her therapist, regularly breaking the fourth wall to indulge us with her thoughts and feelings. However, is she telling the truth, or is there more to her story than first meets the eye?
Aperfect blend of biting social commentary and genuine heartfelt drama, Fleabag seamlessly transitions from a painful one-woman show in its first season into a nuanced love story in its second with the introduction of Andrew Scott‘s Priest. A winner of six Primetime Emmys, two BAFTAs, three Critics’ Choice Awards, and many, many more accolades, Waller-Bridge’s magnum opus will forever be her greatest addition to the world, which is saying something, seeing as she is the woman behind the likes of Crashing and Killing Eve. Poignant, intelligent, and beautifully funny, there really is no other comedy like Fleabag.
Series adapted from the award-winning play about a young woman trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy.
