Comedy on ITV

I've just noticed this article: Liver Birds

It's great to see ITV returning to the sitcom genre after all these years.

Benidorm was patchy in parts but it did have some laugh out loud moments and although I am not overly keen on Get A Grip, that too has some room for improvement. However, both of these programmes made me switch back to ITV.

Over the last few years ITV have relied on plugging the comedy genre with weak comedy drama - aka Bonkers - which more often then not are very lame affairs and go on for far too long.

I for one am glad that traditional sitcoms are on the way back, thank you Mr Grade!

To be fair, I think the raison d'etre of Bonkers was to be naff; I think it supposed to be a spoof of convoluted, melodramatic and trashy dramas such as Footballers' Wives .

I believe it was supposed to be a farce rather than traditional sit-com!!

I saw this the other night and thought Ben Elton would be better on his own. Although I admire the lovely Alexa...

The problem new sitcoms have on ANY channel is that with the constant repeats of such gems as 'The Good Life' and 'Only Fools and Horses' there is a growing pressure for every new venture into sitcom land to be a classic right from day one, and if it's not then lets not bother. Let us not forget that there were a lot of sitcoms back in the 70s, 80s and 90s even which are completely forgotten, it's only some that are truely remembered. Modern classics such as 'Red Dwarf' and 'Coupling' make it even harder. That's in a sense why that Nick Frost vehicle 'Hyperdrive' got such bad reviews. People were expecting it to be Red Dwarf, and it just wasn't it was something different, so they immediately turned off. If that had happened when the first series of Red Dwarf had come out, it would have been cancelled straight away, as the original Red Dwarf series 1 was really rough around the edges to say the least. At least they are giving 'Hyperdrive' another series though.

Although having said all that, it seems 'The IT Crowd' is getting a small following, and that's a traditional sitcom in every way. But then make a programme about I.T nerds you're going to get a cult folliowing aren't you

that said, there have been a few relatively new sitcoms that will probably be remembered for years to come, like Phoenix Nights, Little Britain, (despite how crap it actually is) Max and paddy, The Peep show, Catherine Tate. (another overrated sitcom) Still, it's very little compared to all the sitcoms of the 70s-90s. All those classics that you would rush home to see. Only time will tell.

I don't think you quite get what a sitcom is do you? Little Britain and Catherine Tate are not sitcoms, they're more like sketch shows.

What does that mean?I tried a language translator and it didn't translate.

oh I see what you mean, sorry, my mistake. In that case, there are even fewer memorable sitcoms that are on these days. Off the top of my head I can only name Pheonix nights and the Peep show. there have been plenty of sitcoms, but most have been crashing failures. (Feel the Force, BBC Two)

Can anyone else name any new sitcoms that will be remembered for years to come?

I believe that "Raison d'etre" is French, meaning something like "sole reason for being/existing". I don't know whether or not Roger Mellie has spelled it correctly. If not, that would be why a translator won't work.

It's one of those examples of a French phrase that is officially used in the English language (like "C'est la vie"), therefore you'll find it in the likes of the Oxford English Dictionary, I expect.

Feel The Force, never heard of that one, must have been right sh*te

It was. the 2 lead characters were trying to be like French and Saunders, and they so weren't...

Considering French & Saunders weren't that great last time round (as a double act not seperately) it must have been awful