List of classic british comedy that dont see light of day

IT

itsrobert Founding member 6 June 2011 9:58pm

This subject has been brought up many times before. The reason why most of these programmes don't see the light of day is because they aren't very good!

Yes and no. I agree that many sitcoms don't see the light of day because they are poor, but there are certainly some excellent comedies that have sadly long since been forgotten. Off the top of my head, one of ITV's better sitcoms - Watching. Thankfully, it has had a complete release on DVD but it would be nice for it to air on TV again for a new audience. Even though it's 20 years old, it's still surprisingly fresh and very sharp.

:-(

A former member 6 June 2011 10:09pm

'You Rang M'Lord' it seems was edited down for the uk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGpPYmlgVgg

Few other cuts have been noted aswell

NJ

Neil Jones Founding member 6 June 2011 10:50pm

nok32uk posted:

Jon Wells posted:

FrankT posted:

I haven't seen a single episode of Noel's House Party ! I was expecting some reruns on UK Gold.

It more fits in with Challenge's remit. It's a wonder they never tried experimenting with showing it when DOND was at it's height.

I guess it's difficult to repeat NHP because when you think about it, it was a very 'of the time' programme. That's not to say things like 321, Bullseye and Crystal Maze aren't but they've got more of a gameshow / playalong factor.

I suppose they could repeat bits of it in various compilations i.e. Noel's Greatest Gotchas etc but I can't see a full show ever being transmitted, but I may be wrong.

NHP, apart from being originally live and littered with copious "call this number for whatever reason" references and various other entities that would become a dog's dinner if Challenge was to edit them all out, is realistically only workable as bite size chunks and fillers. The majority of it was topical and I would probably argue the Gotcha sketches would only be of any future use. Heck, Challenge used to fill awkward parts of their schedule with 10 minute snippets of Beadle's About but never AFAIK aired a full Beadle's About episode. Not that BA could be considered a "classic british comedy", mind, but I notice Jeremy Beadle's back catalogue seems to have disappeared from TV screens since he died in 2008.

:-(

A former member 6 June 2011 11:09pm

full Beadle's About episode have been broadcast on challenge its been a while, must be going back at least 6-7 years, I do remember them being aired.

IS

Inspector Sands 7 June 2011 12:46am

itsrobert posted:

Inspector Sands posted:

This subject has been brought up many times before. The reason why most of these programmes don't see the light of day is because they aren't very good!

Yes and no. I agree that many sitcoms don't see the light of day because they are poor, but there are certainly some excellent comedies that have sadly long since been forgotten.

Of course, I never said that there was nothing worth repeating! However those programmes that are any good won't necessarily be watched!

BC

Blake Connolly Founding member 7 June 2011 10:21am

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring recently bought the rights to their great 1990s BBC Two series Fist of Fun so that it can be released on DVD later this year as the BBC have never repeated it and never expressed any interest in releasing it.

PE

Pete Founding member 7 June 2011 11:38am

Blake Connolly posted:

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring recently bought the rights to their great 1990s BBC Two series Fist of Fun so that it can be released on DVD later this year as the BBC have never repeated it and never expressed any interest in releasing it.

now if only the BBC had not lost the masters of TMWRNJ

VM

VMPhil 7 June 2011 4:41pm

Pete posted:

Blake Connolly posted:

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring recently bought the rights to their great 1990s BBC Two series Fist of Fun so that it can be released on DVD later this year as the BBC have never repeated it and never expressed any interest in releasing it.

now if only the BBC had not lost the masters of TMWRNJ

You're joking me right? Seriously?

FS

Flying Spot 7 June 2011 7:55pm

VirginMediaPhil posted:

You're joking me right? Seriously?

It's a myth. Everything resides safely in the BBC archives.

PE

Pete Founding member 7 June 2011 8:49pm

Flying Spot posted:

VirginMediaPhil posted:

You're joking me right? Seriously?

It's a myth. Everything resides safely in the BBC archives.

oh how fab. Because Stewart Lee himself seems under the impression otherwise: http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/whatisstewartlee/whatisstewartlee1999.htm

FS

Flying Spot 7 June 2011 9:13pm

Pete posted:

oh how fab. Because Stewart Lee himself seems under the impression otherwise: http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/whatisstewartlee/whatisstewartlee1999.htm

Yes, that's a quote from 1999 and although I can't remember the specifics, he was either misinformed or making a joke. Happily they all exist as Digibeta dubs from the original D3s.

VM

VMPhil 11 June 2011 11:02pm

On the subject of this topic, I wish they'd repeat US shows like The Golden Girls, Cheers and Seinfeld, which don't seem to be on any more.

As for UK shows, GOLD seems to have stopped showing As Time Goes By on weekdays, which is a shame. A nice gentle comedy to come home to.

(June 2011)