Yus, My Dear (1976) London Weekend Sitcom

I think we're forgetting that commercial TV companies are out to make money from their audience for their shareholders. If 'down market' generates that, then that's where they'll always head.

There is no point saying "we went broke, but at least we have the smug satisfaction that while doing so we offered 'high brow programmes' that few people wanted to see. Damn those pesky viewers!"

Thames and Yorkshire seemed to achieve a reasonable balance in the main.

Besides, just because they're commercial doesn't mean they're immune from criticism.

It's not as if I'm saying everything LWT was junk - just the alleged sitcoms.

There were upmarket sitcoms from ITV.
A Fine Romance, Fresh Fields, Executive Stress,

I think this is a confused message.

Not at all. There's this little thing called meeting quality quotas in order to keep your licence, inherent in any PSB contract.

Beyond that - and sitcoms were very much beyond that - producing badly written, badly produced and badly acted, unfunny crap wasn't something the IBA tended to get involved with.

That should be set alight just for the theme tune alone.

Do you realise how rude you come across?

Do you think I care what you think?

*clutches handbag*

You might not but I do. Watch the attitude.

ITV sitcoms have in my view always paled into almost insignificance when compared to the BBC. As far as I can recall the last ITV sitcom to top the charts was Duty Free and that was at least 35 years ago.

I wouldn’t say that ITV sitcoms were crap per se I referred to Shelley as one example of this but it’s seems as if the received wisdom is that the BBC was the home of the best sitcoms and on the surface that seems to be correct but under the surface things are different.

Comedies such as Executive Stress certainly aren’t badly acted. Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles are fine actors. It’s just that they appeal to a different demographic.

LWT has as case if it’s own. Here is a station that effectively had to go through a “forced regeneration” to survive. When the station launched in 1968 it was as a highbrow alternative to BBC 1.

But audiences as a whole in my opinion don’t want highbrow at the weekends. They want undemanding lightweight entertainment and LWT version 1 wasn’t that. Yes it had comedy such as “We Have Ways Of Making You Laugh but it also had opera whereas BBC 1 had jukebox jury and Dr Who.

It’s that kind of track record coupled with the notion that the BBC was the home of comedy that has given ITV comedy a bad rap.

But I agree that The Bottle Boys was awful!