The 30 best British sitcoms to watch now: Our critics 精査する through the TV streaming 壇・綱領・公約s and choose which shows will keep you chuckling
Modern mums and dads, bored youngsters in a 田舎の village or ありそうもない flatmates in their twenties, there are plenty of quirky characters to get to know in classic TV sitcoms.
So our critics have selected some of the best of them to watch On 需要・要求する 権利 now - 精査するing through hundreds of 選択s to save you the bother.
Can't decide what to watch tonight?
Read on to find out which sitcoms will keep you laughing...
Derry Girls
Growing 苦痛s in Northern Ireland during the Troubles
Year: 2018-2022
証明書: 15
Fond, funny and foulmouthed, no 疑問 about it - Derry Girls is a 勝利者.?
始める,決める in 1990s Northern Ireland and based on writer Lisa McGee's schooldays, Derry Girls is a comedy about growing up during the Troubles. Not that it's at all political. Life in a warzone is seen as inconvenient to our ヘロインs, what with 兵士s 搭乗 school buses a nd 爆弾 脅しs 干渉するing with their lives.?
But such problems are seemingly dwarfed when compared to the diktat 課すd on them by terrifying headmistress Sister Michael (Siobh?n McSweeney). (Three series)
Blackadder
Farcical romp through British history with Rowan Atkinson's しっかり掴むing villain
Year: 1983-1989
証明書: 15
From the Middle Ages to the First World War, Edmund Blackadder 炎d a weasley, conniving 追跡する through British history over four series and a handful of specials.?
Written by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis (of Four Weddings fame), it starred Atkinson as Blackadder, a しっかり掴むing fiend whom we would 完全に despise were it not for his constant rotten luck.
Always on the wrong 味方する of history, the first series finds Edmund as the 偶発の 暗殺者 of the king, his uncle Richard (Peter Cook). Atkinson's 業績/成果 is more tongue-flicking snake than man - he's a 'horrid little scabby reptile' who truly earns his 指名する - and the raw 辛勝する/優位s to series one remind us just how 嫌悪すべき Edmund is.
It's in the later series where the show really finds its groove, developing the despicable bromance between Blackadder and his worm of a sidekick Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and featuring a stellar cast of standout guest 星/主役にするs. ?Miranda Richardson's foot-stomping Queenie steals series II, Hugh Laurie's hopeless Prince Regent preens his way through Blackadder The Third and there's a blistering return for Rik Mayall's Lord Flashheart in the more poignant final series, Blackadder Goes 前へ/外へ, 始める,決める in the ざん壕s of Flanders. ?(4 series)
Ghosts
Heartwarming sitcom 始める,決める in a haunted house
Year: 2019-2023
証明書: 12
Created by the team behind the 攻撃する,衝突する children's show Horrible Histories, Ghosts is the laugh-out-loud story of what you might call the houseshare from hell - where the spooks stuck together in a 崩壊するing old stately home, who all died on the 前提s, have been there for centuries with no way out.?
There's a headless ghost, a poet ghost, a bitter old grand dame spectre, a 1980s 青年 leader killed with a 屈服する and arrow, a 兵士 who likes everything to be a 戦う/戦い, a grunting caveman and a Tory MP who died with no trousers on, and they are played by the show's creators Mathew Baynton, Jim Howick, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Ben Willbond and Laurence Rickard. Charlotte Ritchie is the new owner of the house who, after a bump to the 長,率いる, can see and hear the spirits all around her.?
Silliness is an undervalued virtue in comedy, but that what's makes Ghosts so 広大な/多数の/重要な. It's perfect 見解(をとる)ing for the whole family, young and old. (Five series)
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Mandy
Diane Morgan's comedy 創造 has hapless adventures in the 職業 market
Year: 2019-
証明書: 12
You may know her as Philomena Cunk, the moronic presenter of 完全に 不確かの history and culture 文書のs, or as 大混乱/混沌とした 選び出す/独身 mum Liz in Motherland, but Diane Morgan's oddest 創造 is all her own. 絶えず chewing her lip to grotesque degrees, Mandy is the backcombed ヘロイン of these bitesize episodes who spends her time trying and failing to get gainful 雇用.?
Over three series, she has not learnt a 選び出す/独身 lesson about how to get on in the world. She's tried working in a 白人指導者べったりの東洋人-過程ing 倉庫/問屋, 薄焼きパン/素焼陶器 factory, in a supermarket and a stately home and there are always surreal and outrageous 大災害s, and the 半端物 fatality. Series three appears to have had a bit more 予算 to play with, enabling some fun special 影響s when Mandy has 脚-lengthening 外科 to become an 航空機による hostess. Whether she's 飛行機で行くing high or low, Mandy always 選ぶs herself up and starts again. (Three series)
Motherland
Painfully funny sitcom about the madness of modern parenting
Year: 2016-2021
証明書: 15
Anna Maxwell ツバメ, Paul Ready, Diane Morgan and Lucy Punch lead the cast of this painfully funny comedy 始める,決める in the 競争の激しい world of parenting.?
Mums and dads at home will recognise only too 井戸/弁護士席 how brilliantly it 逮捕(する)s the joy and 苦痛 of 存在 a modern parent.?
The 裁判,公判s of parenting were almost too dark to watch in series one but series two is much easier, partly because Julia (Maxwell ツバメ) isn't so 強調する/ストレスd all the time and partly because of new arrival Meg (Tanya Moodie), who brings lots of fun to the party. The third series is probably the best so it (機の)カム as a surprise when it was 発表するd that it would be the last - but it can only be a 事柄 of time before somebody else 選ぶs it up. (Three series)
This Country
Award-winning mockumentary-style sitcom about bored youngsters in a 田舎の village
Year: 2017-2020
証明書: 15
This BAFTA-winning mockumentary sitcom gives 発言する/表明する to a part of the country that we rarely see or hear. Stuck in an 孤立するd 田舎の village, cousins Kerry and Kurtan don' t have much to do or much money to do anything with. It's a show that comes from the heart - its creators and 星/主役にするs Charlie and Daisy May Cooper, who are brother and sister in real life, felt 類似して 罠にかける and 欠如(する)ing in direction while living in their parents' home in Cirencester, which is when they started 令状ing the show.?
It's funny and absurd, but also rather touching. Daisy May has gone on to 広大な/多数の/重要な things, starring in US sci-fi comedy Avenue 5 and BBC1 sitcom Am I 存在 不当な? which she co-created. (Three series, 加える a one-off finale special)
驚くべき/特命の/臨時の
Comedy about the world's only person without a 超大国
Year: 2023
証明書: 18
Imagine a world in which every adult has a 超大国 except you. That's the position that sarcastic 25-year-old Jen (Mairead Tyers) finds herself in Disney's fantastical British series. From shapeshifting to flight, from 最高の strength to the ability to make anyone tell the truth, everybody else in the world got a special gift when they turned 18, but Jen is still waiting for hers to arrive.?
Can she kick-start the 過程 with the help of her weirdo flatmates? Or is she doomed to be the ordinary one in the world of the 驚くべき/特命の/臨時の? The show has some 広大な/多数の/重要な turns of phrase and some of the riotous spirit of Misfits (利用できる to stream on Channel 4), and it 後継するs because it's more about the characters' lives and loves than it is about their 力/強力にするs - many of which are played for laughs. (Two series)
Peep Show
半端物 couple flatmates Mitchell and Webb look for love
Year: 2003-2015
証明書: 18
If you like your comedy heroes to be 壊滅的な 失敗s in life then this is the show for you.?
Robert Webb and David Mitchell are 30-somehing flatmates Jeremy and 損なう, who are bad at everything, 含むing 存在 each other's friends.?
It takes a misanthropic 見解(をとる) of the world t hrough 示す and Jeremy's 注目する,もくろむs, but there's a 肉親,親類d of weird alchemy at work that, over its seven-series run, you 結局最後にはーなる empathising with them.?
Their さまざまな 試みる/企てるs at romance, for example, 範囲 from embarrassing to downright icky, but that doesn't mean you don't want them to find the one - even though you would not dream of matching them with anyone you knew.?
Big Suze, the 'mental posho' love 利益/興味 of Robert Webb's Jeremy in series 3-7 was played by Sophie Winkleman, while Olivia Colman has the 仕事 of 存在 示す's long-苦しむing girlfriend. Winkleman joined the 王室の Family upon her marriage to Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince Michael of Kent, and Colman went on to Oscar glory. There's some poetic 司法(官) there. (Nine series)
Dad's Army
Hilarious Home Guard antics in かもしれない the greatest sitcom of all time
Year: 1968-1977
証明書: pg
Ten series and three Christmas specials are 利用できる of arguably the greatest sitcom of all time. Hard to believe that the show attracted 批評 when it ?開始する,打ち上げるd on BBC1 in 1 968, on the grounds that it mocked the real-life Home Guard, those 勇敢な fellows who had volunteered to defend our island in the 直面する of an 差し迫った Nazi 侵略.?
Over nine years, characters such as Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe), Sergeant Wilson (John Le Mesurier) and Corporal Jones (Clive Dunn) became part of the 国家の conversation, their catchphrases still used to this day. Tune in to see Jones shouting, 'Don't panic, don't panic!' while having a 炉心溶融; marvel at the calmness of Wilson as he looks Mainwaring 堅固に in the 直面する and says, 'Do you really think that's wise, Sir?' and chuckle again as the captain calls Pike, 'You stupid boy.'?
Superbly cast, superbly written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry - a true comedy classic. Look out for the lost episodes that were re-created by the GOLD channel on Sky and Now, too, both in live 活動/戦闘 and animated form. (Ten series, 加える three Christmas specials)
Fresh Meat
会合,会う the mismatched students 株ing a house in 攻撃する,衝突する Ch4 comedy 演劇
Year: 2011-2016
証明書: 15
足緒 Armstrong, the creator of Succession, co-wrote this comedy with his Peep Show 協力者 Sam Bain. 始める,決める inside a student house, it probably has more in ありふれた with Peep Show than Succession, but you can still see seeds here that would grow into the Mephistophelean monstrosity that is the most 最近の show, the satirical dramedy about a family-run マスコミ empire.?
Awkwardness abounds, with punches and 非難するs of the wildly 予期しない 配達するd through sharp 対話 同様に as physical humour. Jack Whitehall's character JP and Joe Thomas's Kingsley 申し込む/申し出 fractious ?banter 類似の to that between Tom and Greg (Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun) in Succession.?
加える it all plays out in a 肉親,親類d of 進化 of The Young Ones house - it's got more mod 反対/詐欺s and most of its 塀で囲むs are 損なわれていない - but is 類似して 居住させるd by a supremely mismatched bunch of students, 株ing a house by virtue of an 申し込む/申し出 経由で UCAS and that alone. (Four series)
The Inbetweeners
近づく-the-knuckle schoolboy comedy that became a 粉砕する 攻撃する,衝突する
Year: 2008-2010
証明書: 18
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This was E4's first sitcom (売買)手数料,委託(する)/委員会/権限 way 支援する in 2008 and went on to become something of a TV 現象, running for three seasons and spawning two hugely successful films. Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Blake Harrison and James Buckley are best friends Will, Simon, Neil and Jay, and the comedy follows the antics of this misfit bunch during their final years of school.?
Never before has a comedy so perfectly 逮捕(する)d the teenage experience, that messiest of times in a boy's life when all they can think about is getting a girl and getting served in the pub. There are some outrageous, downright 不快な/攻撃 scenes ?- Simon's 悪名高い fashion catwalk will have you spluttering out your tea - and the language is filthy, so this is not for the 極度の慎重さを要する テレビ視聴者. But if you want some laugh-out-loud comedy, give this a go. (Three series)
絶対 Fabulous
The best bits from Jennifer Saunders' classic sitcom
Year: 1992-2012
証明書: 15
Creator Jennife r Saunders introduces three episodes of the truly scrumptious sitcom, each 充てるd to characters who 回転するd around her own, public relations 専門家 Eddie 季節風.?
The first features the best bits of Eddie's 広大な/多数の/重要な friend Patsy, the chain-smoking, cocktail-drinking former model and actress played by the incomparable Joanna Lumley. Later episodes 焦点(を合わせる) on Eddie's mother, played by June Whitfield, and studious daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha). 捜し出すing anonymity, Jennifer dons a ridiculous 黒人/ボイコット wig to make the introductions, and at one point during the lead-in to the Patsy episode, starts talking 理解できない French.?
Funny but maybe not やめる as hilarious as what follows, a 一連の clips from episodes taken from shows that delighted audiences in the 1990s and 2000s. Curious that there's no episode celebrating the life and times of Jennifer's own character or one 充てるd to Eddie's 平等に off-the-塀で囲む assistant 泡 (Jane Horrocks). Maybe in time... (One series)
Fleabag
Award-winning comedy about a feisty young woman's 大混乱/混沌とした life
Year: 2016-2019
証明書: 18
会合,会う the angry, feisty, 大混乱/混沌とした young woman we know only as Fleabag, whose best friend is dead, whose life's a mess and whose behaviour is often 不適切な and self-destructive.?
That doesn't sound like a recipe for an award-winning comedy, but writer and 星/主役にする Phoebe Waller-橋(渡しをする) somehow made us all 落ちる in love with her character. She's joined by Hugh Skinner as Fleabag's on-off, mostly-off boyfriend Harry. Her 高度に strung, high-達成するing sister Claire is played by Sian Clifford (Life After Life, The 嫌疑者,容疑者/疑う), and Oscar-勝利者 Olivia Colman is her godmother turned stepmother who's married to her dad (Auf Wiedersehen, Pet's 法案 Paterson). And not forgetting Andrew Scott, the Hot Priest who got everyone's hopes up - would Fleabag get a happy ending??
If you're unafraid of warts-and-all-women who make mistakes, take 危険s, have sex and smoke and drink too much, but are 最終的に trying their best to get through bad times, this is the show for you. There's a frankness to Fleabag that is bold, scary and 完全に refreshing. (Two series)
The IT (人が)群がる
Computer says... yes! The classic comedy with Richard Ayoade
Year: 2006-2013
証明書: 15
'Have you tried turning it off and again?' Every sitcom needs a catchphrase and, as anyone with a computer knows, this one (犯罪の)一味s truer than most.?
Languishing in the 地階 of Reynholm 産業s, Chris O'Dowd and Richard Ayoade as Roy and Moss are the team who know everything about tech but nothing about life and, with the 新規加入 of Katherine Parkinson as Jen, their newly 促進するd luddite boss, the scene is 始める,決める for a 衝突/不一致 of cultures, knowledge, 力/強力にする, and, 井戸/弁護士席, just about everything.?
It 前向きに/確かに revels in its ignorance and absurdity, from the idea that the internet is 含む/封じ込めるd within a 選び出す/独身 box to the episode when Aunt Irma visited.?
Always engaging and hilarious, the IT trio have wild and mostly humiliating adventures, 特に when they leave the office, and Chris Morris (later 取って代わるd by Matt Berry) is the big boss who's definitely not to be 信用d with a computer, a company, or a 年金 基金. (Four series)
Not Going Out
A long-running sitcom that has grown up with its audience
Year: 2006-
証明書: 15
This sitcom has history - it's 発展させるd over the years in much the same way as its lead character 物陰/風下, played by 物陰/風下 Mack, has grown older, though not やむを得ず any wiser.?
It's a sitcom of two 時代s - the London Docklands 早期に years, with a guest cast that 含むd Tim Vine, Katy Wix and Miranda Hart, ended with 物陰/風下 settling 負かす/撃墜する and getting married to Lucy (Beyond 楽園's Sally Bretton).?
Then, in series eight, which as if by 魔法 jumped 今後 eight years, 物陰/風下 and Lucy had gone from 存在 gooey-注目する,もくろむd newlyweds to harried parents of three children living in the 郊外s.?
The longest-running sitcom still on 空気/公表する (series 13 will be coming later in 2023), it has certainly become more 従来の with the switch to suburbia, but 物陰/風下's character is still 傾向がある to silly 捨てるs and plentiful 誤解s with family, friends and, 井戸/弁護士席, anyone.?
There's nothing 特に fancy or 破壊分子 going on here, but the 終始一貫して high gag 率 and absence of shocks and surprises makes for pleasingly retro 見解(をとる)ing. (12 series)
大災害
Sharon Horgan and 略奪する Delaney 星/主役にする in this caustic TV pregnancy romcom
Year: 2015-2019
証明書: 15
略奪する Delaney and Sharon Horgan 星/主役にする as an American man and an Irish woman thrown together messily in London in a comedy of 'clumsy lust, instant pregnancy and 本物の 災害' that is definitely not for the easily 感情を害する/違反するd. It was also a 抱擁する 攻撃する,衝突する for Ch4, though, and that's partly because the 関係 of 略奪する and Sharon (Delaney and Horgan) is 現在のd in such an 異常に frank fashion by its two 星/主役にするs, whose 支配(する)/統制する over the show was much greater than most actors - not only did they create 大災害, they also wrote all 24 episodes. ?
Look out for Carrie Fisher as 略奪する's mother in the first three series - this was the last TV 役割 she filmed before her death, in 2016 - and be 用意が出来ている for some dark but honest turns in the story as the fourth series arrives. 大災害 hasn't been 利用できる on 需要・要求する for a while, so the 新規加入 to Netflix is a welcome 開発. (Four series)?
Dreaming Whilst 黒人/ボイコット
Jamaican film-製造者 dreams of making it big in a 堅い 商売/仕事
Year: 2023
証明書: 15
Kwabena is a struggling film-製造者 from a Jamaican family. Trying to break into a 堅い 商売/仕事, he has to swim with sharks, and most of those sharks are white. We follow him as he tries to get a film made, gives up his 職業, struggles to 支払う/賃金 the rent, tries to date while skint and fields casual 人種差別主義. He doesn't get an 平易な ride, and often escapes into a fantasy world where he can be more of a 勝利者 in life, but no 事柄 what gets thrown at him Kwabena remains a hugely likeable presence in this expertly balanced comedy 演劇.
星/主役にする Adjani Salmon, who created the popular web series this is based on, is one to watch. You might have seen him already in Steve Coogan sitcom Chivalry, and the New Year 2022 episode of Doctor Who, and this show should be the BAFTA-勝利者's ticket to ride. (Six episodes)
G'結婚する
深く,強烈に cheeky sitcom に引き続いて Scouse 十代の少年少女s
Year: 2024
証明書: 15
The 肩書を与える is Scouse slang for 'go ahead' and is used liberally in this rather rude and explicit Liverpool-始める,決める comedy that follows a bunch of working-class 十代の少年少女s. The standout is cheeky scallywag Reece - a bold and unabashed debut for Dylan Thomas Smith (who can also be seen in 近づいている Ch4 mystery The 集会).
Reece is all mouth and 絶えず in trouble. He's on the 瀬戸際 of 追放 when we first 会合,会う him, but underneath all the 提起する/ポーズをとるing and joking he has a good heart. 'I know I can't do 広大な/多数の/重要な things, but I can do small things,' he says as he latches on to the posh new boy Christopher, who has recently lost his mum.
Filmed in Liverpool, the show's cast is 排他的に 地元の, with young rising 星/主役にするs appearing と一緒に 設立するd 指名するs 含むing Ackley 橋(渡しをする)'s Sunetra Sarker, Brookside's Louis Emerick and 冷淡な Feet's Leanne Best as Reece's dauntless mum Jo. (Six episodes)?