Nobody has mentioned Green Wing.

Odd that, it was just about the funniest thing on television during its brief run.

Moggy

I never saw it for some reason

[QUOTE=Dave Homewood;1756049]

Roy Clarke wrote some real gems, early Last of the Summer Wine (before it became the elephants graveyard for old English actors) was superb. Cleggy is one of my all time favourite people in the world. First of the Summer Wine was even better in my opinion. I have a recording of the first thing he ever wrote that was made, a great radio show called The Events At Black Tor. In the cast was Jimmy Beck from Dad’s Army as a hard core Yorkshire police Sgt. It is a murder mystery set in rural Yorkshire in the late 1960’s, when it was made. A bit like Heartbeat but much more cutting edge, with murders and supernatural happenings. It’s simply brilliant. I was told the BBC no longer have the show in their archives, but have a later remake from the 1970’s. My recording is perfect so I offered them a copy and heard nothing back (not the first time, I have tried to offer them lots of lost radio material and no-one has ever responded – yet when I found the two lost It Ain’t Half Hot Mum episodes and returned them via David Croft, they released them on DVD, without any acknowledgement or thanks of any sort to me at all for finding them or to the guy who had recorded and saved them! Flipping gits. David and Jimmy were over the moon however and that counts for a lot more to me. I also rediscovered the lost US version of Dad’s Army which also made them very happy.)

Firstly a big thank you to yourself and the person who recorded the “Lost” episodes of “It ain’t half hot mum” as without them the DVD collection would be a lot weaker and series one just would not work without them.
I have also wondered what contractual edits were made to the series, any ideas?.
Talking of edited series, I made the huge mistake of passing my Videos of “Only fools and horses” to the charity shop only to find the dvds are badly edited with so much missing. Now I can not get the originals boo hoo.

As to James Beck , Private Walker was my favourite character in “Dads Army” and I never really got into the show so much after he passed away, although it was still a fine fine show.

I totally agree Dave with David Renwick, Galton and Simpson and Roy Clarke all wrote some classic comedy shows.
I also never liked “Waiting for God” or “Keeping up appearances” , However I do like “Vicar of Dibley” although I do not rate it as a classic.

I never understood the appeal of
The Office
Extras
Absolutely Fabulous

to name a few, But I think thats what makes comedy what it is. One persns classic is anothers nightmare.

I agree that some of the above are good comedies but many of these started over 10 years ago so are not modern.

I love the late John Sullivans “Only Fools and Horses” but that started in 1981 and ended in 2003, Allo Allo was also great but from the 90s so not modern either.

Of the new comedies out I do like “Not going out” “Outnumbered”, “Max and Paddy” and some of “Gavin and Stacey”. All of which take something from the older comedies and even then none of them are really in the same league as the classics in my opinion.

I can fully understand why the works of Croft/Perry and Lloyd would be studied as personally I feel not only are they observations from real experiences they also hold a lot from the era they were written/recorded. A big cast also allows for people to come and go and for stories to be expanded etc, Pure quality.

For me John Sullivan, Croft/Perry and Lloyd and Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are the benchmarks of great comedy writing and all created timeless shows and characters.

Its great to see how many peope appreciate the old comedies these days.
I am a huge fan of comedy and collect the comedies from the 60s/70s onwards, although most of my interest runs out before the year 2000 since then I have found very little that inspires me to watch it.

For me the genius of “Dads Army” and other David Croft/ Jimmy Perry or David Croft/ Jeremy Lloyd shows was to use such a big cast and have so many characters to follow, I think this is part of why these shows still feel fresh to watch now.

I agree they can upset the PC brigade, and I admit wincing a few times watching “It ain’t half hot mum”, But these shows still stand the test of time and the skill of the writing still shines through.

Also the box sets are really cheap at around £30-£40 so where can you go wrong 😀

I totally agrre with what Blue2 says, I have several series of 60s to late 80s on DVD and quality is overall not bad. A blueray player will not improve on original quality though.

Although I think the hat was absolutely awful and tasteless, she did manage to get herself noticed as a result and everybody will remember it for years to come.

Not a bad result for such an insignificant royal!

I am fairly certain she wore it so she could attract attention, Much as her Mum appeared on US TV to do the same. It would of suited ladies day at Ascot or Epsom maybe, But never at a wedding. However in years to come people will remember Kate and Will and of course Pippa the rest who were there are and always will be insignifcant compared. The hat is just a little footnote on a big day really.

If this hat makes money for charity thats great and should be applauded.

Just wondering if it could be reworked to pick up satelite television or airband :D.