LISTS… My Three Favourite Family Television Comedy Shows

#1980s #1990s #2000s #2010s #2020s #AllPosts

British Comedy runs within these three TV families…

The last of my Wandering Through the Shelves for March 2022 posts have three of my favourites.

The Latimers in Don’t Wait Up

The Trotters in Only Fools and Horses

This is the next of my 2022 posts for this weekly entertainment-themed challenge from Wandering Through the Shelves. For my second and my final post for March, the challenge was to pick three of my favourite family comedy TV Shows.

I’m defining this task as reviewing three British comedy shows about families, rather than family-friendly shows. But these three comedies could easily fit into both categories. And by coincidence, these sitcoms are also all set in London… and all have links with the British long-running soap, EastEnders (1985-)…

Anyway, more about Wandering Through the Shelves’ 2022 blogging challenge is found HERE… This page also includes the blogger’s remaining challenges for this year, if you are now wanting to join this weekly collaboration.

…. Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them.

All my weekly contributions for 2022 are found HERE… and my and others’ contributions for this particular topic are HERE. Please note I will be adding the latter’s links to this collab as I get them…

The three TV Shows I’ve selected to illustrate this topic are three British TV Comedy Shows. These are listed as Don’t Wait Up (1983–1990), Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003) and Friday Night Dinner (2011-2020).

Don’t Wait Up (1983–1990)…

Don’t Wait Up, ratpackmanreturns

Cue the two men’s clash in family and medical affairs. Tom often has trouble with his ex-wife (Jane Howe.. later seen as Dirty Den’s other woman, Jan in EastEnders). She has the upper hand in their relationship, as she lives in their former marital home, and charges him rent for his medical practice.

Don’t Wait Up ran for six seasons and had episode titles including Father Moves In, Family Matters and House Hunting. It was written by actor and comic writer George Layton who starred in some early episodes of another British comedy series, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (1974–1981).

You will recognise this sterling cast from other British gems such as Dinah Sheridan in the film Genevieve (1953), Tony Britton in Never the Twain (1981–1991) and Nigel Havers in an episode of Thriller (1973-76). Other cast members to look out for included Simon Williams and Julie T Wallace.

Wikipedia adds a fun behind the scenes story about this cast. This event was recounted by the producer, Harold Snoad in a quote from his book about the British comedy show Keeping Up Appearances (1990-95). He sets the scene by saying this occurred as he was dining with actress Patricia Routledge…

‘Tony Britton – who, by his own admission, did not always arrive at rehearsals dead on time – stopped and knelt down in front of me and asked whether I would be kind enough to allow him another forty-eight hours to complete the five hundred lines I had given him for being late the previous morning! Tony moved on and was replaced by Nigel Havers and Dinah Sheridan who begged forgiveness for chatting during rehearsals. Simon Williams apologised for mucking up one of his lines that morning. One by one the whole cast generally ‘bowed and scraped As the last member moved on Patricia turned to me and said, ‘They obviously adore you’…

Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003)…

Only Fools and Horses MAIN Theme, JEN DALESTONE

To coin that phrase – yet again – it would be wrong not to mention this long-running comedy series telling of the comic escapades of the Peckham based Trotter family. This series was one of my dad’s all-time comedy favourites.

It tells about the Trotter brothers, Del (David Jason) and his long-suffering wee brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and their grandfather (Lennard Pearce). Their grandfather was replaced in series four by their Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield). In time the Trotter boys had long term girlfriends… who became their wives.

The Trotter boys live together with this elderly relative in a council flat for much of the series, until they get married off. Rodney is a simple soul who is often inveigled into his brother’s get-rich schemes as Del has a six series long dream to be a millionaire by the following year.

The episodes to look out for include when Rodney and Del dress up as Batman and Robin, and then they have to save a damsel in distress. it’s a treat to watch them dressed as superheroes as they run in slow motion from their Robin Reliant three-wheeled car.

One of my favourite episodes has the storyline where Rodney pretends to be Del’s son for a free family holiday abroad. Rodney then wins millions in this country’s National lottery and is then “too young” to claim his prize.

Wikipedia adds that the comic script added phrases and words to British culture including plonker (idiot) and cushty (meaning good). This show also led to a spin-off with two of the recurring characters, Boycie and Marlene (John Challis and Sue Holderness) named The Green Green Grass (2005-09) and the show’s prequel Rock & Chips (2010) with The Inbetweeners (2008-10), James Buckley as a young Del.

You’ll recognise David Jason’s voice as the voice in the 1980s kids’ cartoon, Danger Mouse (1981-92) and Nicholas Lyndhurst from the Carla Lane comedy Butterflies (1978-83). And look out for appearances from Joan Sims from those Carry On film comedies, Jim Broadbent (from Little Voice (1998)) and John Bardon who starred in EastEnders.

Friday Night Dinner (2011-2020)…

Friday Night Dinner Opening Titles (2011- Present), Upload TV

This British comedy series starred Tamsin Greig, the late Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, and Mark Heap. It tells of an eccentric, middle class, British – and Jewish – family, the Goodman family. The Goodman parents, Jackie and Martin meet up with their two sons, Adam (Bird) and Jonny (Rosenthal) every Friday for dinner, cue impending disaster. Mark Heap takes the role of their strange neighbour, Jim who has a bit of an ongoing crush on Jackie.

This show ran for six seasons, and the show concluded after this and Ritter’s recent passing. It also has some cast to look out for, including a one time, EastEnders star – and another of Dirty Den’s on-screen love interests his on-screen wife – Tracy-Ann Oberman. Interestingly this show was remade for an American audience in 2011 starring Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub in those parental roles, but it was a failed pilot.

This series is full of familiar comedy moments that will strike a chord with families everywhere, particularly those with two sons who often prank each other. The show was created and written by Robert Popper and was based on his own family and experiences. You will recognise the cast with Greig from Doctor Who (1963-), Ritter from Wolf Hall (2014) and Mark Heap from Stardust (2007). Bird starred as Will in The Inbetweeners (2008-10) and Rosenthal can be spotted in Bridget Jones Baby (2016).

Finally, more recommendations for this topic of family comedies include all those Carla Lane written comedies such as Bless This House (1971–1976) and Bread (1986–1991). And if you are now in the mood for other British sitcoms then I’d add The Likely Lads (1964–1966) and Come Fly With Me (2010) to this list of lovelies.

Or if you would like something completely different, check out all my weekly contributions for this collaboration for 2022 which are all found HERE… and do click on those links as I don’t want to just keep it in the family about those great British sitcoms and more…