The 50 Best Sitcoms Ever - Part Three (30 - 21)

 

Welcome, weary traveller. You join me in part three of my run down of the best 50 sitcoms - ever! I know, it's exciting isn't it? 

Who'd have thought that the best way to work it out was for me and the wife to settle down in a hotel bar, drink a load of wine and then spend hours scribbling out each other's suggestions in a furious rage?

Part one is here, part two is here, and now, for your enjoyment and erudition, I present - part three!

30.

How I Met Your Mother      2005-2014   Disney

This is a curious show. On one hand, it's clearly massively successful. It got to... what, nine series? It has people in who are proper stars - Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor - these people are in films and everything. And on the surface it adheres quite closely to conventional tropes - beautiful people in will-they/won't they relationships.

And yet. It seems to sit slightly outside the world of mainstream sitcom. It's not as cosy and obvious as Friends or Big Bang Theory. It has a more interesting narrative style, playing with non-linear story structures as well as having postmodern fun with the conventions of the form. There's a more frank approach to sex and grown up relationships. And there's some properly dark humour in there too. 

A lot of that dark humour is intentional, Some, though, comes from unfortunate lapses of judgement on the creative side. For a show that's barely ten years old, there seem to be a lot of moments where you think, "Ah, you wouldn't get away with that now." There are some strong female characters in the main cast, but women in general don't generally fair so well. 

However. All round, this is a fun show with great performances, some properly clever jokes and a lot to say about romance. Just avoid the last series, which is garbage and almost invalidates the whole thing. 

29.

The Office (UK)       2001-2003.    iPlayer

Another big difference in opinion between me and the wife on this one. We're starting to see a clear difference, aren't we, between my opinions (wise, intelligent, well thought through) and hers (demented). I tend to like comedy that elicits a variety of responses, not all of them comfortable. She's much more of the opinion that a comedy should make you laugh, not stare at a cushion for ages afterwards questioning everything you thought you knew. 

Writing it down like that makes it sound like I'm the one who's got it wrong, but let's not think about that. Let's rejoice in one of the most influential and well written sitcoms ever. The Office is brilliant. Its characters are sharply written and perfectly cast, pulsing with internal life. The scripts are led by those characters with impeccable logic. And there's perfect use of the documentary format, with half the show's meaning coming from the side-eye glances to camera and the revealing cutaway interviews.

I guess it can be quite hard to watch people being so relentlessly miserable, and so I concede that I wouldn't want all my comedy like this. But there's a warmth at its heart that stops it becoming an exercise in cynicism, and I think that's why its appeal has endured.

28.

Detectorists       2014-2022    iPlayer, Netflix

Some shows blow you away the moment they walk through the door. In they swagger, full of cool ideas and laugh out loud moments, changing your life with their dazzling smile and strong grasp of interpersonal character dynamics.

Some, like Detectorists, sit quietly down without a fuss and just chat to you, gently and without obvious fireworks. You'll smile, sure, and you'll enjoy your time together. But you don't spend the next day spinning around in a cluster of cartoon hearts, telling everyone you've fallen in love. 

Then, one day, you're there, watching Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook wander across a field, sweeping for metal in the low, golden sun of a Summer evening. You fall into the comfortable, human rhythms of their conversation. And you realise... there's been a smile on your face for half an hour. You adore this world, and you want to stay here. 

You're in love. With two weird little blokes who haven't found what they are looking for, but carry on anyway. 

Watch this. It's delightful.

27.

Uncle        2012-2017.      iPlayer

One of those comedies that loads of people recommended to me, for ages, without success. Then, one day, I watched it, loved it and recommended it straight back to them. It is testament to their patience that they just went 'OK, thanks', rather than murdering me to death.

The titular uncle is Andy - a shambolic manchild who is suddenly called upon to look after his nephew, Errol. They instantly form a classic double act - Errol is as erudite and fey as Andy is slovenly and uncouth. Their interactions are a delight to watch and form the core of the experience.

Also great is that Andy is a musician, and so there are songs. These are sort-of part of the narrative, but often burst out into fourth-wall-breaking showstoppers and are as funny as anything else in the show. 

So, yeah. I recommend it. Unless you recommended it to me in the first place, in which case... I thought it was merely fine.

26.

Motherland        2017-2022    Netflix

This is a fantastic show and if you haven't seen it, you definitely need to get on it. It's about a bunch of mothers who hang out together while their kids are at school, failing in various ways to make sense of their lives. It's not so much about being a parent as it is about trying to work out who you are in the void between dropping the kids and school and picking them up again. 

Our players are mostly women, though we have one bloke in there: the hapless Kevin who is as excluded as the mothers from the world of Alpha Masculinity. That's the real joy of this show - it's written by women and fundamentally exists to explore women's lives through comedy, in the way that men's lives have been for decades. 

Looking at the scoring, I again find that Wifeface has scored this much lower than me. What's wrong with her? Doesn't she know that this is groundbreaking, emancipating stuff? It's literally made for her. I like it, because I'm unusually sensitive for a man. But surely she's, like, legally bound to enjoy it? Look - all the men in it are jerks! Don't women love that? 

Honestly. Emily Pankhurst must be wondering why she bothered.

25

Flight of the Conchords      2007-2009     Sky

If you like nerdy boys singing smart, offbeat, comedy pop songs, well have I got the show for you. Well, I have two - there's also The Mighty Boosh, from around the same time. But I'm less bothered about that. 

I like Conchords better for a couple of reasons. For a start, it seems less obviously designed to appeal to drunk students and spawn a bunch of catchphrases and memes. Boosh is funny, but it's primary intent very much appears to be 'how can I generate scenes that people will quote at one another until 3 in the morning?'.

Secondly, Conchords has better characters, better stories and better songs. The two main characters - Bret and Jemaine - feel like real people. Wide eyed romantics; children in a grown up world, using songs to make sense of the nonsense. And what songs. Both these guys would go on to bigger things, but I'm not sure they'll ever top the sentiments of "I'm not crying / I've been chopping onions / I'm making a lasagne / ...for one".

24.

Garth Merenghi's Darkplace     2004    Channel 4

Some comfort here for Mighty Boosh lovers, who might be feeling wounded by my cruel words above. Here's a show featuring a few of the key players, having some of that mad surreal fun I dismissed above. 

Darkplace is one of those lovely secrets that is an absolute delight to discover. It's like finding a room in your house you didn't know about, full of books and sweets and music from another dimension. It is unlike other shows, and burns with a beautiful, sweet brightness for six short episodes, and then it's gone. 

The conceit is brilliant. Our host - Garth Merenghi - shows us clips of a science fiction show he's meant to have made in the 1980s. That show is a glorious pastiche of  cheap mid 80s TV, with dodgy effects and dodgier acting. By itself that would be pretty funny, but the genius is in Merenghi's 'present day' commentary. He's a vain, deluded man who sees not a mad, cheap production, but a piece of neglected genius.

And he may be right. His show might have wobbly sets, cliched dialogue and plots a five years old would reject as 'insufficiently coherent'. But this is a keenly observed piece of work, shot through with observations about gender representation, the fragility of the artistic temperament and the glory of making something, against all the odds, for love.

23.

30 Rock       2006-2013      ITV X

As we made our list of great sitcoms, sitting in that hotel bar, I confidently put this forward as one of the best. This joyous cavalcade of jokes, this inventive, intelligent string of character moments and callbacks. I sat back and waited for Wifeface to say something like, "Yes, that is a good suggestion. Your ideas are as wise as your face is dignified." Something like that. 

Well, reader. She did not say that. She just pulled an expression which I've come to recognise as, "Yeah... that's fine, I guess. We'll include it, but only because I know you might cry if we don't." No applause. Nothing about my dignified face. Ridiculous. 

30 Rock isn't "fine" - it's amazing. It has an incredibly high gags-per-minute rate, darting between deft character comedy, fun wordplay, surreal cutaways and satirical observations on the production process of TV. It's quite meta, and it leans on style over substance for the most part. But it's consistently funny and thus, for me, one of the best comedies of recent years. 

Anyway. Here it languishes, in more-or-less middle place. I'm sorry, Tina Fey. I guess my wife just hates shows written and performed by women. I know, it's a daily burden, especially for a vulnerable feminist like me. 

22.

I'm Alan Partridge      1997-2002     Britbox, Sky

Another glaring disparity in voting, here, between me (correctly placing this near the very top) and the wife (insanely putting it at the bottom, like someone vomiting on the Mona Lisa). One thing we've definitely learned from this experiment is that she's not as keen as me regarding comedy that makes you bite into your own hand in embarrassment and horror. 

I'm a fan of Partridge in general, so this show kind of stands in for the whole 'Alan Partridge Cinematic Universe': shows like This Time, Mid-Morning Matters and Knowing Me, Knowing You (Aha!). This show is the closest of them to a fully functioning sitcom - the others are all presented as light entertainment shows of one kind or another. 

And I love this. Alan is a great comic creation, made up of tiny, beautiful details that position him in a perfect tension between 'enjoyably specific character in his own right' and 'avatar of all that is shameful about being a man'. Maybe that's why Wifeface isn't so bothered. She already experiences quite enough male fragility in a daily show called 'The husband who believes he is amazing but can't remember where the baking trays live no matter how many times he is told'.

Also this show features Sally Philips, who is as delightful as she is talented. If she was my wife, I bet this would have come higher up. In fact, I bet we'd agree on loads of things. When I suggested this to my actual wife, she felt so threatened that she had to cover her mouth to stop herself weeping with sadness.

21.

Cheers          1982-1993        Paramount

Ah, we're back on safe ground. Here's a show that even me and Wifeface agree on. Cheers is great, and the only people who don't think so are terrorists. You've seen it, right? Load of people in a bar? Everybody knows your name? That's the one.

We started a big rewatch of Cheers a few years ago. It holds up amazingly well, for something that's about four decades old. It's consistently funny, with characters so well written that you quickly feel like you've known them for years. The dialogue bounces along, smart and funny, with a comic rhythm that rarely lets up. When it does, it's to allow a little time for the characters to breathe: little moments of pathos and reflection that make each person a little more real. 

Cheers is like the basic textbook for sitcom, and it informed everything that came after. Why isn't it higher up on our list? Well, I guess neither the wife nor I like the way it promotes alcohol as a lifestyle choice.

Ha. Just kidding. We love drinking, and had to keep pausing our conversation about this list so we could order more wine and crisps. No, the reason is... well I think that Cheers is sort of solid and reliable. It does one thing, extremely well. And it turns out that maintaining excellence over a period of eleven years isn't enough for the exacting standards of me and Wifeface. We're like capricious Roman emperors, the tastes of whom no man can predict. 

So... if Cheers didn't crack the top 20, what on earth did? The answers will definitely annoy you. Find out, here:

Numbers 50 - 41

Numbers 40 - 31

Numbers 20 - 11

Numbers 10 - 1

Also rans

The 50 Best Sitcoms Ever - Part Two (40 - 31)

 

Evening all! 

Many have attempted to compile a definitive list of the best sitcoms of all time. But have they ever done it in a hotel bar, with their wife, based on nothing but vague recollections of things they've seen?

No. They have not. But thank goodness, here I come to redress the balance. What follows is the result of much scribbling on notepads, disagreement and compromise and I think you'll agree, it's devastatingly inaccurate. 

Numbers 50-41 are here, should you be so excited as to pursue them. But now, for your horrified disbelief, are numbers 40 to 31. 

40. 

Toast of London          2012-2020.   Now

This is an odd inclusion, really. In many ways it's not a great sitcom. It's wilfully daft and doesn't do any character work, as such. Nothing wrong with that - it's just not really my preferred mode of sitcom. 

I think its inclusion is testament to the power of Matt Berry's fizzing firecracker of a performance, which makes him impossible not to enjoy. He's a modern day Tom Baker by way of Brian Blessed, exploding through each episode in a Catherine wheel of exciting, flamboyant dialogue.

Massive respect here to Wifeface, for including this even though she knows that the mere thought of it will have me strutting up and down doing bad impressions for the rest of the day. Steady on Toast!

39. 

Friday Night Dinner        2011-2020.     Netflix, Channel 4

A fairly traditional sitcom, the like of which you don't get that often these days. A repetitive premise, with a bunch of mismatched characters forced together in a specific environment; catchphrases and broad slapstick rubbing along together as if it was the early 90s again. This is textbook stuff.

It rises above the herd due to some sharply observed character work and a strong cast. Paul Ritter, in particular, gives us one of the all time great comedy characters and there's a fun turn from Mark Heap as weird neighbour Jim. 

Quotable and easy to watch... this doesn't break any moulds, but its gently enjoyable.

38. 

Modern Family        2009-2020.    Disney, Channel 4

This feels surprisingly low down, doesn't it? A clever, heartwarming show that was genuinely progressive in its attitudes. OK, it was pretty white, but it did a decent job with gender and sexuality. Plus the cast was, for the most part, perfect - delivering even the weaker scripts with emotional dexterity and physical nuance.  

I rated it higher than Wifeface did. She thought it got too repetitive in later seasons, which is fair enough. Though apparently if you say this about Friends you are stupid and wrong and never load the dishwasher properly. 

37. 

Home         2019-2020.    Channel 4

A lovely little tale of an asylum seeker who smuggles himself into the lives of a middle class family and slowly wins them over. A sort of ultra-woke retelling of 'Love Thy Neighbour'. What's 'Love Thy Neighbour'? Well it's a sort of 1970s racist version of 'Home'. 

This didn't get to a third series, which is a massive shame as it was clearly set up for one. We watched as Sami - our asylum seeker - struggled with systems that set him up to fail, while trying to rub along with his adopted family. It was a show that felt important, in giving a voice to the refugee experience, while never forgetting that it was a character comedy. 

36. 

Feel Good          2020-2021.    Netflix

A lot of the comedies on this list tread a fine line between 'funny' and 'incredibly bleak, what were you thinking calling this a comedy, never recommend anything to me again.' Feel Good is perhaps the ultimate example of that. The title is a trick to lure you in, and let me tell you this - 'good' is not the only thing you'll be feeling. No.

It's a trend in sitcom, in recent years, to use the form to explore some pretty heavy stuff. In this case we're talking about mental health issues, gender identity and toxic relationships. Sounds fun, right?

But hold on before you run away for a big comforting mug of Only Fools and Horses. This here show is beautiful, and warm and wonderful and oh so many things. The central relationship - between Mae Martin and Charlotte Ritchie - glows with all the unpredictable, silly joy of real love and there's a sly, dark wit to the whole affair that makes it sing.

35. 

Frasier       1993-2004. Channel 4

I exist in a kind of quantum relationship with Frasier. When I'm watching it, I'm perfectly happy, marvelling at the quality of the character work and enjoying the razor sharp script. I love the way the characters seem to genuinely care for each other, and the perfect balance between intelligent wordplay and well constructed farce. 

When I'm not watching it, I simply can't be bothered with it. It seems smug and repetitive and visually a little bland. So while many people might have this quite close to the top of their lists, I've let it languish down here, where it might be advised to have a think about what it's done. 

For Frasier and Niles, this chart position is the equivalent of a perfectly good table at a middling restaurant. It's good company, but they would feel in their hearts that they should be somewhere better. And the fact that I know that about those characters suggests that maybe it should, indeed, be a little higher up. 

But it's not. How d'you like those scrambled eggs?

34. 

This Country       2017-2020.   iPlayer

This is a documentary style tale of young, directionless people in a small English village, with all the petty frustrations that entails. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most brilliant shows made in recent memory, if not ever. 

Looking at Wifeface's scores, however, I was shocked to find that she did not share my delight. What the hell? Hadn't we both massively enjoyed this, and had an incredible time watching it together? Well, apparently not. My memories are a sham! How much else of my life is a lie?

Well don't listen to her. Pretend this is higher up. It's amazing. It doesn't look great at first glance, I'll grant you. I avoided it for a while because the main characters looked very irritating. And they are, I suppose. Very irritating indeed. But as you watch there's a sweet vulnerability to them that really grows on you. I mean, you wouldn't want to spend any actual time with them. But watching them is lovely. 

There's also a sneaky thing, where the pretend-documentary gives you facts and figures about what it's like to be young and have no prospects in 21st Century Britain. Bloody woke BBC - smuggling in socially responsible messages while I'm having fun. 

33. 

Catastrophe       2015-2019. Netflix

Some shows make you feel good about humanity and the possibilities we have for happiness once we surround ourselves with the right people. Others - like Catastrophe - hold a great big mirror up to our lives and simply raise two sarcastic eyebrows. We are jerks, 90% of the time, says the show, and the best we can do is try to find it funny. 

This is a show about relationships, and how they are quite like clinging on to a raft, in a storm, and the raft is on fire, and you have to work out what your raft-partner is thinking or they'll go into a huge passive-aggressive sulk. 

The central couple - played by Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney - tumble through a romance that is brilliantly, terrifyingly realistic. They argue in a way that is so true to life that I'd advise caution if watching with your partner. Laugh too hard at one of their horrible, hilarious put downs and you'll be getting quite the side eye. 

32. 

Black Books        2000-2004.     Channel 4

A big tick from the wife for this show, and a kind of 'Yeah... OK,' from me. Though why I'm being so grumpy about it I don't know. This is a pretty good show and whenever it's on I'm compelled to watch it. And then I laugh loads and I know all the lines. So what am I even talking about? It's obviously good, and I'm just trying to look cool in front of my friends.

This is textbook sitcom stuff, rejoicing in the conventions of the form. Mismatched ersatz family? Check. Stuck in the same place every episode? Check. Clearly delineated types of humorous reaction to situations? Check! That's bingo - open the wine!

This is good, clockwork comedy that teeters on the edge of surrealism without ever quite going there. If the reality police came in, it could quite easily straighten its tie and say, "Why no, officer. I'm just a show about a perfectly normal bookshop." But there's a wonderful chaos to the whole thing that wins by putting the joke first, every single time. 

And there's room for odd moments of poetry, in among. A wistful Bernard, surveying his musty bookshop through the wine bottles and cigarette smoke, somewhere in between despair and wonder, and smiling... "This is fantastic". Now that's what comedy is for.

31. 

What We Do In The Shadows      2019-2024    iPlayer, Disney

Like the film which spawned it, this is a pseudo-documentary about a bunch of vampires who share a house. As a pitch, it sounds pretty awful - the sort of nonsense you could imagine on ITV in the 1980s, starring Spike from Hi-De-Hi in a set of comedy fangs, saying things like, "I guess that's what I get for suggesting we go out for steak!"

Well, it's not like that. It's very good indeed, and there are no dodgy fangs to be seen. Instead we get a collection of well drawn, believable characters, living in a world that is both wildly supernatural and reassuringly mundane. It's a delicate balancing act, done with such skill that you never question the parameters of the world building. 

After series three I was starting to wonder if the show had run out of ideas, and was starting to tread water a little. Then series four did some cool new things that reinvented the energy of the show and was even surprisingly moving. Well done, you vampires.

So there you go. That's numbers 40 to 31. Don't like them? Write your own list. But don't do it with my wife - she'll just tell you that you're wrong, and your taste is awful, and if you wanted beans so badly why didn't you put them on the shopping list?

Here's the other rankings, for your pleasure and disagreement:

Numbers 50 - 41

Numbers 30 - 21

Numbers 20 - 11

Numbers 10 - 1

Also rans

The 50 Best Sitcoms Ever - Part One (50 - 41)

 

Hello gentle reader. Let me start off by apologising for the title of this article.  The 50 best sitcoms! Ever! What a ridiculous conceit. The egotistical ranting of a maniac. I'll tell you right now, going in: that title is wrong. Even I don't agree with it. 

I considered a variety of alternative titles, such as:

"50 great sitcoms, which may or may not be the best ones, but here they are."

"50 sitcoms you might like, with some notable and probably sacrilegious omissions."

"50 sitcoms which me and my wife argued about for ages and frankly neither of us are very happy with the compromise."

That last one is probably the best one. The two of us recently found ourselves in a hotel bar, with some wine, a notebook and literally nothing else to talk about. Before you knew it we were drawing up a long list of sitcoms, with the avowed intention to whittle it down to the 50 best. We argued. We compromised. We tried to persuade the service staff to side with one of us against the other. We apologised and ordered more wine.

What we have here is the result of a very flawed but quite exciting process, whereby we have created a list which will please literally no-one. This is part one, which deals with the lowest ranking 10 shows in our top fifty. Yes, I know. You already don't agree. Blame my wife for not acquiescing to all my choices, in mathematical order.

50. 

Red Dwarf             1988 - 2020. iPlayer

Well done, Red Dwarf, for making it into the top fifty. I'm sorry you're right at the bottom, but you've still done better than, for example, My Hero, which would have struggled to get into a top 150 and should count itself lucky to be mentioned at all.

Red Dwarf was a very good show to start with, using its sci-fi setting to explore funny and original concepts while rooting its comedy in the lives of its characters. The cast weren't great actors, for the most part, but they had loads of charisma and they were, crucially, fun to watch.

After a while, though, the show got overexcited about the opportunities afforded by special effects and forgot to be funny. Plus there was the problem all popular sitcoms face: how do you keep going for years without reducing the central premise to a series of quirks and catchphrases? In this case, the answer was "I'll have the quirks and catchphrases, please."

The strongest vote for this came from me. I'd enjoyed it a great deal in my youth and it formed a foundational text during undergraduate years, when I thought quoting Kryten was an acceptable substitute for having a personality. The wife already has a perfectly good personality, and was therefore relatively unmoved.

49.

Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared           2022. Channel 4

There was some debate, between Wifeface and I, about whether this counts as a sitcom. It's certainly quite different from a lot of the other shows here. If you've not seen it, it can be best described as 'What if David Lynch made a show for very young children, while refusing to compromise on any of his artistic principles?'

On the surface it's very odd, with puppets and actors dressed as sort-of monsters. Like if you were having a nightmare about the kids TV show Rainbow. The reality of the show's world is tenuous, and it's as often scary as it is funny. However, it has some fairly solid sitcom elements. They live in a house, they're a kind of family, and the humour arises at least partly from their differences in personality. There's a sensible 'mum' one, a full-of-himself 'mad' one, and a comedy 'idiot' one. That's sitcom DNA, right there.

Eventually we decided to include it because 

a) we'd included The Young Ones, which is pretty similar and 

b) I threatened to do a huge, evening-ruining sulk if we left it out.

48.

Stath Lets Flats             2018-2021.  Channel 4

We'd got quite a long way through our initial long list before we remembered this show. When we did we slapped our foreheads and did much theatrical gasping. How could we have forgotten one of the most excellent shows of recent years?

This is one of those shows that we came to late. It seemed like a terrible premise, and had an undeniably awful title. I think it was maybe our housemate who recommended it, and we put it on with a kind of, "Well, I'm sure this will be fine, but I can't imagine OH MY GOD I'M SO IN LOVE WITH THESE PEOPLE'. 

47.

Yes Minister            1980-1984.  Prime. 

There are relatively few 'legacy' sitcoms on our list. The nature of our selection process ('What can we remember while drinking in a bar?') meant that things from years ago got relatively short shrift.

Yes Minister, however, survived our dodgy memories for a couple of reasons. One is that we love to wander through the TV channels late at night before going to bed, and it seems impossible to do so without coming across Sir Humphrey's cunning smile, or Jim Hacker's worried, big eyed frown. And you don't have to hang around for very long before hitting a perfectly scripted exchange, or a lovely bit of character work.

The other reason for inclusion is that this programme is, simply put, class. I may not have watched an episode all the way through in years, but I don't need to, to remember how ace it is.

46.

Big Boys                   2022 - ongoing.  Channel 4 

This is one of the most recent entries on the list, so it's hard to know how enduring its appeal will be. But both Wifeface and I loved it to bits and when it came up we both sort of waved our arms about and cooed with delight, as if someone had spilled puppies all over the table.

There's a myth that comedy has to be hard and vicious and have some kind of target. I think comedy can do that, and there's great joy in seeing the David Brents or Basil Fawltys of this world be punished for their hubris. "Take that, my boss from work in fictionalised form!"

But there's also a real place, I reckon, for comedies that are warm hearted and full of love. This manages to be delightful and compassionate at the same time as making me laugh like a lunatic. 

45.

Arrested Development           2003-2019. Netflix, Disney+

Neither the wife or I have watched this since it was on, so we couldn't really remember what we thought. We seemed to remember liking it for the first few series, and then despising series four. We subsequently turned against the whole show with quite unreasonable venom, as if betrayed. 

It was good, though, I think? I seem to remember the characters being lots of weird fun, all in some form of self denial and with their own distinctive flaws. The plots were driven by vivid, imaginative chaos. And the structure was enjoyable, full of cutaways and repeated gags that built over the series. It came at a time when American sitcoms were doing interesting, experimental things and this was one of the better experiments. 

44.

The Vicar of Dibley               1994 - 2007.    Britbox, Now

Full disclosure, I did not vote for this. I don't dislike it, as such. I've just observed it from a distance and decided it probably isn't my thing. Like Mumford and Sons. I'm sure they're fine, but there's a sort of 'popular but nothingy' vibe to them that I can't be bothered with.

All of which counted for nothing against the sheer ferocity with which Wifeface demanded its inclusion. She was sure she'd seen me laugh at it on a number of occasions, and when she listed those occasions I had a vague flickering of familiarity and the faint echoes of internal happiness. Damn her android-like memory.

Anyway. Here it is. Apparently there's an amusing bit where she jumps in a puddle, and maybe a bit where someone shouts "Moo!" half way through a joke. 

43.

Shrinking                2023 - ongoing.  Apple

Another late inclusion, probably because it was on quite recently and thus hasn't settled into long term memory yet. We also didn't really talk to anyone about it, because it's on Apple TV and so no-one in the world had seen it except me and the wife.

It's the story of a man who's wife has died, and so he decides to start telling people the truth rather than being careful about their feelings. Yes, like in Afterlife, except a) he's a psychiatrist, so it has more profound implications and b) you don't have to put up with Ricky Gervais showing off how awesome he is all the time like a massive insufferable prick.

It's funny, and a bit sad - a lot of comedy is like that now, it seems and I'm totally here for that. And it finally gives Harrison Ford chance to show that yes, he can be as funny as anyone else if you give him the right place to stand. 

42.

Him and Her                2010-2013.     iPlayer

We nearly forgot about this one. It's ten years or so since we've seen it, and though it's very lovely, it's also very low key. The stakes are small, the characters gentle and its more likely to elicit a smile than a laugh.

One thing it really does have going for it: the characters seem absolutely genuine. We used to talk about them as if they were real people, discussing them the next day as if, rather than watching them on TV, we'd spent the evening at their flat. Why was Laura so mean? Was it just that she couldn't articulate her vulnerability? Would Paul go through with the wedding? Should we have them over for dinner? Hang on, no, that's not going to work...

41.

The Simpsons               1989 - ongoing.  Disney

It's hard to have an opinion on The Simpsons, isn't it? It's undeniably brilliant, sure. But there's so much of the thing! Somewhere in there is a sharp, well written show, but it's lost in a ever-present miasma of jokes and ideas that sort of bleeds out beyond the boundaries of the screen, into everyday life. It's less a thing you watch, more a collection of phrases and archetypes which have become part of our shared vocabulary. 

Added to this, neither me or Wifeface had properly seen it for years. What we could remember, we liked a lot. I guess it's probably stuff from the first five years or so. Clever jokes and slapstick humour, all rolling along together with wit and panache. That bit where Sideshow Bob stands on some rakes. That was good. How long ago was that? No, actually please don't tell me.

So... it's here, and it feels worthy, but for some reason we were both a little reluctant to put it higher. Maybe comedy has to feel like it belongs to you, before you can love it? Loving The Simpsons feels like loving the concept of pizza. Yes, it's tasty, and once in a while it's exactly what you're in the mood for. But everyone likes it, so what does liking it even mean?

Anyway. That's the first ten of our top fifty. They're all delightful shows, even the ones I don't really want to be there and only included in the spirit of democracy. Join me at the links below, for more sitcoms that will make you laugh, make you cry and make you seethe with rage at the stupidity of their ranking.

Numbers 40 - 31

Numbers 30 - 21

Numbers 20 - 11

Numbers 10 - 1

Also rans

I Made You a Mixtape - October 1994

 

Well hello, you scintillating thing. You catch me in a reflective mood. I've been listening to an old mixtape I made in the mid 1990s, and I've got to say it's raising a lot of questions. Questions like, "Why on earth did I include these songs?" and "Is this why I had no friends in the 90s?" That kind of thing.

Join me, as I wander through the contents of this tape, compiled nearly thirty years ago. If you wish to listen along, you'll find the contents on this Spotify playlist, from track 153 onwards. Or you can just click on the links to the Youtube videos I stuck below. Or you can sit in silence, like a serial killer. It's up to you.

Always - Bon Jovi

We're off to a terrible start. But wait - I can explain. I've recently split up with a woman, as I make this tape, and I'm quite keen on sharing that knowledge with the world. There's going to be quite a lot of songs reflecting the end of relationships. My basic rule in my 20s was this: If I'm feeling something, everyone around me is feeling it too.

That said, this isn't a very appropriate song, is it? This is very "You have my heart for all time, here is a big ballad about it." Which is pretty much the opposite of what was going on. I suppose Bon Jovi never wrote a song called, "Two years of this feels like slightly more than enough - I'm off."

Need You Tonight - INXS

This is more like it. A whip smart piece of astonishingly precise pop. This swaggers along, walking a straight line between outright confidence and a kind of beguiling honesty. 

I keep forgetting I like INXS. The parent album for this song, "Kick", is like a "best of", with loads of elegantly simple songs and the kind of production that makes you look at other albums and shout, "Why aren't you doing this?" I'd been into it when it came out, in the late 80s, and I assume I'd recently bought a copy of it when I made this tape. 

What Do You Want From Me? - Pink Floyd

Ah, a return to the fun "Cool/Not cool" whiplash effect that my playlists tend to provoke. I love this kind of music, but anyone listening along might wonder why we'd gone from the sharp, clean pop of INXS to this self indulgent abyss of guitars and chaos.

Well, the answer is that I had bought the album a while ago, and by God I was going to get my money's worth from it. I'd used up the obvious, attention grabbing singles and now I was into the album-only tracks. This took me a while to warm up to, but I reckon it's miles better than it's supposedly more catchy stable mates. 

I suppose there might also be an unconscious message to my ex-girlfriend, who was reacting badly to me suddenly and arbitrarily ending our relationship. She was hanging around our shared house, covering the place in tears and crumpled up tissues and sadness, and generally killing my buzz. Stop letting her in, housemates!

Crying in the Rain - Aha

And... we're back with the relationship misery. Except, again... I was feeling pretty chipper about being single and so this is less about actual sadness and more about the idea of loss. I'd kind of got used to having her about, and wasn't sure what it would be like when she suddenly wasn't there. 

It's a bit like being in a bath that's getting colder. You don't want to get out, because the cold air will be momentarily worse. But the longer you stay in the bath, the more the heat drains away and the more uncomfortable you are. Plus, if you get out, you can start dating other girls. 

This is a great song, with a particularly strong start. That 'Drunngggg" chord at the beginning is awesome. And Morten's ascending vocal in the 'I may be a fool...' bit is sublime. 

I like the way it pretends to finish, then comes back for a little more thundery banging about. Kudos to you, you sneaky ruffian.

King's Highway (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

This was a B-side, I think, from one of the many CD singles that littered my life at this point. The album version is a perfectly good, driving rock song, so I wonder why I chose this?

I'm a fan of stripped back versions of songs, I guess. They were certainly more of an interesting novelty back in the mid 90s. Nowadays it's hard to find a song that hasn't been pulled apart, and reimagined using only the kazoo and some string. But this version - with a gentler guitar and that lovely delicate piano - is a delight, revealing the structure underneath the bells and whistles of the studio version. Love it.

Your Town - Deacon Blue

If you've read my previous blogs about my tapes, you'll be aware that 1994 Rob is in a period of buying lots of 'best of' CDs. Partly because it's a quick way of getting a collection together when you earn basically no money, and partly because he's stupidly joined Britannia Music - an organisation that sends you CDs through the post faster than you can say, "No, stop, I can't afford... ah well it's here now."

One of those best-ofs was a Deacon Blue collection. It's a pretty good CD, with lots of songs that had bounced around the charts a few years earlier. But there were also songs like this - darker, weirder things that pulsed with strange, distant energy. 

I found myself very drawn to this. It was quite a way from what I knew about Deacon Blue, who seemed like a bunch of excited puppies who'd stumbled into a room full of synths and trumpets. I guess I still had traces of that adolescent philosophy which could be summed up as, "The darker the music, the more meaningful the music." Sily boy. 

I do still like this song, but I can see why they put it on the other end of the CD from 'Dignity' and 'Real Gone Kid', where it couldn't upset them.

I Don't Want to Talk About It - The Indigo Girls

Here I go again, pretending I'm all cut up about breaking up with that woman. I think that this track's inclusion is more of a happy co-incidence, though. This version of this - excellent - song hails from the soundtrack to Philadelphia. 

I'd bought the 'Philadelphia' CD for exactly two songs: the Neil Young song and the Bruce Springsteen song. Remember that? When you had to buy an entire CD to get maybe two or three songs that you liked? Madness. Except it had the benefit, didn't it, of accidentally finding tracks like this, that you might never have stumbled across otherwise. 

Gorgeous harmonies and lovely arrangements. Lovely.

Never Tear Us Apart

Do you realise how sad my life is yet? Are you overcome by how sensitive I am? Do you think, maybe, that you should give me loads of sympathy and maybe let me off doing the washing up? 

What a great song this is. We're back to that amazing INXS album, and it's just a treasure trove of stunning songs. They even stick in a "Hey hey it's the 80s!" saxophone solo, and get away with it. 

But yeah. I am sad. Honest. Go to the shops for me?

One Better Day - Madness

My favourite Madness song. I can remember the day I bough the 45 single of this. A rainy Thursday in what must have been... 1984? On holiday from school. Wandered into town and spent my scant pocket money on this, and a 'choose your own adventure' book called 'Lone Wolf' or something. 

There's stuff going on in this song that I've never quite been able to quantify, and that's probably why I love it. A heartfelt combination of melancholy and yearning... maybe the flowering of new love, or perhaps the sun setting on something that lasted years. I don't know. 

And it's a great example of the things I've always loved about Madness. They're a seven piece, all contributing loads to the song, but somehow there's lots of space in the music for everything to breathe. Interlocking elements - the sound of musicians listening to each other and leaving room for everyone to shine. Listen to that lovely, constant bassline, loping casually along, never getting in the way but always nodding along with the emotions of the piece.

Glorious. Genuinely one of the best songs ever.

Dry Land - Marillion

Great news everyone, it's time for some Marillion. This had been a top song of mine for a few years, by 94. A single from their 1991 album, it had sound-tracked most of my college years. If you spent any time with me then - or, to be fair, in the 30 years since - you'll be familiar with this. 

This is a version of Marillion that I like a lot, and would have liked to see a lot more of. For one thing, it's short. By which I mean "Not that short, actually, but relative to most of their stuff, it at least you can listen to it and still get to bed on time". It has a sensible verse/chorus structure - something Marillion seem hell bent on avoiding at all costs. And it has an absolutely delightful, soaring chorus. 

Do more songs like this please, Marillion. 

I know. You won't. Fine.

Fading Lights - Genesis

This song would have rounded off side one of the C90 cassette, and it's a long one. So I'm guessing the tape ran out about half way through. This is from "We Can't Dance", Genesis's last album with Phil "Lot of work for charity" Collins, and it's an odd beast. 

The album is mostly full of chart friendly stuff, embracing Genesis's slightly weird move from 'Mad Prog Nonsense-mongers' to "Machine Like Producers of Top Pop Hits." It's quite good stuff, for the most part, if not a patch on the Gabriel era weirdness which, you'll be unsurprised to know, I preferred. 

But. There were two or three tracks on there which seemed to hark back to their early days, when they made great big ten minute songs about weasels and knights, with great big wibbly keyboard solos and giddy diversions into experimental rock. This is one of those tracks, and I very much enjoy it.

Another reason for its inclusion, of course, is that opening line... "Another time it might have been so different...", and all the references to fading memories and goodbyes. Yes, I'm still determined to create a kind of aural tombstone for the relationship I deliberately killed. I only hope I didn't make her a copy of this, and present it as some kind of artistic statement.

I'm worried that I might have. It's exactly the sort of thing I might have done...

Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi

More from Bon Jovi, to open up side two. What a way to kick off - with that excellent jangly guitar bit, which every guitarist I know spent ages replicating, with diminishing returns.

This is quite fun, as far as it goes. It's not quite 'my' kind of song. Its all very masculine and alpha, bristling with super hard imagery where real men sleep under the stars and eat whisky and kill each other as a way of saying hello. I am quite a long way from being this kind of man, and would cry every day if I had to do any of the things mentioned in this song. 

I take some comfort, however, from the fact that this kind of masculinity, far from being a hard-as-nails representation of how a man should live, is in fact a silly cartoonish masturbation fantasy, fooling only small boys and, it seems, some social media influencers.

Devil Inside - INXS

Kaboom! It's the boys from INXS again, flouncing back in with some more extraordinary pop rock joy. It's a lovely counterpoint to the last song; a kind of magical art-noise that is somehow incredibly sexy and cool without feeling the need to shout "I eat guns for breakfast! See my motorbike!"

Apart from its simple aesthetic beauty, I liked this song for its sentiments. I'd been breathing in a lot of Christianity which said things like, "Demons are everywhere! If you listen to Iron Maiden, the Devil will sneak into your brain during a guitar solo!" I knew that sort of thinking didn't sit right, but I was also interested in concepts of good and evil and stuff like that. I liked the idea, espoused in this song, that perhaps we should take responsibility for our own actions, rather than shouting, "Satan told me to do it, and then ran off!"

Market Square Heroes - Marillion

Here, for your pleasure, is Marillion's first single. This means that I must have bought their CD of B-sides, and was rejoicing in that. Do you know what it was called? Marillion's collection of B-sides?

It was called 'B-sides Themselves'. 

Yeah! You didn't think you could like Marillion any less, did you? Well. Every day is a school day. 

I like this song loads. I'm an absolute sucker for the bouncy, arpeggiated keyboards that wimble happily along, all through the song. This takes me back not to 1994, but to about 1987, when my mate Ian lent me a big bag of Marillion albums and 12 inch singles. Oh, the absolute joy of finding this music, sitting in my parents' lounge in the sun and letting all these wonderful noises pour into my life. 

Yes, it's sparse and kind of ropey, and ever so daft. But earnest and silly go together like bacon and eggs, for this boy. 

When Will You Make My Telephone Ring? - Deacon Blue

A lovely, soulful song. This is a very consistent collection, isn't it? Not consistently great, perhaps, but there's a kind of solid, mid-tempo pop feel about the whole thing. I should have got into making CD compilations for Father's Day, I'd have been rich. Too late now. 

I used to cover this song quite a bit when doing open mic nights. I'm not sure anyone ever recognised it. They probably just thought, "Why has this man written a song that he can't quite sing, doesn't know the words to and often forgets how to play?"

If I ever put this song on these days, my wife will, 100% of the time, call my mobile half way through, and then laugh hysterically. Because she made my phone ring, you see. Like in the song. 

Dancing With Tears In My Eyes - Ultravox

As I'm listening to this, I'm realising that I bought most of these CDs in Bradford. This is from a Midge Ure greatest hits. Don't laugh - he was sort of popular in the mid 90s. It was a mixture of his solo stuff and things like this, from his generally higher profile time with Ultravox.

Why did I buy it in Bradford, when I lived in Wakefield? I'm pretty sure I bought the Bon Jovi album there too, and the hilariously named Marillion B-Sides CD. Was I scared of the staff in Wakefield HMV or something? Weird.

This is a good track, which I'd liked since it was in the charts in 84. Hey - that's the same year as the Madness track. Is my 1994 self having some kind of 'Oh, how I remember ten years ago," thing? Ha. Try 30 years, mate. 

My Sex - Ultravox!

Whoah, what's this? Two songs by the same band in a row? That's literally not allowed. 

It's a different version of Ultravox, though, so maybe I decided that this made it alright. I mean, it's a very different kind of song, isn't it? If I hadn't told you it was the same band, you'd hardly be on the phone to the mixtape police, screaming, "He played two songs by the same band! Yes, in a row!"

This is another song that I absolutely adore. It's the saddest, most wistful, gorgeous thing I've maybe ever heard. That dislocated vocal is about as fragile as a human can sound without turning into dust and poppy seeds. I love the contrast of the warn, organic piano and those ethereal, alien synths. And yet the synths sound kind of sad too, as if they're in melancholy conversation with the piano.

This is a song from a world quite unlike any other. As much as it is possible to be in love with a song, I am in love with this.

Solitary Man - Chris Isaak

Well this doesn't make any sense at all. What's this doing here? Like a super cool guy who turned up at a club, thinking it would be full of hipsters when it fact it's a load of geeks setting up role playing games. 

Good song... unremarkable. Is this a Neil Diamond cover? Yes, the internet says it is. And the internet would never lie.

I can only assume I included it because of the title. Because I was a solitary man, you see. Did I mention that I'd recently ended a relationship? 

Never Say Goodbye - Bon Jovi

Ok, this is getting embarrassing. I'm clearly desperate to create some kind of massive emotional narrative to this break up I've just had, and really there wasn't one. I suppose that's the reason, isn't it? I felt like it should be a bigger thing, after two years. And I suppose I wanted that thing we all want - to imagine our lives as great stories where everything has some kind of lasting consequence and materially affects the world.

I reckon the only genuine consequence was that I've included rather more maudlin, sentimental songs on this playlists than I might otherwise have done. I guess when it comes down to it, we're all the victims of my cavalier actions. I'm very sorry. Please don't come round my house and sniffle and cry for two weeks.

Living Forever - Genesis

Another quite long song from that Genesis album, with some pleasing boopy synth bits. It's interesting hearing the band trying to remember who they once were, years ago when they were way less successful and much more hairy.

Are they trying to prove something, do you reckon? "Hey guys, we never sold out - those playful, arty instincts are still here, under all the glossy production of the chart hits." I heard them once being interviewed, and defending the move to shorter, less complex music. They said something like, "We say the same things as before, it just takes us less time." As if getting to the end of a nice thing faster was some kind of virtue. 

Mind you, I was complaining about the exact opposite thing earlier, wasn't I, when I was talking about Marillion? Why couldn't they do shorter, poppier songs? 

Can anyone please me? Why don't you try, and we'll find out together. 

Made Again - Marillion

The last track on the tape, and another absolutely baffling choice for inclusion. 

This is a quite charming song, and it works really well on its parent album, Brave. It comes at the end of that album, following a quite heavy onslaught of tracks that are musically dense, emotionally fraught and - obviously - very, very long. The drop to this sparse, acoustic number works really well. Maybe that's what I'm going for here. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey through October 1994. As you can see, I was quite desperately trying to create some kind of cathartic soundtrack to an emotional disaster movie, but instead ended up making a collection that could easily be called, "Now That's What I Call Self Indulgent Dad Rock". 

You'll be pleased to know that my pain is short lived and, indeed, basically non-existent. When you join me for the next mixtape, you'll find I've already got my eye on someone else. 

In the meantime, why not look back in time, to see what I was up to, musically, in September 1994? It's right here and it is, of course, amazing:

I Made You a Mixtape - September 1994