The Fifty Best Sitcoms Ever - Part Five (The Top Ten)

 

Open the champagne and wear your favourite hat - we've reached the end of our '50 Best Sitcoms' list, and it's time for the top ten, as voted for by me and my wife. 

There have been some bumps along the way, as Wifeface and I debated the various contenders. We've not always agreed, and there have been points where the staff of the hotel bar had to come and ask us to keep the noise down. And the swearing. And the long, rambling lectures on postmodernism as it applied to mainstream cultural product in the 21st century.

But here we are - we made it. And though our joint top ten isn't quite what we'd have voted for individually, there's nothing on here that we hate with a fiery passion. See what you think.

If you want to see the entries leading up to this, here are part one, part two, part three and part four. 

And now... it's the final countdown (ba da daaah daah)...

10.

Derry Girls    2018-2022        Channel 4, Netflix

Reader, it is impossible to express how much my wife loves this show. It's genuinely unsetting. I don't think I've ever seen her so engaged or excited, and yes I include our wedding day and that time we bought a bigger fridge. Her enthusiasm for Derry Girls is like... what is it like? Oh, yes - it's like you've got a cat that  has spent its entire life pawing lethargically at its dinner going, "Yeah... this'll do." And then one day you put some food down and it goes mad with excitement and starts wolfing it down. "Yeah! This is the stuff! Can't get enough of this! Buy this from now on!" What's with the cat? Is it even the same one?

Derry Girls is, definitely, unarguably good. It has strong "They don't make them like this any more" energy, with its central family of mismatched characters getting into comedy scrapes. It is really well observed, with a lot of the humour coming from recognising ourselves in the way the girls let their baser instincts get in the way of their better angels. It's laugh out loud funny, with great characters and inventive plotting.

But there's something else going on here, that's reflected in the warm embrace this show has been given across the board. Partly, it's one of a growing but still small number of comedies that give space to the experience of women, not just blokes. Turns out there's a whole new world of funny stuff about being female, beyond being the foil for men's jokes. 

But also it does the thing that I think most of my favourite comedies do. It gives over a little time to be serious, using comedy to deliver some heart stopping moments of genuine pathos. Its setting - Northern Ireland in the 1990s - sets it up to deal with some weighty issues, and it takes them on with real heart and impact. Some people seem to think that 'comedy' is the same as 'not taking things seriously'. It is, to my mind, absolutely the opposite.

9

Friends     1994-2004       Netflix, Sky

Oh, the debates about this one. It was tied for quite a while with number 8 - Fawlty Towers. I preferred the 1970s tale of a frustrated hotel manager. Wifeface preferred this. We both made our case with equal intensity, both absolutely convinced we were correct. 

We asked the hotel bar staff. They were no use - they just said insane things like, had we considered 2.4 Children or Mrs. Brown's Boys. This had the effect of momentarily uniting Wifeface and I. We stared at them in disbelief and pointed and laughed with derision. What idiotic suggestions! Get away! But also please don't stop bringing us wine and could we maybe see the dessert menu?

We put the question online, to see if any of our friends could help. This was absolutely no use. Half of them correctly agreed with me that Fawlty Towers was superior and how could anyone think differently? The other half embarrassed themselves with their mad assertion that Friends was better. 

OK, there are some good arguments for Friends. The six main players are expertly delineated in terms of character. They work well in various combinations to explore a range of comic possibilities. They are, of course, brilliantly cast. And, primarily, the whole thing is very, very funny. I would never deliberately put an episode of Friends on. But if I walk into a room when it is on (which is always; the wife seems to have found a channel where it is on literally all the time), I'll laugh within 20 seconds of being there. 

So. In the absence of any satisfying way of deciding which was best, we simply did this: we put them in alphabetical order. Take that, maths. 

8. 

Fawlty Towers      1975-1979     BBC, not currently streaming

My feelings on Fawlty Towers are not particularly original, but here they are anyway: It's the best sitcom ever. Every episode has an elegant structure where comic events unfold with clockwork precision. The characters are ridiculous but feel absolutely like real people (and maybe they feel real because they are ridiculous). The dialogue trips along like music. The whole experience is like drinking fine wine.

Cut to the bar where Wifeface and I are narrowing down our top ten. There's me, extolling the virtues of the show, as above, describing huge arcs in the air with my fingertips, my eyes ablaze with the kind of wonder you'd usually see in a religious fanatic. And there's the wife. Looking at me like I'm a child who's describing a brilliant cloud he saw on the way home from school.

She likes Fawlty Towers, of course she does. She's not a monster. But if I expected her to nod in furious agreement until her ears popped (I did), then I was to be disappointed (she didn't). She merely likes it. And she's not the only one. Apparently many people think there are better comedies. They say things like 'but there's only twelve episodes' as if that's an argument. There's only one sun in the sky, but you don't look at that and say, "Well that may be the source of all life on earth, but it's way outnumbered by how many shops there are selling vapes, so I guess my vote for 'Best Thing Ever' goes to 'shops selling vapes'."

Or maybe you do. Maybe you also think that this amazing show isn't the best thing. Well. Soon John Cleese is going to remake it, and he's gone mad now so it's going to be awful. And that will be your punishment for thinking that more of something is better. 

Pfft. People.

7. 

Gavin and Stacey          2008-2010        iPlayer

I reckon a lot of people might be annoyed at the placing of Gavin and Stacey in the top ten. It has the air of something quite middle class and safe, and maybe a bit self congratulatory. I can see that. It is, after all, the tale of a bunch of fairly well to do people with no serious concerns who spend their time laughing and drinking and being droll.

But this isn't another case of the wife crowbarring her insane otherworldly tastes into the debate and drowning out my sensible, intellectual choices. No, this was very much a matter of agreement. We both love this show, and when it came up in our conversation, there was a brief moment of unity and accord. Like the bit in The Princess Bride where the dueling swordsmen pause to compliment one another on their technique. The people serving us wine smiled and thought, "At last, the incredibly loud three hour argument is over. Maybe now the other guests will come out of hiding."

The problem with Gavin and Stacey is this: I have no idea why it works. In fact, it shouldn't work. It disobeys all the rules of narrative and just ticks along, letting its characters have a perfectly pleasant time. Sitcoms should be predicated on problems, shouldn't they? Oh no, the vicar is coming round and I've lost my trousers! Crikey - that person I was rude to earlier turns out to be the person who's interviewing me for this job! Disaster - the priest I've fallen in love with has a complicated metaphysical relationship with the infinite!

But there are few similar problems here. Misunderstandings are cleared up in no time. Arguments are resolved with good humour and acceptance. Regular comedy shenanigans rarely get a foothold. We just watch a bunch of people having a quite nice time.

I think maybe that's why I love it. There's a real-ness, a familiarity to it all, that makes me happy. The characters have daft little in jokes and believable quirks that make me want to spend time with them, again and again. It's a beautiful, life affirming piece of work that subtly, subversively tells a tale of optimism, friendship, family and love. I'll take that.

6. 

Ted Lasso           2020-2023                Apple

Oh, Ted Lasso! Rarely has a show leapt so quickly and comprehensively into my heart. I'm like an evangelist for the bloody thing. If you've met me since I discovered it, you'll have had to put up with half an hour of me bouncing up and down telling you how great Ted Lasso is, and how it's hard to describe Ted Lasso because it has this weird, unknowable magic, and how you really should get Apple TV just for Ted Lasso, honestly, it's worth it, come on, do it. Do it now.

Have you ever had anyone try to tell you about Jesus? Well, imagine that, except rather than dying for your sins, Jesus had made a TV show about a lovable American football manager, winning over a sceptical British team through sheer enthusiasm and charm. Thanks Jesus!

This is a show that is resolutely about something, and that something is, "Hey, we're all a bit of a mess - let's try to admit it and look after each other accordingly." It has a range of brilliantly written and performed characters, all of whom are a joy to watch. Nothing is static, and everyone changes. Heroes become villains, confident men crumble, people who we'd written off as idiots astound us with acts of profound goodness. The tone is generally whimsical and daft, but there is also incredible nuance and beauty. 

In later seasons, Ted Lasso wanders a little away from its sitcom brief and becomes more of a comedy drama. But it remains a glorious hymn to the potential for people to be beautiful and weak and surprising and funny. And, most of all, something to believe in.

5. 

Parks and Recreation              2009-2015           ITV-X

The most annoying thing you can do to a person is to say, "You need to watch this show. The first series is awful, but if you plough miserably through that, it gets really good." OK, maybe not the most annoying thing. That would probably be 'telling everyone you've got a top 50 comedy list and then missing out obvious hits like Porridge and Only Fools and Horses'. That's right - we haven't included them. You thought we were saving them for the top ten didn't you? Well all I can say is, you're only going to get more angry.

What was I saying? Oh yes. The first series of Parks and Recreation isn't great. And series 2 takes a while to get up to full speed. And that's once you've got past the title. What a dull title! And the premise - a load of people working in a government department who keep coming up against bureaucratic obstacles. Who wants to watch that?

Well. The answer should be "everybody", because this show is great. And it's entirely down to the characters. The employees of the Parks and Rec department have wildly different personalities and perspectives, but they have one thing very much in common. They are all, basically, children in a grown up world. Leslie is desperate to prove that sheer optimism can overcome cynicism. Tom wants new, amazing toys, all the time. Andy lives in a state of perpetual, excited naivety. All of them are in love with a horse called Little Sebastian.

And Ron Swanson, the show's absolute star, is the best kind of child - the one that wants to pretend to be a grown up so that the other children leave him alone. But who can, when confronted with joy, burst into giggles or tears or both. 

I think we love this because it nails that feeling which we surely all have - we never properly grew up, but here we are, in a world which expects us to pretend we did. And the joy comes in finding someone else who sees our secret, and invites us out to play. 

4.

Ghosts               2019-2023              iPlayer

There's a theme developing here, as we reach the crest of the mountain. 

A few times during our discussion, we questioned what really counted as a sitcom. What were the rules? We didn't really agree, as you have probably noticed. My answer can be summed up thus: "Sitcoms exist in a liminal space between our expectations of how the universe works and the absurdity of our lived experience". Wifeface, on the other hand, thinks something more like, "Blah blah nonsense, something about Monica with a turkey on her head". 

However. We seem to be united on one thing. The sitcoms that Wifeface and I most agree on appear to be the ones that are maybe not the funniest shows, as such, but the ones that bring us the most joy. Our defining criteria isn't that we always laugh, but that we feel... good. 

Hence Ghosts, making its ethereal appearance at number four in our rankings. Number four! Madness! But what a great piece of work. Consistently, madly funny yet painted with fine brushstrokes of grief and loss. Something with all the appearance of kids TV, but with a wicked, flirtatious heart. A show about silly, cartoonish characters that somehow touches the most profound emotions. 

Oh Ghosts. You contained multitudes. Rest in peace.

3. 

Fleabag             2016-2019              iPlayer

A week before writing this list, Wifeface and I found ourselves free for an entire Sunday. Moreover, we found ourselves free and on the sofa, and quite, quite unwilling to move. That's when we hit upon the amazing idea of not moving, and instead rewatching all of Fleabag. All. Of. It.

Often when you re-visit a thing you loved, it fails to live up to the memory. Well let me tell you that Fleabag did not fail even one bit. If anything, it surpassed our expectations. If we were on Gogglebox, you'd have assumed we were vamping for the cameras. We kept gasping in wonder, and pointing at the screen and shouting, "This is ace!" and, "Wow!" and,  "You good sitcom!" Things like that.

Fleabag is funny, bleak, inventive and endlessly fascinating. It takes the very stuff of comedy and reshapes it with incredible confidence, throwing ideas about like clay and forming something new and compelling. Fleabag's asides to camera might not be new inventions, but they've rarely been used to such electrifying effect. And yes, her story boils down to the same components as almost everything else of our list - "this person is not the same on the inside as they are on the outside" - but it's hard to think of many shows that draw out that difference with such operatic, ingenious gusto. 

Series one is a masterpiece of storytelling, following one woman's mad, capricious dance with romance, family, friendship and grief.  One moment it sings like a hymn to love, the next it tells a dirty joke about hamsters. When it ends, it is a perfect piece of work, complete in theme and substance. There's no way there should be a series two. 

And then Andrew Scott turns up as a hot priest, and all bets are off.

2.

Spaced              1999-2001             Channel 4

How do you like this, then? Spaced at number two? I reckon there's only two possible reactions to such news.

One: what are you thinking? Spaced? At number two? This exercise in stylish editing and narrative tomfoolery, better than The Office? This zeitgeisty explosion of pop culture references, higher up than Cheers? This extended exploration of millennial angst through a postmodern lens, funnier than The Simpsons? Are you and your so called 'wife'- who I strongly suspect is just a drawing of a woman you did on a napkin - out of your tiny, humourless minds?

Two: what are you thinking? Spaced? At number two? Are you out of your minds? It should be at number one!

Yeah.  Spaced is a flavour you either love or hate. It's a singular piece of work, which absolutely nails the experience of a particular kind of geek at a certain point in time. If it speaks to you, it speaks volumes - a carnival of movie references and pop songs, speaking to the vulnerable, fragile heart of every true nerd. Spaced is a cartwheeling, kinetic adventure, shot through with irresistible energy, intelligence and wit, and I love it. 

1. 

Blackadder              1982-1989            Not currently streaming

And here we are. Standing, together, before the throne, gazing upon the king. The gawky, big eyed, long limbed king, peering quizzically back at us. To his right, a small scruffy man holding an outsize turnip. To the left, a tall gangly man, staring enthusiastically around in a confused manner. 

Here he is. The king. Well, four kings, really. We're counting all four series of Blackadder here. Yes, even series one, the series that no-one tends to count. Because this is a show which genuinely transcends time. Not only in the way each series reinvents the premise for a new historical era, but also because the pleasure it gives seems to skip across generations.

There's me, at 12. The family has it's first video recorder - a massive, creaking Betamax top loader. Along comes The Black Adder, in goes the tape. I watched it again and again, all summer long.  Castles and horses and witch-smellers and Brian Blessed Shouting and rude jokes that went right over my head. 

And there's all of us at college in the 90s, buying the videos of series 2, 3 and 4 and sticking them on every night, cracking open beers and playing the hits. "Bob." "You have a woman's bottom!" "Who's Queen?" "Sausage!" "You and me obviously Darling."

And then there's me and Wifeface, on the sofa. Time for sleep, but let's flick through the channels first. Who Wants to be a Millionaire... Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation... ah, here we are. Five seconds of Blackadder and we're laughing, either at what's happening, or at what we know's coming soon. 

"He, sir? He? He?" 

"Two things you must know about the wise woman..."  

"...like an old, oak table..."  

"I've got a plan, and it's as hot... as my pants!"

"...too dead."

"Good luck, everyone."

Back in the hotel. Wifeface and I close the notebook and pour the last of the wine. A job well done. Sure, a part of me is still thinking that the throne should really be occupied by a frustrated, pencil moustached, middle aged hotelier. And she's probably wondering if it's reasonable to divorce someone for their incorrect opinions on Dinnerladies. But we have a list. 

An inconsistent list, sure. A list I guarantee you'll disagree with. And indeed a list which we don't really agree with either. But...  um... well, I'm sure I was going somewhere with that.

You disagree, of course. Please tell me your top tens, in the comments. And if you're wondering why your superior picks didn't make the list, well we have one more entry coming for that...

Numbers 50 - 41

Numbers 40 - 31

Numbers 30 - 21

Numbers 20 - 11

Also rans

The Fifty Best Sitcoms Ever - Part Four (20 - 11)

 

Good morning and welcome to another exciting entry in my definitive, unarguable list of the best 50 sitcoms ever. 

The list is the result of me and my wife working together, trying to find a compromise between our differing tastes, reckoning that the result would give a perfect balance between our often opposing worldviews. 

What has actually happened is that we've created a kind of monster - a lopsided, insane creature that rampages through the concept of good sense, destroying all in its path. It tosses perfectly good shows into the lake, while clutching some really odd choices close to its chest, growling at anyone who suggests that maybe they're not that good.

This is part four. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here. 

And now, because the world is cruel, comes part four. I warn you now - you're probably not going to like it. 

20.

The Good Place         2016 - 2020       Netflix

Not a bad start. This definitely deserves its ranking in the top 20. The Good Place has a startling and original premise for a sitcom. Eleanor (Kristen Bell) has died and gone to Heaven. That's where the show is set. That's the Good Place. It's a sort of day-glo paradise village, where you can do what you want. If that's not good enough, it's presided over by sitcom royalty Ted Danson, proving that Sam Malone was not his only brilliant trick. 

Except, right - Eleanor is not really meant to be in The Good Place. She was a bad, bad girl and she's only there because of an admin error. So here we have a pretty solid set up for a show. She's got to pretend to be good, which is funny to watch because she is, by inclination, selfish and a bit mean. There's also fun to be had with the 'Heaven as an administrative system' gag. And there are some fun supporting characters in Eleanor's fellow Good Place residents. 

All of which would have probably got it a place in the top 40. But there are several wrinkles which elevate it. One is the way the show develops over its seasons. This is not a sitcom that stands still, and it pulls of the rare trick of changing up the scenario, while keeping the core of the show - and the characters - intact. Pretty smart. 

The other is that the show uses the concept of 'being good' as a philosophical touch stone. That doesn't sound like comedy high jinks at all, does it? Well, you'd be surprised. Or perhaps you wouldn't. All comedy is, at heart, about the human condition and the tensions between who we want to be and who we know we are. The Good Place leans into that heavily, and the result is an absolute joy. 

19.

Extras           2005-2007      iPlayer

I tend to think of Extras as a relatively light follow up to The Office, with less edge and with most of its success coming from a parade of gimmicky celebrity cameos. There's some truth in that, and I would have had it lower down the rankings than its predecessor. However, Wifeface likes Extras better - probably for those exact same reasons, and so here it is.

Rewatching it helps to dispel some of my criticisms. It is gentler, that's for sure, but I think Ricky Gervais deserves some credit for letting it be that way. One of the great things about The Office was that it looked cynical, but actually contained some real warmth and optimism. Balancing those is tricky, and there's great pleasure in watching Andy Millman - Gervais's character here - negotiate the two sides of his personality. 

This is even more clear these days, when Gervais seems to have lost the ability to maintain the balance. His more recent offering, Afterlife, hasn't made our top 50 and there's good reason. It started well, but by the end had become little more than a showcase for Gervais's hectoring put downs on anything he didn't like, along with an inexplicable desire to show how good he was at sports. We get it - you're not as fat as you were in The Office. Sit down.

Back in Extras he still had the comic instincts to put vanity aside, letting David Bowie insult him in front of the world. Let's remember him like that.

18.

W1A        2014-2017     iPlayer

Now. What are you doing all the way up here, W1A? I remember that the wife and I liked you a lot when we watched you, that's fair enough. But look... you've beat Cheers, The Office... Alan Partridge. Does that feel right?

Maybe it's fine. I do recall this being a consistently funny, well observed piece of work that hummed with quiet confidence. It had a great cast, playing characters with strong, distinct personalities and preoccupations. And even though it was primarily about working at the BBC, the concepts resonated with anyone who's worked in any kind of institution. 

Perhaps that's it. This is a brilliantly drawn world of buzzwords, pointless meetings and nonsensical corporate systems. Unlike most sitcoms we don't really have an identification character, as far as I recall. We're just invited to observe the world and draw our own conclusions. OK, W1A... you can stay here, for now. Just don't cause any trouble.

17.

M.A.S.H.     1972-1983    Available to buy on Prime

When I first met Wifeface, many years ago, she was positively evangelical about MASH. I didn't call  her 'Wifeface' back then - that would have aroused suspicion. I called her by her real name, which is, of course, 'Attractive Woman I've Just Met Face".

She loved MASH and she still very much does, hence its inclusion here. I can't really remember much about it. I loved it as a kid, I know that much. Hawkeye - played by the brilliant Alan Alda - was one of my formative heroes, along with  Vila from Blakes 7, Number Six from The Prisoner and Murdoch from The A-Team. Yes, you're right, I was very cool and popular at school. 

I enjoyed Hawkeye's healthy disrespect for authority, and felt that there was a great similarity between his struggles with an uncaring military bureaucracy and my struggles with Mrs. Robertshaw and her constant demands that I did my homework.

Last time I watched MASH, I seem to remember that there was an annoying laugh track, which absolutely killed it for me. Some shows seem weird and bleak without a laugh track - we watched the Duty Free Christmas Special a few years ago, and its lack of audience laughter reframed it as an incredibly sad exploration of a failing marriage.  MASH, despite being an older show than Duty Free, has the sensibilities of a more modern show. You wouldn't put a laugh track on Ted Lasso, and I don't think one belongs here. That's how good it is.

16.

The Young Ones     1982-1984   iPlayer

Oh, The Young Ones. If I had my way, you'd be right up there near the top, looking down on all the other sitcoms and, if we're honest, probably weeing on their heads. You mad, gorgeous, peculiar thing. 

I do not have my way, though. My cruel, cruel wife watched it with me a while ago and I'm sorry to report that she was not that bothered. There was me, bouncing up and down on the sofa, trying really hard not to do all the lines along with Rik, Neil, Vyvyan and Mike, hardly able to contain my excitement at sharing this amazing show with my partner. 

She just sort of stared at it, like a cat looking at the Bayeux Tapestry. What was this and why was it supposed to be good? And for a moment, I saw it through her eyes. Here was an entirely male cast, shouting at each other in a cheap studio set with few jokes and no real story. This was incoherent nonsense, like a child's painting on a fridge had come to life and started swearing at the postman.

And then... Then the beautiful, luminous Rik Mayall said "Hands up who likes me?" and it all came flooding in again. The wonder of being a thirteen year old misfit, finding this incredible explosion of ideas and chaos and thinking, for the first time, "It's here. Something made for me is finally here." It's the very definition of 'You had to be there'. 

I was there. And I still am.

15.

Brooklyn 99      2013-2021     Netflix

I avoided this show for a while. It looked like a very obvious 'American Sitcom about cops'. Which, of course, is exactly what it is. But for some reason I didn't like the look of it. It looked frenetic and loud and full of daft stunts, which felt like it might get wearing after a while. 

I was, of course, quite wrong. Not about it being loud and daft - it certainly is those things. And it doesn't have the same level of wit that defines a great sitcom like Parks and Recreation, for example. But what I'd not reckoned with was the brilliance of the writing. 

The characters are fairly standard - the cop who thinks everything is an adventure, the gruff sergeant, the detective who needs everything to be perfect. But the writing, and some great performances, elevate each of them to someone you grow to love. There's an enthusiasm and joy to the relationships that makes each episode hum and also allows it to, occasionally, touch on serious stuff. 

"Touch on serious stuff".  Name of your sex tape.

14

The Thick of It    2005-2012    iPlayer

I have a vivid memory of watching the first episode of The Thick of It and not liking it. It looked very "post The Office" - cameras swinging all over the place in pseudo documentary style. Naturalistic performances where characters are low-key mean to each other. It didn't look very original and - worse - it looked drab and uninviting.

It's fair to say my opinion has shifted considerably since then. I think a little of that of that is due to the show developing into something more enjoyable. The camera work calms down a little and there's a widening of scope in terms of the characters. But mostly it's about me adjusting to understand the genius of what I was watching. 

Nowadays The Thick of It is most often referenced in terms of real world political events. Barely a month goes by without some governmental calamity being likened to this seemingly prescient TV show. You've got to wonder why all politicians aren't sat down on day one and forced to watch every episode, with someone next to the TV shouting "Don't do any of these things."

This is a breathtakingly clever show, hitting satirical targets with surgical precision while always feeling like a loose, shambolic fragment of real life. Devastating in its social commentary and painfully funny to watch, this is one of the best sitcoms ever made. 

13

Rev       2010-2014    iPlayer

It was quite a while before Wifeface and I remembered to put Rev on our list. It sort of slipped our minds. When we did recall its existence, we gasped in horror, as if we'd just remembered that we had a child and we'd left it behind last time we moved house. How could we have forgotten Rev? 

The answer is that Rev is quiet and unassuming. It bumbles along, much like it's adorable protagonist, Reverend Adam Smallbone, being gently funny and brilliant without really disrupting your life. It doesn't seem to get talked about much, and it seems to have fallen through the cracks of sitcom debate. 

Well. It should be talked about more. It a funny, clever show about human nature. People are excellent and stupid and courageous and weak and a hundred other things, all competing for dominance inside fragile egos. It's not an advert for religion, but it does use it's set up (small church in a big city) to explore failure, forgiveness and community. 

Rev does some work, I think, to pave the way for Fleabag. Maybe I'm just thinking that because of the priest. But I think there's something else - the way it manages to be a consistently funny sitcom, while also nudging against the darker edges of human frailty. It's very good.

12

Community         2009-2015          ITV-X

Wifeface and I find ourselves in a brief period of agreement. Community is great and deserves to be high up on our list. Hurray. Maybe we can go back to our normal lives after we've finished this list, after all.

Community is a show which inspires fanatical devotion, and that was certainly reflected by our reaction to it. It feels like the closest US sitcom has got to something like Spaced - a show that loves geeks and wears its creative, nerdy intelligence on its sleeve. Where a show like The Big Bang Theory parades geeks as objects of ridicule and invites us to laugh at them, this show takes misfits as its primary audience and shows them all the love.

The premise is regular enough. Here is a bunch of people with differing experiences and perspectives, thrown together randomly and forced to get on. In this case, it's a study group at community college. So far, so sitcom. But the show reaches far, far beyond that, letting ideas run wild and having tremendous fun with the very form of television comedy. It's a cine-literate, postmodern explosion of wonder that assumes the audience is as smart as the writers.

We watched this on Sony TV, back in the days when you had to find programmes on 'a channel' and 'record them to watch later'. Yes, like the cavemen did. For some reason the episodes on Sony were edited to the point of being incomprehensible. Maybe when we watch it again, in unedited form, we'll discover that the show is full of incredibly racist and transphobic jokes. In which case, I'm very, very sorry and this was the wife's choice really.

11. 

Peep Show        2003-2015        Channel 4, Netflix

Very narrowly missing out on the top ten, here's one of the best sitcoms I've ever seen. 

Peep Show distils sitcom to its very essence: the difference between how we are on the inside, and how we present ourselves on the surface. Jeremy and Mark are a fairly standard sitcom couple - one is too uptight, the other too loose. There is enormous fun in seeing them muddle along together, but the genius of the show is in letting us inside their heads. The  contrast between their internal monologue and the stuff they actually do and say is at once hilarious, shocking and uncomfortably resonant. That's us, right there, in that contradiction. 

The 'point of view' conceit could easily be a gimmick, but it always remains integral to the appeal and humour of the show. It's odd that this style of filming hasn't bled out into other shows, in the way that the pseudo documentary format of The Office has.

If it's so good, you are asking, why does it miss out on the top ten? Well, you're going to have to ask my wife about that, because apparently she'd rather vote for a load of beautiful Americans being consistently funny, than vote for two nebbish blokes who spend all their time failing and being sad. 

While you're asking her, could you also ask where we keep the weighing scales? I know it's one of the cupboards in the kitchen, but honestly there's so many of them.

There you go - that's all for now. We're into the top ten next, so there's that to look forward to. Here's where to find all the other parts:

Numbers 50 - 41

Numbers 40 - 31

Numbers 30 - 21

Numbers 10 - 1

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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

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