Say what you want about us Brits, but we know how to have a laugh. Most people in the U.K. have a bit of wit about them, to the point where everywhere else’s banter is frankly subpar (except for the Irish, possibly the only people in the world funnier than us). The need for a sense of humor probably stems from the fact we’d “un-life” ourselves otherwise, given we live on a wet, dreary rock and have spent centuries being ruled by thick, posh tricksters and the intensely inbred (also why the Irish are just as funny, although unlike us, they didn’t choose to be ruled by the thick, posh tricksters and people with family trees that resemble a Möbius strip). As depressing as it is, there’s no doubt all that swirling misery has forced us to produce some great British comedies over the years.
Choosing a list of the best British comedies of all time is a bit like trying to rank the tastiest pizzas in the world. Sure, there are some highlights, but at the top, all the choices are equally worthy of praise. As a result, this list of 13 has had to ignore some truly astounding and iconic comedies like Green Wing, The Inbetweeners, Gavin and Stacey, Fleabag, Keeping Up Appearances, Absolutely Fabulous, Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, The Vicar of Dibley, The Ali G Show, and countless others.
If you’re keen to dive into the hilarious world of British comedies, or just want to get angry that your favorite isn’t included in this list, then read ahead!
13. Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights
If you’ve ever wanted a realistic insight into real British culture, instead of the sanitized and idealized vision of it that’s part and parcel of shows like The Crown and Bridgerton, then Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights will tell you everything you need to know and more. Set at the fictional Phoenix Nights Working Men’s Club in the northern town of Bolton, the show follows the occasionally hapless owner of the club Brian Potter (Peter Kay) as he tries to make a success of his third working men’s club, all while trying to outdo fellow club owner Den Perry (Ted Robbins).
Throughout the two seasons, Potter indulges in harebrained schemes to get the edge over Perry, leading to plenty of hilarious results. However, what really makes this show is its focus on genuine working-class Brits and their lives, showcasing you don’t have to have gone to posh schools and have an accent like Benedict Cumberbatch to create and star in something exceptionally funny.
12. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Talking about British comedies without mentioning Monty Python is like discussing theoretical physics and forgetting about a lad called Einstein. Although some of the members of the famous comedy troupe have fallen well off the right-wing nutjob deep end (thus confirming Palin, Jones, and Idle were the only talented ones anyway), Flying Circus remains a mainstay of best-of lists, and for good reason. While not all of the skits land all the time, the show produced some of the largest gut-busting laughs on British television, especially the infamous dead parrot sketch.
11. Peep Show
Jesse Armstrong has been getting all the plaudits for Succession in recent years, but it was with Peep Show he really perfected the brand of awkward character-based humor that’s made the HBO series about the Roy family so addictive. Peep Show follows the lives of Mark (David Mitchell) and Jez (Robert Webb), two old university mates now living in the rundown satellite town of Croydon, and is known for its interesting filming style (all of the action in the series bar two scenes take place from the perspective of the characters) and painfully cringe humor, as well as its horrifying relatability.
As you watch the hapless odd couple get into all sorts of scrapes, from Jez accidentally becoming a concubine to Mark trying to get rid of a new friend he didn’t realize was a Nazi, you’ll want to die of laughter and secondhand embarrassment at the same time. It also shows a completely different side to Oscar winner Olivia Coleman, who plays Mark’s long-suffering love interest, Sophie.
10. The Thick of It
The Brits have a long tradition of excellent political satire, from Yes Minister to Spitting Image, but nothing lands quite like The Thick of It. Created by Veep showrunner Armando Iannucci, the comedy series was a revelation when it aired in the mid-2000s, just two weeks after Tony Blair and his style-over-substance New Labour government had won a third term in office.
Iannucci managed to capture the vapid, buffoon-ridden nature of centrist politics, pulling back the curtain on supposedly talented spin doctors to show all that Oxbridge education basically amounted to nothing but eloquent (and profanity-laden) idiocy. The series was known for its absurdity, but as U.K. politics became even more of a joke under 12 years of Tory rule, the plots became depressingly prescient — something fans of Veep will relate to.
9. Extras
Ricky Gervais might be a terrible stand-up whose latest Netflix show is just a platform for him to go on boring, onanistic rants, but there’s no doubting some of his creations are absolute gold. After all, whatever you think of the man, the original Office series was groundbreaking in countless ways. While many would include it on their list of best British comedies, Extras, a show about a middling actor looking for his big break, was a step above the mockumentary series set in Slough when it came to getting laughs.
With a roster of guest stars that genuinely belong on the reddest of carpets (David Bowie, Kate Winslet, and Ben Stiller to name just a few) and a perfect combination of situational comedy and straight-up jokes, once you begin watching Extras, your only problem with it will be that there are just 13 episodes to binge.
8. Blackadder
In the age of screen splitting, physical comedy has taken a bit of a back seat, often considered low-brow or cheap. Yet, despite the astoundingly funny writing in Blackadder, the physical comedy performed by star Rowan Atkinson is one of the funniest parts of the show. In the series he’s most famous for globally, Mr. Bean, he uses this skill to full effect, so much so that my grandma who can barely speak English is often doubled over with laughter while watching the classic series. In Blackadder, though, he’s allowed to show off his full range.
Each of the four seasons of the series is set in a different time in history: the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan era, the long 18th century, and World War I. The show also stars a young Hugh Laurie in a role very different to Gregory House. Mostly focused on the antics of Blackadder, always a scheming member of the political middle class trying to get ahead, the series is famous for delivering one of the most heartbreaking and poignant endings on television, and not just for a comedy, either. Aside from that, it’s truly a laugh a minute.
7. Spaced
Before Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz came Spaced. The Simon Pegg vehicle is known for its absurdist humor and innovative use of fantasy sequences, something later popularized by hit shows like Scrubs. Absolutely rammed with pop culture references, Spaced follows Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson), two strangers who pretend to be a young, professional couple so they can rent a relatively cheap, well-located flat in London.
The humor resonates with everyone but will be especially relevant to those who’ve had to put up with some strange housemates in a quest to find reasonably priced, inhabitable places to live in big cities, as well as anyone who enjoys the classic rom-com enemies to lovers dynamic. With its combination of surrealism and heart, it’s incredibly binge-able, too, so you’ll get through the two seasons with ease.
6. The Young Ones
The Young Ones might be the most influential series you’ve never heard of. Often lauded for bringing alternative comedy into the British mainstream, the blend of slapstick humor, surreal gags, and smart writing means this show about four weird students living in a gross shared house quickly became a cult favorite, even as its ratings didn’t quite reach the peak they deserved.
The Young Ones broke the mold in so many ways, from shattering the fourth wall to including musical sketches and satirizing the volatile political climate of the time. But, most importantly, it was laugh-out-loud funny, packing more humor into its 12 episodes than most shows manage in multiple seasons.
5. Dad’s Army
Britain has a weird relationship with World War II. Because it was one of the vanishingly few times we were unquestionably on the right side of history, certain types (almost always born in the ’50s) are obsessed with it, to the extent where it appears they want to shag the very concept of the war itself. But our strange relationship with that period has also brought us some excellent comedy, most notably Dad’s Army.
Unlike most of the shows on this list, Dad’s Army ran for a fairly long time, racking up 80 episodes. The show follows the Home Guard during World War II, which consisted of men too old for battle or medically exempt for one reason or another, and is consistently ranked as one of the best comedies to come from these Isles. With its great situational humor, digs at the rigid British class system, and a lot of perfectly performed slapstick thrown in for good measure, it remains hilarious and relevant, even though it’s half a century old.
4. Black Books
Starring Dylan Moran, Tamsin Greig, and Bill Bailey, this offbeat comedy about a decrepit book store and its sweary, misanthropic, red wine-loving owner Bernard Black (Moran) is defined by its cutting writing and standout comedic performances by the three leads. The episodes take aim at all sorts of different topics, but generally focus on various attempts by Bailey and Greig’s characters to force Bernard into behaving like a socially acceptable adult, instead of spending his days chasing away customers and chain smoking as he’s prone to doing.
Part of the humor of the show stems from the notion that secondhand bookstores are inevitably doomed to failure, and that decidedly depressing thread is stitched throughout the series. While the script is intelligent and packed full of great gags, the performances turn this from a great show into a must-watch.
3. The IT Crowd
“Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?” is one of the most iconic television catchphrases of the last two decades, and its brilliant yet simple humor is indicative of what makes The IT Crowd so special. The series follows Roy and Moss (Chris O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade), who make up the IT department at Reynholm Industries in London, and begins with the introduction of their new, computer-illiterate boss, Jen (Katherine Parkinson).
Ayoade had achieved some fame previously with his role in Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, an underground hit that’s become a cult classic in recent years, but The IT Crowd was a whole other level of popularity and genius. Matt Berry and Chris Morris were welcome additions to the cast, and each episode is absolutely rammed with brilliant jokes, from Roy being mistaken for a window cleaner to Jen “breaking the internet.”
2. Only Fools and Horses
Charming, brilliant, and endlessly funny: Only Fools and Horses has been voted as the best British sitcom of all time in a number of nationwide polls, and it’s easy to see why. Following the adventures of slippery lover of get-rich-quick schemes Del Boy (David Jason) and his slow-witted younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), the series is set in working-class South London and has a similar cultural hold over Britain as fish and chips and Charles Dickens. Only Fools and Horses has even contributed words like plonker and cushty to the English language.
At first, the episodes of this iconic show were self-contained, but because of its popularity, there were soon series-long plot arcs, as well as more recurring characters. Aside from looking for a quick bit of cash, the two brothers are also searching for love — something they find as elusive as financial freedom. Despite their rough nature and dubious morals, the siblings will always have you rooting for them, which is probably the most appealing thing about the show.
1. Brass Eye
Our second Chris Morris selection, Brass Eye gets the number one spot in this list because it is the pinnacle of satire. Morris wrote and occasionally starred in a slew of other great shows, including the scarily prescient Nathan Barley, but none reach the brilliant heights of this spoof news show.
Brass Eye really had it all, from perfectly crafted satirical news segments to Morris bamboozling real-life members of parliament into saying and doing the dumbest things. It racked up the complaints as quickly as the positive reviews, being too far ahead of its time in many ways. One thing that can’t be argued is the “Paedogeddon” special is possibly one of the funniest things to ever air on television. This isn’t just a must-watch — it’s everything great about British comedy.
Published: Mar 15, 2023 12:21 pm