Listeners' Top 20 British Sitcoms Of All Time

Let's go out with a bang as we count down Listeners’ Top 20 British Sitcoms of All Time – as voted for by you. In total 73 different shows were nominated - some of the very greatest and most popular, others quite obscure or forgotten. But which ones made the final list? In this show we find out, with very special guests Chris Diamond and Donna Rees.Whether your tastes run towards the communal warmth of classic ensemble shows, the brittle awkwardness of suburban frustration, or the fragmented edges of sitcom storytelling, there’s plenty here to argue about. We talk about why some comedies endure, why others divide opinion and how shifting zeitgeists shape what people laugh at. Expect nostalgia, rediscovery and the occasional raised eyebrow or disapproving 'tut' as we move through the list. Will the obvious favourites dominate, or will a few unexpected titles sneak in? Expect a few surprises!

This week, for Christmas, a heart-warming festive treat full of joy, goodwill and Peter Sellers at his cuddliest. ONLY JOKING.Actually, it’s Carol for Another Christmas, Rod Serling’s bleak, angry, Cold War reworking of A Christmas Carol . Conceived as the opening salvo in a run of UN-friendly TV specials, the film is a full-throated warning against isolationism, nuclear brinkmanship and the idea that minding your own business ever ends well. Xerox paid for it, ABC aired it ad-free on 28 December 1964, viewers and critics were divided about it, and it then disappeared for nearly 50 years.Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra) in his only television outing, the film stars Sterling Hayden as Daniel Grudge, a wealthy American industrialist who hates foreign aid, diplomacy and the United Nations in equal measure. On Christmas Eve he clashes with his liberal nephew Fred (Ben Gazzara) and is hauled through a series of visions featuring war dead, nuclear devastation and, most memorably, Peter Sellers as “Imperial Me” – a cowboy-Santa demagogue preaching radical individualism. It was Sellers’ first screen appearance after his near-fatal heart attack earlier that year.Also featuring Eva Marie Saint, Robert Shaw, Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, Britt Ekland and music by Henry Mancini, the film is verbose, didactic and relentlessly grim – and all the more fascinating for it.Joining Tyler is Tilt Araiza (The Sitcom Club / Jaffa Cakes for Proust), drawing parallels with Planet of the Apes, The Prisoner and unpacking Serling and the social and political climate just one year after after the assassination of JFK... looking at how things came together to produce this Christmas curio.

“You call this a life?”This week we dip into the big red book and examine Spike Milligan’s two famously chaotic appearances on This Is Your Life — first in 1973 at an army reunion in Bexhill and again in 1995 in the wake of Spike’s infamous crack at Prince Charles at the British Comedy Awards. From bungled surveillance operations and surprise reunions to war memories, old squeezes, secret sons and unresolved tensions, these programmes offer an occasionally revealing — and sometimes unsettling — portrait of Spike at two very different points in his life.Joining Tyler this week is co-host of World Of Telly John Williams and the pair try to navigate the uneasy compression of a vast, contradictory life into television-friendly fare.Along the way we encounter Peter Sellers in Nazi garb, Robert Graves refusing retakes because “the milkman is part of life”, Harry Secombe on VT, Eric Sykes restoring some semblance of order to proceedings, Michael Bentine getting a warm reception, Roger McGough falling a bit flat and a surprise appearance from a reclusive billionaire. We also examine the differing styles of Eamonn Andrews and Michael Aspel – the former being all awkward and lacking spontaneity; the latter oozing affable charm and keeping the show on the rails. These two programmes, separated by 22 years, chart not just Spike Milligan’s public career but his private fractures — family divisions, emotional debts, and the limits of nostalgia. They also expose the clumsy mechanics of This Is Your Life itself: a format built for uplift struggling to contain a life defined by contradiction, pain, brilliance and refusal to behave.

Tyler welcomes comedy writer David Quantick to celebrate the 1965 film One Way Pendulum starring Goon Show alumnus Eric Sykes. Adapted by NF Simpson from his own 1959 Royal Court play and directed by Peter Yates (fresh off Summer Holiday, soon to make Bullitt), Eric plays suburban dad Arthur Groomkirby, who is quietly building a full-scale Old Bailey in his living room while his son Kirby (Jonathan Miller) teaches speak-your-weight machines to sing the Hallelujah Chorus in the attic. Meanwhile, daughter Sylvia (Julia Foster) obsesses over her arms and Aunt Mildred (Mona Washbourne) witters endlessly about transport. Rounding out the madness are Peggy Mount as the food-dispatching charlady and George Cole, Graham Crowden & Douglas Wilmer in a superb hallucinatory courtroom sequence.The comparisons to the Goon Show are obvious. David – who met Simpson – explains how his very British absurdism (Lewis Carroll meets Kafka with actual laughs) cloaks the bizarre inside the banal which none of his characters question. The humour is in the mismatch between the bland domestic surroundings and the offbeat conversations therein.

"It's all in the mind." How do you categorise Yellow Submarine? Animated psychedelic musical fantasy comedy? That barely scratches the surface. In this technicolour fantasia, the cartoon Beatles tackle the Blue Meanies, who’ve turned joyful Pepperland into a static, monochrome dystopia where music has been silenced. To restore harmony, John, Paul, George and Ringo - alongside Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD and the ever-anxious Old Fred - must travel from Liverpool to Pepperland in the titular underwater vessel, drifting through strange realms like the Sea of Science and the Foothills of the Headlands.Packed with terrific songs (well, duh), a splendid voice cast (including the great Dick Emery), and a script sharpened - largely uncredited - by Roger McGough, Yellow Submarine may have begun as a contractual compromise but blossomed into something far better than most people expected. Even the real Beatles were impressed enough to pop up for a brief live-action cameo at the end, sealing the film with a smile and a song.Joining Tyler to celebrate this singular sixties cinematic exclamation-mark is comedy writer and podcaster Joel Morris, bringing his trademark insight, deep pop-cultural savvy and boundless enthusiasm to the conversation. As for why Goon Pod is covering this particular gem… well, all will be revealed in the episode!

Harry Secombe could have had reasonable grounds for claiming to be the hardest working man in showbusiness in January 1958: panto (Puss In Boots), TV (Sunday Night At The London Palladium), the Goons, a movie (Davy) and goodness knows what else. Likewise, his colleague Peter Sellers was feeling the pressure of work and his doctor advised a rest on what would have been a scheduled Goon Show recording day. As a result – and much to the chagrin of Spike Milligan – on Sunday 19th January two Goon Shows were recorded, including the one we’re discussing this week, freeing up the following Sunday for Sellers to spend some time with his cameras. The Curse of Frankenstein, as the title suggests, concerns a dying Laird intending to leave his entire fortune to the first Scotsman to play the bagpipes at the South Pole. Joining Tyler this week is returning guest Chas Early and as well as breaking down the episode they chat Morecambe & Wise, Aussie politicians, a waxwork Welshman, the Quarrymen and Spike the balladeer!

Introduced as ‘The Lost Colony’, this is another episode of The Goon Show which sees Neddie Seagoon being duped by Grytpype-Thynne and Moriarty. In this case, they convince him that he is a Native American who rightfully owns New York – his ancestors having sold the land to Dutch settlers in the 1620s for a piece of brown string, eleven pence in notes, a Mickey Mouse watch, remains of a small boiled chicken and a life-sized statue of Sabrina. Seagoon paddles to America in a zinc bath tub and through a dubious transaction secures a Native American birth certificate. He tries to sue the US government, claiming New York belongs to him, but ends up in jail. Once free and bent on revenge he attempts to blow the city sky-high – but at what cost? Joining Tyler this week is writer & producer Tom Salinsky, whose new podcast – All British Comedy Explained – is an exercise in introducing British comedy to his American friend, comedian Abigoliah Schamaun. Abigoliah has lived in the UK for many years but her knowledge of British comedy history is limited so Tom is trying to put that right. At the time of recording they have covered Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Young Ones and Not Only But Also – all three of them game-changers – and coming up they will be examining The Goon Show, so Tyler figured it was a neat idea to get Tom onto discuss an episode which rarely gets talked about. The Sale Of Manhattan was broadcast almost exactly seventy years ago and while it contains some questionable stereotypes there is plenty to enjoy and it was a great opportunity to gain Tom’s perspective on the series. All British Comedy Explained can be found HERE: https://shows.acast.com/all-british-comedy-explained

From 1995 to 2002 Heroes Of Comedy on Channel 4 showcased and celebrated some of the finest comic talents Britain has ever produced and this week, with returning guest Chris Diamond, we're taking a look at the series with particular emphasis on three editions: The Goons, Terry-Thomas & Tommy Cooper. It's a sprawling and highly entertaining chat which covers lot of ground including:Max Wall - Spike in Peter Sellers' car boot - Denis Healey as Bloodnok - kicking Bob Todd up the arse - Tommy Cooper's death on stage - Vault of Horror - Dick Lester - The Obituary Show - WHY Nigel Havers? - The Mouse That Roared TV pilot - Tarby's TT theft - Harry's hoary stories - airing dead comics' dirty laundry in public - Richard Briers - Jack Benny - Fierce Creatures - Frank Muir's TV Heaven - the decline of Terry-Thomas - Julia Breck - Victor Lewis-Smith - Liberace with TT & Richard Wattis - Danny Baker & Tommy Cooper - Clive James - Telly Addicts - Ruxton Hayward - Max Miller's creepy animatronic doll - Hannibal Lecter does Terry Cooper - Michael Bentine: clever or funny? - Spike hates the BBC - YouTube has spoiled us - Fantabulosa! - producer John Fisher - Jonathan Miller - bored with The Last Goon Show of All - Terry Pratchett - Pat Dixon - The Naked Truth - "Hard Cheese!"

"It is seldom enough that I can recommend any record - let alone an LP - without strict reservations of one kind or another. But here, for once, go in and buy the thing - with my blessing. If you have any feeling for the past, the present or the future, you won't regret it."- Pete Murray, 19th May 1962. This week we’re exploring one of George Martin’s most inventive pre-Beatles productions — Michael Bentine’s 1962 LP It’s A Square World. The record was an aural distillation of Bentine’s award-winning BBC television show of the same name, which was by this point into its third series. Across twelve sketches we’re exposed to dozens of characters (all performed by Bentine), surreal sound effects and the kind of sonic experimentation that would later define Martin’s production style. Even the silences between sketches are filled with mock commercials and absurd announcements – nothing is wasted, everything is packed, dense with invention… even if not all of it comes off! Joining Tyler is host of Producing The Beatles, Jason Kruppa, who talks about where Martin was in his career at the point of the LP’s release – ‘Time Beat’ had come out the month before and he was a month off meeting the Beatles - plus how he augmented Bentine’s ideas in the studio, ably assisted by engineer Stuart Eltham. There is plenty to like about It’s A Square World, such as ‘The Shrdlu’, ‘French For Beginners’ and ‘The Film Extra Of The Year Award’ (originally written for the Yes, It’s The Cathode Ray Show for Peter Sellers) and even those sketches that haven’t dated as well still have points of interest – even if Tyler missed the point of a couple of them first time round! Producing The Beatles can be found here: https://www.producingthebeatles.com/

"It's the only time Sellers had to duplicate himself, at least physically." - Roger Lewis on The Prisoner Of Zenda. This 1979 film is an adaptation of the classic Anthony Hope adventure yarn with a screenplay by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais. Peter Sellers plays both Rudolf V, the bumbling King of Ruritania, and his English look-alike, Sydney Frewin, who must impersonate the monarch after Rudolf is kidnapped by his villainous half-brother, Duke Michael (Jeremy Kemp). As Frewin struggles with royal duties and falls for Princess Flavia (Lynne Frederick) the hunt is on for the imprisoned King, with his trusted subordinates General Sapt (Lionel Jeffries) and Fritz (Simon Williams) anxious to restore order to Ruritania. The film suffers from a rather lacklustre screenplay containing a paucity of jokes yet somehow Sellers manages to wring comedy out of the lumpen script, particularly with his characterisation of Frewin. Tensions were high on the set and Sellers' increasing manic behaviour and demands impacted not just Jeffries and Williams but the film's director Richard Quine. Famously they had to repaint an entire train to accommodate Sellers' bizarre superstitions!Joining Tyler to discuss the film is writer & performer John Hewer, who also has some exciting news for Spike Milligan fans!