What’s happened to the sitcom?

I really like comedy, have spent many an hour at the Comedy Store in London, been to see many comedians live everywhere from scruffy pubs to Wembley and I do love a good sitcom. Except there isn’t a good sitcom anymore. Not on UK TV anyway.

Oh, you can tell me about Mrs Brown’s Boys if you like but I watched a couple and it didn’t tickle me in the slightest. Yes, I know it’s hugely popular but to me it’s just meh. Last week I watched Ben Elton’s new sitcom on BBC1 The Wright Way. Now Ben Elton isn’t my favourite but he did have a large hand in The Young Ones and Blackadder all those moons ago but this new one was atrocious. You can watch a clip here if you don’t believe me. It’s not just the situation (the sit bit of sitcom) that was dreadful, it didn’t have any com either.

So yesterday there were two new ones on ITV, not a channel I hold out much hope on for comedy, Vicious and The Job Lot. Vicious (clips here) had the fantastic actors Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi who I can usually happily watch all day. Last night I watched them unhappily. Such fine actors but a script that signposted its gags with a huge blaring red light and acting which to call hammy would have been a bit unfair on dead pigs. That’s a no for that one then.

Some ham

So I stuck with ITV for The Job Lot (clips here) and I was much happier, it was pretty good. The sit bit worked, the characters, although exaggerated as in most comedy, were on the right side of believable and, most importantly, it made me laugh. Hurray! It gave me a slight hint of disquiet as I once wrote a pilot for a sitcom many years ago partly set in a Jobcentre and some of the jokes were very similar to the ones we wrote. Don’t worry I don’t think this is anything sinister just coincidence. Our pilot was turned down for being a bit too depressing, being about the unemployed and all. Times do change a bit then! So thumbs up for The Job Lot then, I will be tuning in next week. It isn't the best sitcom ever but it's certainly the best at the moment. I just want more good sitcoms on TV. 

So can anyone suggest anything good? Not Miranda, not a big fan, and certainly not Not Going Out. Anything new that’s like Black Books, Father Ted, The Office, The IT Crowd and so on? Or do we have to just make do with the plethora of comedy quiz shows that we now get?

Incidentally if you do like comedy you might like to try my book The Alien Files now available on kindle, saves you watching the telly. Was that plug subtle enough?