Now now, MClaren, when those shows were at their peaks, they were both bloody excellent.

And I felt that Auf Wiedersehn stayed pretty good right up to the end, helped immensely by it's superb cast.

I haven’t had the misfortune to watch BBC 3's 'yoof' (is that a programme or a sceme to apeal to the younger generation? am really not sure haha) yet but I guess I’ll give it a go. I don’t know if you ever saw Limmy’s show that’s also BBC?

The adventure call stuff is pretty funny but the whole programme is a poor mans la la land.

I've watched two new "comedy" programmes this week...

"Roger and Val Have Just Got In" with Dawn French and some bloke, "comedy" might be the wrong word for it, observation might be nearer the point, I didn't manage to stick with it to the end but it was interesting in the same way that a newly wallpapered wall or a newly carpeted floor is, you can't take your eyes of it for a while but ultimately it doesn't go anywhere and quickly fails to excite you.

"Grandmas House" with Simon Ansell was easily classified as "comedy" for its first episode it remains to be seen whether the rest of the series can keep the momentum, theres a lot of writing to do when your action doesn't move from the front room and depends on a good script and actors who can carry it off, The Royle Family was an example of where its done well, Terry and June was not.

Blimey, and 'La La Land' was bad enough. Just one more 'embarass the public for cheap laughs' shows that have been done to death. Even the excellent Marc Wootton can't save it.

Fools and Horses is up there with the best no doubt. I’ve never had the pleasure to watch Auf Wierdersehen pet yet so at least there’s a lot of laughs coming my way yet!

A few sitcoms I’d include are -

Till Death do us Part (thanks to Alf Garnet who reminds me of every nutter on the terraces)
Open All Hours
On The Buses (has to be one of my personal favourites of all time)

Auf Wiedersehn had a good first series, mainly because it was believable, at the time I was living int he north east and actually knew electricians who had or were working in West Germany during their late 70s boom times in exactly the same circumstances, ie living in wooden barracks on building sites earning three times the trade rates in England. After the first series it started to stretch the storyline too far and it failed for me.

Only Fools etc, I could never get into, the only person I liked at all was Grandad from the first series, he had some cracking lines and delivered them with a deadpan face, after he died I didn't watch it any more but still feel like I've seen every episode thanks to it being looped permanently on a TV channel somewhere inside my TV set.

Shirley Ghostman and Gary Garner are two genius creations!

That director was just a time filler. Can see where you’re coming from though with the done to death. Surely I’m not the only one on here who found Bruno a poor borat?

Either way Gary Garners rib story had me rolling on the floor in tears. I haven’t done that since watching the inbetweeners where Mr Gilbert tells Will where his pigeon hole is.

Very much "of its time" and if you weren't around in the 1960s or haven't bothered to read up on the political situations and intrigues of the time then quite honestly I'm not sure you'd understand most of it.

In Sickness and in Health was one of the best sequels to any best selling series both before and after Dandy Nicholls died.

Till Death, yes. Ground-breaking and daring telly for it's time.
Open All Hours is one of the most over-rated shows ever. As with all Roy Clarke shows, he can write enough for one 6 episode run, then repeats himself to diminishing returns. Ronnie Barker helped to lift it slightly above the average.
On The Buses was unremitting e.

Shirley Ghostman was a direct lift from 'Clinton Baptiste' in the excellent first sereis of 'Phoenix Nights'.

Agreed with your first point - see also "Last of the Summer Wine"

On your second point it has some viewing value simply due to the fact that its is so shoite, see also Love Thy Neighbour, Mind Your Language, and that dreadful hospital based comedy of the same time that I refuse to recall to mind.

'Only When I laugh'?

Its been a while since I last watched an episode of the sitcom but I enjoy many clips of him on that infamous video sharing website. If only we could have something like this on TV today as good.

The only programme I find deals with politics with comedy well is ‘The Thick Of It’. Only watched a couple of episodes at a friends house where he spent the day watching back to back episodes. Got a lot of catching up to do

Queenies Castle included in this list?

What other sitcoms have we had based in Leeds?

I think Barbra on ITV was based around Leeds. The episode where her and the husband go to Scarborough is legendry.

only leeds fans could have a thread like this