British sitcom: Encyclopedia II - British sitcom - Characteristics

British sitcom - Characteristics

Unlike American sitcoms, which employ teams of writers and attempt to cram as many jokes into half an hour as possible, the traditional British situation comedy is produced by just one or two writers. Although it may be argued that a sitcom's raison d'être is to pack as many gags as possible into a half hour, the more measured approach engendered by a single writer or a close writing partnership permits greater control over the programme's direction and a more structured approach to character and plot development. A need for rapid-fire jokes can make the establishment of multi-dimensional characters much harder. The British approach therefore gives greater freedom to individual writers and more opportunities for character development. Individual writers who have made a significant contribution to the genre include John Sullivan, Johnny Speight, Roy Clarke, David Croft, Ben Elton, Jimmy Perry and Richard Curtis, while the most notable writing partnerships include Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais, and John Esmonde & Bob Larbey.

It is often the everyday wit and wordplay traditionally attributed to pubs, shop floors and staff rooms up and down the country that provides much of the comedy in many British sitcoms. The most sedately written series repudiate structured jokes altogether and attempt to reproduce an everyday environment with the intention of also reproducing its comedy. The forerunner of this style is probably Hancock's Half Hour on T.V. and radio in the 1950s. More recent examples of this hyperreal approach include The Royle Family and The Office as well as many British comedy-dramas. Their reliance on character-led, rather than plot-led, humour requires strongly defined characters with whom the audience can identify.

With fewer writers in a project, more unusual and complex fantasy worlds can be created. A significant subset of British comedy therefore consciously avoids traditional situation comedy themes and story lines to branch out into more unusual topics or narrative methods. Such freedom and experimentation is one of the benefits of the British approach and has produced such series as The League of Gentlemen, Marion and Geoff and 15 Storeys High.

Farce is also a common theme in British sitcoms, exemplified by Fawlty Towers. The Restoration comedy tradition of bawdiness and innuendo has also been well served through series such as Are You Being Served? and Up Pompeii.

Novel approaches to comedy such as those taken by Blackadder and Yes, Minister have challenged the idea of what constitutes a sitcom and have also injected variety into the mainstream. A popular development in recent years has been spoof television series, as in KYTV, The Day Today, People Like Us and The Office.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Characteristics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki