An interesting piece at the weekend in The Times indicated that broadcasters are worried about the state of TV sitcoms, and the lack of big hitters such as Only Fools and Horses and The Office, or even Fawlty Towers.
Even the BBC – which has radio and digital channels to test material out on – is apparently worried. Yet they have the best comedy on television.
It’s difficult to understand the problem. Lab Rats aside, the BBC have a good comedy output, certainly their best for a few years with better output aimed at a mass audience, such as Not Going Out.
Channel 4 meanwhile has Peep Show as a sitcom, and the superb Kevin Miller Show. Miller is still just below the horizon for most however, so I’ll let that lie for now…
ITV even have their best comedy output since they let Men Behaving Badly go, with Benidorm in particular appearing to a large demographic. Harry Hill’s TV Burp might eat a huge chunk of audience but it isn’t sitcom.
So exactly what is the problem? It seems to me that the broadcasters are trying too hard. Back in 2004/2005, when the BBC brought back Doctor Who, the press denounced it as lunacy. To them, Saturday night, family entertainment was dead. Yet the BBC pushed on, and ITV soon followed, and Saturday evenings of Doctor Who or Robin Hood or Primeval teamed with a celebrity dance show proved the doubters wrong.
Comedy is suffering a similar lull. The worst thing anyone should do is panic.