Nobodies laughing at the BBC

Has anybody been watching the re-make of Reggie Perrin on BBC1. Martin Clunes takes the lead role that Leonard Rossiter made his own in the seventies. Now i don't, as a rule, watch BBC sitcoms anymore. I try and avoid them like a nasty strain of flu that found its origins within a pig from Central America. If i hadn't seen the first two episodes and had purely read the reviews by so called "TV critics", I wouldn't be making a date with my sofa and remote on Friday night, 9.30. However, i did watch them, and i have to admit i found it funny. Shock, horror. A BBC sitcom that isn't written by Gervais and Merchant, funny? Yes. This is mainly because this isn't an attempt to cast an exact copy of Rossiter, or try and make a 21st Century version that is firmly routed in the 1970's. This is a different beast. This is a different script, written by the man who wrote the best BBC sitcom of the nineties, Men Behaving Badly, oddly enough with Martin Clunes playing a leading part. Having said that MBB was independently written, and first commissioned by ITV and only picked up by the BBC once ITV dumped it after one series.

That is not to say Simon Nye has always struck gold, Beast being one less than hilarious attempt. He wouldn't be alone though. It is sometimes a mystery as to who commissions BBC comedies. The art of creating a funny sitcom that can be screened before the watershed is a lost one. Even with the characters and actors from the most successful and long running sitcom ever, the script writers are churning out cliched, formulaic, obvious comedy that contain jokes you could see from a mile off.

It makes you wonder why they bother. ITV did. They used to screen tosh that had viewers turning over in droves. They obviously had the good sense to watch a Channel 4 sitcom and realise the game was up. The list is as long as your arm of great, genre-shattering, genuinely hilarious shows, The Inbetweeners, Peep Show and The IT Crowd the pinnacle of the iceberg.

It does have to be said however that these shows are very much aimed at the 18-35 demographic. Always after watershed, often not earlier than 10pm, very very rude, with sex and bad language aplenty, although brilliantly written, brilliantly shot, and superbly cast.

There is a world of difference between these two channels. There are fresh ideas, young people taking centre stage in acting, writing and producing. You get the feeling Auntie is taking direct control of all aspects of BBC comedy. More recently, as already stated, using actors that originally graced our screens in the early 80's, or more importantly were at the peak of their powers back then, or even earlier. I'm thinking Green, Green Grass of Home, My Family, After You've Gone and that awful thing Caroline Quentin fronted. (Would just like to add My Family was funny to start with)

You have to wonder if the Beeb will ever come up with a classic again. Any of those "Greatest Sitcoms/Sitcom characters/Comedy Characters" programmes that showcase the best of British Comedy include a BBC sitcom. Citizen Smith, Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, BlackAdder, Butterflies, Men Behaving Badly, Faulty Towers, Open all Hours, Steptoe and Son and of course Reggie Perrin. There are of course more. It would take too long. One thing you can guarantee is that not one will be from the last ten years.

Is it time for the BBC to give up? Or just time for a revolution.

Is it too late?