The Biskers - the winner

Maybe it's something to do with my age, but it seems to me that the golden era of the situation comedy was back in the 1970s and 1980s.  None of the recent shows have seemed at all funny to me.  But, as I said, maybe that is something to do with my age.  And I have to say that very few of the American sit-coms aired on our televisions have amused me.  There was one, I remember, with Lucille Ball and Dick van Dyke which was fairly amusing but nowhere near reaching the short list for the BISCAs.

While I have been mulling this over in my mind, several shows which I had forgotten about have surfaced in my memory, although in most cases I can recall little about them other than their names!  Oddly enough, though, there are twp sit-coms from way back that I do recall with pleasure although it seems that very few others remember them at all.  There was After Henry, starring Prunella Scales, and A Fine Romance with husband and wife team Michael Williams and Judi Dench.  And there were shows such as The Liver Birds and The Likely Lads.  All good, clean fun and well worth watching.

Most, in fact all of the shows I have mentioned are the sort to raise a smile and a chuckle rather than a belly laugh.  Perhaps among the best known belly-laugh-producing shows is one of the earliest television sit-coms, Steptoe and Son.  And we mustn't forget Fawlty Towers or Only Fools and Horses.

To my mind, the best sit-coms are not necessarily those which produce belly laughs.  Some of the perhaps gentler shows which rely on less farcical humour and more on wit are those which I can watch time after time - and often see something I had missed before.  There are two outstanding shows like that: Dad's Army and As Time Goes By.

And the winner is:

As Time Goes By, starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer.

I was going to insert a YouTube clip but there are simply too many to choose from.  Do have a look if you don't know this show.

~~~~~

Yet another shot of the French market; this time, the olive stall.