ABSTRACT
This chapter looks historically at the life of the different social classes in British society, as represented in television situation comedy.
The situation comedy is an important, but ambiguous, institution in the pantheon of British popular culture. On the one hand, situation comedies (sitcoms) are a staple of British broadcasting: in any given week, there will be a number of these programmes in the schedules of all the major television channels in the UK and, when one such show has run its course, it will, in the normal course of events, be replaced by another. On the other hand, while some-like Steptoe and Son (which ran from 1962 to 1974), or Fawky Towers (two series: 1975, 1979) attained the status of ‘classic’, bringing regular repeat broadcasts for future generations, very few sitcoms have lived long in the memories of those who watched them. Of the 650 or
so situation comedies written for British television since the Second World War, I doubt that many more than 40 or 50 are remembered by many people. Moreover, there is widespread derision for the banality, suburbanism and heavy-handedness perceived in the average British sitcom: the comedian and columnist Jeremy Hardy wrote recently of ‘our feeble sitcoms, based on the premise that a sofa with people sitting on it is in itself funny’ (the Guardian 30 November 1996). That said, both the revered ‘classics’ and the legion of forgotten or derided sitcoms are worth studying.
