Britain’s Best Sitcom

Back in 2004, the BBC broadcast a series that wanted to find ‘Britain’s Best Sitcom’. The British public voted by phone and text during 2003 to decide on what was the best sitcom. With the results in, the top 10 were produced and a celebrity advocate of a sitcom was chosen to put their case to the public to ultimately decide on what would be the greatest sitcom.

John Sergeant states why ‘Blackadder’ is his favourite sitcom.

John Sergeant“The original programme was grandiose, confused and expensive, but with a newly slashed budget and Ben Elton on board, ‘Blackadder’ became a ‘traditional’ sitcom performed on wobbly sets in front of adoring live audiences”.

“Forget cosy middle class families, jokes about mini-cabs or sofas, ‘Blackadder’ was comedy on a grand scale. It was big and bold and boasted the cleverest use of the English language in any sitcom”.

“Thanks to Richard Curtis (classy literate references and clever plots) and Ben Elton (energy and knob gags), the scripts were stunning to start with, but by the time Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson and several others had made their contributions they truly sparkled”.

“Britain’s top comedy export Rowan Atkinson turned Edmund Blackadder into the ultimate anti-hero. Cynical, witty and forever scheming, he was a late 20th century man trapped in a world of ignorant idiots. His only defence, a stock of the most brilliant and bizarre put-downs ever uttered”.

“The butt of many of these was Baldrick, surely the nation’s favourite underdog. He started out quite clever but completed ‘a downward curve to imbecility’, famous for his hopeless ‘cunning plans’, pitiful poetry… and turnips”.

“It’s the best thing since sliced potato”.


Now, for your enjoyment, you can watch the whole episode below.


So, where did Blackadder come in the top ten? …. It came second with 282,106 votes, beaten by Only Fools & Horses who amassed 342,246 votes.

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