Black Books
The Book Group (is a bit of a strange one)
Teachers
Shameless (comedy/drama)

First 3 at least are no longer running.

I rate Top Gear as "comedy" since it's largely staged.

While not a funny British comedy, as you requested, I enjoyed immensely watching many documentaries on the Industrial Revolution hosted by Fred Dibnah.
Wonderful stuff.

A friend of mine thinks Mighty Boosh is one of the funniest things in existence. All I've seen from it is the Old Greg skit, which I found funny and deeply, deeply disturbing... then it confused me...:)

If you like Spaced and Teachers, try Green Wing

How did I manage to forget Green Wing

Hmmm- news of the day to the opposite effect:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/13/itcrowd_series_three/

Looks like we'll get a chance to see how they do with it!

That's what I thought, but I think they mean the original series has been sold, not the format.

I'd be inclined to agree with that assessment. The US version had been slated to be on the NBC network, which is one of the four major broadcasters in the US, and moving it to IFC, which is a small-viewership basic cable channel that most people are unfamilar with, is not impossible, but it doesn't make much sense. If you hear something about it being sold to the USA network, that would be a likely move; some of NBC's second-tier/niche programming goes there.

I'm always late turning up at the party but it looks like the UK is getting Series 3 of The IT Crowd, excellent... http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/I/itcrowd/news/news.html

Just noticed that this thread was part of this discussion but it now appears to be in it's own thread.

Purely OOC, why was a new discussion topic spawned?

Whoa. I missed this post the first time around.
I don't really know WHAT I think about this.
The original was fantastic and basically a self-contained movie stretched over a season.

I just don't know whether I want to love or hate a re-make.

I do suspect that my fondness for the Lotus Seven has its roots in this show....

I wonder what the new opening sequence will be....

I know what you mean about the Super 7, Mike. Same story here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPDO63rI1E

...and bouncing off of that segue...
http://www.gizmag.com/caterhams-new-superlight-r300/10338/

Just found this review of S3Ep1.
No date, though, so I'm not sure exactly how current it is.

Why is it that so many articles on the internet neglect to include their publishing date??
grrr.

edit:
I'm about half-way through the interview with the creator/writer that is linked at the bottom of the review. Really worth the click and time to read!
edit2:
the wikipedia article is also a fun read-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd

FWIW, S3E1 was broadcast on Channel 4 on Friday 21st Nov '08

Ah! Thanks for that. I figured the news must be fairly fresh.
I'm very excited about the third season!

I liked the episode and felt that everyone pretty much remained in character, despite what one review claimed.

My complaints are still the same as season 2:

-The laugh track is annoying
-The lighting in the IT department is too dramatic (this ruins the IT/office effect somewhat)

Absolutely brilliant, the 1st series was just as I'd imagined it in the radio version, maybe the best radio to TV conversion I've seen.

There's a decent sitcom on starring Hugh Dennis at the moment; Outnumbered on BBC2.

Most of my comedy intake is Radio 4.

I'd be interested to see what you think about the subsequent series. I liked the change of setting but I think it put a few of the original fans off a bit.

I thought the setting was really cool, there was a lot more pointless swearing/lewdness though. The wife doesn't get it at all, she likes the talking moon though.

The biggest recent disappointment on R4 was Dirk Gently, Hugh Enfield was so wrong for it.

As of the second episode of series 3, my two complaints about the first episode are now gone. The laugh track didn't detract from what was going on and the set lighting is much more natural and believable.

So far I've seen the first three episodes of series three and have enjoyed them immensely.

I just saw ep4 last night and (as usual) laughed and laughed and laughed.

Reviewing earlier episodes, though, I have to agree that sometimes the laugh track is a bit much.
Not quite as evident as if I watch a sitcom from the 70's or 80's, though.

I watched episode 6 last week. And.... Is that it? Another typical short 6-episode series?

Do the networks in the UK not make any money from these series? If they do, then why don't they produce more than a month's worth of new episodes per year?

I'm sure any fan could do with 20-something episodes if the writing stays up to scratch, but 12 would be acceptable.

Personally, I think there's plenty of subject matter to do 12-20 without it ever getting boring. So many story lines of the current season are ripe for expansion. Or you get a hint of a possible new story in one episode only to never have it materialize later.

So, who do we have to bribe for more IT Crowd episodes? Can the Queen do anything about it?

Red Dwarf is coming back to UK TV for two episodes... here.



Sorry. I know that site is UK-centric but I'm sure it won't be long before the other international broadcasters are pumping it out.

I'll just watch them the day after they air in the UK. The Internets are good for a lot more than news.

Though I do believe they'll be coming to Canada very soon, as I heard this news last night from my wife - who heard it on, of all places, the radio.

My ultimate wish would be for them to return to the setting and format of the first series. The show unfortunately took some wrong turns in later series and wasn't nearly as funny (I've watched all 8 series).


EDIT: And it turns out this was announced back in September 2008 on the official Red Dwarf site.

The series has been on PBS here in the US. Not recently.

Here again with an update via Slashdot.

AMC Releasing a New "The Prisoner" In November