Comedy

The Royle Family

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Real television, made with love and infinite care by people who knew exactly what they were doing...

...and had real respect for their characters and for the viewer.” That was the verdict of The Spectator’s Simon Hoggart on The Royle Family special, demonstrating the show’s continued ability to delight viewers and critics.

“A masterclass in the rhythm and punc-tuation of comedy,” added the Sunday Times, while New Statesman’s Andrew Billen said it “came back in this one-hour special not broader, but deeper, its authors’ Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, finding profundity in the shallows of working-class sentimentality.”

Bafta declared Granada’s The Royle Family: Queen of Sheba special on BBC1 the best sitcom of the year. The win, plus awards from the RTS and Broadcasting Press Guild and a place on the Rose d’Or shortlist, put it out in front with 19 points as this year’s most creative comedy collaboration.

Second place was a tie between BBC2’s That Mitchell and Webb Look, which won the Bafta for comedy programme, and C4’s “fresh, subversive, and surreal” Green Wing in its second and final series.

This show broke new ground in comedy, thanks to virtuoso direction from Dominic Brigstocke and Tristram Shapeero, and writing from Smack the Pony creator Victoria Pile, who is now developing comedy for US network CBS. One critic lamented: “Like a homegrown ER on laughing gas, this show will be sorely missed.”

Channels and producers
The BBC continues to dominate comedy, with shows such as That Mitchell and Webb Look, The Royle Family, The Vicar of Dibley, Extras and My Family, although 2006 was a less stellar year for BBC3 with Pulling from Silver River its highest ranked show with five points (in 2005, it benefited from Little Britain and The Mighty Boosh). It was also a good year for Channel 4 comedy which took second place behind the highest -scoring creative channel, BBC1, on 50 points. C4 amassed 35 points with shows such as Green Wing and Peep Show.

In this year’s creative ranking of key comedy indies, Talkback Thames is top with 21 points, thanks to hits such as Green Wing and The IT Crowd for C4 and Man Stroke Woman for BBC3. Granada, which didn’t feature in last year’s comedy table, makes second place off the back of the Royle Family special, while Tiger Aspect (The Vicar of Dibley, The Catherine Tate Show) and Objective (Peep Show, Star Stories) maintain strong year-on-year performances and claim third and fourth place respectively.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb

BBC2 sketch comedy That Mitchell and Webb Look surprised some critics when it scooped the best comedy programme Bafta, but the series had a decent pedigree, being based on David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Sony Award-winning BBC Radio 4 show That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

Comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb have been performing together for 11 years. They met
at the Cambridge Footlights and honed their writing skills on two series of C4’s The Armstrong and Miller Show before branching out on their own. Both have also enjoyed success with comedy Peep Show, with Webb’s list of impressive TV credits including The Smoking Room, My Family and People Like Us.

Directed by David Kerr and produced by Gareth Edwards, much of That Mitchell and Webb Look was written by Mitchell and Webb themselves, with contributions from Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain (the writers behind Peep Show), James Bachman, Mark Evans, Toby Davies, Chris Pell and John Finnemore.

 “The thing we are most proud of is the fact we’ve written most of the material ourselves and we’ve always wanted to work with the sketch show format,” says Mitchell. “We write together and are pretty diplomatic when it comes to ideas and the final sketches.”

 The duo’s inspirations include British comedy heroes such as Fry and Laurie, Monty Python, Peter Cook and Spike Milligan. But That Mitchell and Webb Look is less about developing long-running characters. Says Mitchell: “At least half the show is made up of one- off sketches with characters we don’t bring back.”

 The actual writing takes place in Mitchell’s bedroom. Webb adds: “We think visually about what works on television. The stuff that really gets into your bones and stays with you is the comedy of pain.” It seems to have become their niche.  “Other people’s pain is funny,” insists Webb.

Top comedy channels and producers

Top In-house producers
1 BBC 27
2 ITV 3

Top independent producers

Top comedy programmes

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