Comedy on TV - don’t make me laugh
TELEVISION bosses don’t invest enough in comedy says the former head of BBC comedy Jon Plowman. The big money goes into big dramas which can be sold abroad but comedy is now way down the pecking order because it is so difficult to get right. A so-so drama can be a tolerable time-waster if you have nothing better to watch but there’s no such thing as a mediocre comedy. If it’s mediocre it isn’t funny. End of story.
Another difficulty with comedy is the collective sense of humour failure that has gripped the nation. We have to watch our backs, be careful about what we laugh at in case someone decides we’re showing signs of racism, fascism, sexism or takes offence at some other “ism” that we’re not even aware existed. The only comedy that is always permissible is the lazy kind that crops up on those lame shows on Radio 4 when all you have to say is “Tory” and everyone shrieks with laughter.
If they made Fawlty Towers now would Basil be allowed to persecute Manuel or would that be racism against people from Barcelona? Are You Being Served? would have the gay lobby up in arms. Little Britain was awash with immediately recognisable stereotypes, which was precisely why it was so funny. Anything involving white middleclass males would get the thumbs down – such as Monty Python or The Goodies – from the gods of TV commissioning.
And if a comedy idea gets past the back-ofthe-envelope stage then it must now be edgy, relevant, diverse, inclusive and all those things that we know are – by no stretch of the imagination – the slightest bit funny.
I can’t imagine there would be any room now for the gentle, civilised verbal comedy of Denis Norden who died this week at the age of 96. Yet for anyone who loves a shocking pun as in “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me” he (and his co-writer Frank Muir) were unbeatable.