Is today’s TV comedy actually funny?

I AGREE with Christopher Hart’s assessment of the current state of British comedy (Mail). I wrote for Radio 2’s The News Huddlines for several years until it was taken off air in 2001. I had to learn to craft the gags so they fitted the format and target audience. It took around 12 months to get it right. Youth, not life experience, is now the essential requirement for a comedy writer. Is humour the sole prerogative of the under-30s? The demise of The News Huddlines was attributed to Roy Hudd’s role as Archie Shuttleworth in Coronation Street, but Roy says he was taken to lunch by a BBC boss and told to be ‘more like Jonathan Ross’. Roy, then 66, left in disgust. The success of Mrs Brown’s Boys is down to the fact that a distinct warmth and steadfastness pervades the programme: qualities evident in many great sitcoms — think of Harold and Albert Steptoe, and Arkwright and Granville in Open All Hours. And how old is Brendan O’Carroll, creator of this successful programme? Sixty-one. I was worried that it was just me who had lost my sense of humour (Mail). I can’t abide modern ‘comedians’, or stand-ups on TV. a lot of modern stand-ups just have a general idea for their gig, make it up as they go along, and seem to believe continuous use of foul language produces comedy de facto. It doesn’t. It’s unrehearsed, amateurish and lacks finesse. The best comedy has always been well-rehearsed: people like Ken Dodd, Morecambe and wise and Tommy Cooper rehearsed it all, even the ‘ad libs’.