British Comedy

  • A trio of British comedies

    Some decades back, our local PBS station would run several British shows on Friday nights. For many Americans this was their first exposure to classic UK fare and, for me, solidified my love of British humour. (See what I did there?) Here are a few of the shows that grabbed our attention and found their… Continue reading

  • The Inimitable P.G. Wodehouse

    P G Wodehouse was a prolific writer, with nearly all of his stories set among British aristocracy and/or in the proverbial ‘polite society’ of 1920s and 30s Britain. Knowingly or not, he somewhat reflected the naïve obliviousness of a few of his characters in his real life. After moving to France and being captured by… Continue reading

  • Three Classic British Sketch Comedy Shows

    During the same period they were bringing Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster to the small screen, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were sprinkling the British airwaves with their own sketch comedy show A Bit of Fry and Laurie. If you ever thought to yourself, as I have, “Is there any such thing as ‘highbrow absurdist humor’?”… Continue reading

  • Leading Ladies of British Comedy

    The Vicar of Dibley – Reverend Geraldine Granger is assigned to the small Oxfordshire village of Dibley, its first female vicar following the Church of England’s quite tardy change of heart regarding the ordination of women. Offering spiritual guidance to the tiny town’s cast of oddballs, the vicar negotiates her way around and through entrenched… Continue reading