A situation comedy, often shortened to the portmanteau sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often humorous dialogue. Such programs originated in radio, but today, sitcoms are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. This form also includes mockumentaries such as The Office and Parks and Recreation. Some of the characters, pratfalls, routines and situations as preserved in eyewitness accounts and in the texts of the plays themselves, are remarkably similar to those in earlier modern sitcoms such as I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. The first television sitcom is said to be Pinwright's Progress, ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947. A British sitcom is a situation comedy programme produced for British television. Although styles of sitcom have changed over the years they tend to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. British sitcoms are typically produced in one or more series of six episodes. Most such series are conceived and developed by one or two writers. The majority of British sitcoms are 30 minutes long and are recorded on studio sets in a multiple-camera setup. A subset of British comedy consciously avoids traditional situation comedy themes and storylines to branch out into more unusual topics or narrative methods. Novel approaches to the situation can be seen in Blackadder and Yes Minister, moving what is often a domestic or workplace genre into the corridors of power. Another popular development in recent years has been the mockumentary. The 1970s is often regarded as the golden era of British sitcom. Well-remembered series include John Cleese and Connie Booth's farcical Fawlty Towers, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's self-sufficiency comedy The Good Life. Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, a sequel to the earlier show, surpassed the original, while the same writers provided Ronnie Barker with his most successful sitcom vehicle, Porridge. Barker also starred in the very popular Open All Hours, written by Roy Clarke. Clarke's long-running Last of the Summer Wine began in 1973 and ended in 2010, becoming the world's longest running sitcom. The commercial station ITV had popular successes with Rising Damp, Man About the House and George and Mildred. Rising Damp's star, Leonard Rossiter, also played the lead role in the BBC's highly popular The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. The decline in cinema attendance in this period meant that many of these series were turned into cinema films; the first film version of On the Buses was the biggest hit at the British box office in 1971. According to Jeff Evans, On the Buses is a "cheerfully vulgar comedy" in which "leering and innuendo dominate." Some of the network's other ratings successes from this era are 'politically incorrect' too.

• published: 16 Nov 2015
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