'She who dares, wins' - the comfort of comedy

I've never been very good at broadening my horizons when it comes to the shows I watch. Few things unnerve me more than the prospect of starting a new series on a whim; I'd much prefer to bathe in the comfort of familiarity and alternate between a select group of shows that I know and love. The truth is, I have an almighty soft spot for traditional British comedy.

I'm talking Only Fools and Horses (1981), Fawlty Towers (1975), Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em (1973), One Foot in the Grave (1990), Keeping up Appearances (1990), Father Ted (1995), Blackadder (1983) and well, I could go on! These shows have so much depth and ingenuity that I could quite happily watch nothing but these for the rest of my days. I know the dialogue of every episode of these shows like the back of my hand and it is the nostalgia as a form of a consolation that reaps a great sense of comfort for me. I become so consumed in them that it offers me a real sense of escapism and true joy.

I was born in 2002, and so I am very fortunate to have had the exposure to such a golden age of laughs. I do feel sorry for people of my generation and beyond: who are ignorant to the sheer genius of Del Boy falling through a bar and the subsequent reaction of Trigger; who can say 'I don't Believe it', without a single thought to the Meldrews; who are unaware of the fact that 'it's Bouquet' and that 'he's from Barcelona'; or who are unfamiliar with the sound of 'oooh' uttered from the mouth of F.W Spencer in the midst of chaos. Good grief, what about the individuals who don't appreciate the difference between a small cow, and one that is far away. And of course, what about the people who don't have a cunning plan...

The common ground of all these shows, and perhaps the reason they all harboured so much success, is that their central characters are so expertly devised and portrayed. One can effortlessly fall in love with their stories and nuances, to a point where the line between the actor and the character is lost. You no longer see David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst, you just see Del and Rodney. So many times I have forgotten that what I'm watching is not reality, and if I drove to Coventry, I wouldn't stumble across the Buckets or be met with the sound of Rose shouting, 'Bog off Onslow'. I have become so invested in these fabricated lives that it is incredibly easy to seek relief in their company.

Although these shows were fundamentally created to make you chuckle, or wheeze with laughter in my case, I think a rationale for why I have such an affinity for them, is that there was always a moral to be learnt. Granted some were clearer than others, but it's always there if you truly grasp the characters and their motives. I'm going to break down these individual show take-aways in another piece for my 'Top 5's' but the overwhelming message I take from all of these shows is that you should always be yourself. All of the characters at some point in these sitcoms got caught up in the ideology that they had to be something more than they were, and in fact, when they took a step back and appreciated who they truly were as an individual, that is when they were at their happiest.

Be proud of who you are and the difficulties you have to overcome. Your challenges do not define you, but the strength you show in the face of such adversity is what makes you.

L x

Post Script- I wanted to give honourable comedic mentions to Peep Show (2003), The IT Crowd (2006), The Office (UK (2001) and US (2005) - you're both welcome here), Frasier (1993), Friday Night Dinner (2011) and The Thick of It (2005). You're all absolutely brill but my focus for this piece was twentieth century British comedies. kiss kiss