Gentle Comedies

Barrychuckle

Administrator
Staff member
One of the reasons I loved LOTSW so much was it was gentle and inoffensive, it proved you could get laughs without reverting to bad language or innuendo as many comedies sadly do these days.

I was wondering whether anyone can recommend any other series which are 'gentle' the two others that spring to mind immediately are Dear Ladies & Oh Dr Beeching! featuring our very own Steven Lewis?
 
I really enjoy Oh Dr Beeching,shame they did not do more
Clarence with Ronnie Barker with Josephine Tewson was very easy to watch
In Loving Memory with Thora and Christopher Beeney is very good
Hallelujah again with Thora
Selwyn Froggit well worth a watch
Bless Me Father with Arthur Lowe
Dinnerladies
For the Love of Ada
Uncle Silas

To name but a few
 
Brilliant list thanks Terry, I'll look up the ones I've not seen. Dinnerladies is wonderful, Victoria Wood was immensely talented and taken from us too soon. I've noticed For The Love of Ada is on Talking Pictures TV presently so I'll have to look that one up.

I'm also watching Father Brown which is gentle, suppose it's not strictly a comedy but certainly amusing in parts and very gentle !
 
A couple more I missed was Only When I Laugh with James [Likely Lads] Bolam which was really funny in parts and lasted four series , long time to be in Hospital !! The other of course which starred Richard Wilson , who was the Doctor in Only When I laugh , was of course the brilliant One Foot in the Grave
 
one that im sure you would like is called Nearest and Dearest,, starring Hilda Baker and Jimmy Jewel and Joe Gladwin, very very funny .. 42 episodes were made some are in black and white ,some of the things that Hilda Baker says just cracks me up she is one funny lady
 
Just audio not TV but "Cabin Pressure" is a lovely radio comedy series which can stand repeated listens.
 
I think most comedies before the mid 1990s were fairly gentle, or at least by today's standards.

I don't think there is any place for excessive swearing on TV or at the cinema - it shows a lack of intelligence, and ruins a show which otherwise could be enjoyed by the whole family.

Unfortunately, too many people think swearing on TV is a good thing.

Some berk on the radio today announced he thought Jimmy Tarbuck would have been funnier if he swore a lot more.

Madness, utter madness.

Back to gentle comedies - watch I Didn't Know You Cared with Robin Bailey and John Comer.

And also The Other One with Richard Briers and Michael Gambon.
 
One of my favourites, although not a sitcom, is that of Margaret Rutherford playing Jane Marple in the Agatha Christie mysteries. Her facial expressions were so funny. She only made four Marple films but we often watch them when the TV companies are putting out their usual rubbish. I bet you all know that her sidekick in the films, Mr Stringer, was her real-life husband. Such gentle humour brought into a murder mystery is pure magic. I wish she had made more Jane Marple films.
 
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its been mentioned manytimes, all the stars of these great shows are real old now, or already gone.. the new generation cant make a laugh without a boob poppin out, or swearing, or similar... Then the one that kills me is the yanks with their canned laughter.. someone walks in room - laugh... someone sits down - laugh.. someone stands up - laugh.. someone anything... laugh..
 
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