The Tepid Take

In one episode of Taskmaster, where the contestants are invited to bring in the "most spectacular picture of themselves", Hugh Dennis wears a picture of his face, on his face. He says he wears it because Hugh Dennis would never wear a mask of himself - so people assume that it must be someone else behind the mask. Hugh Dennis's admittedly banal picture of himself turns out to be an effective demonstration of the difference between comedians and people: the Hugh Dennis out doing his shopping, wearing the mask of Hugh Dennis, actually isn't the same person as the person he's wearing a mask of. He's wearing a mask of Stage Dennis; he's wearing the mask of character comedy. Hugh Dennis came last in the round for most spectacular picture. But his mask is a perfect demonstration of the wider context. Character comedy is very popular in the UK. The gist of the idea is that the comedian is playing a character that the comedian has created. Some of the most famous...

Some sitcoms are more successful than others. Some run their course and never come back – like E4’s Wasted, which never really got the cult status it deserved. Some only get a short run because their creators have bigger ambitions – like Edgar Wright’s Spaced, which got the cult status it deserved, about 20 years ago. And some sitcoms – like Peep Show or Fresh Meat – have this immense staying power. One of the things that I think crafts a great sitcom, one that can retain viewers from series to series, is a sense of emotional resonance. Fresh Meat was definitely funny and occasionally also cruel, but it mixed light comedy with tension, creating difficult situations out of overarching jokes. Student sleeping with her professor? What if she falls in love with his son, without knowing they’re related? And then loses both of them, dealing a crushing blow to her academic career? You could argue that the first half of that synopsis is amusing, but it’s backed by the cutting counterpoint o...

The first “game show” ever to air took place in 1938, in the United Kingdom. It was called Spelling Bee, and consisted of a live enactment of said game. However, this ground-breaking first was notably short-lived, and ran for five episodes at most before ceasing production. Despite this commercial failure, the precedent had been set, and game shows soon grew strong in anglophone spheres on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps the most important knock-on effect of game shows' popularity was the launchpad they created for what we now call “panel shows”: game shows with celebrities, now broadly stand-up comedy vehicles where the points scored hardly matter at all. John Lloyd might be seen as the catalyst for this revolution, given his executive role in the creation of – among others – the News Quiz, QI, and Have I Got News for You. The contemporary panel show bears stark resemblance to its modern game show relatives, such as Take Me Out, Big Brother or even Eggheads. The notion of...

The history of the “British Institution” is a fuzzy one. Some of the things we consider most British, of course, hold their roots in faraway lands, such as fish and chips or curry culture. Only once we take things down a notch and start laying claim to more banal inventions such as the sandwich do we find our place; inventions we pioneered, only to lose their legacy as other great powers laid their claims. While the Earl of Sandwich remains a memorable innovator, the humble notion of putting some meat in some bread was preceded by the kebab and superceded by the hamburger. Only in its most banal form does the British sandwich maintain its esteem , in giant factories, at the hands of companies constantly trying to find new ways to keep salad leaves fresh and tomatoes from going soggy.  It is in this banality, tied into an oft unexpected ingenuity, that the British Institution often sits. The telephone box, now a hotspot for free Wi-Fi . Doctor Who, now a harbinger for social cha...