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Welcome to my not-very-hidden page all about series! Usually TV-based, below are some highly recommended [and occasionally less-known] series that I have encountered over the years...
How does Doctor Bernofski know which zoo it came from?
He knows everything.
Oh, I wouldn't like that, it'd take the mystery out of life.
Undoubtedly the TV genesis of my early sense of humour; alongside ISIHAC on the radio, the Flying Circus gave me all the confidence I needed in my youth to make jokes, and to seek the less-than-usual punchline.
And also to occasionally drop in a spot of pub philosophy to engage my brain in those sort of thoughts.
But why go all the way to London when you can make a fortune lying on your back?
And so begins the triumphant second series of Blackadder (the first I am still fond of, especially the subversive last line of episode three), and proved my comfort viewing throughout my youth, especially on days when I was home sick from school.
Here I learned that pretty much anything can be made humourous, given the right context. An avenue of comedy I would definitely delve deeper into later on.
You know, you let a wolf save your life, they make you pay and pay and pay...
I can't remember if I picked up Terry Pratchett's 'Men at Arms' first, or caught 'Due South' on Saturday telly; both feature a morally-straight man of the law, who genuinely believes in the power of good.
This version in Constable Benton Fraser (of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police) is assigned as a liason with the Chicago police department, resulting in some humourous North American cross-border cultural observations; but also a suprisingly engaging and developed long narrative layered above a police procedural. Light and comfort viewing; with some fabulous moments of wonder. Thank you kindly.
Don't you see I'm trying to help you, CJ? What good is life if it's hell for those who have to live it?
Probably my first real introduction to black comedy; whilst I'd known from the finale of Blackadder that humour can be used about dark subjects - I hadn't realised that you could explore whole life philosophies and - through the magic of television - upend them.
Helmed by the masterfully unique Leonard Rossiter, this is a curious if slightly dated entry.
Remember, my friends, God is dead. Marx is also dead. But the market lives. The market must become your new God.
Another singular talent in Rik Mayall - again, introduced to me via Blackadder - but in a vehicle of his own. Whilst Yes Minister was the cleverer satire that is reborn in the Thick of It (see below); this was a truly fantastical sitcom.
The photo is actually taken from the subsequent stage show that I had the immense pleasure in seeing Mayall in live; a scenario I'd only dreamed of experiencing via Bottom 3 Live on DVD.
You don't disapprove Jeeves?
It is hardly my place to say sir.
I know it's hardly your place to say Jeeves, that doesn't normally stop you.
Another staple of my 'off school and sick' viewings; this cosy look back to a time of vast social divide, yet focussing on the petty goings on in the lives of the upper classes, through the lense of precious Bertie Wooster, and his invaluable gentlemen's gentlemen, Jeeves.
Have you never seen "Vertigo"?
Seen it? I've got it.
It would be criminal to not highlight the cosy genius of Victoria Wood; so here is - in my view - her masterpiece.
It may well appear a paint-by-numbers sitcom set in the canteen of a factory, a little out of time; and stuffed with familiar tropes - but the charm, wit and love at the heart of Wood's writing really does elevate it to something special.
One... two... fire.
Hey, what happened to three?
Such is the way of pre-digital television in the UK, back when I only really had access to four or five TV stations; my post-school routine was very often seeing whatever BBC Two had to offer at 6'o'clock; and one fateful day - what it had to offer was Farscape.
Very much a sci-fi show of its own (and featuring puppets from the Jim Henson workshop no less!); it was ultimately an ensemble piece about the various flavours of beings on-board Moya, their stories, and how they all ended up figuring out how to exist together - or not.
Well, let me guess! You're either lost, or desperately searching for a good tailor.
Another of the BBC Two revelations was - in retrospect - a more widely-known sci-fi show, and one I will argue is the finest of the wider Star Trek universe.
Whilst I had watched and enjoyed Star Trek: TNG; DS9 held it's sway because of its long story arcs, and compellingly complex characters.
And definitely not just because I nodded at Captain Sisko (aka Avery Brooks) in a Milton Keynes shopping centre once...
Hello, hello. What's going on? What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here.
One of those TV shows you find out about often through the playground, or just by catching a random episode at some random time on telly. So I can't remember exactly my way into the world of Royston Vasey; but I know that once I realised the cast's origins in Leeds - and feeling a locational kinship once I was at university - I took in the show from start to finish and enjoyed its dark humour immensely.
And I thoroughly enjoyed their subsequent live shows (albeit only on DVD), and their enjoyable reprise in much more recent years [in between following their subsequent efforts; see Pyschoville and Inside Number Nine!].
I've got too many legs!
There came a time when the ideas of sex and dating and relationships and growing up were coalescing; and whilst shows like 'Friends' brought a wholesome and broad-brush approach to these topics, there was a brasher and bolder approach from Steven Moffat (he of future 'Doctor Who' and 'Sherlock' fame), that was much funnier and also played around with show structure in ways I hadn't seen before; stretching the rules in new ways to create something really fun.
Just don't bother with the fourth and final series...
Join me again next week on this episode of "Let's make no fucking sense" when I will be waxing an owl.
Fairly hot on the heels of 'Coupling' came something truly special and format-breaking. 'Green Wing' ostensibly follows Tamsin Grieg's Caroline starting her new job at a hospital. However, the hospital is staffed entirely by slightly surreal characters; the whole show is soundtracked for oddity, and whilst there is a plausible love story that runs throughout and packs real punches in places; the absurdity of many of the characters still doesn't seem to prevent this show from being a really unique masterpiece.
I ran the only way I knew how: by placing one leg in front of the other in quick succession.
And whilst Green Wing created it's own unique genre; Garth Marenghi's Darkplace pulled off a more familiar trick of a show-within-a-show, with an added twist of 'looking back' at a lost tv series, which - only once I began to see the same actors appear in more contemporary shows - had me enraptured.
Why don't these people say anything?
I suspect they are working class, Winona. Many people below a certain level of breeding just point at each other and fight.
If you got me to predict what would be the next show that came along and captured my imagination, 'cut-out-animation of escaped labratory-experimented animals' would not be on my bingo card.
And yet, here we ended up, for one glorious series in 2004. Quite clearly the hallucination of someone, but also a somehow plausibly charming story of a ragtag bunch of characters overcoming the often physical restrictions that they had, by way of being, well, talking animals.
Definitely a cultural pre-cursor to 'Mongrels' also.
Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off.
Whilst I enjoyed 'Yes Minister' in a retrospective way; it was very much 'The Thick Of It' (and it's commendable spin-off film 'In The Loop') that firmed up my ideas around how government is most likely to operate in the then climate of the UK. Oddly reassuring that many political insiders commented that was the case too; and up until the crumbling of democracy since the 2010s, it was funny to laugh along.
Maybe less so these days, but it will be nostalgic to look back through the eyes of Tucker and co.
At section 9, we aim to please.
Arriving at precisely the point my head was filled with philosophy from my uni degree, and building on my own ideas about notions of self and interaction with the developing digital world; could there not have been a more perfect combination of action, character development, philosophy, an astonishing soundtrack, complex(!) storylines and the occasional stand-alone feature.
Originally watched through questionable channels on the newly developing internet; the fan-subbed version was a perfect introduction that I treasured once I could get my hands on the full two series on DVD. Remarkable.
Is there anything from NASA?
Often seen as the bridge between 'The League of Gentlemen' and 'Inside Number Nine'; I hadn't really been around for the start of TLOG, so experiencing this intriguing new series with shockingly disturbing chracters (albeit laced with black humour) was a real treat.
Leaving the world after just two series felt harsh, but it did pave the way for 'Inside Number Nine' which also acknowledged Pyschoville's existence in a really touching way, so I'll forgive Reece and Steve for that.
You said it yourself: the world is going to hell any second. Before it does, give us a moment of grace.
Swerving tone here, this stand-alone special from within the Dr Who universe really jumped out as something more grown-up and sobering (although Dr Who has flashes of this at times). The fact this was a single contained week of a show just added to the drama around it, and gave me a real catharsis at the end.
Wiggly string.
Once again, 'an almost entirely puppet-driven comedy about the various animals that live on the periphery of human life, and what they make of it all' was not on my bingo card. But this delightful combination of puppets, swearing and the occasional musical number was a short-lived delight.
Nice to see some of the cast pop up in the BBC Comedy Prom several years later too!
I know people. We love humiliation. We can't not laugh.
Back in the day when it was fictionally absurd to portray the British Prime Minister comitting a sex act with a pig, 'Black Mirror' stepped out onto the scene and immediately became the benchmark for critical parody and examination of our phone & tech-based futures.
Unsurprisingly, my black comedy tendencies were handled well here - although some of the darker and more horror elements did have me holding back in fear a little!
Always a fun series to dip back into.
We’re building something, here, detective, we’re building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.
I've had a few series sold to me as the best of all time; 'The Sopranos' I couldn't get into (why should I be empathetic to any of them?), and 'Breaking Bad' I enjoyed but didn't feel the need to revisit it. But 'The Wire' is certainly for me the greatest show to come out of America, which is saying something for a show who's first few episodes I really had to pay attention to the dialogue and what was going on.
But once I got into it; I was hooked - burning through as many episodes I could, and then pausing to catch my breath now and then.
I should really pay this another visit...
Where is Jessica Hyde?
That was the quote oft-repeated in the trailers for this mystery series; and all I knew about it was that one of the leads from Torchwood was in it, along with one of the leads from Four Lions. What I didn't appreciate until the show aired was how particularly pretty it would look. Such bold colouring and palettes involved.
The show itself continued as a mystery, and only towards the conclusion of the first series did it become clearer what the main story was going to become. The season two opener was a clever time jump that added context, and despite the occasionally jarring shot when I recognised the filming location in Leeds(!), I was gripped towards the end - or at least to the ending we got. Evidently a third planned series was cancelled, so we never got a true resolution.
Still worth appearing on this list though!
It's like the backroom of Cinderella's at Wakefield. Has anyone got any poppers or lube?
The latest culmination of the talents of half of The League of Gentlemen, and unlike many other shows; a succesful anthology series who's only continuation is the presence of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton in the episode's cast (more or less), that somehow manages to remain a unique offering on TV, despite no throughline other than those two creative leaders (and - admittedly - much of the crew also; maintaining the look and feel of the overall series).
Neatly wrapped up too in the final episode.
Harry, I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
Although this premiered in the early 90s, I came to this show much later on - and I think I benefitted from that. At the encouragement of a good friend, I finally stepped into Twin Peaks in the 2010s, and found it summarily unique.
Yes you can cite many many shows that take inspiration from some of the vibes of the show, but I can't quite put my finger on anything that precedes Twin Peaks directly.
And once you include 'The Return' released in 2017, you have an unforgettable and remarkably still unique experience.
