From Only Fools and Horses to Absolutely Fabulous, the 20 best UK sitcoms of all time according to fans
It seems that the best rated sitcoms weren’t those made recently, does your favourite come out tops?
British TV sitcoms are rated highly both in the UK and globally. It is often a topic of hot debate, but IMDB has compiled a list of the best rated sitcoms that have originated from inside our shores. When it comes to sitting down and watching a series, maybe you might want to pick from the list that the IMDB database of information has provided.
The ratings are based on fan reviews of each programme and there are very few titles which were made in the last decade. Most of the sitcoms listed went on for multiple series and have gained cult followings from those who consider them to be at the very top, despite what IMDB say. You might disagree with the list but the people have spoken.
Out in front as the best rated sitcom is Only Fools and Horses which follows the Trotter brothers who buy and sell almost anything, including dodgy goods, believing that they will someday get rich doing so. The famed show was written by John Sullivan and seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until the end of the show in 2003.
Set in working-class Peckham in South East London, it stars David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek “Del Boy” Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney Trotter, alongside a supporting cast. Second up is Fawlty Towers, another British television sitcom which was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979.
The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and, in 2019, it was named the greatest ever British TV sitcom by a panel of comedy experts compiled by the Radio Times.
The rest of the best are listed below, along with their IMDB ratings.
1. Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003) – 9/10
2. Fawlty Towers (1975–1979) – 8.8/10
3. Father Ted (1995–1998) – 8.7/10
Set on the fictional Craggy Island, a remote location off Ireland’s west coast, Father Ted stars Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly, alongside fellow priests Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O’Hanlon) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly).
4. Yes Minister (1980–1984) – 8.7/10
Set principally in the private office of a British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, Yes Minister follows the ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are opposed by the British Civil Service throughout.
5. Spaced (1999–2001) – 8.6/10
This series is based around the misadventures of Daisy Steiner and Tim Bisley, two twenty-something Londoners who, despite only having just met, decide to move in together after she gives up on squatting and he is kicked out by his ex-girlfriend.
6. Coupling (2000–2004) – 8.6/10
The show centres on the dating, sexual adventures, and mishaps of six friends in their early 30s, often depicting the three women and the three men each talking among themselves about the same events, but in entirely different terms.
7. Phoenix Nights (2001–2002) – 8.6/10
Starring Peter Kay, Phoenix Nights is a British sitcom about The Phoenix Club, a working men’s club in the northern English town of Bolton, Greater Manchester.
8. I’m Alan Partridge (1997–2002)- 8.6/10
A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is an inept broadcaster whose inflated sense of celebrity drives him to treachery and shameless self-promotion. He is played by Steve Coogan.
9. The Office (2001–2003) – 8.5/10
The Office is a British television mockumentary sitcom first broadcast in the UK on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme follows the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company.
Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character David Brent.
10. Black Books (2000–2004) – 8.5/10
A Channel 4 series is set inside a London bookshop and follows the lives of its owner Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), his assistant Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) and their friend Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig).
11. Early Doors (2003–2004) – 8.5/10
Early Doors is a BBC sitcom written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey, who also appear in the series playing best friends Joe and Duffy. The setting is The Grapes, a small public house in Stockport where daily life revolves around the issues of love, loneliness and blocked urinals.
12. Hancock’s Half Hour (1956–1960) – 8.5/10
Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam.
13. Red Dwarf (1988– ) – 8.4/10
In this science fiction sitcom, Dave Lister, a chicken-soup-machine repairman, is the sole survivor of a radiation leak on his mining space ship, and the last known human alive. Having come out of suspended animation 3,000,000 years into the future, Lister has very limited company in deep space in the form of a hologram of his dead shipmate, Rimmer.
They are joined by the vain Cat, who has evolved from the descendants of Lister’s pregnant cat, old and senile ship computer Holly and robot Kryten.
14. ‘Allo ‘Allo (1982–1992) – 8.4/10
Rene Artois owns a small café in France during World War II. While his café is used as a safe house for British airmen, he also runs covert operations, flirts with women and keeps his wife happy.
15. The League of Gentlemen (1999–2017) – 8.3/10
This dark, surreal comedy series follows the lives of dozens of strange inhabitants of the small, fictional town of Royston Vasey.
The diverse array of characters includes a xenophobic couple who run a local shop for local people, a transsexual taxi driver who likes talking to her customers about her conversion in great detail and a local Job Centre officer who hates the people she is assigned to train.
16. As Time Goes By (1992–2005) – 8.3/10
Lionel and Jean, separated lovers, meet by chance when Lionel takes a young woman out on a date only to learn that she is Jean’s daughter. The two lovers rediscover love once again.
17. Porridge (1974–1977) – 8.3/10
‘Porridge’ is a sitcom about the inmates of HM Prison Slade, where habitual criminal Norman Stanley Fletcher finds himself engaged in all manner of scrapes with the warders and his fellow prisoners while serving a five-year term for burglary.
18. Bottom (1991–1995) – 8.3/10
The lives of Richard Richard and Edward Elizabeth Hitler, two crude, perverted flatmates with no hope of fitting in with society.
19. Nightingales (1990– ) – 8.3/10
High up in a deserted office block, three night security guards – Sarge, Carter and Bell – find their peaceful jobs constantly disturbed.
20. Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012) – 8.2/10
Edina Monsoon, a career-minded woman with chronic alcoholism, drives her daughter Saffron crazy after Patsy, her best friend and drug addict, enters their lives.
