# Britain's Best Sitcom

Britain's Best Sitcom was a BBC media campaign in which television viewers were asked to decide the best British situation comedy. Viewers could vote via telephone, SMS, or BBC Online. This first round of voting was conducted in 2003, after which the BBC published a list of the top 100 selections. From this list, they produced a 12-episode television series broadcast by BBC Two from January through to March 2004.
The series was a retrospective that examined the history and qualities of the contending programmes. In the first episode, Jonathan Ross summarised the progress of the poll and presented video clips from the 50 sitcoms that received the most votes. Each of the next ten weekly episodes, one hour in length, focused on one sitcom. In each episode, a different celebrity presenter advocated a particular sitcom, delivering 20 reasons why it deserved viewers' votes. The sitcom's writers and actors, as well as celebrity viewers, also shared their own perspectives and memories. In the 90-minute series finale, transmitted live, Jonathan Ross announced the top sitcom to be Only Fools and Horses, with Blackadder in second place and The Vicar of Dibley in third place.
Notably, all finalists were BBC productions, with ITV and Channel 4 sitcoms not appearing (Father Ted, the highest-ranked non-BBC sitcom, was at number 11).

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Presented by | Written by | Original release date |
| 1 | "The Launch" | Jonathan Ross | – | 10 January 2004 (2004-01-10) |
| Jonathan Ross recaps the 50 top British sitcoms, as determined by an electronic poll conducted in 2003. |||||
| 2 | "Blackadder" | John Sergeant | Ben Elton, Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson | 17 January 2004 (2004-01-17) |
| John Sergeant advocates Blackadder, a series of historical farces that premiered in 1983 on BBC1. |||||
| 3 | "Fawlty Towers" | Jack Dee | John Cleese and Connie Booth | 24 January 2004 (2004-01-24) |
| Jack Dee advocates Fawlty Towers, a comedy set in a dysfunctional hotel that premiered on BBC2 in 1975 and ran for two series. |||||
| 4 | "The Good Life" | Ulrika Jonsson | John Esmonde and Bob Larbey | 31 January 2004 (2004-01-31) |
| Ulrika Jonsson advocates The Good Life, a sitcom about a middle-class English couple who make an attempt at farming at their house in the southwest London suburb of Surbiton. It premiered on BBC1 in 1975. |||||
| 5 | "Yes Minister" | Armando Iannucci | Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn | 7 February 2004 (2004-02-07) |
| Armando Iannucci advocates Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, a political satire that premiered on BBC2 in 1980 and its sequel. |||||
| 6 | "One Foot in the Grave" | Rowland Rivron | David Renwick | 14 February 2004 (2004-02-14) |
| Rowland Rivron advocates One Foot in the Grave, a dark comedy about the trials of an elderly curmudgeon and his longsuffering wife. It premiered on BBC1 in 1990. |||||
| 7 | "Porridge" | Johnny Vaughan | Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais | 21 February 2004 (2004-02-21) |
| Johnny Vaughan advocates BBC1's Porridge (1975–1978) and its sequel, Going Straight (1978). The programmes concern different aspects of prison life, including – in Going Straight – acclimatisation to a changed family life and outside world. |||||
| 8 | "Only Fools and Horses" | David Dickinson | John Sullivan | 28 February 2004 (2004-02-28) |
| David Dickinson advocates Only Fools and Horses, which centres on an ambitious Cockney market trader called Del Boy. It premiered on BBC1 in 1981. |||||
| 9 | "Open All Hours" | Clarissa Dickson Wright | Roy Clarke | 6 March 2004 (2004-03-06) |
| Clarissa Dickson Wright advocates Open All Hours, which premiered on BBC2 in 1973. It concerns a South Yorkshire shopkeeper and his wistful nephew. |||||
| 10 | "The Vicar of Dibley" | Carol Vorderman | Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer | 13 March 2004 (2004-03-13) |
| Carol Vorderman advocates The Vicar of Dibley, in which Geraldine, the buxom new vicar of a small village in Oxfordshire, lives among a colourful cast of characters there – and encounters some opposition. BBC1 premiered The Vicar of Dibley in 1994. |||||
| 11 | "Dad's Army" | Phill Jupitus | Jimmy Perry and David Croft | 20 March 2004 (2004-03-20) |
| Phill Jupitus advocates Dad's Army. Set during the Second World War, it introduces viewers to an unlikely group of Home Guard volunteers on England's south coast. The series ran from 1968 on BBC1. |||||
| 12 | "The Live Final" | Jonathan Ross | – | 27 March 2004 (2004-03-27) |
| Jonathan Ross announces which British sitcom received the most votes from viewers. |||||

## Results

| No. | Title | Years broadcast | Number of votes |
| 1 | Only Fools and Horses | 1981–2003 | 342,426 |
| 2 | Blackadder | 1983–1989 | 282,106 |
| 3 | The Vicar of Dibley | 1994–2007 | 212,927 |
| 4 | Dad's Army | 1968–1977 | 174,138 |
| 5 | Fawlty Towers | 1975–1979 | 172,066 |
| 6 | Yes Minister | 1980–1984 | 123,502 |
| 7 | Porridge | 1974–1977 | 93,902 |
| 8 | Open All Hours | 1976–1985 | 67,237 |
| 9 | The Good Life | 1975–1978 | 40,803 |
| 10 | One Foot in the Grave | 1990–2000 | 31,410 |