Spaced

Single best UK sitcom of the past 397 years. FACT.
Written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, directed by Edgar Wright, and airing on Channel 4 and Comedy Central, it ran to two series between 2000-2002.
Struggling cartoonist, Tim, and struggling life-style journalist, Daisy, both find themselves homeless, meet in a cafe over their copies of Loot, and decide to pretend to be a couple in order to rent a place together from landlord Martha. The downstairs flat is occupied by struggling artist Brian - whose mother believes he is a lawyer. Tim's best mate Mike - thrown out of the TA when he was court-marshalled for invading Paris in a Tank, and Daisy's best mate Twist - who 'works in fashion' in the local laundrette, are the other main characters, with occasional appearances by Tyres - a bicycle courier by day, and 'face' of the club-scene by night, Dwayne Benzie - a former friend of Tim's who ran off with his girlfriend, and Bilbo Bagshot, who runs the local Sci-Fi shop where Tim works.
Referencing pop-culture from the childhoods of 30-something Britons, from Bagpuss to Robot Wars, Dexy's Midnight Runners to acid house, Kia Ora to soft drugs, Star Wars to Fight Club, and with walk-on rolls for the cream of the next generation of British comedy talent, its popularity was assured, and ran-over into the cult/Sci-Fi style fandom as perhaps only Red Dwarf had done previously.
A scene that opened one episode, where Tim, having been up all night taking speed and playing Resident Evil, dreams that he's creeping around his flat with a shot-gun shooting zombies, would lead Wright and Pegg to start writing a film describing the events in Crouch End at the time described in America in Dawn of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead was the result, released in 2004.