- Comedy Connections
-
Comedy Connections 
Format Documentary Narrated by Julia Sawalha
Doon MackichanCountry of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 47 (List of episodes) Production Executive producer(s) Mike Bolland (Series 1-2)
Gary Chippington (Series 3)
Alan Tyler (Series 4-)
Toby Stevens (Director)Running time 30 minutes
(series 1 to 3)
40 minutes
(series 4 to 6)Broadcast Original channel BBC One Original run 9 June 2003 – 8 November 2008 External links Website Comedy Connections was a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows (hence "connections"). The show featured interviews with some of the cast and crew of the subject programme, as well as footage from the series.
Comedy Connections mostly documented BBC comedies and sitcoms, although two programmes have been from ITV (three counting Men Behaving Badly which moved from ITV to the BBC after one series) and two from Channel 4.
The first series consisted of six episodes, however the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each, the first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha, however the rest of the series were been narrated by Doon Mackichan.
Contents
Series Summary
Series Episodes Air Date Series 1 6 9 June - 14 July 2003 Series 2 8 21 June - 30 August 2004 Series 3 8 21 February - 11 April 2005 Series 4 8 6 March - 8 May 2006 Series 5 8 12 January - 2 March 2007 Series 6 8 18 July - 4 September 2008 Episodes
The first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha and the third series onwards by Doon Mackichan.
Series 1 (2003)
Overall # Ep # Title Airdate Notes 1 1 Porridge 9 June 2003 2 2 The Good Life 16 June 2003 3 3 Are You Being Served? 23 June 2003 4 4 Men Behaving Badly 30 June 2003 5 5 Butterflies 7 July 2003 6 6 Only Fools and Horses 14 July 2003 Series 2 (2004)
Overall # Ep # Title Air date Notes 7 1 The Goodies 21 June 2004 8 2 Birds of a Feather 28 June 2004 9 3 Father Ted 12 July 2004 Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 10 4 The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin 18 July 2004 Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 11 5 Keeping Up Appearances 26 July 2004 12 6 The Young Ones 2 August 2004 13 7 Hi-de-Hi! 9 August 2004 14 8 Red Dwarf 30 August 2004 This episode was the last to be narrated by Julia Sawalha and was included as a special feature on the Red Dwarf Series 8 DVD. Series 3 (2005)
Overall # Ep # Title Airdate Notes 15 1 Monty Python's Flying Circus 21 February 2005 Doon Mackichan becomes narrator from this episode 16 2 Spitting Image 28 February 2005 17 3 Three of a Kind 7 March 2005 18 4 Harry Enfield's Television Programme 14 March 2005 19 5 Goodness Gracious Me 21 March 2005 20 6 Not the Nine O'Clock News 28 March 2005 21 7 A Bit of Fry & Laurie 4 April 2005 22 8 The Two Ronnies 11 April 2005 Series 4 (2006)
Overall # Ep # Title Airdate Notes 23 1 The Fast Show 6 March 2006 Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 24 2 dinnerladies 13 March 2006 25 3 Drop the Dead Donkey 20 March 2006 26 4 Shooting Stars 3 April 2006 27 5 To the Manor Born 10 April 2006 28 6 'Allo 'Allo! 24 April 2006 29 7 That Was The Week That Was 1 May 2006 30 8 Ever Decreasing Circles 8 May 2006 Series 5 (2007)
Overall # Ep # Title Airdate Notes 31 1 One Foot in the Grave 12 January 2007 32 2 Bread 19 January 2007 33 3 It Ain't Half Hot Mum 26 January 2007 34 4 The New Statesman 2 February 2007 35 5 Don't Wait Up 9 February 2007 36 6 The Office 16 February 2007 Featured as a special feature on the 10th Anniversary DVD box-set. 37 7 Just Good Friends 23 February 2007 38 8 Alas Smith and Jones 2 March 2007 Series 6 (2008)
Overall # Ep # Title Airdate Notes 39 1 Till Death Us Do Part 18 July 2008 40 2 Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister 25 July 2008 41 3 The Liver Birds 1 August 2008 42 4 Ripping Yarns 8 August 2008 43 5 Rab C. Nesbitt 15 August 2008 44 6 Sorry! 22 August 2008 45 7 Dad's Army 29 August 2008 46 8 Little Britain 4 September 2008 Special
Overall # Title Airdate Notes 47 Geoffrey Perkins 8 November 2008 The only special episode based on a person Spin-offs based on other TV generations
In 2005, the BBC broadcast Drama Connections, which used the same format, looked at the history of popular British television dramas. However, only one series was made and shown.
In 2007, the BBC broadcast Movie Connections, focusing on popular British films. A second series was broadcast in early 2009.
In 2010, ITV copied the idea for a show called "Drama Trails", narrated by James Nesbitt.
Other show based on the Comedy Connections format
In 2008, ITV launched their own documentary series under the title Comedy Classics mostly documenting ITV's sitcoms and comedies. A second series is currently in production and will air in 2012.
Series 1 (2008)
- On the Buses (9 September 2008)
- Rising Damp (23 September 2008)
- Doctor in the House (7 October 2008)
- Brass (14 October 2008)
- Duty Free (18 November 2008)
- The New Statesman (2 December 2008)
Series 2 (2012)
- TBA 2011
- TBA 2011
- TBA 2011
- TBA 2011
- TBA 2011
- TBA 2011
External links
Categories:- 2003 in British television
- 2003 television series debuts
- 2000s British television series
- BBC Scotland television programmes
- BBC television documentaries
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
