"Radio Times" Guide to TV Comedy - Softcover

Lewisohn, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0563487550 ISBN 13: 9780563487555

Publisher: BBC Books, 2003

Synopsis

The Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy, by Mark Lewisohn, is the definitive and only guide to every single comedy show screened on British television.

Five years on from the widely acclaimed first edition, the guide has been fully revised and updated to 2003 and now includes more than 3000 shows – sitcom, stand-up, sketch, serial, satire, impressionism, monologue, animation and more.

Exceeding a million words over 960 pages, the book details every comedy programme shown by British TV channels from 1936 to the present day – all of those produced in Britain plus some 350 shows imported from America and elsewhere, everything from five-minute shorts in the 1930s to long-running series attracting headlines in the new millennium. Every show has its own entry, beginning with essential facts (cast list, key production credits, broadcast dates/days/times, etc) and concluding with an informative synopsis as well as an entertaining and often lively critique. There is also a raft of invaluable lists and appendices, multiple indexes, and – new to this edition – more than 80 rare comedy photographs from the Radio Times archive.

Paul Merton described the first edition as ‘thorough, opinionated and meticulously researched’ and Ronnie Barker said it was ‘wonderful and monumental’. Victoria Wood has contributed the foreword to the new edition.

Written with style, authority, wit and flair, the product of ten years’ work, Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy (the only all-inclusive encyclopedia of any British television genre) makes the perfect gift and is an absorbing read for television viewers of all ages. It is also an indispensable tool for anyone working in TV and entertainment.

About this title

Review

Television comedy is a serious business if the size of this book is anything to go by. From "A J Wentworth BA" to "Zzzap!" via "Bottle Boys" and "Fawlty Towers", every comedy programme screened on British television since transmission began in 1936 is included, and the result runs to eight hundred pages, mind-boggling in their scope. Any fears, though, of it belonging to the "dull but worthy" school of reference book are quickly dispelled upon opening it. The layout is easy to follow, with each entry listing the cast, production team and technical data before a brief synopsis and/or critique. Mark Lewisohn skilfully achieves a necessary balance between information and opinion; it takes a hardy enthusiast to spend six years researching such a subject, and consequently his tone is often positive, but he is an experienced broadcast historian (and Beatles expert, tangentially), and he keeps a pair of jackboots by the sofa to stomp all over any howlers. Lest we forget, for every "Seinfeld" there was a "Me and the Chimp". It is this diversity that will delight the browser, the fanatic and the pub quizzer alike, and Lewisohn has emerged, probably red-eyed and pale, with a valuable and entertaining guide to an ever-popular genre. -- David Vincent

Synopsis

This volume features details of every comedy show broadcast on British television, from the first shows inception in 1936 to the present day. Full broadcast details, cast information, credits, synopsis and critique are included.

Edition details

• Publisher: BBC Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0563487550
• ISBN 13: 9780563487555
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 964