I greatly enjoyed the tribute to David Croft on BBC Two the other night. I don't want to overstate my case: I found Are You Being Served? and Hi-de-Hi rather depressing, and even Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and 'Allo 'Allo! are curiously uneven. I don't think I was a great fan of Dad's Army when I was still living in England and it is only recently that I have begun to catch up with It Ain't Half Hot Mum and 'Allo 'Allo! Why, then, do I watch these sitcoms now with laughter mingled with tears? I can think of at least two reasons.
Firstly, all of the series written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry or Jeremy Lloyd are set in the past, so there is a feeling of nostalgia even before we begin! To this is added a second level of nostalgia as the series themselves cover three decades dating back to the 'sixties. Secondly, they are beautifully cast; all the characters are just right and one could not imagine anyone else in their roles. As in all the best sitcoms, they are allowed to develop over time, a case of familiarity breeding affection and expectancy rather than contempt.
I do not wish to use the great sitcoms of the past as a stick with which to beat the more modern comedies, but it seems to me that the latter, for all their brilliance and wit, often come across as heartless and curiously cold in their zeal to avoid anything that smacks of sentimentality. Based as they are on the short sketch, they can never shift gear and achieve the sort of pathos that, against all expectations, marked the last episode of, for example, It ain't Half Hot Mum, when at the end of the war the members of the Royal Artillery Concert Party return to England from Burma. As they say their goodbyes and set off for a new life in civvy street, there slowly dawns in each and every one one of them the realisation that they have just had the time of their lives.
Firstly, all of the series written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry or Jeremy Lloyd are set in the past, so there is a feeling of nostalgia even before we begin! To this is added a second level of nostalgia as the series themselves cover three decades dating back to the 'sixties. Secondly, they are beautifully cast; all the characters are just right and one could not imagine anyone else in their roles. As in all the best sitcoms, they are allowed to develop over time, a case of familiarity breeding affection and expectancy rather than contempt.
I do not wish to use the great sitcoms of the past as a stick with which to beat the more modern comedies, but it seems to me that the latter, for all their brilliance and wit, often come across as heartless and curiously cold in their zeal to avoid anything that smacks of sentimentality. Based as they are on the short sketch, they can never shift gear and achieve the sort of pathos that, against all expectations, marked the last episode of, for example, It ain't Half Hot Mum, when at the end of the war the members of the Royal Artillery Concert Party return to England from Burma. As they say their goodbyes and set off for a new life in civvy street, there slowly dawns in each and every one one of them the realisation that they have just had the time of their lives.
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