Comedy Connections
Comedy Connections is 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 | |
|---|---|
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| Narrated by | Julia Sawalha Doon Mackichan |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 47 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | 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) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 9 June 2003 – 8 November 2008 |
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 two series) and two from Channel 4.
The first series consists of six episodes while the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each. The first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha and the rest of the series by Doon Mackichan.
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 | Featured as a special feature on the US Collectors Edition DVD box-set, Australian Life lessons from Onslow DVD and Full Bouquet DVD box-set Australian releases. |
| 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 aired a similar programme 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.
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)