Old TV. Old comedy. Old TV comedy.
Disclaimer: this is a personal post, and does not represent the views of the BBC. What do most people use YouTube for? Surely, EVERYBODY uses it for the exact reason I do: to watch lots of lovely old BBC2 continuity from 1992. Such as the below video, uploaded by Andrew Wiseman. The whole thing is [ ]
My recent four-part analysis of Mary was one of the hardest things I ve ever written for Dirty Feed. When I m writing stupid shit about The Young Ones, I have a base level of knowledge about the show in my head. With Mary, I was writing virtually from scratch, and that s before you even get into [ ]
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Last time, I asked a simple question: Why is it that Mary attracts so much negative comment today, with people falling over themselves to slag it off, when I ve rather enjoyed what I ve seen of it so far? Do I simply have terrible taste [ ]
In a world where television isn t always all I want it to be, it s delightful when something feels 100% entirely right. So it was on Sunday night, where the BBC broadcast its closing montage for the World Cup. BBC Sport always do these wonderfully I have a soft spot for the one made for [ ]
It s weird, the things you remember from when you were a teenager. For instance, I used to devour TV reviews published in newspapers, whether I watched the shows in question or not. There are so many which stuck in my head, which I ve never been able to trace again. I recall a particularly mean-spirited review [ ]
Remember when my friend Duncan Newmarch was Stuck in the 80s? Well, he s back, with a new show for the weekend. Or is a show from four decades ago? Or is it both?
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Previously, we talked about the history of Mary Tyler Moore s 1978 variety series Mary, and analysed a half-finished episode hanging around online which was never transmitted. You would think that the story surrounding this show is already complicated enough, and it couldn t get any [ ]
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Last time, I left you all with something of a poser. Clips from three episodes of Mary are sitting on YouTube in various forms. Are these the same three episodes which were broadcast back in 1978? Certainly, most people seem to have either assumed [ ]
The problem with finally getting round to watching loads of US sitcoms over the past year or so is that I immediately want to turn Dirty Feed into a fan site for each of them. Sadly, I have zero time to do this. In a parallel universe, somebody very rich is paying me to spend [ ]
There comes a moment in every electronic music fan s journey when they discover Patrick Cowley. Andrew Ryce, liner notes for Hard Ware (2025) I m trying to think of the first time I heard of Patrick Cowley. I highly suspect it was one of the typical routes: from his epic 15-minute remix of I Feel Love , [ ]
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four On the 24th September 1978, a brand new Mary Tyler Moore variety series premiered on CBS. Simply titled Mary1, there was a full season order in place; many reports at the time suggested at least 22 shows, with an option for two more. After [ ]
In my day job, working in linear television, I have to deal quite a lot with compliance. On occasion, I even have had to issue my own official content warnings for various TV programmes. It can, on occasion, be an exasperating experience. Of course, viewers need warning about certain kinds of content. But when a [ ]
Sometimes it feels like the whole internet is a calculated exercise in talking at cross-purposes. Take for instance this post on Bluesky, by author Tom Cox: No other word has done more damage to the craft of writing in recent years than content . Even if you’re using the word “content” ironically, or as a cute [ ]
As long-time readers of this site will know, I have a fascination with television pilots. Let s be specific about what I mean, here: a true pilot isn t just the first episode of a TV show. It s something made separately from the rest of the series, as a first attempt at an idea. I find those [ ]
For anybody who reads this1, it will not have escaped your attention that Dirty Feed has been pretty quiet over the last couple of months. Quieter than it s been for nearly a decade, in fact. The reasons for this are numerous. I have a brand new job which is taking up a lot of my [ ]
I don t let the old Acorn/RISC OS fanboy in me out very much any more. At least, not in polite company. But I have to admit, when reading a blog post recently from somebody around my age1, which was complaining about how unsafe they felt buying computers from the US due to the Trump administration, [ ]
Seth Godin, Freelancer empathy : When phone cameras got good enough, portrait photographers scolded people who took their own headshots. And when the Mac got pretty good at typesetting, professional designers pointed out that people who can’t tell a font from a typeface and don’t care about kerning should avoid it. Professional translators bring humanity and [ ]
MARY RICHARDS: I think you had a dream. You dreamed that you started from nowhere, and you made it all the way to the top. Became rich, successful in every way, loved and recently, you ve begun to become aware that time is slipping away, and your life has turned out a little differently from the [ ]
Roses are red Violets are purty Right, news have been given An extra 30
I have to be honest: I ve been feeling a little guilty over the past couple of weeks. When I fell in love with The Dick Van Dyke Show, I wrote something which tried to explain at least some of what I loved about it. With The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I leapt straight into stupid [ ]
It may not have escaped your attention that this year, Dirty Feed is taking a slightly different tack to normal. Yes, I m currently on a Mary Tyler Moore kick. And if you think writing about programmes which were never that successful in the UK is a bad idea, just wait until I get onto Mary s [ ]
The great thing about YouTube is that it s full of unusual clips of TV programmes which used to be difficult or impossible to see any other way. The less great thing about YouTube: often, these clips are given little or no context. With that in mind: what exactly is the following, ostensibly from The Mary [ ]
The problem with coming of age as an archive TV nerd through Red Dwarf DVDs is that you get thoroughly spoilt. You expect every single sitcom release to feature a copious selection of deleted scenes. Sometimes you hit lucky; the Seinfeld releases are absolutely incredible. But for older shows, you re pretty much always going to [ ]
In 2025, I watched all of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-65) and its spiritual successor The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77), with a chaser of Rhoda (1974-78). That s such a concentrated burst of greatness that I feel like anything I watch this year will be a disappointment. So while I scrabble around for something [ ]
Something unexpected has happened with The Peter Serafinowicz Show over the years. For a programme which had just eight episodes, one of which was a Best Of, and which has never been repeated by the BBC1, the show has become a fixed reference point for certain strata of comedy fans. When I first watched it [ ]
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 My plan for 2025: to not just write about comedy on here. What actually happened in 2025: I mainly wrote about comedy on here. Oh well. * * * The Voice of Youth The tale of [ ]
(You ll need to have read this piece on the Fawlty Towers episode Basil the Rat and its two-day recording schedule, along with this short follow-up, in order to get anything out of this post. Also, fair warning: we get deep into the weeds with this one.) Somebody recently emailed me with a reasonable enough question: [ ]
Every so often, when struggling to analyse what I love about a TV show, I reach for the phrase a complete comedy . It s a bit of a shitty, half-arsed idea. Let me at least try to explain what the hell I mean. Some shows are built to do very specific things. Fawlty Towers is one [ ]
Researching a programme like The Golden Shot (1967-75) is a nightmare. As I pointed out last time, for a show which ran for hundreds of editions, vanishingly few of them actually survive. Even fewer are generally available to view. You re left scrabbling for what you can find in old newspapers and magazines and the odd [ ]
If history is written by the winners, then television history is written by the survivors. Survivors of magnetic tape or celluloid, that is. And The Golden Shot, which originally ran on ITV between 1967-75, has a frankly pitiful rate of survival. Which means that sometimes, the only record of something you really, really want to [ ]
If you re the kind of person who reads this site, it s very likely that you have childhood memories of Bob Monkhouse. Mine? Definitely his Central game shows of the 1990s, such as The $64,000 Question and the revival of Celebrity Squares.1 Oh, and my Mum ringing up the BBC after an appearance on Have I [ ]
This week, I have watched two things from 1977. One was The Spy Who Loved Me. The other was a mostly-forgotten BBC South West regional programme called Zodiac and Co. You will be unsurprised to hear I have more to say about one of those things than the other. Zodiac and Co., best described as [ ]
Last time, we talked about how Basil the Rat was unique among Fawlty Towers episodes, in that it had two days in the studio. But there is another thing which makes it unique: the episode was also shot in front of two separate studio audiences. Both of these audience sessions were on the second day [ ]
What is special about the Fawlty Towers episode known variously as Rat , Rats , and nowadays as Basil the Rat ?1 Most obviously: the episode was delayed due to strike action at the BBC. Originally intended for broadcast on the 26th March 1979, it finally made it to air on the 25th October 1979, billed in the [ ]
One problem I ve always had with Dirty Feed is my desire to move onto the next big thing. That may sound a tad ridiculous, when the next big thing appears to be Fawlty Towers. Or, indeed, Love Thy Neighbour. What I mean is: I m always pushing on to write about the next thing which captures [ ]
I received an email the other day. It was sent to my Substack email address, and was titled last post thoughts . It read as follows: hi John, gotta say, enjoyed the last post. the mix of archive nitpicking and personal notes was kinda brilliant and felt very real. I dont have a formal pitch, just [ ]
Doing a parody of Fawlty Towers would, at first glance, seem a most inadvisable thing. Parodies of comedy are always a tricky proposition; parodies of one of the funniest comedies ever made is even more so. This hasn t stopped many of the great and the good attempting it over the decades. So to celebrate 50 [ ]
What is the most famous ending to an episode of Fawlty Towers? Surely Gourmet Night has to be up there, first broadcast on the 17th October 1975. Duck s off, sorry. Great stuff, yes? Well, one of the delights with Fawlty Towers is hearing John Cleese endlessly tear apart classic moments of the show on his [ ]
There are, in general, two kinds of TV script books. The first is when the book is based on a draft of the script used in the actual production of the show, such as Father Ted: The Complete Scripts (Boxtree, 1999). The second is when they bodge together a load of transcripts and pretend it [ ]
Some videos in this article contain racist views and language. Of all the things I expected to write on this site in 2025, The unbroadcast Love Thy Neighbour pilot is really interesting wasn t top of the list. Anyway, the unbroadcast Love Thy Neighbour pilot is really interesting. Completely reshot for the first episode of the [ ]
Recently, we had some tradesmen round to our house to fit a new hob. Before they arrived, my partner decided to hide our newly-purchased copy of the complete Love Thy Neighbour DVD boxset. After all, they might think we were massive racists. Or even worse, start telling us that Enoch was right. Now, I m most [ ]
Over the years, I ve written plenty about comedy writers reusing jokes. Today s topic is one of the most famous and most-quoted examples of the lot. So let s turn to ersatz Bond film Never Say Never Again, which premiered in the US on the 6th October 1983. Oh dear, James Bond isn t having much fun. NURSE: [ ]
As I ve spoken about many times before on this site, I m constantly surprised at how often the generally accepted transmission dates for various TV shows turn out to be a load of rubbish. Sometimes, the confusion is understandable a last-minute schedule change not reflected in the Radio Times, say. Other times, I struggle to [ ]
Many years ago now, I had to study Seamus Heaney for A-Level. All a bit pointless, really. Sure, Death of a Naturalist is all very well, but did he ever write anything as good as the opening theme to Heathcliff? So join in the jubilee / The cats are great they ll all agree / You ll [ ]
Right, after my last piece about mocked-up newspapers in sitcoms, time to get on with some real work. Anyone got any suggestions? How about friend of the site Rob Keeley, have you got anything? If you’ve still got an appetite for mocked-up newspapers, John, I saw a subject for you the other day in the [ ]
The opening episode of the first series of I m Alan Partridge, A Room with an Alan , was broadcast on the 3rd November 1997. What is the first thing we see Alan Partridge doing in his room at the Linton Travel Tavern? Oh, the usual stuff. Some bad programme ideas. The first of many dream sequences. [ ]
There is something a little mysterious about the Absolutely Fabulous episode Magazine , you know. But to understand exactly what, we have to get deep, deep into recording dates. I am giving you ample warning to either strap yourself in, or leave quietly. Still here? Excellent. So, most of the episode was shot in the normal [ ]
As we re in an Absolutely Fabulous mood at the moment, let s watch the end credits of Episode 1.4, Iso Tank , broadcast on the 3rd December 1992. I promise you there s a good reason. The conversation starts off with the reuse of the Yamishi s new shop material from the pilot, as detailed in my previous article. [ ]
Part One Part Two Last time, we took a look at an early edit of the pilot for Absolutely Fabulous. Today, we re going back even earlier: to the original script for the episode, containing scenes and even characters which never even made it into that initial version of the show. This is [ ]
Part One Part Two The pilot show of a new sit-com about Edina, a neurotic, but successful woman who runs her own PR/design/fashion business and is obsessed with keeping up with the times. Her very sensible, teenage daughter Saffron lives with her and is forced into taking the mothering role. Edina is easily lead [ ]