BBC At 100, BBC Classic Comedy

BBC Classic Comedy, Part 1, The Radio Years

This year the BBC will be 100 years old and in more recent times it seems to be in the news more often than not, of course most recently for the proposed abolition of the license fee.

However among all the bad publicity the BBC has produced some cracking comedy over the years and over 3 posts we’ll remember just some of the all time classics.

Today we’ll look at Radio still very much a popular medium today, but when the BBC was born that was all we had.

Classics such as ITMA (can I do you now sir?) kept the nation laughing through the dark days of World War 2

 

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Listeners tuned in their millions on a Sunday teatime to hear the likes of Al Read

The Navy Lark boasted an impressive cast and invited us all aboard for almost 20 years of laughter

 

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Round The Horne was the perfect vehicle for Kenneth Williams supporting Kenneth Horne.  It was only the sad passing of Kenneth Horne that brought this popular series to an end

In part 2 we’ll look at how radio came to create the modern sitcom, how some of Auntie’s finest TV comedy got the radio treatment and some of the more recent offerings