Whose Poll Is It Anyway?

For a while now, it has been common for television viewers to be treated to the poll format. Music, soaps, adverts, Christmas moments, to name a few. All subjected to the phone- in treatment to establish the top 40, 50 or sometimes the top 100 of all time. Interspersed with celeb expertise (!) and overview it does often make for entertaining TV, though the final results of the poll rarely come out in the order you would have placed them. But good fun none the less and wall to wall nostalgia. Comedy gets its fair share of exposure in this way. In the run up to the festive season, UK Gold asked viewers to vote for their favourite Only Fools And Horses moment, from a selection of 40 clips. I should like to record the top 10 :

1 Del Falls Through Bar
2 The Chandelier
3 Batman and Robin
4 Blow Up Dolls
5 Jolly Boys Outing
6 Millionaires
7 Grandad's Cooking
8 Tony Angelino (Cwying)
9 Dave
10 Trigger's Broom

Personally I find it very difficult to decide my favourite when it comes to comedy. Often it just simply comes down to what mood you are in at the time. Whilst accepting that all the above are funny, I think there are a couple of dodgy ones if we are really talking top 10 here. Grandad's Cooking ? Would not have readily sprung to my mind. Millionaires ? Yes it was funny but the butterfly scene with Denzil would have been there for me. And I think Rodney's pony-tail. No matter, the final order is largely irrelevant. Everyone has their own favourite.

Probably the largest comedy vote of all time was carried out in 2003/2004 by the BBC. The results were published in the form of a top 100 as follows :

1 Only Fools and Horses — 342,426 votes
2 Blackadder — 282,106 votes
3 The Vicar of Dibley — 212,927 votes
4 Dad's Army — 174,138 votes
5 Fawlty Towers — 172,066 votes
6 Yes Minister / Yes, Prime Minister — 123,502 votes
7 Porridge — 93,902 votes
8 Open All Hours — 67,237 votes
9 The Good Life — 40,803 votes
10 One Foot in the Grave — 31,410 votes
11 Father Ted
12 Keeping Up Appearances
13 'Allo 'Allo!
14 Last of the Summer Wine
15 Steptoe and Son
16 Men Behaving Badly
17 Absolutely Fabulous
18 Red Dwarf
19 The Royle Family
20 Are You Being Served?
21 To the Manor Born
22 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
23 The Likely Lads
24 My Family
25 The Office
26 Drop the Dead Donkey
27 Rising Damp
28 dinnerladies
29 As Time Goes By
30 Hancock's Half Hour
31 The Young Ones
32 Till Death Us Do Part
33 Butterflies
34 The Thin Blue Line
35 The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
36 Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
37 Waiting for God
38 Birds of a Feather
39 Bread
40 Hi-de-Hi!
41 The League of Gentlemen
42 I'm Alan Partridge
43 Just Good Friends
44 2point4 children
45 Bottom
46 It Ain't Half Hot Mum
47 The Brittas Empire
48 Gimme Gimme Gimme
49 Rab C. Nesbitt
50 Goodnight Sweetheart
51 Up Pompeii
52 Ever Decreasing Circles
53 On the Buses
54 Coupling
55 George and Mildred
56 A Fine Romance
57 Citizen Smith
58 Black Books
59 The Liver Birds
60 Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
61 The New Statesman
62 Sykes
63 Please, Sir!
64 Dear John
65 Barbara
66 Spaced
67 Bless This House
68 Love Thy Neighbour
69 Man About the House
70 Desmond's
71 Duty Free
72 All Gas and Gaiters
73 Happy Ever After/Terry & June
74 Only When I Laugh
75 Brass
76 The Rag Trade
77 Sorry
78 Kiss Me Kate
79 Doctor in the House
80 I Didn't Know You Cared
81 Shelley
82 Nearest and Dearest
83 Fresh Fields
84 The Army Game
85 Robin's Nest
86 The Dustbinmen
87 Whoops Apocalypse
88 My Wife Next Door
89 Never the Twain
90 Nightingales
91 Early Doors
92 Agony
93 The Lovers
94 Father, Dear Father
95 Hot Metal
96 ...And Mother Makes Three/...And Mother Makes Five
97 Life With The Lyons
98 Marriage Lines
99 A Sharp Intake of Breath
100 No Problem

Again the outcome is subjective and everyone is able to agree or disagree according to their own tastes. It is difficult to question the quality of any of the top 10 but there were a number of surprise results such as the high position of Vicar of Dibley and Yes Minister against the relatively lower position of Rising Damp and Till Death Us Do Part. There was also some concern of bias with it being a BBC venture and that sitcoms from other stations never really stood a chance. My opinion ? Well I am not going to say. My own top 10 would read differently for sure. And there is a difference between voting for the best , which probably is Only Fools And Horses , and your favourite. I have a number of favourites depending on how I am feeling at the time and really cannot seperate them.

I just wanted to record these lists nice and early in the blog. I like lists of my own so more will follow. The above shows will no doubt form the basis of many other posts in the future.