Not the Nine O'Clock News

This show was practically compulsory viewing for teenagers and students in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It introduced the British public to Griff Rys-Jones, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson. Chris Langham was in the first season but seemed to get replaced by G R-J after that.

It consisted of a series of sketches, some purely comedic, others with political overtones. The pizza parlour worker, played by Rowan Atkinson, sneezing on the pizza and declaring "Extra mozzarella" is the former, the close-up of a yobbish Griff R-J talking about him and his mates picking on some black blokes "because we 'ate 'em, right?" and the camera gradually pulling away during the monologue to show he's a uniformed policeman would be the latter.

Some great writing (Clive Anderson, Andy Hamilton, a pre-"Four Weddings and a Funeral" Richard Curtis), go-for-it acting and sketches that hit frequently enough to forgive the ones that didn't. The sketch with the trendy lefty social worker declaring the only way to deal with young men who misbehaved was to "cut their goolies off" is still a classic, as is Gerald the talking gorilla.

The reason that NTNON isn't remembered as much as it could be is the sheer topicality of many of the sketches. The company bosses acceding to the increasingly outrageous demands of the Union bosses - "and his daughter to be phased in at a later date" - are still funny, but were probably funnier still at the time. Of course, there are plenty of other sketches that don't require a full knowledge of Britain in the early Thatcher years to appreciate, and if you ever get the chance, it's worth catching them.

And the songs are still brilliant. Altogether now - " I Like Trucking"

This show was so funny. I especially liked the toilet sketch involving the assistant and the weird bloke trying to design a bathroom for the weird bloke and all he ever puts in it is a toilet. that was the best sketch ever.

De niro 2001, you really need to lighten up, not all the sketches involved plane crashes. Only about 2 or 3 did. the rest of the sketches were just funny things about everyday life. The humour isn't in the plane crash, it's how they edited together two completely different news stories and made them look relevent. People weren't sitting at home saying "Hahahaha look at those people on that plane dying". The thing is, if they did have to acknowledge the fact those people died, they would have done it in a funny sketch anyway. like they did when they had complaints about a (stuffed) hedgehog being run over. for god sake it was stuffed. they didn't ask the local nature reserve for a fresh hedgehog to run over but anyway they then did an apology the following week involving them saying "We probably exibited less pain to hedgehogs per-say than whoever it is who goes around stuffing them". Anyway, sorry about all this writing but this show was just great and i'll love it forever. Overall 10 out of 10.

If there is one defining characteristic about British humour it is our ability to laugh at ourselves, not take anything too seriously, and therefore a good few 'sick' jokes abound. Name any major disaster of recent history (Townsend Thoresen, Exxon Valdez, Concorde) and dozens of 'sick' jokes spring to mind. Such is the case with NTNOCN, with their constant Chappaquiddick references and the 'Wallaby Airlines' skit. I was a big fan of NTNOCN, and loved the skits "Gay Christian" "American Express" and "Gerald the Gorilla" as well as their parodies of "That's Life" and "Game For A Laugh" ("Oh, I don't believe it! We love your show!") and dead-on impressions of celebs such as Janet Street-Porter and Sir Robert Mark. The songs were funny too, such as "Gob On You", "The Bouncing Song" and a great skewering of 80's music on "Nice Video, Shame About The Song". All in all a must for any aficionado of British humour.

I have recently been watching the repeats of NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and I've really enjoyed them. I didn't see them the first time around, but I really enjoy the range of subjects that this comedy show embodies. These include music gags, political humour and a whole lot more! The stars include Rown Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhyss-Jones and if you are a fan of any of these people I would advise you to check out this show. Very enjoyable with a great cast. 8/10