Chelmsford 123

One of the best historical comedies ever - and at last after 20 years we can get it on iTunes for less than £5 a series, and on Channel4 On Demand.

"Oh mighty Hadrian, I have just spent the most miserable four weeks of my life inspecting our borders with Caledonia. It seems you have instructed our engineers to build a long stretch of stonework right across the country. Now if I didn't know better, I'd say it was a wall. Is the idea to continue the wall all the way around Caledonia, then put a roof on it, thereby making it the biggest indoor toilet in the Empire?". - Governor Aulus Paulinus, dictating a letter to Rome, season 2, episode 1.

Chelmsford 123 came on the back of the success of "Who dares wins" a comedy scetch show which starred three of the cast of Chelmsford 123 as well as Tony Robinson who went on to be Baldrick in the Blackadder series. Who Dares Wins was never released on VHS and apparently never will be as a letter to Channel 4 about this said that the series was "lost". I did like Chelmsford 123 but I feel some of the jokes would be lost on an American audience. Luckily I am in Canada and happen to be on of the few in North America who doesn't think Benny Hill was funny but that this series was. If you get a chance to watch it then give it a look. The writing is top quality.

Absolutely brilliant comedy, well written and superbly performed. A terrible shame no more than the two seasons were made, an even bigger shame that when trite rubbish like "Absolutely Fabulous" gets famous this gets virtually ignored. I just wish that Hat Trick would get the two series of Chelmsford 123 released on DVD. I contacted them a year ago to ask if it was in the works and was told they had no plans to do so. What a missed opportunity. Anyone remember in the first episode the cameo toilet stop for a well known British sci-fi character? Genius. The first episode set the tone for the rest of the story, with very very funny, sarcastic and dark humour interspersed between the slapstick. A real gem of a show that should have carried on for a lot longer, it really deserves to be given a chance again on DVD at least, to give those of us that loved it a chance to see it again. Come on Hat Trick, get on to it...you know you want to.

I'd forgotten all about this series until I came across it again this week.

Full of marvellous actors and obviously the jump off point for many of them - just look at the list - anything where Andy Hamilton, Phil Pope, Jimmy Mulville and Neil Pearson appear on the screen must be a winner.

This is one of the funniest programmes I've watched in ages - just like a cross between the first Blackadder series and Up Pompei

Neil Pearson as Mungo is excellent as is Howard Lew Lewis (the chap who played Elmo in Brush Strokes)

Any show where a man can justify a flock of sheep consist of one sheep because 'Well it's only me first day' has got to be a classic

Search this out and watch it - you won't regret it.

Chelmsford 123 is one of the great but little known gems from the heyday of British comedy. Set in Romano-Britain in the days when things were still settling in, the show revolves around the interplay between the Roman Governor Aulus Paulinus and the local Celtic Chieftain Badvoc.

With a superb cast, excellent comic timing and a brilliant array of (mostly) original jokes, this show remains as hilarious today as it was back in 1988/90. Some of the cliché jokes are a tad tired perhaps, but they are handled well and the clever humour of the rest of the episode always makes up for it.

Chelmsford is not an over the top pratfall comedy like Faulty Towers, relying more on overacting and miscommunication to pass for humour. The humour here is both visual and linguistic, utilising puns at times, but more often simply clever dialogue and body language to carry the joke, which provides for clever humour, which certainly carries a lot of cultural references, and yet is still easily accessible to anyone. It is similar to the humour of Blackadder IV, yet more restrained.

The sort of comedy it produces can be likened to that of another gem, Maid Marian and her Merry Men, however Chelmsford 123 is not a children's program as it contains many blatant sexual references, some bestial in nature, as well as several sex scenes.

There are some elements of "dramatic necessity" that really make absolutely no sense and the vanishing of Gargamadua (Erica Hoffman) between seasons could use some explanation, but these can be ignored in the face of the laughter.

While some episodes are undoubtedly weaker than others, the final one in particular being rather cliché and disappointing, all episodes contain excellent jokes and most of the series will have you genuinely guffawing.

This series is definitely worth buying to re-watch time and again.