Chelmsford 123

The first half of the first episode is set in Rome- with the appointment of a new governor for the province of Britannia. In Latin. It is subtitled- but this very bold move had me hooked instantly. Then the scene moves to Wassers Tavern in Chelmsford- and is a delight from then on for the duration of both series. It has hard to pick a favourite episode. I can only exhort you to get a copy or watch it on-stream. It is clever, funny beyond funny- and deserves to be known. Rory McGrath in his dopey the frog battle jock strap is a site to behold! Treat yourselves.

Mungo: They call me Mungo the contradictory.

Aulus Paulinus: Do they?

Mungo: No.

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.

I agree with your man above. This was funny. Rory McGrath show glimpses of his humour in "They Think It's All Over"......in Chelmsford 123 he has run riot. He is a very clever bloke. For a hairball gooner.

So why hasn't this been released in any format ? I've been after this for ages - similar to the equally brilliant Bostock's Cup with Neil Pearson. I only hope they haven't been deleted.

This is one of the most entertaining comedy series ever produced -- agreed, maybe some of the humour would be strange to American audiences, but there are very few British-specific jokes, it's just the style that would be rather foreign. But for all that, it's brilliant. Perhaps there were episodes of Fawlty Towers or Yes, Minister that made me laugh more, but not only is this right up with them, I can keep re-watching Chelmsford 123 and it'll always make me laugh. It's no more than every few years that I can turn to an episode of Fawlty Towers and there are ones I just don't like. There isn't an episode of Chelmsford 123 that I don't like, and I turn to it every couple of months and always have a great laugh, though I probably know a lot of the scripts by heart. Yes, it's that good. Terrifically underrated, just a pity that so few episodes were made. I got my copy of both series from a friend in the UK, although I expect you might be able to find it on ebay or filesharing networks.

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.