Operation Good Guys

"Operation Good Guys" is one of the best British comedies for a long long time and yet it is still very much unknown to most people. In the form of a documentary, it follows the exploits of an inept police force who are filmed everyday by a BBC film crew. They get into some bizarre jams, ranging from a nightmare survival course with a huge bald racist hunter to helping the ageing Guv with his boxing career.

Surreal, brilliantly acted and the funniest thing on British television at this moment, "Operation Good Guys" is not to be missed!

This TV Series failed to gain any of the acclaim it should have received when originally aired, and remains largely undiscovered and unappreciated.

In describing this epochal fly on the wall spoof, the first port of call would be to parallel its similarities with that of the far more applauded 'The Office'. Despite following on from many other spoof documentaries in the spinal tap vein, this BBC production was aired shortly before the office was conceived, and lends wholesale to its style and format.

The programme revolves around a film crew following the good guys around London on everything from armed police raids to training exercises. It is not uncommon for the crims to know more about secret operations than the good guys do, and there's no end of one-liners stereotyping the police, the public and anyone else you can think of.

Not to be taken seriously, Opreation Good Guys is good healthy fun from start to finish, as faultless in its simplicity as it is innocent and shameful. Sheer Enjoyment!

If you like the Office you'll like Operation Good Guys. It's set up, like the Office, is a documentary style, with film crews following the officers while on duty. It plays on the stereotypes of racism and sexism in the police force (the episode the Tera-Blanche), paired with some of the absurd situations, hilarious characters and fantastic acting this is one of the funniest and cleverest comedies the BBC has released in recent years. It really is a comic gem that has been overlooked with repeats being very scarce. Having only seen it again for the first time in a couple of years (disgusted at myself that I forgot how good the good guys really were), I'm hooked again, I suggest that whoever reads this gets hooked as well you'll not regret it.

A lot has been said in the other reviews. When it is funny, this series is very good, but it's not that sharp - it certainly doesn't compare to People Like Us. Each show has one or two brilliant moments.

One problem is the audio which is at times very hard to make out.

The opening episode is very dull, which is surprising, because quite often a comedy series uses its best material in the beginning - Operation Good Guys gets better during series one.

The complete series has been released to DVD, but unfortunately a huge error of judgement has been made in putting on laughter (studio audience or otherwise) which made this instantly unwatchable on series two.

If enough people complain, perhaps this will be fixed in the future.

I loved this show! It was unbelievably funny in the first series, so much so my brother and I would literally be crying and rewinding the tape to see it again! I just had one point that I couldn't get over. I know why it was done (some people actually thought this was a real documentary of the police force, apparently) but the laughter track ruined the second series for me. I tried to watch regardless but it was too much. Again loved the show, couldn't stand the laughter track. I thought the whole point was to portray it as real, that was part of the joke?... Such a shame for the creators - so talented - but I hope they release it without the laughter track...