So, why am I starting my comedy journey on a Friday night? Well, I guess when I was growing up I always considered Friday night TV to be the pinnacle of the week's entertainment. Picture the scene: a suburban semi crowded with a mixture of clutter, bad soft furnishings and dust and then there's myself and my Mother sitting there with a glass of Store brand cola, a chocolate bar of our choice and finally a can of Safeway Dutch Lager (that was Mother's choice, I didn't start drinking until a bit later - probably after I got drunk on the magnum of champagne we'd won at the Church Christmas Fayre aged 14, hey ho.)
People, well, my husband and brother pretty much, seem to think that Mother doesn't possess much of a sense of humour these days and I guess this is true to a certain extent. However, she did introduce me to a myriad of comedies back in the 1980s when I was growing up and I certainly recall watching shows such as Blackadder, Alas Smith and Jones, Cheers and Last of The Summer Wine; sorry about the last one - I blame my Stepfather for that one and I can recall a combination of Sunday night tea (crackers, Shipham's fish paste and assorted cakes) accompanying Foggy, Clegg and Compo's Yorkshire-based antics.) I can't say that I really understood the whole humour thing much when I was a youngster, although my late Father (who'd died of a heart attack when I was five years old) had been a Policeman famed for his wicked sense of humour. Looking back it's clear that both myself, my two brothers and now my son have inherited it. Hurrah.
The Friday night comedy zone on Channel 4 was probably my favourite because it broadcast such classics as Cheers (which later was the sitcom used as an example of how to write one when I attended a Sitcom Writing Course at City Lit many years later.) and later on Roseanne. Many years on this would morph into such cult classics such as Spaced, Harry Hill and Friends - although I didn't watch the latter until many years later, catching up on all 236 episodes of the sitcom via cable channels or on DVD - in order - I am still a stickler for watching comedy series in order and that's what's currently vexing me about Arrested Development - series 1 isn't currently available on Lovefilm.
Anyway, I digress. Friday night was certainly one of my first memories of being a complete comedy geek and it will always remain rose tinged as a result. They're not so much now, but that's progress and of course, being able to work your own schedules via a PVR.
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