The Top 100 Best Ever British Sitcoms

With the BBC celebrating its 100th birthday on 22nd October 2022, We thought we’d have a look back at the staple of British telly over the decades, the mighty sitcom. We looked at the rankings and scores of more than 250 British sitcoms for a more data-driven approach. Here are the top 100 best sitcoms ever.

100 – The Lenny Henry Show

6.8 /10

1987 – 1988 | 2 Seasons | 12 Eps

STARRING: Lenny Henry | Vas Blackwood | Gina McKee

Sitcom based around the character of wide-boy Brixton pirate radio DJ – the “crucialll!!!” Delbert Wilkins, founder of the BBC (Brixton Broadcasting Corporation). It focus on Delbert’s attempts to break into the big time.

99 – 2point4 Children

6.9 /10

1991 – 1999 | 8 Seasons | 56 Eps

STARRING: Gary Olsen | Belinda Lang | Clare Buckfield

2point4 Children is a BBC television sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porters; a seemingly average family whose world is frequently turned upside-down, due to bad luck and bizarre occurrence.

98 – Love Thy Neighbour

7.0 /10

1972 – 1976 | 8 Seasons | 54 Eps

STARRING: Jack Smethurst | Kate Williams | Rudolph Walker

A white working-class socialist has his world turned upside down when an educated black man moves in next door.

97 – On The Buses

7.0 /10

1969 – 1973 | 7 Seasons | 74 Eps

STARRING: Reg Varney | Bob Grant | Stephen Lewis | Doris Hare

Jack-the-lad bus driver and conductor Stan and Jack enjoy the female employees more than their work and Inspector Blake is relentless in his attempts to make their lives a misery.

96 – Last of the Summer Wine

7.0 /10

1973 – 2010 | 31 Seasons | 294 Eps

STARRING: Peter Sallis | Kathy Staff | Bill Owen | Brian Wilde

Last of The Summer Wine was one of the longest running British sitcoms ever. The story revolved around three old men from Yorkshire, who have never grown up, face the trials of their fellow town citizens and everyday life and stay young by reminiscing about the days of their youth and attempting feats not common to the elderly.

95 – Mrs Brown’s Boys

7.1 /10

2011 – Ongoing | 4 Seasons | 41 Eps

STARRING: Brendan O’Carroll | Jennifer Gibney | Eilish O’Carroll

A comedy centered on a loud-mouthed Irish matriarch whose favorite pastime is meddling in the lives of her six children.

94 – May to December

7.1 /10

1989 – 1994 | 6 Seasons | 39 Eps

STARRING: Anton Rodgers | Frances White | Lesley Dunlop

Anton Rodgers stars as middle aged solicitor Alec Callender – a partner in Semple, Callender and Henty – who pines for Perry Mason style cases, however, seldom is faced with anything more taxing than a simple house conveyancing. Through his work Alec meets Zoe Angell, played by Eve Matheson, a 26 year old PE teacher befuddled by her impending divorce, although neither is looking for romance there is an unmistakable spark and soon they embark on the rocky road of a ‘spring and autumn’ romance.

93 – Singles

7.1 /10

1988 – 1991 | 3 Seasons | 22 Eps

STARRING: Judy Loe | Eamon Boland | Simon Cadell | Roger Rees

A sitcom following the exploits of Malcolm and Clive and Pamela and Jackie, four patrons of a singles bar.

92 – Please Sir!

7.1 /10

1968 – 1972 | 4 Seasons | 55 Eps

STARRING: Deryck Guyler | Erik Chitty | Richard Davies | Noel Howlett

Weekly situation comedy about a hapless but caring teacher and his class of unruly kids. The teacher sees much good and potential in his pupils much to the dismay of his fellow teachers who have lost hope in these kids.

91 – Just Good Friends

7.1 /10

1983 – 1986 | 3 Seasons | 22 Eps

STARRING: Paul Nicholas | Jan Francis | Sylvia Kay | Ann Lynn

Paul Nicholas plays Vince Pinner, an East End bookmaker, who thinks he is Gods gift to women, and Penny Warender, a up market girl from Chipping Ongar. Wonderful casting of the central charatures, but the show is stolen by Ann Lynn and Sylvia Kay who play Vince and Penny’s mothers.

90 – The Brittas Empire

7.1 /10

1991 – 1997 | 7 Seasons | 52 Eps

STARRING: Chris Barrie | Michael Burns | Julia St. John | Pippa Haywood

Gordon Brittas is the manager of the Whitbury-Newtown Leisure Centre. Despite his good intentions, everything seems to go wrong when he’s around, despite the best efforts of the center staff and his long-suffering wife, Helen.

89 – Filthy Rich & Catflap

7.1 /10

1987 | 1 Season | 6 Eps

STARRING: Rik Mayall | Nigel Planer | Adrian Edmondson

Richie causes trouble in his pursuit of TV fame with Eddie, his alcoholic minder and Filthy, his sponging agent.

88 – It Ain’t Half Hot Mum

7.1 /10

1974 – 1981 | 8 Seasons | 56 Eps

STARRING: Windsor Davies | Melvyn Hayes | Don Estelle

The comic adventures of a group of misfits who form an extremely bad concert party touring the hot and steamy jungles of Burma entertaining the troops during World War II.

87 – George and Mildred

7.2 /10

1976 – 1979 | 5 Seasons | 38 Eps

STARRING: Brian Murphy | Yootha Joyce | Norman Eshley

A ’70s classic sitcom about married coupe, George and Mildred Roper, who have just moved to a middle class neighborhood. With the change, Mildred aims to climb the social ladder, while George only dreams of watching television and drinking beer.

86 – Man About the House

7.2 /10

1973 – 1976 | 6 Seasons | 39 Eps

STARRING: Richard O’Sullivan | Paula Wilcox | Sally Thomsett | Brian Murphy | Yootha Joyce

Sitcom exploring the trials and tribulations created by one man and two women flat-sharing in the 70s. Two spin-off series were later made: George and Mildred and Robin’s Nest.

85 – The Fosters

7.3 /10

1976 – 1977 | 2 Seasons | 27 Eps

STARRING: Norman Beaton | Lenny Henry | Isabelle Lucas

The Fosters was a sitcom that showcased the early work of Lenny Henry as the budding artist son of easy going family man Samuel Foster. The series follows the day-to-day trials of Samuel and his lively wife Pearl (both immigrants from Guyana) and their three children on a South London housing estate.

84 – That’s My Boy

7.3 /10

1981 – 1986 | 5 Seasons | 37 Eps

STARRING: Mollie Sugden | Christopher Blake | Harold Goodwin

That’s My Boy is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1981 to 1986. Starring Mollie Sugden, it was written by Pam Valentine and Michael Ashton, who later wrote My Husband and I, which also starred Mollie Sugden. It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network.

83 – Ever Decreasing Circles

7.3 /10

1984 – 1989 | 5 Seasons | 27 Eps

STARRING: Richard Briers | Penelope Wilton | Peter Egan

Martin Bryce lives in a quiet suburban close with his wife Anne. He does his best to “organise” the leisure time of all of the other inhabitants of the close, running umpteen societies and doing “good works”. He’s is quite happy with his lot until Paul Ryman moves in next door.

82 – Till Death Us Do Part

7.3 /10

1966 – 1975 | 7 Seasons | 53 Eps

STARRING: Warren Mitchell | Dandy Nichols | Una Stubbs |

Centred on the East End Garnett family, led by patriarch Alf Garnett, a reactionary white working-class man who holds racist and anti-socialist views.

81 – Bad Education

7.4 /10

2012 – 2022 | 3 Seasons | 18 Eps

STARRING: Jack Whitehall | Layton Williams | Jack Binstead

One of the newer sitcoms on the list,Bad Education was written by and starred Jack Whitehall, as Alfie, the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system, and a bigger kid than his students.

80 – The Detectives

7.4 /10

1993 – 1997 | 5 Seasons | 31 Eps

STARRING: Robert Powell | Jasper Carrott | George Sewell

In the never ending, high tech war against crime, Detective Constables Bob Louis and David Briggs are the Scud missiles of the police arsenal of intuition, hunches and inspired guesses… all of them hopelessly wrong.

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