New British Comedy TV - 2010 and 2011

Rev, starring Tom Hollander as the Reverend Adam Smallbone, is all about a Church of England vicar who has recently been 'promoted' from a quite rural parish to a not-so quaint church in inner city London. This sitcom follows the extremely funny trials and tribulations as he tries to cope with the move. As well as inheriting a dwindling flock of parishioners and a rundown church, he has plenty of other difficulties to overcome. From coping with the over enthusiastic parishioners like Colin the homeless Northerner and Adoha the amorous middle aged lady, who has a thing for men of the cloth. To dealing with the slightly creepy Archdeacon, who is constantly at him to get the attendance numbers up, no matter how he does it.
This unique sitcom is hugely enjoyable, as you really feel Rev's pain and frustration as he tries to patiently and calmly deal with the flow of moral dilemmas that are thrown at him on a daily basis. And as you can imagine there is plenty to deal with in a city like London. A great comedy and played perfectly by Tom Hollander and the rest of the cast.

Is a culinary sitcom that centers on the ambitious Roland White (played by Alan Davies). A chef, who has shown great skill, is now possibly passed his prime but still aspires to achieving a Michelin star. The main problem is that his laziness does seem to get in the way of reaching his goal, and is annoyed as young and celebrity chefs seem to get there before him. It seems that only by the shear hard work of his sous chef, Bib (Darren Boyd) does he 'manage' to run his kitchen at all.

This is a bittersweet black comedy about a married couple played by Dawn French as Val and Alfred Molina as Roger. This is a view of life from the perspective of this average middle aged couple. Through concentrating just on these characters and on their seemingly mundane everyday problems, what comes across in this is the bittersweet comedy is the sweet relationship that they have. Though they bicker alot and have quite a few ups and downs, they have to learn to deal with each other's and their own shortcomings. This is a well-written and down to earth sitcom played with subtly and style by two great comedy actors.

A few more comedy TV shows that you must check out:

* The Trip - A BBC2 comedy and a different type of Britcom, is about Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as themselves (sort of) on a tour of the gastropubs and inns of the Lake District. I like this comedy, as it's not about jokes or comedy situations but just 2 blokes being themselves. Instead the comedy is in the battle of the egos - who is the better actor, who is funnier and who's the best at doing impressions?

* Come Fly with Me - BBC comedy with Matt Lucas and David Walliams - a mock-documentary of life of a busy British airport. There have been a number of fly on the wall type documentaries of big airports in the UK. And Come Fly with Me is an excellent spoof of such programmes. The comedy of over the top annoyed passengers as well as the array of characters that staff the airport from the cabin crews to the coffee shop lady. Are all played by the many faces of Lucas and Walliams and is just so funny. Their knack of finding the comedy in all sorts of British stereotype characters and exaggerating them to the far-fetched is excellently done and this TV show is hugely enjoyable. And I find it less cringing than Little Britain!

* Phoneshop on Channel 4 - this is set in a high street mobile shop. This is definitely not high street, though. This is again is exaggeration of the type of people who take their job very seriously! Written, directed and produced by Phil Bowker, a second series is apparently expected in late 2011.

* Espisodes BBC2 - a husband and wife team (Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan), writers of a successful sitcom have the chance to take it to the US. However, there are gonna have to be some changes to the Britcom if it is to get aired on US TV. The problem is, that is seems that slowly everything is being tweaked or changed to suit the network's requirements! Also starring Matt LeBlanc and written by David Crane, Jeffrey Klarik.