Why the streaming age means it is harder for new comedies to make the whole nation laugh.
When The One Show recently ran a poll to find the best-loved BBC shows ever, half of the top programmes were sitcoms - but none was launched within the last 15 years. So where are the future classics?
It was little surprise that Only Fools and Horses took the top spot, or that classics like Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley and Dad's Army also ranked highly.The Gavin and Stacey 2019 Christmas special was the most-watched comedy for 17 yearsIn contrast, four of the five dramas in the top 20 were born in the last 15 years - Line of Duty, Call the Midwife, Killing Eve and Sherlock .
They are polar opposites in most ways, though, with very different audiences. Perhaps it's no longer possible to amuse all of the people all of the time.No, according to Mr Petrie, who says it just takes longer for people to discover and fall in love with a sitcom now, with so much content from which to choose.
He says 11.5 million people have now come to the 2019 first episode of Ghosts, one of the few sitcoms to have broken through with a broad audience in recent years. That would rival the overnight ratings for beloved older shows. "Comedy's so country-specific. That's always been the case," he says. "Whereas a murder case, a thriller, a dead body floating in a river - none of those feel quintessentially British, or American, or anything."
"There's a mind-bending number of shows. You have so much to choose from with all the American stuff. You can find shows that really speak to you so specifically. You kind of go, 'this has just been made for me'.
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