Comedy Connections is a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows (hence "connections"). The show featured interviews with some of the cast and crew of the subject programme, as well as footage from the series.

Comedy Connections mostly documented BBC comedies and sitcoms, although two programmes have been from ITV (three counting Men Behaving Badly which moved from ITV to the BBC after two series) and two from Channel 4.

The first series consists of six episodes while the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each. The first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha and the rest of the series by Doon Mackichan.

Series summary

Episodes The first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha and the third series onwards by Doon Mackichan.

Series 1 (2003) Overall #Ep #TitleAirdateNotes 1 1Porridge9 June 2003 2 2The Good Life16 June 2003 3 3Are You Being Served?23 June 2003 4 4Men Behaving Badly30 June 2003 5 5Butterflies7 July 2003 6 6Only Fools and Horses14 July 2003

Series 2 (2004) Overall #Ep #TitleAir dateNotes 7 1The Goodies21 June 2004 8 2Birds of a Feather28 June 2004 9 3Father Ted12 July 2004Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 10 4The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin18 July 2004Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 11 5Keeping Up Appearances26 July 2004Featured as a special feature on the US Collectors Edition DVD box-set, Australian Life lessons from Onslow DVD and Full Bouquet DVD box-set Australian releases. 12 6The Young Ones2 August 2004 13 7Hi-de-Hi!9 August 2004 14 8Red Dwarf30 August 2004This episode was the last to be narrated by Julia Sawalha and was included as a special feature on the Red Dwarf Series 8 DVD.

Series 3 (2005) Overall #Ep #TitleAirdateNotes 15 1Monty Python's Flying Circus21 February 2005Doon Mackichan becomes narrator from this episode 16 2Spitting Image28 February 2005 17 3Three of a Kind7 March 2005 18 4Harry Enfield's Television Programme14 March 2005 19 5Goodness Gracious Me21 March 2005 20 6Not the Nine O'Clock News28 March 2005 21 7A Bit of Fry & Laurie4 April 2005 22 8The Two Ronnies11 April 2005

Series 4 (2006) Overall #Ep #TitleAirdateNotes 23 1The Fast Show6 March 2006Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set. 24 2dinnerladies13 March 2006 25 3Drop the Dead Donkey20 March 2006 26 4Shooting Stars3 April 2006 27 5To the Manor Born10 April 2006 28 6'Allo 'Allo!24 April 2006 29 7That Was the Week That Was1 May 2006 30 8Ever Decreasing Circles8 May 2006

Series 5 (2007) Overall #Ep #TitleAirdateNotes 31 1One Foot in the Grave12 January 2007 32 2Bread19 January 2007 33 3It Ain't Half Hot Mum26 January 2007 34 4The New Statesman2 February 2007 35 5Don't Wait Up9 February 2007 36 6The Office16 February 2007Featured as a special feature on the 10th Anniversary DVD box-set. 37 7Just Good Friends23 February 2007 38 8Alas Smith and Jones2 March 2007

Series 6 (2008) Overall #Ep #TitleAirdateNotes 39 1Till Death Us Do Part18 July 2008 40 2Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister25 July 2008 41 3The Liver Birds1 August 2008 42 4Ripping Yarns8 August 2008 43 5Rab C. Nesbitt15 August 2008 44 6Sorry!22 August 2008 45 7Dad's Army29 August 2008 46 8Little Britain4 September 2008

Special Overall #TitleAirdateNotes 47Geoffrey Perkins8 November 2008The only special episode based on a person

Spin-offs based on other TV generations In 2005, the BBC broadcast Drama Connections, which used the same format, looked at the history of popular British television dramas. However, only one series was made and shown.

In 2007, the BBC broadcast Movie Connections, focusing on popular British films. A second series was broadcast in early 2009.

In 2010, ITV aired a similar programme called "Drama Trails", narrated by James Nesbitt.

Other show based on the Comedy Connections format In 2008, ITV launched their own documentary series under the title Comedy Classics mostly documenting ITV's sitcoms and comedies.

Series 1 (2008) On the Buses (9 September 2008) Rising Damp (23 September 2008) Doctor in the House (7 October 2008) Brass (14 October 2008) Duty Free (18 November 2008) The New Statesman (2 December 2008)

See also Britain's Best Sitcom (2004)

External links