Telly Good Fun Trivia Quiz

Answer:

'Fawlty Towers' was written by John Cleese and Connie Booth. It ran for just twelve episodes across two series in 1975 and 1979. Run by the irascible Basil Fawlty, it was set in a hotel in Torquay. Cleese based the character partly on a real hotel owner he encountered while filming with the 'Monty Python' team.

Four series of 'Blackadder' were aired between 1983 and 1989. Each one was set in a different historical period. Rowan Atkinson played the lead, supported by Tony Robinson as the dim-witted Baldrick. The final episode of 'Blackadder Goes Forth', set in the trenches of the First World War, ended with the main characters going over the top to their deaths.

Written by John Sullivan, 'Only Fools and Horses' followed Del Boy and Rodney Trotter, two brothers scraping a living as market traders in Peckham, South London. It ran from 1981 to 2003, with several Christmas specials. The 1996 special 'Time on Our Hands' drew 24.35 million viewers, making it the most-watched sitcom episode in British television history.

'Dad's Army' ran from 1968 to 1977. It revolved around the exploits of a Home Guard platoon in the fictional Sussex town of Walmington-on-Sea during the Second World War. The cast included Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. It remains a fixture of BBC repeat schedules more than fifty years after it first aired.

'The Good Life' starred Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal as Tom and Barbara Good, a suburban couple who abandon conventional life to become self-sufficient in their Surbiton garden. It ran from 1975 to 1978. Their neighbours, Jerry and Margo Leadbetter, played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith, provided much of the comic friction.

Created by and starring Jennifer Saunders, 'Absolutely Fabulous' depicted the chaotic lives of Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy Stone, played by Joanna Lumley. It was shown from 1992 to 2012 with several gaps between series. A film version was released in 2016.

'Yes Minister' aired from 1980 to 1984, followed by 'Yes, Prime Minister' from 1986 to 1988. It starred Paul Eddington as the hapless politician Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne as his permanently obstructive civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby. Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time, described it as her favourite television programme. In 1984, she personally presented the cast with the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association award and even wrote and performed a sketch with them called 'The PM's Plan'.

'Chewin' the Fat' is a Scottish comedy sketch show starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. It began as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland before moving to television, where it ran for four series between 1999 and 2002 on BBC One Scotland. The show is best remembered as the birthplace of Jack and Victor, the two elderly Glaswegian friends who would go on to become the central characters of 'Still Game'.

'Bread' was written by Carla Lane and aired on BBC One from 1986 to 1991. It focused on the Boswell family, a working-class Catholic family in Liverpool's Dingle district, which was led by the formidable matriarch Nellie Boswell, played by Jean Boht. At its peak in 1988, the show attracted 21 million viewers.

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote 'Steptoe and Son', which aired on the BBC from 1962 to 1974, with a four-year gap in the middle. It followed Harold and Albert Steptoe, a father and son who ran a rag-and-bone business in Shepherd's Bush, London. The show was later adapted in the United States as 'Sanford and Son'.

'Terry and June' was shown on the BBC from 1979 to 1987 and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as Terry and June Medford, a middle-class suburban couple navigating the minor irritations of everyday life. The show was a gentle domestic comedy that ran for nine series.

There were nine series of 'Peep Show' between 2003 and 2015. It starred David Mitchell and Robert Webb as mismatched flatmates Mark and Jeremy. Its distinctive first-person point-of-view camera technique allowed viewers to hear each character's inner thoughts. Written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history in terms of years on air.

'Fleabag' was written by and starred Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It ran for two series in 2016 and 2019. Its central device, the lead character breaking the fourth wall to address the audience directly, gave it an intimacy unusual in television comedy. It won six Emmy Awards in 2019, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

'Still Game' followed the lives of six pensioners living in the fictional Glasgow housing scheme of Craiglang. It was written by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who also starred in it. It first aired on BBC One Scotland in 2002 and continued until 2019, with long gaps between series. A stage version at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow sold out 21 consecutive nights in 2014, performing in front of more than 210,000 people.

Written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, 'Gavin and Stacey' ran from 2007 to 2010. It centred on a long-distance relationship between a man from Essex and a woman from Barry in South Wales. A Christmas special in 2019 drew an overnight audience of 11.6 million. A final special aired on Christmas Day 2024, drawing 12.3 million overnight viewers and bringing the series to a close.

The non-British sitcoms are: 'Cheers' (US), 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' (US), 'Arrested Development' (US), 'Parks and Recreation' (US), 'Kath and Kim' (Australia), 'Mother and Son' (Australia), 'Schitt's Creek' (Canada), 'Trailer Park Boys' (Canada).