Classic Comedies to Stream on BritBox

From raunchy, inappropriate laughs to classy English charm and suffragette humor – these British comedies available on BritBox have something for everyone.

Are You Being Served?

“And my pussy is unanimous in that!” Double entendres, cheeky innuendo, and saucy puns pepper this 1972-1985 comedy. However, today’s viewer must be more prepared that the humor here is also very of its time with racism, sexism, ageism, dated phobias, and cultural faux pas a plenty. Fortunately, fourth wall winks and “I’m free!” catch phrases embrace the preposterous department store setting and etiquette technicalities. Who stands where, which positions permit wearing a bowler hat, and who can’t call whom by their first names bemusingly accent surprisingly progressive plots on classism, low wages, no upward mobility, and union strikes. The misadventures of lovable characters such as Mollie Sugden’s Mrs. Slocombe and John Inman’s Mr. Humphries include disastrous fashions, zany hair colors, faulty store gadgets, advertising errors, and ne’er do well store productions. They sing, they dance, often without ever leaving the department store! Marathoning all seventy episodes can reveal how later seasons repeat earlier storylines, but our employees eventually go country in the equally charming 1992 spin-off Grace & Favour.

Mapp & Lucia

Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) and Geraldine McEwan (Marple) lead this 1985 coastal comedy based on the books by E.F. Benson. English gardens, pleasant melodies, and jolly good formalities accent the over the hedge gossip and fake Italian to make one sound fancy amid seething sighs and frenemy fakery. No one says what they mean thanks to stiff upper lip attempts at continental refinement, yet the over the top gentility provides backhanded zingers, haughty decorum, and fur coats worn in the summer. Some taboos are tea time giggles while others ruffle feathers – scandalous nude portraits, subtle gender bending innuendo, and content domestic evenings full of harmonious piano duets replace sexual acts. Everyone has to make their own entertainment by scheduling rival parties at the same time and pushing someone else’s vain high society facade. Despite feigning influenza, secret lobster recipes exposés, and real estate low balling; the doing dirty ladies remain bemusing and likable characters. Who’s eating the produce from who’s garden can only be proven by climbing the church tower to spy, and pearl clutching townsfolk take sides. The vitriol remains scrumptious as our rich snobs welcome every opportunity to help the needy in the most self-serving ways possible just so this pastoral little seaside town’s society page is all about them. Although these ten episodes are a little long at fifty minutes, the ongoing comeuppance arcs make for dulcet period piece haughtiness.

Up the Women

This thirty minute 2013 suffragette sitcom from writer/star Jessica Hynes (Spaced) has the fashions and big hats for the Edwardian decorum – mixed with numerous cheeky puns, teeth jokes, cheese riffs, and self-aware British humor. From the abundant mother, old lady, and ugly spinster to the rebellious daughter, progressive wannabe, and snotty in charge; each fast talking woman challenges a female stereotype without being anachronistic thanks to well-written dialogue and historical references. What do anarchist women do when they get together? This sewing circle disavows hair in buns amid revolution hyperbole and buying store bought and claiming it was homemade. Inept men explain simple things as overly complicated to our women, and sight gags like disastrously oversize picket signs accent the jam sales sold to each other, women in sports mishaps, and hunger strikes that can’t be done on an empty stomach. Serious questions about government hierarchy, rhetoric about denying women the right to vote, and farcical leadership pepper the catty sisterhood and spiked tea. The period uprising remains timely for today even as the historic trappings keep the vagina euphemisms and polite back-handedness classy. These six episodes interweave witty characters and social plots yet don’t overstay the pip pip cheerio flummoxed.

If you’re looking for a recent binge or a comfort classic, BritBox has you covered with these comedies!

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Kristin Battestella

Kristin Battestella writes articles, editorials, and reviews for several websites, magazines, and print publications including I Think, Therefore I Review and Search Magazine. Previously a traditionally published author of speculative fiction and the Fate and Fangs vampire novels, Kristin’s DIY Halloween how-tos and Kbatz Krafts articles have been featured at http://HorrorAddicts.net and in two Horror Addicts Guide to Life anthologies. In addition to sewing and @KbatzReviews Youtube vlogs; Kristin can be heard on the Women InSession podcast at http://InSessionFilm.com alongside her written classic film discourse. Kristin is also active in the local author community, having chaired writing events and conferences with the South Jersey Women Authors.

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