On the 31st January, the BBC will be showing a new programme on the future of
UK comedy with interviews from Ricky Gervais, Paul Whitehouse and Armando
Ianucci amongst others.
Alan Yentob will be asking the questions, trying to get to the bottom of why
the traditional British sitcom is in decline and how a new generation of comics
are breathing life into the format.
The argument is mostly about how crashing into taboos can generate a lot of
new comedy, preventing the sitcom from being too middle aged, middle class and
too Middle English.
For Alan Yentob, the new sitcom deals not with conflicts resolved, or
cheeriness in the face of failure. It's stock in trade is not the lovable loser,
but loss itself: loss of dignity, loss of belief, loss of life.
I think it's a little more complicated than that. Otherwise, the daily news
could well be read as a bleak comedy. And it's easier to say that the new
sitcoms - some not yet even seen - are going to revitalise the
genre.
