Britcom Goes To The Movies

And so our Carry On journey comes to an end with Carry On Camping, arguably the most iconic offering of the entire franchise.   Hattie Jacques is back, which means our first; "Oooh Maaaatron". The rest of the regular cast is also in attendance for an innuendo-laden laugh fest. Expect Sid James staring at arses, Barbara Windsor's top flying off, and some good old-fashioned hippy bashing.   This is...

There is no let-off this bank holiday as we hit you with another Carry On straight away. This time it's Rob's pick. Critic and hipster's choice, Carry On Screaming. It's a Hammer Horror Homage but without the scariest cast member Sid James, replaced to great effect by Harry H Corbett. There's low budget scares, laughs, and uncredited session musician's theme tunes galore. Will Rob still rate Screa...

While we wait for series three in the autumn, here's a bank holiday treat of a mini-series. What better way to spend a bank holiday weekend than with British comedy institution Carry On?   Over the next three days, Rob and Guy scratch the surface of the comedy behemoth, choosing one film from the massive back catalogue each.   We start our series of three with a choice from our guest. TV's Andy Cl...

It feels like only yesterday we were getting stuck into some Porridge and now Series 2 of BritCom Goes to the Movies, draws to a close with 2004’s Churchill: The Hollywood Years. A movie that was met with a lukewarm critical reception and a limited release, leaving it with a somewhat tarnished at worst, and forgettable at best legacy.   ...but is any of that fair? Both Rob and Guy remembered lovin...

Our second Goon-related podcast of the series, so who better to join Rob and Guy to talk about all things Peter Sellers, A Show Called Fred, and The Mouse That Roared, than host of The Goon Pod, Tyler Adams? There was expert insight galore as BritCom Goes to the Movies tackled its earliest film yet.   An early high-concept outing for Sellers’ many faces and voices on the big screen as he channeled...

With Old Ned still ringing in their ears, Rob and Guy sat down to record episode 8: Steptoe and Son. An enduring sitcom with a huge legacy, written by a couple of comedy pioneers…but let’s not forget this is a movie spin-off from the 70s, by which all low bars apparently, should be judged.   Surely that can’t be the case for a pair of characters still held in such high esteem even now, situations...

Anger, Pain, Fear, Aggression….Watercolours and laughs! As we know from our special on Britain’s Best Sitcom, Spaced is in both Guy and Rob’s top 5, so neither could contain their excitement when it came to talking about Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Edgar Wright’s seminal turn of the century pop-culture-reference-a-thon.   Skip to the end….but there’s more. Joining our very own Tim and Daisy was...

Over halfway through series two of Britcom Goes to the Movies we’re back to the 1960s....and the 50s as we look at Spike Milliagn, the Goon Show, and the Post-Apocalyptic surreal comedy The Bed Sitting Room. This is the first of our episodes in which we look at a radio show as our source material (if you don’t include Hancock’s Half Hour for The Rebel in series one).   This film contains two of th...

As the Venga Boys once said, "We're going to Ibiza"... unfortunately the BritCom goes to the Movies budget didn't stretch as far as actually going to the Balearics, but via the magic of podcasting, we can transport you there by discussing Kevin and Perry Go Large.   Ben Clark joins Guy and Rob for this episode. The writer, director, and comedian is also one-third of Pappys and had, up until this m...

Four episodes deep into our difficult second series, and to make it a little easier, we’ve enlisted the help of an expert. It’s fair to say Rob and Guy had probably never really considered the impact of the world of Psychotherapy, early 90s favourite Drop Dead Fred had...but it did! In a big way and to help us get to grips with that we enlisted Psychotherapist Charlotte White to talk not only abou...

Episode three of series two sees us tackle our most recent film. The Covid-delayed darkly comic and borderline (if not out and out) psychological horror, All My Friends Hate Me by the Toms (Stourton and Palmer). Here’s a movie that tackles alienation, anxiety, and (like most good British comedies) the class system.   Rob and Guy discuss all those topics, plus the university experience, the leg-up...

Episode 2 of Series 2 sees another crossover with the Best Pick Podcast as another of its hosts Jessica Regan (our second guest after Tom Salinsky) joins to talk about the 2012 darkest of dark comedies Sightseers. Jess provided unparalleled insight into director Ben Wheatley’s process, starring as she did in his 2009 sketch show The Wrong Door. We take a closer look at The Wrong Door, a show in wh...

We're back for our difficult second series. Guy and Rob carefully curated a list of films that span eight decades and showcase all manner of British comedy....or we just picked some random films from the long list. I forget now. Series two begins with a classic sitcom spin-off. The seventh favourite British sitcom of all time (as recorded in 2004 in a BBC light entertainment list show, so legally...

It's not quite time for the second series of Britcom Goes to the Movies yet, but in the meantime, we've prepared a top ten British sitcoms special. In 2004 Jonathan Ross hosted Britain's Best Sitcom on the BBC. Audiences were polled on their favourite British sitcom. A top 50 list was compiled, episode one rattled through numbers 50-11 at a dismissive pace and then audiences were polled once again...

The main series may be over, but we’ve one more festive treat. Guy and Rob joined by actor Monica Sagar to discuss the divisive Christmas classic on its 20th birthday, Love Actually. We also get stuck into the Vicar of Dibley Christmas special, which is perhaps the most tonally similar to Love Actually of all of Richard Curtis’ TV work. A movie that’s been reappraised by both its cheerleaders and...

We've reached the magical tenth installment and what better way to round off the regular series than by following our newest film so far, with our oldest. The Rebel from 1961 is the earliest example we've found yet of transporting a character (Tony Hancock) out of his usual environment of 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam into new foreign and exotic climes. A blueprint for many, many BritCom adaptat...

Hold tight man like Guy and Rob as Britcom Crew are joined by galdem Daisy Edwards from the W-Rated Possee. That’s right, episode nine is all about People Just Do Nothing and it’s movie spin-off Big in Japan. It was great to have Daisy (a self confessed PJDN fan) to talk about a film she knew she liked as opposed to some of the dross she usually gets served in her W-Rated podcast.   There’s plenty...

Produced by an ex-Beatle, starring an ex-Python, written and directed by an ex-Yes Minister writer. What's not to like about Nuns on the Run? Guy and Rob look to answer that question in episode 8 of Britcom Goes to the Movies. As well as Nuns on the Run, we delve deeply into Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister and shallowly into the Swiss cheesy electro band Yello. There's plenty about Handmade fi...

A couple of Podcast fwends set out on episode seven of Britcom Goes to the Movies. Rob and Guy dissect their most recent film yet, the Inbetweeners Movie. This is the second of the series to be a direct sitcom to big screen transfer and one both our hosts were very familiar with. Whether you are a briefcase wanker, bus wanker or bumder…or all of the above, this is a must-listen episode for any fan...

Episode six of Britcom Goes to the Movies marks the halfway point of the series and this week we’re going all the back to 1970. Having said that the themes and satire from The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer are all too prescient in 2023. Guy and Rob are joined to talk all things Peter Cook, David Frost and of course The Rise & Rise of Michael Rimmer by writer, producer and host of the Best Pick P...

Episode 5 of Britcom Goes to the Movies. Rob and Guy are on a Busman's Holiday (not On the Buses yet thank God) as they research the writing team of Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. A chance to fanboy the shit out of things as this episode is on 2001's The Parole Officer. Although memories of the movie aren't completely favorable, both Rob and Guy are huge Coogan and Normal fans. The Parole Officer'...

Episode four already?! Guy and Rob are building up a head of steam and are joined for the first time by a guest. TV Writer Steve Dunne chips in with his thoughts on the 2001 football fan favourite Mike Bassett: England Manager.   Ricky Tomlinson, at the height of his Jim Royle fame, starred as the ever-optimistic lower league football manager turned England’s savior at a time when the real England...

Episode 3 of Britcom Goes to the Movies sees Guy and Rob tackle their first direct TV Sitcom Spin-off. Man About the House from 1974 was one of a glut of Hammer produced big screen versions of beloved TV sitcoms and the show, which debuted in 1973 spawned not only this film, but two other spin-off series, a US remake, and two US spin-offs. You could say it’s a bit of a big hitter.   However, the 1...

Episode 2: Getting in the Swing. The only way is up (we hope) after Lesbian Vampire Killers. Next on our agenda was to take a closer look at the Martin Clunes 1994 vehicle Staggered. A film that at the time seemed ubiquitous because of an aggressive marketing campaign, but not one that’s widely remembered in 2023. In fact not even by Guy and Rob it would seem. Both huge Men Behaving Badly fans, on...

Series one episode one of Britcom Goes to the Movies. After a low-brow discussion in a high-end Leeds boozer, Guy Walker and Rob Heath decided to set on a quest to definitively rank as many British comedy small to big/screen transfers as they could before they or more importantly their audience got bored of it. Building the long list of movies that contained some kind of programme, sketch, or tale...