Comedy Connections

Comedy Connections
Narrated by	Julia Sawalha Doon Mackichan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	47 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Mike Bolland (Series 1-2) Gary Chippington (Series 3) Alan Tyler (Series 4-) Toby Stevens (Director)
Running time	30 minutes (series 1 to 3) 40 minutes (series 4 to 6)
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	9 June 2003 – present
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)
Release	Toby Stevens (Series 5-)

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

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

The first series consisted of six episodes, however the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each, the first two series where narrated by Julia Sawalha, however the rest of the series have since been narrated by Doon Mackichan.

Series Summary

Series	Episodes	Air Date
Series 1	6	9 June - 14 July 2003
Series 2	8	21 June - 30 August 2004
Series 3	8	21 February - 11 April 2005
Series 4	8	6 March - 8 May 2006
Series 5	8	12 January - 2 March 2007
Series 6	8	18 July - 4 September 2008

Episodes

The first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha and the third series onwards by Doon Mackichan. From Monday 19th April 2010, G.O.L.D will show six episodes from series 2.

Series One (2003)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
1	1	Porridge	9 June 2003
2	2	The Good Life	16 June 2003
3	3	Are You Being Served?	23 June 2003
4	4	Men Behaving Badly	30 June 2003
5	5	Butterflies	7 July 2003
6	6	Only Fools and Horses	14 July 2003

Series Two (2004)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
7	1	The Goodies	21 June 2004
8	2	Birds of a Feather	28 June 2004
9	3	Father Ted	12 July 2004	Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set.
10	4	The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin	18 July 2004	Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set.
11	5	Keeping Up Appearances	26 July 2004
12	6	The Young Ones	2 August 2004
13	7	Hi-de-Hi!	9 August 2004
14	8	Red Dwarf	30 August 2004	This episode is the last to be narated by Julia Sawalha and is included as a special feature on the Red Dwarf Series VIII DVD.

Series Three (2005)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
15	1	Monty Python's Flying Circus	21 February 2005	Doon Mackichan becomes narrator from this episode
16	2	Spitting Image	28 February 2005
17	3	Three of a Kind	7 March 2005
18	4	Harry Enfield and Chums	14 March 2005
19	5	Goodness Gracious Me	21 March 2005
20	6	Not the Nine O'Clock News	28 March 2005
21	7	A Bit of Fry and Laurie	4 April 2005
22	8	The Two Ronnies	11 April 2005

Series Four (2006)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
23	1	The Fast Show	6 March 2006	Featured as a special feature on the DVD box-set.
24	2	dinnerladies	13 March 2006
25	3	Drop the Dead Donkey	20 March 2006
26	4	Shooting Stars	3 April 2006
27	5	To the Manor Born	10 April 2006
28	6	'Allo 'Allo!	24 April 2006
29	7	That Was The Week That Was	1 May 2006
30	8	Ever Decreasing Circles	8 May 2006

Series Five (2007)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
31	1	One Foot in the Grave	12 January 2007
32	2	Bread	19 January 2007
33	3	It Ain't Half Hot Mum	26 January 2007
34	4	The New Statesman	2 February 2007
35	5	Don't Wait Up	9 February 2007
36	6	The Office	16 February 2007
37	7	Just Good Friends	23 February 2007
38	8	Alas Smith and Jones	2 March 2007

Series Six (2008)

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
39	1	Till Death Us Do Part	18 July 2008
40	2	Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister	25 July 2008
41	3	The Liver Birds	1 August 2008
42	4	Ripping Yarns	8 August 2008
43	5	Rab C. Nesbitt	15 August 2008
44	6	Sorry!	22 August 2008
45	7	Dad's Army	29 August 2008
46	8	Little Britain	4 September 2008

Special

Overall #	Ep #	Title	Airdate	Notes
47	1	Geoffrey Perkins	8 November 2008	Only special so far and only episode based on a person

Spin Offs based on other TV Generations

In 2005, the BBC broadcast Drama Connections, which using the same format, looked at the history of popular British television dramas; (however only one series of Drama Connections was made and shown)

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

Other show based on Comedy Connections format

In 2008 ITV launched their own documentary series under the title Comedy Classics mostly documenting ITV sitcoms and comedies.

A second series of Comedy Classics is currently in production and will air in early 2010.

Series One (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)

Series Two (2010)

• TBA 2010
• TBA 2010
• TBA 2010
• TBA 2010
• TBA 2010
• TBA 2010

External links

• Comedy Connections at BBC Online
• Comedy Connections at IMDb
• Comedy Connections at British Comedy Guide
• Template:Tv.com show