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Welcome to the results of the first annual British Sitcom Guide Awards. We set up these awards to help reveal what the nation thought were the funniest programmes of the year and which shows shouldn't be allowed to use the label 'comedy' again. During January we asked all our readers to select their 'best' and 'worst' - thanks again to everyone who voted - you'll find the results of the poll below. Congratulations to the winners, commiserations to the losers (and vice versa on the 'worst' sections). Here we go...
Nominees: Bo in the USA, The Complete Guide to Parenting, Feel the Force, Grownups, Home Again, Hyperdrive, The IT Crowd, I'm With Stupid, Jam and Jerusalem, Lead Balloon, Live! Girls! Present Dogtown, Not Going Out, Pulling, Respectable, Rich Hall's Cattle Drive, Saxondale, Suburban Shootout, Thin Ice
The IT Crowd, written by Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan, burst onto Channel 4 in a blaze of publicity in February and created quite a stir.
Some said it was a poor attempt at recreating the success of Craggy Island's insane inhabitants, but others loved the return to a studio-based setup and the show's gentle look into the nerdy world of computers. You voted with your modems to make this geeky show the Best New Sitcom of 2006.
It should be noted that last year was generally considered to be a bad year for new sitcoms so the competition wasn't especially strong (although it should be noted Lead Balloon and Not Going Out both put up a good fight)
Nominees: Bo in the USA, The Complete Guide to Parenting, Feel the Force, Grownups, Home Again, Hyperdrive, The IT Crowd, I'm With Stupid, Jam and Jerusalem, Lead Balloon, Live! Girls! Present Dogtown, Not Going Out, Pulling, Respectable, Rich Hall's Cattle Drive, Saxondale, Suburban Shootout, Thin Ice
Leigh Francis' latest "Bo! Selecta" spin-off was clearly not welcomed by BSG readers - you voted it into 19th best new sitcom of 2006 (out of 19!).
We've not heard anything positive about this show, so aren't at all surprised that it's been voted as the Worst New Sitcom of 2006.
Note: brace yourselves, Leigh Francis is currently working on another new comedy project for Channel 4.
Nominees: Extras, The Green Green Grass, Green Wing, Ideal, My Family, My Hero, Still Game, Supernova, Two Pints of Lager
One of the most successful and popular comedies of the past decade earns its place as the Best Returning Sitcom 2006 despite not really being a true sitcom (debate will ensue!).
We bloody loved it, so are very happy with this result. It's not too surprising a winner though we have to say - whilst many fans thought series two wasn't quite as good as the 2004 original everyone agreed that it was still one of the funniest shows of the decade.
Well done GW, and well done C4 - a full sweep in our awards so far!
Nominees: Extras, The Green Green Grass, Green Wing, Ideal, My Family, My Hero, Still Game, Supernova, Two Pints of Lager
The BBC makes an in-road into our 2006 Awards by picking up the Worst Returning Sitcom 2006 for the somewhat disappointing 6th series of its otherwise mainstream-pleasing and not actually all that bad sitcom My Hero.
Obviously James Dreyfus taking over the lead role from Ardal O'Hanlon hasn't had the effect the BBC hoped it would - you, our readers, still don't like it and, of all the series still running, its the one you'd most like to see go away.
Nominees: The Green Green Grass, My Family, The Royle Family, The Thick of It, The Vicar of Dibley, The Worst Christmas of My Life
The Best Special of 2006 was a tough category to vote on as all of the seasonal specials last year were pretty damn good and none were given un-favourable reviews. There could only be one winner though and you decided that the two nearly-final* episodes of The Vicar of Dibley deserved to take the title (*The Vicar will be back for Comic Relief).
The episodes saw the sitcom return to form (leaving those awful 2004/2005 Make Poverty History episodes behind) and bow out on a high note. An amazing 12.3 million viewers watched the New Year's Day episode of Dibley in which Geraldine finally attended a wedding in a dress rather than a dog collar. It was unsurprisingly a very popular selection in our poll.
Nominees: The Green Green Grass, My Family, The Royle Family, The Thick of It, The Vicar of Dibley, The Worst Christmas of My Life
The BSG editing team actually quite enjoyed this special - it contained some classic Sullivan plotting - it looks like not many other people share our view though.
But heyho, we're democratic (ish) and realise that some of the other 2006 specials were smoking hot so here we duly hand The Green Green Grass with dubious honour of being the Worst Special of 2006.
Nominees: Blunder, The Catherine Tate Show, Snuff Box, Spoons, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Tittybangbang
That Mitchell and Webb Look
Continuing a run of 'wins' for the BBC... That Mitchell & Webb Look was a reasonably successful TV adaption of the duo's hit (and very funny) Radio 4 sketch series That Mitchell & Webb Sound, and in our opinion more than deserving of the Best Sketch Show 2006 prize. If only other sketch shows took a leaf out of M&W's book and introduced some classic one-off sketches rather than repeating the same un-funny situations again and again (see the next category).
Mitchell and Web have sold their souls to Apple Computers now though... Pity. They'll never be funny again.
Nominees: Blunder, The Catherine Tate Show, Snuff Box, Spoons, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Tittybangbang
Tittybangbang
We're not really surprised about this one, and although it did have the odd amusing moment, it just didn't cut the proverbial mustard. The girls stretched too many ideas beyond breaking point.
Tittybangbang is not quite as deserving of this particular accolade as some of the other nominees we feel (editor Mark is glaring at a certain show in the nominees list beginning with the letter 'B' now) but we feel its not entirely unfair either. Tittybangbang - you are the Worst Sketch Show 2006. Well done.
Nominees: 8 Out of 10 Cats, Best of the Worst, Have I Got News For You, QI
Quite Interesting (QI)
It was a very close call between the eventual winner, BBC Two's "QI", and the contender in the shape of BBC One's monolith "Have I Got News For You". So well done to the guys at QI for grabbing the hypothetical crown and running away with Best Quiz Show 2006.
It's great to see some intelligent comedy on TV that doesn't rely on overly scripted gags or cheap put downs. Much of the credit must go to Stephen Fry and Alan Davis for making QI so much fun.
Nominees: 8 Out of 10 Cats, Best of the Worst, Have I Got News For You, QI
Best of the Worst
Best of the Worst by name. Worst of the Worst by nature. Sorry guys!
This quickly forgotten C4 panel show had a few laughs but it could never hope to live up to the wit of its BBC rivals ("QI" and "Have I Got News For You") or the sheer army of comedians , lead by Jimmy Carr, that Channel 4 signed up to its sister show "8 Out of 10 Cats".
Nominees: Best of the Worst, Blunder, Jam and Jerusalem, That Mitchell and Webb Look
Best: That Mitchell and Webb Look
Worst: Blunder
David Mitchell had been in such a wide range of stuff during 2006 that we thought we'd give him his own category to find out what you thought was his best and worst work.
Unsurprisingly the poll revealed that his sketch show with comedy partner Robert Webb was his funniest work in 2006 and the truly dreadfully Blunder was the show his agent should have rejected.
Will 2007 be another mixed year for David? Amongst other things he will be appearing in another series of That Mitchell and Webb Look, star in a new series of Peep Show (coming soon to C4) and captain another comedy quiz show (this time joining Angus Deayton and Lee Mack in the BBC's new "Pants of Fire").
A second win for the irrepressible Green Wing, taking the ultimate accolade and crowning crown of the BSG Awards - the award which says "this was the best comedy on television in 2006".
Yes, here at the BSG, we enjoyed GW throughout its entire run, and so are more than happy to name it as the first ever winner of the BSG Readers Award!
The Complete Guide to Parenting
We're keeping one award behind each year to hand out to the show, person, channel, or indeed whatever else we think deserves it. The award itself doesn't have a specific topic, but is weighted against various other factors, which again, aren't pre-determined. For example, someone which made a success of something, despite being up against x, y and z.
Anyway, we've chosen to give the inaugural award to ITV's The Complete Guide to Parenting. Although it wasn't a huge success, we here at the BSG offices enjoyed it, and think that it was unfairly disadvantaged by poor advertising and iffy scheduling. Having said that, it marked ITV's first real move into the sitcom market for quite a while, and taking that alone into consideration, it was a bloody good attempt.
We really felt that this was a nicely staged return to good-old British humour and farce, with a little modern twist to polish it off, and some subtle but truly lough-out-loud lines sprinkled in for good measure. Understated but very funny, and a style we'd like to see more of. Ladies and gentlemen: The Complete Guide to Parenting.
