Embarrassed to admit it, but Mr. Bean rules the day for me!

I love all you have mentioned. Doc Martin is a favorite. Like the other shows..mysteries, etc., too. Love "Grantchester", "Endeavor", and "800 Words"

is my new very favorite. A little drama, lots of laughs.

Love the Fresh Fields and then French Fields. DD gifted me with Roku, and have loved all the British shows I can get.

A fan of all the above as well. My favorite the Lord Peter Whimsy series. Loved the series before Endeavor, Inspector Morse. Poirot of course and there was one with Helen Mirren as a D.I. that was really good as well, while I do love the Britcoms, you can tell it's mysteries for me

Enjoy Doc Martin. There was one called Silk, not a comedy ... but one I found interesting. Does anyone recall that one or know what happened to it?

To the Manor Born, Good Neighbors, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, Miss Marple (any of them). It's interesting when we lived in England we couldn't get any of their good comedies -- but Friends was on all the time! We've never watched so many episodes of Friends as we did when we lived in England -- LOL!

I absolutely loved the Blackadder series. And Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served.

'Silk' was a series about a criminal law chambers. Ended after 3 seasons. Was on Masterpiece a while back and is now drifting around in TV etherland until it shows up on Netflix or similar or as a repeat on Masterpiece.

I like most of the comedies. One that was only shown for a short time was Outnumbered, it was hilarious! Anything that Rowan Atkinson does is aces with me (he's now in the detective show Maigret). The original versions of The Office and House of Cards. Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Are You Being Served?. A Bit of Fry and Laurie! French and Saunders, which led to Absolutely Fabulous and The Vicar of Dibley.

The list of British dramas is way too long! My Netflix queue is full of them!

I absolutely love Mr. Bean. I even had a ferret that I named Mr. Bean. haha He's hilarious and I have the box set of the show. He can make you laugh without saying anything. Also any of the Mr. Bean movies. :D I also like Absolutely Fabulous. :)

Movies - Mr Bean movies of course, Bend It Like Beckham and Kinky Boots off the top of my head.

https://acorn.tv/800words

Came back to put this link in for "800 Words", in case anyone wanted to check

it out.

I think Waiting for God was hysterical. LOVED that series!

Keeping Up Appearances. Oh my.

I liked some of Absolutely Fabulous; I actually though the more straight-laced grandmother was funnier than the duo.

But there is an element to some types of British humour that one could say is more broad, scatalogical farce. Think of Chaucer, The Miller's Tale.

There is another element that is more witty, sophisticated, like the songs of Noel Coward.

The rev. Stella. I watch all of the British shows I can get! The Wrong Mans starring James Corden is hilarious.

It seems like modern British humor is converging with American humor, no surprise because of the massive cultural interactions long in place. Classic British humor has many elements of irony, satire, absurdity, etc., based on British culture and institutions that I think most American viewers completely miss or misunderstand because of a lack of a deep familiarity with that foundation.

I don't like most of it. Often there are too many gags or comments that (for whatever reason, certainly sometimes because of my cultural ignorance) aren't funny to me.

I generally love British humour. My all time favouurite is Mrs. Brown. I absolutely love it. I wish it would come back on

"I don't like most of it. "

Somehow that doesn't surprise me too much :-)

Did you read why or just jump to the end of what I said? If when watching a regular comedic TV program you think you're picking up the nuances and meanings of the dialog, you're fooling yourself.

I like the British shows mentioned above..don't like the usual slapstick or pie in the face humor. Did like Benny Hill and Mr. Bean though.

Oh, I read your comments.......here and on countless other posts. And the subtlety, dryness, irony and self-deprecating nature of British humor (or should I say British humour) seems very clearly like something you would not appreciate. It appears from many of your comments that you take yourself a bit too seriously.

People who know me think I have a great sense of humor. I'm very attuned to humor in everyday things and share what I see and hear.

Taking myself too seriously? I have opinions and I'm not reluctant to share them, nor to point out things I think others maybe haven't considered in their views. Does that fill the bill for you?

British programs are full of comedy based on class stereotypes, geographic stereotypes, other entrenched cultural views and stereotypes, common views of current events at the time of production, etc, etc. Do you think you're picking up the nuances? If you think so, you're either culturally fluent (which is most unlikely) or you're fooling yourself.

Upon reading the title line I first thought of Last Tango in Halifax described somewhere as a British comedy-drama series.

We loved the broad music hall humor of "The Two Ronnies". Wonder where I could see those shows again...

Not a fan of Mr. Bean but I love British humour. One of my favourite shows was Red Dwarf. Even Coronation Street which I have watched since a child has humour in it that makes me laugh. Old ones like French and Saunders, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Are You Being Served, Ab. Fab, too many to remember. Even the dramas and mystery shows have comedy in them. Love watching Hearbeat. I prefer watching British comedy over American any day.

OK, let's not rock The Kitchen Table too much here in this thread, referring to a couple of the posts above. There's enough real life absurdity going on, the effects of which are not comedic.

Not comedy, but we liked "The Last Detective".

I LOVE British TV, especially

1. Escape to the Country (where people leave larger cities like London to move to idyllic country villages). The show visits 3 homes, tours them, and documents the 'escapees' choice. Also love Location, Location, Location (like American House Hunters).

2. Doc Martin and anything British on Masterpiece Theater (Downtown Abbey, Victoria, etc.)

3. Old Brit TV like To the Manor Born.

Bobbi, I love Silk! I got the first season at my local library, am thinking of buying the next 2 seasons (on Amazon). Anyone who likes legal drama should love it.

I found the recent shows on YouTube when I got rid of cable tv.

I love them all -- Mr. Bean, Hyacinth, you name it. On the other hand, I have to bite my tongue when my friend, born in England, likes to comment that perhaps I don't get her "dry English sense of humour." There's no answer to that. I won't go into detail, but why is a nation's sense of humour also a point of pride? Is there a nation without a sense of humour? Maybe I'm taking a detour here -- sorry!

Anglo, loved the 2 YouTube pieces on the EU

Elmer's right about the "hidden" or "cultural" humour that is included in many of the shows mentioned above. I watched a lot of them and laughed at the face-value jokes/funny parts, but when I watched them again after having been "instructed" in the specifically English turn-of-phrase or slang or what have you, it was even funnier.

This "hidden" or "cultural" humour may cut both ways. Netflix has a comedy called The Windsors that has so much royal name dropping and royal antics and the dialect and idioms make it quite foreign, as it were. I don't get it.

But Netflix has another called Embarrassing Bodies which is billed as a reality show which I find quite amusing but is supposed to address serious issues, perhaps humor is intended too.

Helen Mirren's program was Prime Suspect.

Love, love, love British shows! I grew up on:

Keeping Up Appearances

Mr Bean

'allo 'allo (based on nazi occupied french village trying to resist covertly)...hilarious!

Up the Garden Path (with Imelda Staunton)

As Time Goes By

Some Mothers Do Have 'em

Benny Hill (and I was quite young to be watching this...eek)

Enjoying:

Doc Martin

Vicar of Dibley and more

All the garden and design shows (Gardeners World, Grand Design, Escape to the Country, Charlie Luxtons Homes by the Sea and Worlds Most Extraordinary Homes)

I love the British wry and bold sense of humor. It's refreshing somehow.

Thanks for speaking up, chloecat. If I recall correctly, you lived in England for a good number of years yourself and your husband is English. How could you know anything about this compared to Americans who have been to Britain for a few weeks/months or have watched British TV before?

As for me, I don't have an in-house translator and I find it too tedious to enjoy. I remember ages ago seeing when first broadcast a Python sketch about whether there had been a Kon-Tiki or RA-like expedition that had discovered an overland route from Surbiton to somewhere else. It puzzled me and it wasn't until some years later when I got an explanation from an Englishman that I could understand it at all. The sketch was intended to slime both places because they were boring suburbs of London where boring, clueless people lived. Without that understanding, it made no sense.

.

It is utterly ridiculous but here is Catherine Tate as the translator

I watched this with all my international friends years ago and we cried with laughter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8tfioOKvU

Did anyone watch 'The Royles'? I could not wait for new episodes. My husband was totally befuddled that I loved that show, but I believe he began to like it also. They did nothing but sit, glued to the TV but it is one of my favorites!

I like watching Michael McIntyre. He's a comedian. He's hilarious.

My late husband's favorite Brit Com was a show called "Chef" . Anyone else recall it?

vicsgirl, YES! Lenny Henry! So funny!

Also, two with Penelope Keith: Good Neighbors and To The Manor Born.

Not a comedy, but I always liked Rosemary and Thyme.

Elmer, you asked: How could you know anything about this compared to Americans who have been to Britain for a few weeks/months or have watched British TV before?

My answer: Because I watched BritComs and other shows BEFORE living there/being married to a Brit. The surface-jokes were funny before I knew the depth of the humoUr. :)

My sincerest apology, chloecat, it was a poor effort at sarcasm/irony. Of course you know what you're looking at, probably more than any other contributor to this discussion. I cited your creds.

Sylvia -- yes -- Rosemary & Thyme!

Dammit, Elmer! You need to use that sarcasm font! lol

Red Dwarf, though I guess it's been years now.

I do think humour is cultural; I'm on a few forums where a lot of Asians post, and they post things that clearly they think are hilarious (going by the acronyms and emojis) and the rest of us are essentially standing around going, What?

My life would have been completely different without Monty Python. It's not a tv show, but anyone who like PG Wodehouse might enjoy the book "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome.

absolutely loved "Absolutely Fabulous"!

Mrs Brown's Boys I found hilarious.