"Radio Times" Guide to TV Comedy Book

Television comedy is a serious business if the size of this book is anything to go by. From "A J Wentworth BA" to "Zzzap!" via "Bottle Boys" and "Fawlty Towers", every comedy programme screened on British television since transmission began in 1936 is included, and the result runs to eight hundred pages, mind-boggling in their scope. Any fears, though, of it belonging to the "dull but worthy" school of reference book are quickly dispelled upon opening it. The layout is easy to follow, with each entry listing the cast, production team and technical data before a brief synopsis and/or critique. Mark Lewisohn skilfully achieves a necessary balance between information and opinion; it takes a hardy enthusiast to spend six years researching such a subject, and consequently his tone is often positive, but he is an experienced broadcast historian (and Beatles expert, tangentially), and he keeps a pair of jackboots by the sofa to stomp all over any howlers. Lest we forget, for every "Seinfeld" there was a "Me and the Chimp". It is this diversity that will delight the browser, the fanatic and the pub quizzer alike, and Lewisohn has emerged, probably red-eyed and pale, with a valuable and entertaining guide to an ever-popular genre. --David VincentRead More