They don't make comedy like they used to

“I don’t think there was anything before that had been quite such a slave to realism," he says.

"If there were jokes, they were bad jokes. There were long pauses, awkward silences."

And despite the misgivings of BBC executives at the time it worked. The problem is that 16 years on, everybody is doing it, and the joke-free, "narrative" sitcom has become as much of a cliche as the closing sketch in The Benny Hill Show.

So it is perhaps little surprise that new research, published by a leading academic at Birmingham City University this week, has found that there is a yearning among many for a return to the "traditional" comedy.

You know, like the days when the whole family would gather round the black and white set to laugh raucously at The Likely Lads, On The Buses, or Dad's Army. As opposed to sitting through weeks on end of angst, emotion and navel-gazing for modern, story-driven sitcoms such as Gavin & Stacey.

Inger-Lise Bore, a senior lecturer at the university's media school, has conducted what she describes as the first major study into what makes us laugh in 17 years. And she found that while some people liked the old-school comedies with laughs aplenty, and others preferred the modern, more subtle varieties, when it comes to what tickles our funny bone there is no middle ground.

Bore launched her new book this week after spending years studying people's viewing habits. And her research reveals that comedy fans fall into two very distinct camps: those of us who enjoy the gag-laden shows of yesteryear, and those who prefer the supposedly more sophisticated story-driven comedies, where the focus is more on the characters and their background than actual jokes.

Her work has found that there is a large, untapped audience of people who long for simpler times, when comedy was easy to understand and could be enjoyed by all the family.

Her studies centre on three very different sitcoms: the Bafta-award winning romantic comedy Gavin & Stacey, about an unlikely romance between Essex man Gavin and his Welsh fiancee Stacey; the unashamedly slapstick semi-autobiographical sitcom Miranda, about a clumsy joke-shop owner; and Everybody Hates Chris, an American comedy based around a teenager growing up in the 1980s.

"I identified a focus on traditional sitcom," says Bore, who adds that her book is the only major research into our tastes in comedy since the introduction of social media.

One of the things she observed was that there was a significant section of the population which particularly disliked Gavin & Stacey, believing its lack of jokes meant it could not really be considered a comedy.

She says she also found the reviews of Everybody Hates Chris interesting in that a large number of people who bought DVD recordings online did so to watch with their children or grandchildren.

"There is an assumption that people don’t do that anymore, because of niche programming, time-shifting, place-shifting and so on," she says.

"But here, DVDs became a way for grandparents and parents to fit family viewing into their schedules.

"Everybody Hates Chris reviewers wanted a sitcom that they could enjoy together as a family."

Miranda, which is written by and stars Miranda Hart, polarised opinion.

"There was a general sense that it was a 'traditional' sitcom, but whereas the fans found that 'refreshing' and suggested that this made it stand out among contemporary sitcoms, anti-fans argued that it was 'outdated' and that viewers now 'expect more'.

"There were also viewers who saw Miranda as a guilty pleasure, and almost apologised for enjoying it.

"So I think there was a perception among these viewers that Miranda was going against sitcom trends, and that we are 'supposed' to prefer more 'highbrow', complex and stylistically innovative sitcoms.

"Miranda fans expressed delight at a multi-camera sitcom that foregrounds jokes and slapstick."

Presumably similar comments could be levelled at the BBC comedy Citizen Khan, which follows the mishaps of a self-styled community leader in inner-city Birmingham. The series, written and starring Birmingham-born Adil Ray, was panned by many critics when first launched in 2012. The Independent's Arifa Akbar, for example, wrote: "The whole show seemed like it was stuck in a 1970s time warp."

Yet while the critics may hate its stereotyped characters and unsubtle humour, it has managed to pull in five million viewers and has been commissioned for five series so far. Somebody clearly likes it.

At the other end of the scale, Gavin & Stacey also splits opinions, with many viewers questioning whether it is a comedy at all.

Bore says: "Some viewers really enjoyed feeling invested in the characters and their relationships, others argued that the lack of jokes suggested that the writers just weren’t able to make a 'real' sitcom."

Many viewers also believed that a shortage of writing talent was one of the reasons for the trend towards story-driven sitcoms.

"Gavin & Stacey anti-fans were frustrated that 'classic' sitcoms were being reframed as 'old-fashioned' and replaced by 'narrative comedy'," says Bore.

"Some expressed frustration with the trend towards narrative comedy, because these shows were seen to require less comic skill than 'traditional' sitcoms."

West Midland TV historian Chris Perry says he is not surprised by the findings.

"I think there has been a definite trend in the last few years of people wanting to see more of the traditional comedies," he says.

"Ricky Gervais was very clever in that he cut The Office off before people became bored with it, but then we had all the spin-offs, such as Extras and Derek." He points out that it is interesting to contrast Yes, Minister and The Thick Of It, which deal with similar situations but in a very different style.

"Yes, Minister is very much in the style of the traditional sitcom with jokes, while The Thick Of It is very much in the 'mockumentary' style, about people and situations, without many jokes," he says.

Perry points out that comedy is all about coming up with new ideas, and it is inevitable that these will go in and out of fashion.

"I think comedy certainly evolves, if you think of the traditional sitcoms of the 50s and 60s, then you always had comedies like the Pythons who would subvert that, giving rise to sketch shows, and alternative comedy, and thinks like The Young Ones," he says.

"But what is ground-breaking when it is new, 10 years later it has become part of the mainstream."

He says overtly middle-of-the-road comedies have always been perceived as "uncool", whatever their respective merits, and that probably explains why some view Miranda as a guilty pleasure. However, time can sometimes view these shows more kindly.

"I think people like to see themselves as being a bit trendy, and if you admit to liking Bless This House, then that is probably not going to be seen as being very down with the kids," he says.

"If you said you watched Dad's Army rather than Monty Python back in 1968, that would probably have been seen as a bit uncool, but today the perception would be very different.

"I think people tend not to like admitting to comedy which is seen as being middle-class."

And what is Chris's favourite comedy?

"I like the traditional comedies, the ones with jokes in, although I like them to have a bit of edge," he says. "I think Blackadder is very good, I like them with that satirical edge."

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