Are you 'avin' a larf?

Sometimes it is good to get away from politics and just settle down in front of the telly for a good comedy. It lightens the mood and refreshes the soul.

Or at least it used to...

Recently the complete absence of anything even remotely passing for comedy on the TV has sent me reaching back into the annals of time to find something that is actually worth the electricity consumed by the TV set. There is no shortage of such programs on the internet that can be downloaded and, believe me, I have trawled deeply lately.

But what has become apparent to me is the number of programs from the last century which today would never get past the program managers, pressure groups and censors that are strangling modern scheduling. Let's look back at a few that are fresh in my mind :

Dave Allen at Large

Sorry Dave, but we can't have you smoking and drinking on television! After all, we are telling everyone that smoking kills and that drinking ruins your mind and body. And all your jokes about the Catholic church - well that will never do. And please don't wave that missing finger around or you will offend the disabled lobby...

Not the Nine O'Clock News

The edition I just watched referred, amongst other things, to 'red commie bastards', 'niggers', 'poofs', and 'pakis'. How many laws does that list break? But it did at least say that immigrants 'couldn't help being black'.
And the police were portrayed as a bunch of thickies and thugs - which will never do!

'Til Death Us Do Part

The election night special with Alf Garnet stood in a pub having a row with Spike Milligan's character from 'Curry and Chips'. Do I really need to expand on the picture that is painting in your minds?

Spitting Image

The Queen Mum as a gin swilling Geordie, Norman Tebbitt in a nazi helmet, Gummer swine, John Major inspecting his peas, and many more. We all had our own favourites, but can you see that getting screened today?

The list is almost endless of 'politically incorrect' programs. Yes it is true to say that many were irreverent - indeed, they were offensive - but we laughed at them and at ourselves and didn't take them seriously. And we were the better for it.

Not any more. Comedy is dead. 'The Thick of It', for example, would be much better without the expletives that show it up as shallow, sensationalist and frankly lacking in real content. Billed as a 'Yes Minister' for the 21st century, you just couldn't imagine Sir Humphrey or Jim Hacker carrying on like that.

But then, they say art mimics life, and given the way things are these days, maybe there just isn't anything to laugh about any more?....