Nostalgia Sunday is back and this time I am going to be taking a look back at some of the best British sitcoms from the noughties. There have been so many greats over the years and I felt it was only right to honour just some of them in a blog post...
Benidorm was one of my favourites and I was gutted when it ended (although glad it went out on a high instead of continuously being dragged on, like many other TV shows seem to do). I think we can all agree that the best family was the Garvey family and that it all started to go slightly downhill when they left. I would also say that some of my other favourite characters included Kenneth, Liam, Jackie, and Donald. It was just a typical family holiday at an all-inclusive resort that I think many of us watching could relate to in one way or another. You can watch the very first episode here.
So I never actually watched Peep Show during the noughties as I was definitely too young but watched it for the first time in 2018 and I LOVED it! I liked how unique it was (and forgive me if any other TV show had done this before them) by using the cameras to make it seem like everything that was happening was from the viewers' point of view. I don't really remember loads about this show, but it is definitely one (as I feel is the same with all British sitcoms) that I can watch again and again and never get bored of. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
I have watched The Office UK a couple of times and do think it changed British comedy in many ways. I feel as though I am the only person that didn't have some hatred for David Brent. I can understand this disgust in some ways, but in others, I don't get it. I will always defend British comedy till my death of being superior to US comedy, however, since The Office US was put on UK Netflix, I hate to admit it but the US version is much better than the UK version (although I will admit that the first two seasons of the US version weren't massively great, but at the time of writing I've just started season five and am LOVING it!). You can watch some of the best bits from The Office UK here.
I'm fairly certain that anyone who attended secondary school and/or sixth form around the same time The Inbetweeners aired (or pretty much at any point before, during or after) can relate to this show in one way or another. It was brilliantly written and I've lost count of how many times I've watched it but, somehow, every time I do, it feels like I'm watching it again for the first time. You would never put these four characters together as friends in real life, but somehow, it works incredibly well and really portrays the different types of friends/people that you went to school with. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
I don't really remember loads about this show and I feel that it isn't talked about as much as some of the other sitcoms I have mentioned in this post, but it is still a classic noughties British sitcom nonetheless. I definitely remember watching this whilst it was on air and still love to watch it whenever there is nothing else new on TV and see that a repeat of this is on. I'm fairly certain this is the only sitcom on this list where I haven't watched every episode, but hopefully, I'll be able to rectify that soon. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
I know The Royle Family is technically a nineties British sitcom, but A) I felt it deserved a mention as it is SO iconic; B) it is one of my favourite ever sitcoms; and C) the last series did air in the 2000s, aka the noughties, and all of the specials after the last series were also aired during the noughties, therefore it is being claimed as partly a nineties and partly a noughties sitcom. I think it shows how great a writer someone can be if they can make a show so funny and entertaining where essentially for half an hour all we are watching is a family sat talking in front of their TV - and as a result of that we now have Gogglebox! I think we can all relate to everyone in this family in one way or another and for me, the character that I think every family has is Norma as, I don't know about you, but she reminds me so much of my Grandma and every time I watch The Queen of Sheba episode I cry buckets. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
This is definitely one of my comfort British sitcoms and is one I love and relate to so much as a woman. I think this is one of the first times I had watched anything with such a female-heavy cast and I love it. I love that Miranda shows that your thirties can still be fun and that you don't have to do all of the boring 'adult' things and it's perfectly okay for you to gallop down the street every once in a while. I also loved Miranda's character growth and the fact that by the end of the series she showed that you don't need to chase after a man and that you shouldn't just settle for the sake of it and should find someone that loves you just as much as you love them. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
This is definitely THE sitcom that every single family EVER can relate to. In some ways, I hope that if I ever have kids, they are a little like the kids in Outnumbered because at least then I know I would never be in for a dull day. What is original about this sitcom is the fact a lot of it is un-scripted and I think that's what makes it so unique and also shows how good actors the adults there as they can just go along with whatever the kids were saying (ESPECIALLY when they were younger). You can watch the first-ever episode here.
This has to be my all-time favourite British sitcom EVER!!! It was beautifully written and I cry every time when I watch the episode where Gavin and Stacey get married when Bryn reads out Stacey's Dad's letter to her. I have lost track of the number of times I have watched this sitcom and I don't think I could possibly ever get bored of it. I feel I'm the only person in the entire UK that is grateful that they didn't tell us what happened on the fishing trip in the 2019 Christmas special as I just think it would ruin the whole mystery and questions I have that I don't necessarily want to be answered and prefer to make up my own different scenarios in my head. You can watch the first-ever episode here.
That is it for British sitcoms from the noughties. If there are any I missed that you loved and watched then please let me know in the comments below. I would also love to know if you watched any of the sitcoms I have mentioned in this post and what you thought of them.
As always, if there are any other topics you would like me to mention in my Nostalgia Sunday series, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Love Beth xx