British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

covering all forms of

British comedy Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world. History British comedy history ...

, across all

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

. At the time of writing, BCG has published guides to more than 7,000 individual British comedies - primarily TV and radio

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

and

panel game A panel show or panel game is a radio broadcasting, radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on ''The News Quiz''; facilitate play by non-celebrity conte ...

s. Other notable features on BCG include a news section, a

message board An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

, interviews with comedians and actors, a series of comment and opinion articles, a searchable merchandise database, and a section offering advice to aspiring

comedy writer Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

s. The website also runs ''The Comedy.co.uk Awards'' and hosts several

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

series, some of which have won awards. Reportedly, British Comedy Guide attracts over 500,000 unique visitors a month, making it Britain's most-visited comedy-related reference website.

Background

The website was founded in August 2003 as the ''British Sitcom Guide'' (''BSG''), a website devoted to British

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

TV programmes. The website was established by Mark Boosey, a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

web developer A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used f ...

, originally as a hobby. However, in 2008, it was decided to expand the remit of the website to cover all forms of British comedy, and thus the ''BSG'' was re-launched as British Comedy Guide or BCG, and has continued to expand since this point. Other features added since the site's re-launch in 2008 as British Comedy Guide include a series of podcasts, a section featuring interviews with people working in the British comedy industry and a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

-based news service. The website went through another relaunch in 2016, where it underwent a re-design of the layout, a new logo, and increased coverage of online comedy and people working in British comedy. In 2015, BCG's data specialist Ian Wolf was awarded the inaugural "Unsung Hero" at the first FringePig Ham Fist awards for his work collating reviews during that year's

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

Key people

Podcasts

BCG hosts a range of podcasts, some of which have gone on to win awards. ''

As It Occurs To Me Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...

'' was nominated for a

Sony Radio Academy Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

in 2010, ''Do The Right Thing'' won the Bronze Sony Award for "Best Internet Programme" in 2012, ''Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown'' won the 2012 '' Loaded'' Lafta award for "Best Podcast", and ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' won the Bronze Sony Radio Award for comedy in 2013. In June 2013, an episode of ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' saw host

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...

interviewing

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

, in which Fry revealed that he had attempted to commit suicide. The story was also reported widely across the media, including the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

. The podcasts hosted by BCG are:

The Comedy.co.uk Awards

In January 2007, the website launched ''The British Sitcom Guide Awards'', which were later renamed ''The British Comedy Guide Awards'' and are now known as ''The Comedy.co.uk Awards''. The awards are notable for allowing the public to choose the winners via an online poll, but with no shortlist - all broadcast programmes are available to choose. This differs from the

British Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...

which relies on broadcasters to put their programmes forward for nomination, and only uses a small panel of judges to determine the results. Additionally, ''The Comedy.co.uk Awards'' seeks to name not just the winners, but the worst programme in each category too. In order to be considered for a ''Comedy.co.uk Award'', a programme must be a British comedy which has had at least one new episode broadcast on British TV or radio between 1 January and 31 December of the previous year. The only exception is shows which span across the new year, in which case it is nominated only in the first of the years. Up until the 2015 awards the visitors taking part in the poll are asked to give three votes in each category: one to their favourite show, one to their second favourite show, and one to their least favourite show. The vote for "top favourite" scores two points for the selected programme, and a vote for a "second favourite" scores one. The comedy programme with the most points is declared the winner in that category. The show which receives the highest number of "worst" votes is declared the worst comedy in that category. The 2016 awards change format, removing the "worst" categories, and people voting for the top three programmes, with their favourite show scoring three points, their second favourite two points, and their third favourite one point. In the first week of voting all comedies from the year could be voted on, in the second week the six most popular shows in every category formed a shortlist. All of the awards are voted for by the website's users except one, the ''British Comedy Guide Editors' Award'', which is an award voted for just by the controllers of the guide, and is given "to the show, person, channel, or indeed anything else comedy related that deserves some recognition."

2006

The first awards were presented in January 2007 and were known at the time as ''The British Sitcom Guide Awards 2006'', but have since been renamed. Below are the awards.

2007

The second awards were presented in January 2008, originally under the title ''The British Sitcom Guide Awards 2007''. Below are the results.

2008

The third awards were presented in January 2009 and were the first to include radio shows. The 2008 awards were known as the ''British Comedy Guide Awards 2008'', but were renamed in 2009 to reflect the website's new URL. Below are the awards.

2009

The fourth awards were presented in January 2010. Below are the results.

2010

The fifth awards were presented in January 2011. Below are the results.

2011

The sixth awards were presented on 23 January 2012. Below are the results.

2012

The seventh awards were presented on 21 January 2013. Below are the results.

2013

The eighth awards were presented on 20 January 2014. Below are the results.

2014

The ninth awards were presented on 26 January 2015. Below are the results.

2015

The tenth awards were presented on 1 February 2016. Below are the results.

2016

The 11th awards will be presented on 23 January 2016. Below are the nominations and winners.

2017

The 12th awards were presented on 29 January 2017. Below are the nominations and winners.

2018

The 13th awards were presented on 4 February 2019. Below are the nominations and winners.

2019

The 14th awards were presented on 27 January 2020. Below are the nominations and winners.

2020

The 15th awards were presented on 8 February 2021. Below are the nominations and winners.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.comedy.co.uk/ British comedy websites Internet properties established in 2003