Britain's Best Sitcom is a 12-episode documentary series that BBC Two transmitted from 10 January to 27 March 2004. It was part of a nationwide media campaign and opinion poll conducted by the BBC in 2003 and 2004.
The BBC asked television viewers to select their favourite British situation comedies from a list of 100, with the option to supply one write-in candidate. In the first poll, conducted in August 2003, viewers could vote via telephone or the BBC's website; the second, conducted January–March 2004, added the option of voting by text message. This second poll coincided with the television programme, which celebrated the top 50 sitcoms from the first poll, and urged viewers to vote their preference from the top 10.
In the three-hour premiere episode, Jonathan Ross summarised the progress of the poll, and presented video clips from the 50 sitcoms that received the most votes. Each of the next ten weekly episodes, one hour in length, focused on one sitcom from the top 10. In each episode, a different presenter advocated a particular sitcom, delivering 20 reasons why it deserved viewers' votes. The sitcom's writers and actors, as well as celebrity viewers, also shared their own perspectives and memories. In the 90-minute finale, transmitted live, Jonathan Ross announced the top sitcom to be Only Fools and Horses.
Britain's Best Sitcom was preceded by the BBC Two programmes Great Britons (2002) and The Big Read (2003), each of which was also based on national opinion polls.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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