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Yes, Prime Minister sharply satirizes the cold war between elected politicians and entrenched civil servants – an ongoing struggle that keeps all involved too busy to ever actually accomplish anything. Though essentially well meaning, the hapless Hacker (Paul Eddington) is confounded at every turn by Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), a master of bureaucratic obstructionism and linguistic obfuscation (“…even though they probably certainly know that you probably wouldn't, they don't certainly know that, although you probably wouldn't, there is no probability that you certainly would …”).

The Cold War is long over – everywhere but the picturesque Scottish village of Auchnacluchnie, where Flight Lt. Harrison (Christopher Lang) and his fellow airmen keep an RAF early warning station running (badly), much to the annoyance of the eccentric locals.

A comedy about the loves, hopes and disappointments of the staff and punters at a Liverpool bingo palace, all waiting for their winning number in life. Ray calls the bingo and presides over a motley staff. They include Christine on catering, blind to the devotion she arouses in floorman Martin, whose life is a world away from that of handy mechanic and ladies' man Bobby, and the regulars who come to try their luck at the bingo have lives every bit as complicated as the staff. Stars Paul O’Grady, Edna Doré (Mo Butcher in EastEnders), Rosie Cavaliero and Tony Maudsley.

Comedian Reg Varney, a contemporary of the late, great Benny Hill, stars as Stan Butler, a bus driver for the Luxton & District Traction Company. Bob Grant plays his colleague, the cheerfully lecherous conductor Jack Harper.Together, Stan and Jack conspire to do as little real work as possible, while avoiding the wrath of their nemesis, the tyrannical Inspector Blake (played by Stephen Lewis, better known today as Smiler on Last of the Summer Wine). [more]

Based on a popular BBC Radio 4 series, Chambers is a stinging satire of the legal profession, starring John Bird (Absolute Power) as John Fuller-Carp, a morally impaired careerist who’s never met a principle he wouldn’t compromise. James Fleet (The Vicar of Dibley) and Sarah Lancashire (Coronation Street) also star. In the words of the Guardian: “Chambers is set to do for the legal profession what Father Ted did for the Vatican.” The prosecution rests.

After devoting the last 24 years to raising their four children, Arthur and Beryl Crabtree (William Gaunt and Patricia Garwood) feel entitled to some peace and quiet. But their grown offspring have other ideas. In this popular series, all four young Crabtrees flee the adult world and return to the parental nest, to the consternation of mum and dad. With Martin Clunes (Doc Martin), in his first regular series role, as Nigel, the youngest Crabtree.

If you’ve only seen actor Hugh Laurie as the Vicodin-popping, invective-spewing medical detective on the hit series House, then prepare to be surprised. In the classic British comedy series Jeeves and Wooster, he plays a character who couldn’t be further from the brilliant but abrasive Dr. House: the addlepated upper-class English gentleman Bertie Wooster. [more]

You think Six Feet Under’s Fisher clan was a little strange? Then meet the proprietors of Thomas, Thomas, Thomas & Thomas: possibly the worst thing ever to happen to the funeral business in South Wales – or anywhere else. Corpse-phobic patriarch Ivor Thomas (played by William Thomas) and his three eccentric sons are the last people you want to meet when you’re dead. And they’re not much better with the living. Created by co-star Rhys Thomas (The Fast Show) – who was just 20 years old at the time – Fun at the Funeral Parlour become an instant cult classic.

Hyacinth Bucket can’t stand people who pretend to be superior. After all, their pretensions “make it so much harder for those of us who really are.” Smug, social-climbing, status-obsessed and tyrannical, Hyacinth is a walking indictment of British snobbery – and one of the most indelible creations in the history of television comedy. In Keeping Up Appearances, the award-winning BBC Britcom, Patricia Routledge brings the monstrous Hyacinth to life in all her terrifying glory. [more]

Last of the Summer Wine
Fridays, 8 pm & 1 am ET/5 pm & 10 pm PT

The longest-running sitcom in British television history is back featuring Yorkshire's most lovable band of aging reprobates. Starring Peter Sallis (best known as the voice of Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit films), Frank Thornton, Tom Owen and the indomitable Kathy Staff as battle-axe Nora Batty. Watch and marvel. [more]

Welcome to Bayview Retirement Village, a seniors’ home where any show of independence on the part of the inmates … er, residents is strictly frowned upon. But that doesn’t daunt Tom and Diana (Graham Crowden and Stephanie Cole), two elderly eccentrics who refuse to grow old gracefully. Forced together by circumstance, they form an alliance and begin to subvert the smooth running of things at Bayview.