Television series
Do Not Adjust Your Set
- Comedy
- Light-hearted
- Dip in and out
A gloriously anarchic sketch show from 1968 where future Monty Python members met the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and simply went mad together. Absurdist, inventive, utterly uninterested in making sense. It's what happens when you give comedians a tiny budget and complete freedom to break every rule they haven't thought of yet.
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Monty Python's Flying Circus1969
The spiritual successor, with Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin now in full flight. Sharper sketches, iconic catchphrases, and the animation that became legendary. This is where the chaos was refined into genius.
But If you've seen it already—and most people have—there's not much surprise. The Beatles of sketch comedy can feel overexposed.
The Goodies1970
Similar era, similar anarchic DNA, but weirder and more willing to actually do physical stunts and build things. Silly in a deeply committed way, with its own utterly devoted following.
But Bounces between hilarious and baffling in the same sketch. The production quality is deliberately cheap, which works beautifully until it doesn't.
At Last the 1948 Show1967
John Cleese and Graham Chapman's sketch show, running just before Python crystallised. Tighter than Do Not Adjust Your Set but with the same fearless energy. You see the building blocks being tested.
But Harder to find and only four episodes survive. Even if you track it down, it can feel like a rough draft compared to what came next.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Do Not Adjust Your Set
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Magic Christian1969
Both are 1960s absurdism uninterested in narrative sense; both use comedy to poke at respectability itself. The Bonzo Dog Band actually appears in The Magic Christian.
A film adaptation of Terry Southern's novel starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Surrealist, beautifully absurd, exactly the same wavelength as Do Not Adjust Your Set but from the novelists' side of the fence. Anarchic without being cynical.
But Almost impossible to find uncut. The film doesn't quite cohere—it's a series of provocations rather than a story. Some people see genius, others see chaos that doesn't earn itself.
More like this (4)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy1981
Douglas Adams adapting his own work for television. Surreal, funny, that same British absurdist spirit but with actual narrative momentum. A cult classic that deserves to be more watched.
But The BBC budget shows. The effects look cheap even for 1981. Some of the pacing is sluggish by modern standards.
Fawlty Towers1975
Sketch sensibility but weaponised into sitcom form. Every episode is a machine of escalating catastrophe. John Cleese at his absolute peak, nothing wasted, everything lands.
But Only twelve episodes total. Once you know the jokes, they don't quite hit the same. And it's so perfectly crafted that it can feel remote.
The League of Gentlemen1999
Sketch comedy learned the lessons of the Pythons and Goodies, then went somewhere genuinely dark and grotesque. Hilarious and deeply upsetting, sometimes in the same three minutes.
But Genuinely disturbing at times—racism, sexual abuse, body horror. The humour comes from discomfort. Not everyone's idea of a good evening.
Absolutely1989
Scottish sketch show that proved the form wasn't dead. Smarter than it needed to be, with a genuine political undercurrent. Influenced everything that came after.
But Incredibly of its moment—the 1980s are right there in the room with you. Some bits have dated into incomprehensibility. You had to be there.
Recommended by
Horrible Histories, A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, And Now for Something Completely Different