The Royle Family

I’m delighted that people still watch it. I think it will get repeated and repeated like Only Fools and Horses. If there’s one thing we’re good at in this country, lad, and we don’t beat the drum enough about it, it’s comedy. - Ricky Tomlinson, Jim Royle in The Royle Family

The second this first aired, every single tv writer in England surely thought “a show about a regular lazy-ass broke family lounging around watching tv? WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT??” - XMASTIME

 I stumbled into this short oral history of the classic Britcom The Royle Family, a tv show that finally combined minimalism & realism and boiled it all down to what families really do: sit around watching tv & bitching. It was absolute genius, mostly thanks to Caroline Aherne:

The show was a heartfelt and affectionately mocking portrait of the Royles, a northern English working-class family who lived on a council estate in Wythenshawe. The action, such as it was, rarely left the living room, let alone the house. Conversations were gloriously mundane, constrained to a world of catalogue shopping and corned beef hash.

Usually, when they change the lighting, people go off to their dressing rooms, but we used to just sit around on the sofa. We’d be roaring with laughter. It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had, and a lot of that was down to Caroline. Her spirit. Her warmth.

 
The series was first broadcast 25 years ago and was an unexpected smash. Against the odds, it charted a new, more naturalistic course for TV, paving the way for The Office, Gavin & Stacey, Gogglebox and more. Two more series followed before the show seemingly ended as Aherne’s personal life became tumultuous. Suffocated by tabloid speculation, she moved to Australia and retreated from public view. After a long hiatus, The Royle Family was revived with a handful of beloved Christmas specials. The last aired in 2012, four years before Aherne died of lung cancer.

I can't recommend this show enough, get thee over to Amazon Prime now and treat yourself!