Television may be a visual medium but its antecedent is the aural medium radio, rather than that other all pervasive visual medium cinema. Early television stations across the world were organised and run by the same authorities that ran radio stations, so it was no surprise that many radio formats were translated for the small screen.
The BBC started a public television service in 1936 and for three years, until the start of the war, produced an ambitious variety of programming covering social news, classic arts, contemporary arts, sport and royal events. They didn't however feature any sitcoms, comedy took the form of stand up routines or short music hall sketches. On radio a similar mix existed but some early programmes notably ITMA ("Its That Man Again") had a recurrina theme and featured the same characters every week. Although still perceived as a variety show, in essence ITMA had many of the ingredients of a sitcom. During the war radio became the essential medium of both news and propaganda but perhaps equally important, it helped keep up the nation's morale with a number of hugely popular light entertainment programmes (of which ITMA was the number one). Throughout the war, the BBC’s Forces network broadcast to troops, and when the Americans came to Europe to join the fight further broadcasts featured American pro­ grammes, including some sitcoms. Many of these shows proved popular with the Brits as well as the US service-men.
After the war, some sitcoms based vaguely on the US model aired on British radio, but the biggest radio success was the zany Goon Show, a surrealistic avant garde comedy which, although featuring recurring charac­ ters each week, did not have a recur­ ring situation. Nearer was the series "Hancock's Half Hour", written by Galton and Simpson and built round the talents o f top comedian Tony Hancock. The series featured recurring characters and had a recurring situation o f sorts and the combination of great writing and Hancock's nhenomenal sense of timing made the show a huge hit. BBC television experimented with the form of sitcom throughout the forties and fifties but with little success. When the commercial channel ITV started in 1955, its schedule featured many im­ported American programmes in­ cluding the huge hit sitcom "I Love Lucy" featuring Lucille Ball. The success of these shows spurred British pro­ducers on to creating a homegrown sitcom success, something they finally achieved when “Hancock's Half Hour" transferred to television. Hancock repeated his radio success and proved once and for all that the format would work for a British audience.
"Hancock's Half Hour" reigned supreme as TV's top sitcom form 1956 to 1961 and it was fitting that the next huge sitcom h it "Steptoe and Son"
was also written by Hancock's writers, Galton and Simpson. The format came into its own in the 1960s with a slew of huge hits including "The Likely Lads", "The Rag Trade" and the controversial "Till Death Us Do Part". The 70's brought new successes, "Man About The House", "Fawlty Towers", "Porridge", "Rising Damp" etc. and the durable sitcom shows no sign of fading, bouncing back from a barren
period at the end o f the 1980s to strike gold again in the 1990s with such shows as "Absolutely Fabulous", "Men Behaving Badly" and "Father Ted".