In the twenty years since Men Behaving Badly threw Martin Clunes and Harry Enfield together in a pokey flat things have changed. It was a comedy show which eschewed sophisication and whose humour was incredibly broad and bawdy and yet it found its way into the hearts of the nation, being voted the greatest sitcom in the BBC’s history, although Messrs. Cleese and Gervais might argue with that.
Simon Nye’s sitcom became a cornerstone of the BBC’s early ’90s viewing, fuelled by lager, the lad/ette culture of the time and a cast with great chemistry it was the last gasp of the traditional UK sitcom. Before The Office rode roughshod over the format and Friends petered out across the Atlantic Men Behaving Badly took the well worn format of clueless guys and the frustrated (sometime) other halves in a flat doing not a lot and spun six seasons and a movie (well, a three part final special episode) out of it.
Not as childish or as inventive as the other ’90s blokes in a flat sitcom (Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s Bottom) nor as twee and harmless Second Thoughts over on ITV Men Behaving Badly is a curio, certainly dated but with the chance to watch the entire series offered to us with a ‘Complete Collection’ box set out on the 29th it’ll be interesting to see how well it holds up.
Here’s a clip to get you started.
