A Little Bit of Cool

Via Wikipedia, I see that in 2000, or l'an deux mille as we say in Fascist America, the British Film Institute produced a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of all time.

The Year 2000?

I hear you say.

Ladies and gentlemen, being behind the curve is as much second nature to us here at the Gyre as being behind the sofa.

For your edification, I present to you the top 10 from their list:

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Cathy Come Home (The Wednesday Play)
3. Doctor Who
4. The Naked Civil Servant
5. Monty Python's Flying Circus

I would quibble with the exact order here (I'm not sure Cleese and Connie Booth are a heck of a lot funnier than Cleese, Gilliam, Palin, Jones, Idle, and Chapman), but for all I know the difference between each of these was on the order of single votes, or ties, or something.

I am slightly proud through no accomplishment of my own to have watched and loved three of the top 5 British shows evar. I will now preen overweeningly.

Other BBC shows on this list include I, Claudius (#12), Blackadder Goes Forth (#16), Absolutely Fabulous (#17), Inspector Morse (#42), Quatermass and the Pit (#75), Michael Moore's TV Nation (#90), Teletubbies (#97), and Pride and Prejudice (#99).

Incidentally, their featured article of the day is Thoughts on the Education of Daughters by Mary Wollstonecraft (not Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her daughter).