Great Lost Sitcoms: Colin's Sandwich

It is one of the undoubted truths of the situation comedy that few sitcoms become Britain's Favourite. Indeed many are actively despised throughout their brief lifetimes. But some comedy creations are gems that enjoy a brief moment twinkling in the light of day, then disappear, to be forgotten.

As a long time lover of the sitcom, I've seen many of these Forgotten Sitcoms come and go and it's a delight to find that many of them can now be seen for the first time in years on DVD or YouTube. Some, however, are really hard to find clips of, let alone the whole thing. These are the Lost Sitcoms. I have some favourites. One such is Colin's Sandwich.


Written by Terry Kyan and Paul Smith it starred Mel Smith as a wannabe TV writer working for British Rail. He writes horror, he has a mate with glasses who accidentally erases the script on his new-fangled word processor, they do a location scene in France, I think there's even a graveside scene where someone falls in the grave - none of the memories I conjure up and describe sound particularly good. But it was a sublime, witty, intelligent and funny sitcom. And quite possibly the best thing the late Mel Smith ever did on the telly (yes, even better than Rocking Around The Christmas Tree with Kim Wilde). It got a second series and even got repeated once. You can find both series on Youtube, but your conscience may prefer you to buy the recently released DVDs.

See also Grown Ups, Mornin' Sarge

If you would like to create the next great lost sitcom, The Sitcom Trials are running this summer in Birmingham, Cardiff & Manchester. Deadline for scripts is May 22nd.  See here for details.



Next shows:
June 21 2015 - Manchester Sitcom Trials
Kings Arms Salford

July 3 2015 - 1st Midlands Sitcom Trials
Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham

July tbc - 1st Cardiff Sitcom Trials
Porters Bar, Cardiff