Whoops Baghdad

I'm heartened that audience sitcom in the UK has a torch bearer. Miranda starring Miranda Hart has put laughing out loud back on the agenda. Of course it's not to everyone's taste. Those people who think comedy should be about the cringeworthy and anal sex gags might struggle to find the fun. But for nearly 4 millions BBC 2 viewers Miranda's attempts to get through a day without falling over/into/off something whilst juggling a lie told to counteract a story that was meant to get her out of a situation her mother put her in is the perfect tonic.

In the past few years comedy has come to mean much darker fare.

Since The Office repositioned TV comedy, for many execs the great big ball of fun comedy has mostly been out of favour. The Office is a work of genius. A lot of what followed in its wake wasn't - and isn't. On my Christmas plate I like white meat and dark meat and I happen to believe there's room for all kinds of comedy on TV - but right now I'm happy to wave a flag for a few more shows of the laugh out  loud variety.

Nothing wrong with the single camera, no audience, shoot it like a drama, don't have too many gags, let's keep it real school. I happen to love all that. Some of my favourite comedy moments can be found in The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. But those are dramas. Comedy moments that explode from dark fare are all the more satisfying in my book. But, I repeat, those shows are dramas.

The object of comedy is to make people laugh. If you go to a stand-up gig and the audience is nodding sagely at the witty observations of the comic he won't go very far. Comedy requires a reaction - or it aint comedy.

Miranda is not afraid to remind us that we are watching a comedy. She talks to camera, she offers looks to camera,  the fourth wall doesn't exist. It is a terrific performance. But I heard someone praising her as the inventor of a new kind of TV comedy - here I have to shout very loudly FRANKIE HOWERD.

When I was growing up one of the great treats was to be allowed to stay up past nine o'clock to watch Up Pompeii. On this show the single entendre was alive and well and getting big laughs. But it wasn't just about the smutty and suggestive, it was about Frankie Howerd's connection with the audience, both in the studio and at home. In it he talked directly to camera and let us know at all times that this was a comedy confection, a play, nothing real; every element constructed for our amusement.

In 1973 Howerd starred in the follow up Whoops Baghdad (like to see somebody get that one past a commissioner in 2010). If Up Pompeii was television's answer to A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, its successor owed more to British Pantomime.

It was a feast of double entendres and essentially a reworking of 'Up Pompeii!', Whoops Baghdad focused on Ali Oopla (Howerd), servant to the Wazir of Baghdad.
In his day-to-day life, Ali dealt with such problems as the Wazir's naive daughter, numerous merchant traders, and many scantily-clad women with impressive cleavage. The thud you just heard was another commissioner falling off the perch.

It ran just six episodes and is little remembered. To view it now - it's available on DVD - is to step back in time, not to old Baghdad but to an age when television comedy did this kind if thing because they thought it would be a funny thing to do. Skip over to YouTube and check it out.

 In an age of Middle Eastern tensions and the war on terror Baghdad would not be the place to set a comedy but there's much in this old series that reminds me of Miranda. 

In grim times we could do with a bit more laugh out loud funny.