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The Best….sitcom couples

Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey in Men Behaving Badly
  • Posted at 4:09pm
  • 12 March 2008
  • by KateCoffey-RT
  • 1 comment

Before we start, let's remind ourselves that sitcom couples come in all varieties, not just the "we're-married-and-argue-a-bit"-type in the My Family mould, a shining example of sitcom coupledom though they are. When you dig deep into the Quality Street box of our sitcom heritage, there are less obvious but more tasty examples to be found (they're the equivalent of the purple ones with the nut and caramel centre).

The platonic couples: Tony and Gary from Men Behaving Badly, defenders of mid-30s underachievement, are completely devoted. They love booze, birds and belching, but not as much as they love each other. Even when Gary's scathing girlfriend Dorothy and Tony got drunk and went "a little bit too far", not even that could get between the two lads – they'd be far more miserable apart than together (where they could do productive things, like construct home-made saunas).

Similarly joined at the hip, gruesome twosome Edina and Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous can be seen rampaging through their middle-years with all the dignity of an anarchists' rally. Patsy (an inspiration to transvestites everywhere) is a parasitically bad influence, most memorably on the day of Edina's father's funeral where they turned up late and drunk, staggering over to the solemn gathering at the point of burial only to stumble headfirst in the grave, one after the other. A class act.

The masochistic couples: Without the existence of Baldrick, there would be no-one for perpetual master and tormentor Blackadder to vent his scathing spleen on. There has barely been a comedy couple since that could match their unique blend of unrequited love in quite the same way...

...Except perhaps in Norwich. "No offence, Lynn, but technically your life isn't worth insuring." Poor long-suffering PA Lynn spends her life tidying up after Alan Partridge's toe-curling tomfoolery, only to have her unswerving loyalty and devotion humiliated time and again. If only she knew about his homoerotic fantasy of table-dancing for TV executives in a rubber thong, she may break off the one-sided love affair once and for all.

The paternal couples: Father Ted, exiled to the Irish backwater of Craggy Island for a mysterious church-funds scandal referred to only as "that Lourdes thing", had to contend with dense, childlike Father Dougal ("That's nearly as mad as that thing you told me about the loaves and the fishes, Ted!") as protégé. Stuck in this unlikely duo, Ted is forced to give up his unholy desires for wealth and fame and lead by example (such as winning the Golden Cleric award for leading a troop of lost priests out of Ireland's largest lingerie department).

And who could leave out Del Boy, father substitute to gormless Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, probably the best sitcom coupling ever written - probably because, despite Derek's wheeler-dealer tutorage and braggadocio, we knew that it was really the student who was the teacher. (Del: "One of my most favouritist meals is duck à l'orange, but I don't know how to say that in French." Rodney: "It's canard." Del: "You can say that again, bruv!")

Once you start rummaging round that box of Quality Street it's nearly impossible to stop, but I've run out of room (and I'm feeling a bit stuffed). These are only a mere soupcon of the vast amount of comedy couplings from which we have to choose (I've left the rest in the box if you want to keep eating...).

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  • Posted on 22 July 2008
  • at 3:08pm
  • by Maria

What about Fletcher and Godber in 'Porridge'? They were a good paternal sitcom couple! Im sure they deserve a mention!

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