British TV desperately needs something it has rarely achieved for the comedy genre to thrive

There are plenty of words that you could use to describe British sitcoms: silly, sarcastic, sympathetic, or even sad. But arguably the most consequential of modern times is 'short'.

The limited runs exemplified by Fawlty Towers and The Office, both of which bowed out after a dozen or so episodes, has seemingly become the favoured model by today's writers and commissioners.

Take a look at the shortlist in Radio Times' greatest modern British sitcom poll and you'll find many more recent examples, including Big Boys, Derry Girls, Fleabag, Car Share, W1A and After Life.

The average number of lifetime episodes per show in the entire line-up is... a rather modest 21. For context, that's one shy of a single traditional season of US network telly (admittedly, those have shrunk lately due to the shift towards streaming).

On the other hand, only five adult-oriented British sitcoms have ever topped 100 episodes: The Army Game (1957-61), Last of the Summer Wine (1973-2010), Birds of a Feather (1989-2020), My Family (2000-11) and Not Going Out (2006-present).

That milestone has been far more frequently surpassed in the US, across both comedy and drama, in large part due to lucrative syndication deals that kick in from around that point.

You need only look at the eye-watering sums paid out for the likes of Seinfeld, Friends and The Office (US) – hint: hundreds of millions of dollars each(!) – to see the benefit that this approach can have in its most extreme cases.

Now, I'd be the last person to suggest that we follow the Americans down every path they tread. But in this case, the British industry's reluctance (or inability) to produce long-running, bankable comedies is a factor challenging the genre at large.

The point was brought to my attention in a recent Radio Times interview with Big Boys creator Jack Rooke, who argued that the brevity of a typical Britcom is both a blessing and a curse for our country's cultural footprint.

"Yes, there's artistic integrity in starting something and ending it exactly how you intended. I do think it's great that British comedy has enabled that," he prefaced. "I also think it speaks to a slight problem, which is that there's a huge disparity in the finances of making a comedy versus making a drama."

"I think that's why Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Michaela Coel, and Jesse Armstrong and all of our finest writing talent leave comedy to make dramas. You just get way more budget to spend. It would be nice if we could bring some of those writers back."

Rooke concluded: "If we could start having comedies that run for longer than two or three seasons, there would be a better financial payback to those creators and larger budgets to tell more ambitious comedic stories."

• Vote in Radio Times' poll: What is the greatest modern British TV comedy?

His use of the word "ambitious" is key. Often, when sitcoms do manage to persist in the UK, it is viewed (rightly or wrongly) as the flogging of a dead horse, but it doesn't need to be this way.

There's no law of nature dictating that any sitcom to reach a certain number of episodes must enter into terminal decline, although it certainly has occurred in numerous instances. The question is, how can that risk be lowered?

Obviously, the writers must take some accountability for the length of a sitcom's golden (or watchable) years, but the tools they have to work with are also hugely influential – principally, the situation at play, and the characters inhabiting it.

For instance, some sitcoms come with a built-in limit for how long they can run, such as Rooke's own Big Boys, which was inspired by his real-life experiences at university and, naturally, ends after graduation.

Others could go on in perpetuity, but lack a compelling reason to do so; take ITV's Piglets, which has a broad premise that could easily be refreshed, but gags and characters that make you reach for the remote within five minutes of turning it on.

The takeaway is that dynamic protagonists in a malleable setting are the base ingredients for any long-running TV comedy (not to be read as: 'crude clowns somewhere boring').

I'm not suggesting that it's easy to concoct this magic combination, but it would be nice to see more efforts operating above the low bar set by Piglets, Queen of Oz or Mrs Brown's Boys (distinct in that it is popular, but polarises opinion massively).

Is there a flawed, dated image in the minds of writers or commissioners for what a mainstream British sitcom needs to be in order to thrive on a leading broadcaster? It certainly seems that way to this frustrated viewer.

Imports like Friends and Seinfeld as well as longer homegrown hits like Only Fools and Horses, Peep Show and Friday Night Dinner prove that comedies don't need to be creatively bankrupt after a decade on screen – and nor should they start out that way.

As Rooke observes, there's a genuinely strong argument that commissioners should be exploring comedy pitches with, at least, the potential to stretch over many years, without stripping away at quality or coherence.

I'm not proposing that prestige and finite British comedies, such as Fleabag, This Country or Chewing Gum, which have deservingly earned high praise, should now be consigned to the dustbin of history.

But, amid a genre brain drain and doomsday warnings over funding for British stories, there needs to be a considered balance for British comedy to once again thrive – and cease being regarded as just "the cheaper scripted genre" (in Rooke's words).

Of course, producing more long-running hits with international appeal (à la Ghosts) will involve rolling up sleeves and putting some actual thought in, rather than resting on the same tired archetypes and crass humour that are usually deemed safely palatable.

In other words, give those 'mainstream' pitches as much care as the more BAFTA-friendly ones, and who knows what you might end up with? Netflix paid $500 million for Seinfeld, two decades after it ended.

Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

Add shows to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.