Best tv shows like Bread
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Plot Summary:
Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Best tv shows and movies like Bread (1986):
Similar in 85%
Take It, Give It (2005)
Plot Summary:
Brazilian comedy about two couples living next to each other in the same building. This show explores the antics between the two couples.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Comedy
Country: Brazil
Duration:
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 83%
Lee and Dean (2017)
Plot Summary:
Stevenage-based builders Lee and Dean are brothers from other mothers, inseparable best friends since they first met at school. That is until Lee meets and falls in love with Nikki and she moves into their flat.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 305
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, slang, mockumentary
Similar in 79%
Bucket (2017)
Plot Summary:
Reserved history teacher Fran has long had a strained relationship with her eccentric, free-spirit mother Mim. When Mim announces that she is dying Fran feels obliged to accompany her on a road trip ticking off items on her bucket list.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 78%
Fresh Fields (1984)
Plot Summary:
Fresh Fields is a British situation comedy written by John T. Chapman and produced by Thames Television for ITV between 7 March 1984 and 23 October 1986. A ratings success at the time, the show is well remembered for its opening titles featuring a silhouette of a person in a rocking chair. It stars Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers as Hester and William Fields, a devoted middle-class couple with an idyllic suburban lifestyle. William works while Hester keeps home. The crux of the show was that she was always looking to try new hobbies or find ways to improve her life, much of which exasperated her hard-working husband. The family home had a granny flat attached, in which Hester's mother Nancy lived. She was divorced from Hester's father Guy although remarried him as the series progressed. The couple had a daughter called Emma who frequently telephoned but never appeared. Her husband Peter did appear often. They later had a son — the Fields' first grandchild — whom they named Guy, after his great-grandfather. Perhaps, the best remembered supporting character was Sonia Barrett who would frequently pop round to borrow items to replace hers due to breakage, theft or mislaying. Hester was not perturbed by this, as the two were close friends, but it used to irritate William. Sonia had the show's only catchphrase — she would always knock on the back door of the Fields' home and then say It's only Sonia! as she walked in. This would sometimes lead to applause of recognition from the studio audience, a phenomenon more regularly seen within American sitcoms. Sonia's husband John appeared on occasion, as did William's secretary Miss Denham, played by Daphne Oxenford.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 81%
The Other One (2017)
Plot Summary:
After Colin Walcott drops dead at his birthday party his wife Tess and daughter Cat discover he had a long-term mistress Marilyn by whom he has a daughter Cath. An irate Tess throws out Colin's belongings whilst Cat is angry with boy-friend Marcus over a text he sent to another girl. When the two half-sisters meet there is an argument over where to scatter their father's ashes, leading to police intervention whilst they also learn he may have been having an affair with yet another woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 29 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 79%
Going Straight (1978)
Plot Summary:
Going Straight is a BBC sitcom which was a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from the fictional Slade Prison where the earlier series had been set. It sees Fletcher trying to become an honest member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. The title refers to his attempt, 'straight' being a slang term meaning being honest, in contrast to 'bent', i.e., dishonest. Also re-appearing was Richard Beckinsale as Lennie Godber, who was Fletcher's naïve young cellmate and was now in a relationship with his daughter Ingrid. Her brother Raymond was played by a teenage Nicholas Lyndhurst. Only one series, of six episodes, was made in 1978. It attracted an audience of over 15 million viewers and won a BAFTA award in March 1979, but hopes of a further series had already been dashed by Beckinsale's premature death earlier in the same month.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 88%
In Sickness and in Health (1985)
Plot Summary:
In Sickness and in Health is a BBC television sitcom which ran between 1985 and 1992. It was a sequel to the highly successful Til Death Us Do Part, which ran between 1966 and 1975, and Till Death..., which ran for one series of six episodes in 1981.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 700
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 90%
Bridget & Eamon (2016)
Plot Summary:
Bridget & Eamon are the typical unhappily married 80s Irish couple. They live somewhere in the Midlands with their indeterminate number of children. Chain-smoking Bridget has notions. She wants the lifestyle from the pages of Woman's Way but wouldn't want to think about how much it would cost to heat South Fork.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 710
Genere: Comedy
Country: Ireland
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, light, entertaining, ironic, absurd
Similar in 86%
Mum (2016)
Plot Summary:
A comedy about a mother at a milestone in her life. We follow her and her family through a year of new beginnings as she rebuilds her life following the death of her husband. Mum is joined by her supportive life-long friend Michael. Through a year of new beginnings she rebuilds her life surrounded by her family: son Jason and his girlfriend Kelly; her brother Derek and his new partner, Pauline; and her in-laws.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, light, humorous, sincere, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 79%
The Upper Hand (1990)
Plot Summary:
The Upper Hand is a British television sitcom, produced by Central Independent Television and Columbia Pictures Television and broadcast by ITV from 1990 to 1996. The programme was adapted from the American sitcom Who's the Boss?. As in the former series, an affluent single woman, raising a son with the help of her mother, hires a housekeeper only to have a man apply for the job.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 585
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 76%
Catterick (2004)
Plot Summary:
Catterick, aka Vic and Bob in Catterick, is a surreal 2004 BBC situation comedy in 6 episodes, written by and starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, with Reece Shearsmith, Matt Lucas, Morwenna Banks, Tim Healy, Mark Benton and Charlie Higson. The series was originally broadcast on BBC Three and later rerun on BBC2. Reeves has said that the BBC do not want another series of Catterick, though he may produce a spin-off centring on the DI Fowler character. Catterick is arguably Vic and Bob's darkest and most bizarre programme to date, balancing their typically odd, idiosyncratic comedy with some genuinely dark scenes. It plays like a darkly comic road movie, albeit full of Vic and Bob's bizarre, often inscrutable and frequently silly humour. Catterick is probably Vic and Bob's most uncompromising show since their notorious and frequently baffling 1999 sketch series Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer, from which most of the characters are taken. It is in some ways stylistically similar to their short film The Weekenders first broadcast in 1992 on British television as part of Channel 4's "Bunch of Five" series. The series is named after Catterick in North Yorkshire, Britain's largest army base. It is about 10 miles away from Darlington where Vic Reeves grew up. It is also about 20 miles away from Middlesbrough where Bob Mortimer grew up.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 863
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, surreal, dark comedy
Similar in 89%
Agony (1979)
Plot Summary:
Agony is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1979 to 1981. It starred Maureen Lipman as a successful agony aunt but whose own personal life and marriage is a disaster. It was written by Len Richmond, Anna Raeburn, Stan Hey and Andrew Nickolds. It was made for the ITV network by LWT. Although a comedy, Agony sometimes dealt with issues that were seen as taboo at the time such as drug use, racism, abortion, interracial relationships, and swinging, and was the first British sitcom to portray a gay couple as non-camp, witty, intelligent and happy people. It also openly mocked the government, the ruling classes, and religion, and occasionally contained dark and dramatic storylines.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 139
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: sitcom, dark comedy, melancholic
Similar in 76%
2point4 Children (1991)
Plot Summary:
2point4 children is a 1990s British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; an average family that is persistently faced with surreal situations and sheer bad luck. The show was originally broadcast on BBC One from 1991 to 1999, and ran for eight series, ending in a special Millennium edition that would be the last due to the death of Gary Olsen, who died from cancer in 2000. The show is now repeated regularly in the UK on Gold, and in Australia on UKTV. The title of the show refers to the once average size of a UK family. There are two children in the Porter family, however Andrew Marshall has indicated that the father, Ben, could be considered almost another child, making up the "point four". The show regularly picked up large audiences of up to 14 million in the early 1990s, with an average of between 6 - 9 million, the final episode was viewed by 9.03 million people. In 1997 a remake of the show debuted in the Netherlands: 'Kees & Co' starring Simone Kleinsma.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, not serious
Similar in 86%
The Royle Family (1998)
Plot Summary:
British comedy series focusing on the lives of a working-class family in Manchester who love the TV.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Game On (1995)
Plot Summary:
A 1990s flat-share sitcom which, in its tales of the sexual adventures and misadventures of three twenty-somethings living under the same roof, featured more than a dash of crudity. Matthew, a wealthy, workshy landlord who, because of a strange phobia, never leaves the flat. Martin and Matthew have been friends since schooldays and Mandy's connection is by way of her best friend Claudia, Martin's sister. Mandy is a bright young woman who wants to better herself and is tired of being treated as a sex object, yet she still tends to find herself jumping into bed with inappropriate men. Both Matthew and Martin are obsessed with sex but neither is conspicuously successful in the field.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, dark comedy
Similar in 87%
The Coopers vs The Rest (2016)
Plot Summary:
The Cooper family share a small house, and absolutely no DNA. Mum Tess wanted to save as many kids as she could from the sort of childhood she had. So, along with her husband Toby, she now divides just about enough money and nowhere near enough time between their three adopted children Frankie, Alisha and Charlie.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 57
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 87%
Josh (2014)
Plot Summary:
Sitcom about flatmates Josh, Kate and Owen, and their annoying landlord Geoff.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 80%
Dear John (1986)
Plot Summary:
Dear John is a British sitcom, written by John Sullivan. Two series and a special were broadcast between 1986 and 1987. This sitcom's title refers to letters - known as "Dear John" letters - from girls to their boyfriends breaking off a relationship. John discovers in the opening episode that his wife is leaving him for a friend, and he is forced to find lodgings. In desperation, he attends the 1-2-1 Singles Club and finds other members mostly social misfits. The series was also re-made for the U.S. market.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 538
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, melancholic
Similar in 79%
Birds of a Feather (1989)
Plot Summary:
Birds of a Feather is a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC One from 1989 until 1998 and on ITV from 2013. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers. The first episode sees sisters Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodos brought together when their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery. Sharon, who lived in an Edmonton council flat, moves into Tracey's expensive house in Chigwell, Essex. Their next-door neighbour, and later friend, Dorien Green is a middle-aged married woman who is constantly having affairs with younger men. In the later series the location is changed to Hainault. The series ended on Christmas Eve 1998 after a 9-year-run. On 3 March 2009, the The Mirror reported that the classic sitcom was set for a return reporting that Lesley Joseph, Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson have all been asked by the team behind the sitcom to make another series. Quirke was reported as saying that they were up for the challenge if the writers came up with good ideas. After this speculation of a return in early 2009 nothing more was said. However, in July 2012 Lesley Joseph hinted that Birds of a Feather could return for another series following a successful stage tour.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 79%
Open All Hours (1976)
Plot Summary:
Open All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke and starring Ronnie Barker as a miserly shop keeper and David Jason as his put-upon nephew who works as his errand boy. It ran for 26 episodes in four series, which premiered in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985 respectively. The programme developed from a television pilot broadcast in Barker's comedy anthology series, Seven of One. Open All Hours ranked eighth in the 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom poll.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Dinnerladies (1998)
Plot Summary:
Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 34 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Only Fools and Horses (1981)
Plot Summary:
The misadventures of two wheeler dealer brothers Del Boy and Rodney Trotter of “Trotters Independent Traders PLC” who scrape their living by selling dodgy goods believing that next year they will be millionaires.
IMDB Rating: 9.0
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, hilarious, psychedelic, deep, cult classic, clever
Similar in 83%
On the Buses (1969)
Plot Summary:
On the Buses is a British comedy programme created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to a friend, Frank Muir, Head of Entertainment at London Weekend Television, who loved the idea; the show was accepted and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, controversial
Similar in 89%
Barbara (1995)
Plot Summary:
Barbara is a British sitcom starring Gwen Taylor in the title role. A pilot was broadcast in 1995, and three series were then televised from 1999 to 2003. It was made by Central Television, and filmed at their Lenton Lane studios in Nottingham in front of a live studio audience. The majority of location scenes for the series were filmed in various suburbs of Nottingham, including Mapperley and West Bridgford, with other scenes filmed around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Despite winning awards and respectable viewing figures, it was axed by ITV in 2003.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 27 min
Plot tags: sitcom, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, situational comedy
Similar in 75%
Sykes (1972)
Plot Summary:
Sykes is a British sitcom that aired on BBC 1 from 1972 to 1979. Starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, it was written by Sykes, who had previously starred with Jacques in Sykes and A... and Sykes and a Big, Big Show. Forty-three of the 1970s colour episodes were remakes of scripts for the 1960s black and white series, such as "Bus" based on 'Sykes and a Following' from 1964 and the episode "Stranger" with guest star Peter Sellers based on 'Sykes and a Stranger' from 1961. Sykes had the same premise as Sykes and A... with Sykes, Jacques, Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler reprising their former identical roles. The series was brought to an end by the death of Hattie Jacques of a heart attack on 6 October 1980.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 338
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Bottom (1991)
Plot Summary:
Bottom is a British anarchic sitcom that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by and starring comic duo Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates who live on the dole in Hammersmith, London. The programme ran for three series, and was followed by five stage show tours across the United Kingdom between 1993 and 2003, and a feature film Guest House Paradiso. The show is noted for its chaotic, nihilistic humour and violent comedy slapstick. In 2008, Bottom came in at number 45 in a poll to determine "Britain's Best Sitcom" by the BBC. The show continues to be shown in the UK on Gold and Dave, and has been dubbed in other languages. In Spain the show is known as La pareja basura which aired on Canal+. The theme music was provided by The Bum Notes, a band that once featured Edmondson, and is a cover of "Last Night" by The Mar-Keys. Plans were made in 2012 for a BBC spin-off series, Hooligan's Island, featuring the Richie and Eddie characters from Bottom. However, that project was cancelled that October prior to production as Edmondson explained that he wished to pursue other interests.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, dark comedy, hilarious, humorous, realistic, witty, not serious, offbeat, sadistic, black comedy
Similar in 78%
Not Going Out (2006)
Plot Summary:
Lee is a childish northerner who lives in a fancy penthouse apartment in London who goes through a variety of jobs such as a janitor and ice cream man as well as attempting relationships with female flatmates. His best mate, Daily Mail reading, middle class citizen Tim is always there to stop Lee from getting in trouble, or not? Mayhem is never far away with cleaner Barbara who has never done an honest day's work in her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, touching, game show
Similar in 79%
Desmond's (1989)
Plot Summary:
Desmond's was a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. With 71 episodes, Desmond's became Channel 4's longest-running sitcom. The first series was shot in 1988, with the first episode broadcast in January 1989. The show was made in and set in Peckham, London, England and featured a predominantly Black British Guyanese cast. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, this series starred Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose. Desmond's shop was a gathering place for an assortment of local characters.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: sitcom, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Last of the Summer Wine (1973)
Plot Summary:
Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, talky, realistic, witty, semi serious, clever, contemplative, philosophical, slapstick comedy
Similar in 86%
This Country (2017)
Plot Summary:
The lives of cousins Kerry and Kurtan in the rural village of Cotswolds.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 21 min
Plot tags: sitcom, mockumentary, light, humorous, feel good, captivating, controversial