Let's see if we can lure some of our many "silent partners" into speaking up, and what's best than a bit of a poll for that?

So, if you were to choose ONE, and only ONE comedian as a symbol representative of a decade in the history of British TV, who would they be?

Here's my very difficult pick, in fact I'm happily going to break the rule of ONE and only ONE myself pretty soon, and not just that...

The Face of the...

1950s - Spike Milligan (The Goon Show) [see note before screaming blue murder ]

1960s - Peter Cook (Not Only... But Also...)

1970s - John Cleese (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers)

1980s - Ah, here starts trouble already... have to go for an ex-aequo...

           Adrian Edmondson (The Comic Strip, The Young Ones)
           Rowan Atkinson (Not the 9 0'clock News, Blackadder)

1990s - Oh dear... another one...

           Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley, Murder Most Horrid)
           Richard Wilson (One Foot in the Grave)

2000s - And more troubles... there's not much I like these days in "pure" comedy, it'll
           have to be out of some of those "borderline" drama/comedy shows, as I was
           saying somewhere else...

           David Threlfall (Frank Gallagher, in Shameless)
           Alun Armstrong (Brian "Memory" Lane, in New Tricks)

Note: Yes, alright, the Goons was really a radio show, but that's only because TV wasn't ready yet... the 50's was quite a short decade, from TV's point of view

Besides, the Goons, or some of them, actually made it on the cathodic tube, and I'm not talking about those weird cartoons, in the late 50's there were "A Show Called Fred" and "Son of Fred", although the "face" of those was actually Peter Sellers rather than Spike, who mostly wrote the shows but seldom, if ever, performed on them.

Still, you've got to make room for Spike Milligan somewhere, as much as you've got to make room for William Shakespeare when talking about English literature...

If you listen to many great comedians of the 60's and 70's, Spike's the one who started modern British comedy almost singlehandedly, dragging it kicking and screaming out of the clutches of Dan Leno...

However, in truth, as historical interest goes, it should probably be another ex-aequo between Spike and Tony Hancock, probably...

Any takers? 

Ah, yes, Eric Sykes, the "traditional" face of the 60s as opposed to "alternative" Peter Cook... should have been another ex-aequo there, quite...

Eric Sykes is not celebrated enough these days, I believe, possibly because he's been at TV more as a writer than as a performer, or in fact because he'd been "trapped" by being too traditional for his own good, while sharing a studio with Spike Milligan as well as Galton & Simpson, let's not forget?

My favourite Sykes is that of the later "silent", or rather "grunting" movies, the legendary "The Plank", of course, but my absolute fave there is "Mr. H is Late", with a hoard of guests from Spike Milligan to Dennis Waterman...

Ronnie Barker's own "grunting" movies were no slouches, btw... and how could one not make room for Ronnie Barker, come to think of it, through 2 or 3 decades of British comedy?

Oh, it's an impossible task, really... but fun nevertheless

That's a good one, you're quite right!

Eric of course was in a billion movies in the past half a century, I especially remember him in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" and its follow-up, "Monte Carlo or Bust!", the latter also with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

I just love those 60's comedy movies with international casts of thousands, you can play a "spot the comedians" game while watching them...

It's watchable, not as good as the first, though.

To be honest, this is more a remake than a sequel, the story's pretty much the same, replacing planes with cars running the Montecarlo rally, years later.

The direct link is given by Terry-Thomas and Eric Sykes, playing the very same characters, but with the former being a descendant of the Percy Ware-Armitage from "Flying Machines".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064688/