Commending a sitcom for its authenticity might sound a bit like damning with faint praise – an “authentic” comedy conjures up visions of something worthy, try-hard and not exactly a massive laugh. But look closely at the last decade of British comedy and the overlap between “authentic” and “very, very good” becomes impossible to ignore. The best shows have been strongly autobiographical: the situations based on lived experience rather than a convenient pun; the characters and plot details meticulously, sometimes strangely, specific rather than blandly generic.
You can see it in This Country (Cotswolds siblings duo play Cotswolds cousins duo), Derry Girls (based on creator Lisa McGee’s Troubles-blighted teen years), Friday Night Dinner (inspired by writer Robert Popper’s own eccentric Jewish family dynamics) and Stath Lets Flats (in which star Jamie Demetriou draws on his Greek-Cypriot heritage). Let’s not even get started on the sadcoms.
