UK Panel Shows You Should Try
I absolutely adore UK panel shows. Namely comedy ones. I’ll happily binge my way through comedy shows, and plenty of them are available on Youtube in one way or another. Here are my favourites.
Taskmaster
Taskmaster is definitely at the top of this list. It’s not quite the same as the following panel shows, but it’s still hilarious. No matter the series, you are greeted with a happy cast and all sorts of weird tasks. At first, you might not know the cast very well, but by the end of it, you’re cheering all of them and enjoying how they mesh together. The tasks are also incredibly strange and random, which just adds even more to the show.
What makes Taskmaster even better though is that almost every series of Taskmaster is available on the Taskmaster Youtube channel. They just finished uploading Taskmaster Series 14 last week and this week they uploaded the first episode of Series 15. Which is pretty fucking awesome.
QI
It might seem weird, but I tend to fall asleep to QI. Mostly in spite of the klaxon whenever someone gets a question wrong. But QI is otherwise a very tame show, rather cute and sweet if you’re watching the newer series with Sandi Toksfig. Older series with Steven Fry are also wonderful and charming but in a different way. There’s arguments about which presenter is best, but frankly I like them both.
QI is available scattered across Youtube, but they’ve started uploading full episodes on the official channel, so you don’t need to feel too bad watching it elsewhere.
Would I Lie To You?
Would I Lie to You, abbreviated to WILTY, is a panel show all about lying. Basically, one team will read out a card with a statement on it, and the other team has to guess whether the statement is true or not. These statements can be all sorts of things, like running into someone famous, getting trapped somewhere unfortunate, getting to drunk at a party or having a strange quirk or habit. The guessing team is free to ask all sorts of questions, and very often it all breaks down into a comedic mess.
While WILTY is on Youtube, there’s no full episodes. But the clips are still very funny.
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You, often shortened down to HIGNFY (which looks like a pretty cool acronym), is a weekly panel show going over the current week’s news. The formula is pretty same-y, but the cast really isn’t, because you get a different presenter every week. This means different sorts of comedy, and the cast mesh together differently every episode. Since it’s a topical show, you really do need to be involved with UK news and politics for the jokes to truly land.
HIGNFY doesn’t have an official channel, but searching for full episodes on Youtube is pretty easy.
Mock the Week
Mock the Week is a much more comedy-based topical news show. It’s less serious and more jolly than Have I Got News for You, and has a larger cast. The show is much quicker, although still formulaic. But the best part of Mock the Week is “Scenes We’d Like To See”, which is similar to Whose Line Is It Anyway, and the comedians always really go for it.
Sadly, Mock the Week is no longer airing, they finished off their last series (21) last year. But the Youtube channel does have lots of good clips, as well as the classic Scenes We’d Like To See.
Big Fat Quiz of the Year
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year is a much more traditional quiz show, with a comedian cast and hosted by Jimmy Carr. The cast are generally a collection of comedians and other famous TV people. It’s a very basic quiz show but the banter is utterly amazing. The only problem with The Big Fat Quiz is that it’s quite a long show. The full episodes are generally an hour and a half long. Luckily, there are plenty of clips and highlights to watch as well, in case you don’t have a great attention span.
8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
One of the harder shows to find on Youtube is 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. 8 out of 10 Cats is a comedy panel show about stats and percentages and things like that, hosted by the great (and aforementioned) Jimmy Carr. For some reason, the show also decided to do an episode of Countdown, the word-making and maths-guessing and otherwise rather boring TV show. But 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown turned out to be an amazing show, more popular than the show 8 out of 10 Cats. It’s kinda what it says on the tin, except the banter is utterly amazing.
There doesn’t seem to be an official Youtube channel for 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, but you can find some clips on Jimmy Carr’s personal channel. If you do go searching, I recommend looking for older shows with Sean Locke, who really made the show shine.
I personally recommend all of these shows. Even if you’re not sure, you should give them a try.