Men Behaving Badly

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Image:Menbehavingbadly.jpg Men Behaving Badly is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1992 on ITV but moved to BBC One (and a later timeslot) from the third series onwards. Produced by Hartswood Films, six series were made, and a final short run of three 45 minute episodes was made in 1998 to wrap up the series. There has also been a Christmas special. There do not seem to be any plans to make more episodes.

Written by Simon Nye, the series centres around two "blokes", Gary Strang (Martin Clunes) and Tony (Neil Morrissey). Tony replaced Dermot (Harry Enfield) from the second series on, following Enfield's departure on the grounds that he felt that "an actor could do a much better job". The Dermot character has been all but forgotten, and the original series is never repeated on the BBC (although the second ITV series sometimes is). Simon Nye has stated that ITV picked up the series partly because Enfield agreed to star in it, and his departure is considered to be one of the reasons that it was axed after two series. Neil Morrissey's character picked up momentum after the series switched to BBC One, and Clunes and Morrissey became arguably the definitive sitcom double act of the 1990s.

Gary and Tony share the ground floor flat owned by Gary in a converted house. Gary is a branch manager of a security systems company; Tony drifts from job to job, including spells as a model, busker, mime artist, barman and driver.

Their lives centre on lager and girls. The former is easy to come by, both in canned form and at their local pub, The Crown, run by the unkempt and unhygienic Les (played by Dave Atkins), and later the socially-unskilled Ken (played by John Thomson). As for the latter, Gary has a long-term girlfriend, Dorothy (Caroline Quentin), and Tony pines for Deborah (Leslie Ash), the girl upstairs, although has a number of other girlfriends to pass the time while Deborah keeps rejecting him. Gary is not afraid to look at other women, although he usually feels guilty if he goes much beyond ogling some Kylie Minogue publicity shots.

Dorothy is a nurse who lives with her parents and prefers not to move in with Gary, or marry him. She is devoted to him though despairs of his immature and inconsiderate nature on frequent occasions. Deborah is a restaurant manager who is attracted to Tony but put off by his own plummets into immaturity, usually when with Gary. That said, she is often jealous when Tony has a girlfriend. Eventually they get together in series six, but their relationship soon deteriorates into on/off status when Deborah grows tiresome of Tony's clingy behaviour, and later, his job as a postman.

Other characters include Gary's underlings in the office - George, a shy, cardigan-wearing salesman (played by Ian Lindsay); and Anthea, an introverted spinster secretary (played by Valerie Minifie). Their naïveté makes Gary despair, although he remains fond of them. Gary has another friend called Clive who is regularly mentioned (or spoken to on the telephone) but never seen, save for a brief appearance in series six when the show's writer Simon Nye played the role dressed in a bright green suit.

The main running scene in the series was of Gary and Tony, aided by their lager supplies, philosophising on the sofa at the end of numerous episodes.

The series was briefly remade for US television with a different cast. The American remake aired on NBC from 1996-1997; it starred Rob Schneider and took place in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a side-effect, the original series was eventually screened in the US on BBC America as British Men Behaving Badly.

The series was not without controversy as it was claimed young males were copying their "bad behaviour", and in the public imagination it has become synonymous with the mid '90s lad culture phenomenon. In one notorious scene, the boys pretend to be Welsh in order to stop their neighbour selling their house.

Clunes once claimed that he and Morrissey were banned from advertising lager on commercial television because their roles had made them an influence on children, even though the show was broadcast after the watershed. That said, the show did make A-list stars of all four of its main performers.

Location shots for the British series were filmed in and around Ealing in west London.

The programme was not a success on ITV, who happily let it go to the BBC. A racier theme, along with an acknowledgement that political correctness was ready to be satirised ensured that the programme became a huge hit in its new home, complete with later timeslot. The show has won numerous awards, as has the writer and its stars. Controversially, it was voted the best sitcom in the BBC's history at the corporation's 60th anniversary celebrations in 1996. In the BBC's later quest to find Britain's Best Sitcom, it came 16th.