Check out the nominees for the greatest comedy characters ever. Who's the greatest hoot?
Adrian Mole - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
The frustrated, confused wannabe academic and poet from Leicester. Adrian Mole's diaries started with his adolescence in Thatcher's Britain and continued into his 40s as a single parent and offal chef. His main preoccupations have included acne, poetry, why he isn't recognised as a genius, his parents' rocky marriage and a feminist called Pandora.
Al Murray - The Pub Landlord
The old-fashioned, angry, jingoistic, French-hating pub landlord played by Al Murray. 'Pints for the gentlemen, white wine or fruit-based drink for the ladies, them's the rules!' Winner of the Perrier Award in 1999.
Alan B'stard - The New Statesman
Rik Mayall is the spectacularly corrupt Tory politician - devious, duplicitous and conniving, B'stard is the king of sleaze who parodied the Thatcher government during the 80s. B'Stard returned in 2006, having defected to Tony Blair's Labour in 'The Blair B'Stard Project'.
Alan Partridge - I'm Alan Partridge
The broadcasting genius from 'naughty Norwich', Partridge is a talentless Z-list sports commentator: rude, embarrassing, brilliantly insincere, insecure and insulting, the master of the pun, and I mean that categorically...a-ha.
Alf Garnet - Till Death Do Us Part
He supports the Conservative party and West Ham. He's mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, homophobic, racist, misogynistic and anti-semitic. Regularly ridiculed by his family for his illogical views and hypocrisy, and always made to be the fool. Silly old moo.
Ali G - Da Ali G Show
Da true voice of da youth... The 11 O'Clock show's finest offering was Ali G. Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy character parodies the popular notions of black urban subculture and asks important questions such as 'Is God a ladyboy?' Booyakasha.
Arkwright - Open All Hours
Some viewers objected to the comic use of a speech impediment, but most loved Ronnie Barker's portrayal of shopkeeper Arnold Arkwright in the long-running comedy Open All Hours. He's a middle-aged miser with a knack of being able to sell anything and everything to any passing visitor to his shop. His nephew, Granville, played by David Jason, is the shop's put-upon errand boy - 'Ger-Granville! Fer-fetch yer cloth!'
Arthur Daley - Minder
George Cole starred as the loveable wheeler-dealer rogue for over fifteen years in the comedy drama Minder. Daley liked to be thought of as a self-made man and was admired by many as a cheeky hero who got away with foiling the system. He's part of a classic comedy double-act which also features Dennis Waterman as his long-suffering minder, Terry.
Avid Merrion - Bo' Selecta!
Avid Merrion is the 'number one super fan, here in the world'. Leigh Francis' celebrity stalker with bizarre sexual fantasies, Avid spends most of his time pestering celebrities at functions such as book signings and movie premieres. He doesn't see it as harassment, rather as affectionate worship. His 'skills' were eventually transformed into his own chat show on Bo'Selecta!
Baldrick - Blackadder
He is the servant, sidekick, and frequent punching bag of Edmund Blackadder throughout the ages. Tony Robinson's Baldrick is always one for inventing 'cunning plans' which are generally ridiculed by Blackadder, who nevertheless ends up using them. He's never changed his trousers, and the smelly servant longs for his own turnip out in the country.
Basil Fawlty - Fawlty Towers
A mere 12 episodes of the legendary Fawlty Towers gave us hotel proprietor Basil Fawlty, a snobbish, miserly, xenophobic and repressed paranoiac who is desperate to belong to a higher social class. Basil sees the successful running of the hotel as a means of achieving this, yet his job forces him to be pleasant to people he either despises or fawns over - often resulting in excruciating blunders
Bernard Black - Black Books
Bernard owns a book shop. His hobbies are drinking, smoking, reading. He also enjoys insulting people he hates, mostly customers, along with bemoaning the pressures and responsibilities involved in literature retail. He refuses to leave the shop unless it's to go somewhere less than two minutes walking distance away - everything else is just not worth the effort.
Blackadder - Blackadder
Rowan Atkinson is the scheming, self-promoting and utterly spineless lizard of a man, Edmund Blackadder. His undesirable family lineage is followed through five centures of British history in the classic comedy created by Richard Curtis, written by Ben Elton and perfectly performed by Atkinson himself.
Blakey - On the Buses
On the Buses was the most popular sitcom on TV in 1969 and ran for 74 episodes. Hitler-lookalike Inspector Blakey spends most of his time trying to catch out Stan the conductor as he skives off and bends the rules. Normally to be found nearly exploding with rage as he's constantly out-witted - 'I'll get you Butler!'.
Borat - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation Kazakhstan
Sacha Baron Cohen's roving Kazakh reporter explores the UK and the USA to investigate western customs and social peccadilloes. Borat's hobbies include disco dancing, archery, rape and table tennis. His character routinely illustrates how patronising we can be to anyone we think is 'foreign'.
Brian Potter - Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
Peter Kay stars as the wheelchair-bound owner of a working men's club in Bolton. He's struggling to make the club a success in an area funded by locals 'with giros burning a hole in their shellsuits'.
Captain Mainwaring - Dad's Army
Captain George Mainwaring is a bank manager and Home Guard platoon commander portrayed by Arthur Lowe. A pompous, blustering snob who often looks like a complete idiot when having to rely on those he considers beneath him, Mainwaring is the ultimate jobsworth.
Cockney Granny - Catherine Tate
Brilliantly observed and performed, Catherine Tate's cockney granny is often visited by her well-mannered grandson. She attempts to show her gratitude for him coming to see her, but she quickly becomes a foul-mouthed racist, spewing bile about her family, neighbours and the home help visitors. 'What a f**king liberty.'
Compo - Last of the Summer Wine
The legendary character from the longest-running sitcom of all time - the tramp-like, mischievous Compo lives with his ferret in lodgings rented from the lady he lusts after - Nora Batty.
Councillors Cox and Evans - The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's satirical town councillors are moustachioed, overweight, and corrupt. As employees of Aldington-on-Sea's City Council, their planning ideas leave a lot to be desired - fun bins? A helicopter landing pad in a supermarket car park? Why not.
Daffyd - Little Britain
Matt Lucas plays Daffyd, 'the only gay in the village'. Wearing ludicrously stereotypical 'gay' clothing, Daffyd never himself seems to be up for any 'bum fun', but wastes no time in making sure everyone knows exactly what he is.
Dame Edna Everage Possibly the funniest woman alive, she herself claims to be the most popular and gifted woman in the world today: investigative journalist, social anthropologist, talk show host, mother, icon, housewife, superstar, megastar and more recently, gigastar. She is also the master of the one-liner: 'Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. After all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.'
David Brent - The Office
David Brent is the Slough Office Regional Manager of paper supply merchants Wernham Hogg. To some, and indeed himself, he is a philosopher, musical genius, and faultless dancer who does a mean impression of Frank Spencer. But more importantly, he is a leader with an acute grasp of political correctness and how to handle people.
Del Boy - Only Fools and Horses
Derek Trotter: loveable rogue, wheeler-dealer and wannabe go-getter with a flamboyant taste in drinks. Peckham's most famous son, played by David Jason, is a market trader with a never-ending stream of get-rich-quick schemes, often executed from the back of his bright yellow Reliant. Baileys and Cherryade? 'Luvly Jubbly'.
Dennis Pennis - The Sunday Show
Paul Kaye terrorised celebrities who stepped out at red-carpet events with his punk/Woody Allen character. Dennis Pennis was the original character-based interviewer who got into positions of privilege and squandered them without remorse. He paved the way for future spoof interviewers such as Ali G and Avid Merrion in a genuinely shocking way.
Desmond - Desmonds
Desmond Desmond is often compared to a black Victor Meldrew. He runs a barber shop in Peckham with a similar vibe to Cheers, which operates as a gathering place for a motley crew of West Indian 'philosophers'.
Dorian - Birds of a Feather
Lesley Joseph played Dorian, the sexually voracious, ageing trophy-wife. She's rude and snobbish, breezing in and out of her neighbour's house at leisure. Hobbies include sleeping with muscular toyboys.
Dr Alan Statham - Green Wing
Anal, fussy, pedantic and wound tighter than a watch, Alan is the butt of everybody's jokes. Bullied at school by Simon 'shitting' Mason, his life hasn't got any better at East Hampton Hospital Trust: Mac undermines his authority, Boyce constantly insinuates he's gay, Sue goes out of her way to break his willpower and even Joanna, the love of his life, ditches him for an abortive attempt to shack up with Lyndon. Even the vicar finds him intensely annoying...
Eddy Monsoon - Absolutely Fabulous
Jennifer Saunders' most famous creation is the twice-divorced international PR guru Edina Monsoon. Vain, needy, selfish and shallow, Eddy's life revolves around swilling champagne, shopping and worrying about being at one with the latest trends.
Father Dougal Maguire - Father Ted
Father Ted's protégé is a simple-minded soul unable to grasp the simplest of concepts, such as perspective. And with a habit of asking blindingly obvious and annoying questions, Dougal is unwittingly responsible for much of Ted's stress. 'Are you reading a book, Ted?'.
Frank Gallagher - Shameless
The head of probably the UK's most dysfunctional family. Angry, self-pitying and roaring drunk, Frank's life of mishap and adventure is watched over by his remarkably well-balanced children, with whom he lives on the undesirable Chatsworth Estate.
Frank Spencer - Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
With a complete lack of self confidence and absolutely no dress sense whatsoever, Frank Spencer was the ultimate loser and a walking disaster area. If it could go wrong, it did. If he could get it wrong, he did. But it was his innocence and persistence that kept him going.
Fred Scuttle - Benny Hill
The ultimate inept nitwit and one of Benny Hill's most famous recurring characters. Stupid, loveable and a know-all, his tagline was 'A lot of people don't know that.' Well now they do.
Gary Strang - Men Behaving Badly
Gary was not a 'New Man' of the 1980s, but he made the 'New Lad' a hero of the early 90s. Branch manager of a security systems company and an expert at being self-centred, Gary is rude, crude and pissed. He's also pretty good at swearing, bragging, belching, farting, fantasising, chundering and publicly rearranging the position of his genitals.
Geraldine Granger - The Vicar of Dibley
The chocolate-guzzling, joke-cracking, irreverent reverend breezed into Dibley in the early 1990s as the first female vicar in a village named as the 'in-breeding capital of the world'. Geraldine's optimistic outlook and enthusiasm for dealing with the wacky villagers showcases a rare talent for delivering complicated funny lines.
Gloria Melvyn-Hayes - It Ain't Half Hot Mum
AKA Bombardier Beaumont, the temperamental, sensitive and overtly feminine member of the Royal Artillery Concert Party. Beaumont entertained active men in India during the Second World War and appeared on stage in drag as sexy Hollywood-style starlet, 'Gloria'.
Gordon Brittas - The Brittas Empire
An annoying, anal-retentive twerp who was installed as manager of the newly built Whitbury Leisure Centre in the 1990s. While every plan that ended in disaster fuelled his determination to put Whitbury on the map, Brittas would always emerge unscathed while chaos ensued around him.
Grandma Sushila Kumar
The outrageous grey-haired granny from The Kumars at Number 42, an exaggerated Indian family living in Wembley who have installed a state of the art TV studio in their garden. While her grandson interviews guests, Sushila has a keen eye for male visitors and tries to shock them with her slightly-too-honest ramblings about bodily functions.
Gus Hedges - Drop the Dead Donkey
The immaculately-groomed, gormless 80s throwback yuppie who runs the news room at the offices of Globelink News TV, a rival to other stations like CNN, ITN and Sky News. The sad and lonely bachelor, who plays lackey to never-seen media tycoon Sir Royston Merchant, is known for his exaggerated 'media speak' and politically correct sound bites.
Hancock - Hancock's Half Hour
Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock was one of life's losers, starting off as a character in a 1950s radio show. He inevitably suffered at the hands of fate - his heartfelt phrase 'Stone me, what a life' was expressed on a constant basis to lament for failed plans and aspirations.
Harold Steptoe - Steptoe and Son
The put-upon son who had a love-hate relationship with his dad, Albert. Desperately trying to escape the clutches of his wily father, with whom he lived and worked in the rag and bone trade, Harold was not a success in life - from chess, to women, he never quite got the hang of it.
Hyacinth Bucket - Keeping Up Appearances
A snobby, suburban housewife who devoted her life to maintaining 'standards' and trying to impress 'influential' people. In the process, she frequently brought chaos into the lives of her friends, relatives and neighbours, and misery to her long suffering husband, Richard.
Jill Tyrell - Nighty Night
The twenty-something, obsessive neighbour-from-hell. She owns a suburban beauty salon and uses her terminally-ill husband as a sympathy trump card in her attempts to find a new man. She's also keen on breaking up the marriage of the handsome doctor and his wife, another wheelchair user, who live across the street.
Jim Royle - The Royle Family
The opinionated, fat, lazy, unemployed patriarch whose main job is to sit in his armchair and try not to move. When he does stir himself from sitting, he scoots off to dislodge some faeces. Not one to stand on ceremony, even in company he enjoys nothing more than searching for food debris in his bushy beard, rearranging his genitals and picking his nose.
Keith Barrett - Marion and Geoff
The long-suffering minicab driver who has a camera mounted on the dashboard shares his life philosophy and deliberations over his separation from wife Marion. Marion has left him for her work colleague, Geoff, taking their two children Rhys and Alun with her.
Kevin the teenager - Harry Enfield and Chums
Harry Enfield's ultimate adolescent. By turns mumbling incoherently or screaming 'It's not fair!', Kevin loses use of his arms on his thirteenth birthday but gains a greasy mop, a highly excitable trouser snake and a falsetto-voiced mate called Perry with whom he frequently 'went large.'
Kevin Turvey - A Kick up the Eighties
The first TV incarnation of Rik Mayall, Kevin brought a frenzied and paranoid style of investigative journalism to sketch-show 'A Kick Up the Eighties'. He rarely got to the point of anything, but his subject matter was at least diverse, ranging from Nasty Little Sticky Things to Death.
Lauren - Catherine Tate Show
Lauren is a delinquent teen and the catchphrase queen of The Catherine Tate Show. Like Vicky Pollard's more articulate older sister, Lauren won't take no 'disrespect' from no-one - she even asked the Queen 'Is one bovvered?' at the Royal Variety Performance.
Lily Savage
Paul O'Grady's tough and uncompromising portrayal of the slapper who stands literally head and shoulders above everyone else in this list. The self-confessed Valerie Singleton of the modern day, Lily's genteel persona would often be heard to say things 'I'm sweating like a glass blower's arse.'
Lister - Red Dwarf
Craig Charles plays Dave Lister, the only surviving member of the human race, in cult classic Red Dwarf. He's lazy, dirty and sarcastic, and he really likes curry. His hobby is playing his guitar, though the crew will only allow him to practice with a space suit on - in space.
Loadsamoney - Harry Enfield and Chums
Back in the decade when greed was good, before Changing Rooms was a twinkle in the TV scheduler's eye, Harry Enfield's DIY dynamo owned the stage of Friday Night Live - well, he owned whatever he wanted, what with the size of his wad. He even went Top Ten with the rap/dance classic 'Loadsamoney - Doin' up the House'.
Lou and Andy - Little Britain
Little Britain's superstar duo, made up of a man who proves that you can care too much, and one who shows that a wheelchair, a beer-gut and jam-jar specs are no barrier to pole-vaulting, high-diving or generally taking the piss.
Lurcio - Up Pompeii
The shiftless slave of Ludicrus and his buxom mistress Ammonia, Lurcio was the star of Up Pompeii. More simply, he was Frankie Howerd in sandals. So no double-entendre was left unturned as he nudge-nudged his way through plots as flimsy at the scenery.
Malcom Tucker - The Thick of It
The foul-mouthed Scottish policy co-ordinator (spin doctor) who rules the corridors of power with a mobile phone and a lot of aggression. Imagine Sir Alex Ferguson as a civil servant.
Mandy - Ooh You Are Awful
Whatever question you asked Mandy - Dick Emery's best-known comic creation - she'd find in it some hidden cheeky meaning. But her heart as big as her blonde wig and handbag - every 'Ooh you are awful!' was accompanied by a playful smile and a hefty wallop.
Manuel - Fawlty Towers
He came from Barcelona to build a life on the British riviera, but found only unending toil and brutality. His plight was made all the more poignant by his broken English, his eagerness to please and the love he briefly found for a Pedigree Siberian Hamster he named after Basil, his callous employer.
Margo Leadbetter - The Good Life
Wife of Jerry, neighbour of Tom and Barbara and the leading comic light of The Good Life, Margo epitomised everything about seventies suburban gentility, from her love of dinner parties and amateur dramatics to her loathing of anything that might drag the tone of Surbiton down. Quite the dresser too.
Mark Corrigan - Peep Show
Mark is an cynical, self-loathing coward who schemes, plots and manipulates his colleagues and acquaintances in the hope of finding 'the one'. When he finally succeeds in getting engaged to Sophie, the subject of his pitiful affection, he manages to stuff it up royally by fleeing his own wedding with urine-soaked pal Jez. A born loser who just wants everything in boxes.
Miss Jones - Rising Damp
A flower born to blush unseen, Miss Jones is a woman who burns with passion for one man, her suave and hunky co-tenant Philip. However, she's constantly pursued by another, the furtive and fetid landlord Rigsby. Superbly played by Frances de la Tour, Miss Jones was the prototype Bridget Jones for a more sexually frustrated age.
Mr Bean
Outstanding physical comedy from rubber-faced genius Rowan Atkinson, Mr Bean has had them rolling in the aisles the world over, and has recreated Chaplin-esque comedy for the video age.
Mr Humphreys - Are You Being Served?
John Inman became a national institution with Mr Humphries - the gloriously camp menswear assistant from Grace Brothers' department store. His world-class mincing, ever-ready tape measure and mythical catchphrase, 'I'm free!' inspired impersonations throughout the land.
Mr Mackay - Porridge
Mr Mackay was the perfect foil for habitual criminal Fletcher - a seen-it-all-before warder who, ahem, took no prisoners. Their priceless verbal sparring always ended with Fletch getting the upper hand, and Mr Mackay only betraying the strain with his trademark narrowed eyes and a twitch of the head.
Mrs Merton
Caroline Aherne's perky, pretend pensioner reinvented the chat-show with her unforgettable opening lines - 'So, Debbie McGee, what attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?' - effortless impertinence and insistence upon staging heated debates with her docile septuagenarian audience.
Mrs Overall
Both Victoria Wood's and Julie Walters' finest comic creation, Mrs Overall bestrode the Acorn Antiques sets like an arthritic Colossus, dispensing tea and macaroons and mis-timing her cues to perfection.
Nathan Barley
Hateful media turd from the pen of Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, Nathan rides his bike on the bus, raps while he shags, and lives for the multimedia moment where nothing is more important than looking cool, and no outfit or haircut too farcical. Barley is the idiot of the 21st century.
Nellie 'Ma' Boswell - Bread
Matriarch of the family at the heart of Liverpool's answer to Only Fools and Horses, Ma Boswell has brought up her large and unruly brood single-handedly, and as a result she's nobody's fool.
Nick Harper - My Family
The hapless eldest son of the Harper clan, he likes chasing girls he'll never get and painting himself in the nude. A sometime magician, shelf-stacker and drag-queen, his real ambition is to be on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.
Norman Stanley Fletcher - Porridge
His portrayal of Norman Stanley Fletcher was perhaps the finest hour of the late, great Ronnie Barker. A dyed-in-the-wool criminal and cynic, Fletch is also a reluctant softie, torn between twin instincts - to keep his head down and avoid trouble, and to buck the system at Slade Prison wherever possible.
Oz - Auf Wiedersehen Pet
He often didn't wear trousers, and spent most of his time with can of beer in his hand, hurling a volley of abuse at the Germans, for which Jimmy Nail's Oz became one of the most recognisable characters of comedy in the mid-80s.
Papa Lazarou - League of Gentleman
He calls everyone 'Dave', sells pegs to the citizens of Royston Vasey, is the ringleader of his 'Pandemonium Carnival', and typically travels with 3 dwarves. In his spare time he collects wives, and keeps a list of all of them in a book. Creepy.
Patsy Stone - Ab Fab
Sixties wildchild, sometime Executive Fashion Editor, Edina Monsoon's best friend and Saffy's worst enemy. Joanna Lumley permanently changed the world's perception of her by playing Patsy Stone, the woman with an iron constitution, a heart that's just as hard and a hairdo that could survive a nuclear strike.
Paul Calf
Steve Coogan's Paul Calf can't get out of bed, can't get a job and can't get back with his girlfriend, Julie. But he knows where his strengths lie - drinking, smoking and threatening students - so he'll stick with those until something better comes along.
Pauline - League of Gentleman
Pauline is the evil restart officer who loves to belittle and berate her 'job seeking dole scum', particularly Mickey, who cannot stand up for himself, and Ross, the one guy with the intelligence to fight back verbally. Her friends are her pens and her ambition is to run up a pen shop called 'Her Nibs'.
Pete & Dud
No subject was too high or low-brow for the addled wits of Pete and Dud, the idiot alter-egos of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Their 'Dagenham Dialogues' on art, life, women and zoology were triumphs of surreal writing and bravura improvisation.
Rab C Nesbitt
A dirty, skiving, foul-mouthed, sexist drunkard, Nesbitt represents an odd choice for a Scots comedy icon, but Gregor Fisher managed to make the character live, even revealing the vulnerability and humanity beneath the appalling surface.
Reggie Perrin
An existential hero, Reggie saw straight through everything to the bleak and bitter pointlessness of modern life. Hence the disappearing act at the end of series one and the myriad surreal twists and turns of this hugely unconventional character.
Rene - 'Allo 'Allo
A character from a simpler age of TV comedy, when the mention of boobies and a bit of slap and tickle in the cupboard with a saucy French maid was more than enough to entertain the family at tea-time.
Rick - The Young Ones
A middle class revolutionary of the most despicable kind, Rick was about as radical as his great idol, Cliff Richard. Despite his nature, he thought he was going to smash the system by writing rubbish poetry, not going to lectures and calling everyone a fascist.
Rigsby - Rising Damp
Leonard Rossiter brought to Rigsby an almost impossible appeal. Despite his meanness, snobbery, nosiness, racism and general snivelling rancour, there was a neediness that set him apart from the pure comedy monster. Watch him and weep.
Sid Abbot - Bless this House
In the massive 1970s sitcom, Sid James played a family man and travelling salesman. His obsessions were beer, 'bird-fancying', his pipe and football. He was a cheery but often frustrated Londoner who attempted to understand his children's attitudes to sex in the late-hippy period. Often heard saying 'Oh my gawd'.
Sid Snot - Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett's aging obnoxious greasy biker was mainly concerned with flipping cigarettes into his mouth. 'Snot Rap', a duet with one of his other characters 'Cupid Stunt' reached number nine in the charts. Those were the days.
Sir Humphrey Applebey - Yes, Minister
Not forgetting the initials after his nam - KCB, MVO, MA (Oxon) - the Permanent Secretary to the new Minister for Administrative Affairs is am incredibly smooth top level civil servant whose clever way with words and political prowess puts him in control of his unsuspecting boss. Yes, Minister was a national institution of 1980s BBC programmes, with Sir Humphrey as its shining star.
Smashy and Nicey - Harry Enfield and Chums
A satirical double-act so devastatingly accurate it spelled the end for a whole swathe of Radio One dino-jocks. Smashie and Nicey reinvented the English language, giving us 'charidee' and 'poptastic', and even graduating to presenting the real Top of the Pops.
Sue White - Green Wing
The lunatic Scottish staff liaison officer who has more psychological hang-ups than an asylum. She has many odd habits, including getting all her clothes from the 'dead box' and inseminating herself with Mac's semen... while he's in a coma.
Ted and Ralph - The Fast Show
A common-or-garden tale of the unrequited love between a groundsman and the lord of the manor. Ted and Ralph's relationship became ever more poignant and awkward, culminating in the drinking game where Ralph has to tell Ted, 'Tomato - Ted - aubergine - your - potato - wife's - turnip - dead.'
Ted Maul - Chris Morris' roving reporter
Veteran TV journalist and ghoulish reporter Maul was a Chris Morris character in The Day Today, and was subsequently taken up again for his groundbreaking current affairs spoof, Brass Eye. Never had a man taken such pleasure in the horrors suffered by others.
Terry Collier - Likely Lads
Terry Collier was an Andy Capp type of guy - comfortable-in-his-class, sharp-but-dour, with a quick wit and a knack for landing his best mate Bob right in it.
The Pepperpots - Monty Python
A gaggle of ever-present screeching harpies, modelled in the image of a demented Mary Whitehouse, who cropped up wherever a sketch needed middle aged women of dubious intellect and violent intent.
The Scousers - Harry Enfield and Chums
Inspired by the sights, sounds and unforgettable fashions of Brookside-land, the Scousers were never more than a minute away from it all kicking off. With a matching uniform of 'taches, tracksuits and bubble perms, they brought a little bit of Merseyside magic to every situation they encountered.
Theophilus P Wildebeest - Lenny Henry
A soul-singing sex-god of a man with a lot of love to share, Theophilus isn't so choosy about who he shares it with.
Tim Bisley - Spaced
Tim's not a waster. Oh no. He's a fantasy artist of rare talent that the world hasn't woken up to yet. He's also the flatmate of Daisy and the friend of Mike who has a taste for loafing that somehow gets in the way of life, and might just explain why he spends so much time masturbating over pictures of Gail Porter.
Timothy Lumsden - Sorry!
Ronnie Corbett is a 41-year-old librarian tied to his overpowering mother Phyllis' apron strings. Awkward and shy in the presence of women, he often blushed and stammered his way through conversations. Yearning to rebel, but under the watchful gaze of his mother, at the age of 48 he was finally allowed to fly the nest with his girlfriend Pippa.
Tubbs Tattsyrup - The League of Gentlemen
The doting wife of brother Edward, Tubbs is just your average wife, mother and mass murderer. When she's not keeping an eye on the Local Shop she suckles piglets and kidnaps passers-by for fun.
Vicky Pollard - Little Britain
Vicky's got six kids by seven fathers, but her main claim to fame is that she's the least articulate person in Britain, and in the inimitable performance of Matt Lucas, has turned rambling denial of wrong-doing into an art-form.
Victor Meldrew - One Foot in the Grave
Played by Richard Wilson, Victor was the grumpy old man to end them all, with a misanthropic zeal that saw no equal. I don't believe it!
Victoria Wood - Kelly Marie Tunstall
The lumpen girl at the bus-stop, star of the 'He Didn't!' sketches in Victoria Wood's 'As Seen on TV'. Frequently recounting the escapades of her friend Kimberly - who, if you sent her down to the shops for a yoghurt, would most likely bring you back a meat and potato pie.
Vince - Just Good Friends
Once upon a time, Vince left Penny at the altar - and, boy was she not going to let him forget it. But such was the appeal of his boyish charm and bubble perm that perma-frosty Pen was finally unable to resist his cockney twinkle.
Wallace & Grommit
The cheese-eating one and the silent one, Wallace and Grommit have won more Oscars between them than most of the British acting fraternity put together - and their heroics are made all the more epic for their quintessential Britishness.
Waynetta Slob - Harry Enfield and Chums
The special someone in the life of Harry Enfield's Wayne slob was Waynetta - matching him fag for fag and pizza for pizza - she truly is three times a lady. The sketch when she smears herself with chocolate ice-cream truly is an erotic classic.
Wolfie Smith - Citizen Smith
'Power to the People!' was his battle cry, but the people of Tooting needed enlightenment before they could be liberated by hapless revolutionary Wolfie Smith. And his mother-in-law needed to stop calling him 'Foxy' by mistake.
