The Royle Family

The Royle Family was a popular BBC television situation comedy (sitcom) that ran for three series between 1998 and 2000. It concerned the lives of a cash-strapped working class Manchester family, the Royles.

Description

The show is a comic and poignant satire of family life in Manchester, or perhaps Britain as a whole. The family rarely do anything other than watch TV, banter and occasionally eat, smoke and drink. It could be said to be a modern comedy of manners. Every episode takes place in the family home, almost exclusively in the living room and/or kitchen.

Related Topics:
TV - Comedy of manners

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Most episodes lack an obvious plot, but most have a theme, or at least a topic of discussion to hold it together. The show also lacks set piece jokes. Many of the humorous situations involve awkwardness, badly told jokes, crassness (usually on Jim's part), irony and the fact that the Royle family on the television often realistically reflect the real lives of the families watching it. In this it has similarities to another BBC docu-comedy, The Office.

Related Topics:
Docu-comedy - The Office

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Although it is sometimes claimed that the series has no jokes, there are in fact many one-liners, but these are spoken casually by the characters and not signposted like jokes in a regular sitcom. There is no laugh track.

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