Dirty Feed: Best of 2025

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My plan for 2025: to not just write about comedy on here.

What actually happened in 2025: I mainly wrote about comedy on here.

Oh well.

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The Voice of Youth
The tale of Nozin’ Aroun’, one of the most well-remembered sketches in The Young Ones, and the link between Ben Elton’s time on the Oxford Road Show. By far the best thing I wrote in the whole of 2025, and one of the best things I’ve ever published since the site launched. It’s all downhill from here.

A Slightly Larger Summer Party
How the Marion & Geoff special A Small Summer Party changed between its broadcast and DVD release. Writing about a show from 2001? That represents something new and dangerous for this site. (Don’t miss the follow-up. I really should attempt to poke Hugo Blick on all this at some point.)

An Absolutely Fabulous Pilot
This was a mystery I’d been trying to get the full details on for years, and finally managed it: what was different about the very original edit for the pilot of Absolutely Fabulous, which Gold accidentally transmitted for years. See also: the differences between the pilot script and the final programme.

“From Here?”
By far the most popular thing I wrote all year, and another thing I’ve been meaning to write about for ages: tracing the origins of Porridge‘s “What, from ‘ere?” gag… to long before Clement and La Frenais. Don’t miss the comments on this one, which takes things well beyond the actual article itself.

Insults, Cups of Tea and Quips
I’ve written an awful lot of silly things about newspaper props this year, but this is my favourite, ending up in a thoroughly unexpected place. Although this example from I’m Alan Partridge is also absolutely bizarre.

Lucky Old Bin
If there’s one theme to my writing this year, it’s that I finally got the answer to loads of sitcom mysteries I’ve been pondering over the years. This is yet another one: a cut ending to the Fawlty Towers episode “Gourmet Night”, revealed at last. Kurt, you drunken dickhead.

“There Are Herrings on the Roof Again!”
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fawlty Towers, a look at all the various parodies of the show over the years. A little rushed in order to hit the anniversary deadline – I can’t believe I missed the point of the Michael Barrymore bit in the Shooting Stars sketch – but the tying together of so many different shows is unusual for this site, and I really should try more of it.

TC8, 19th May 1979
Yet another Fawlty Towers piece for the 50th, and yet another piece I’ve been meaning to write for years: exactly what was shot on the pre-record day for “Basil the Rat”. I realised after publishing that I should have just called this “You Dirty Rat!” after Polly’s impression of Jimmy Cagney, so just pretend that’s what I did, thank you. See also: this follow-up, and this further follow-up. Like picking at a scab.

Poor Old Jackie Rae
In comparison to all the pieces I’ve planned to write for ages this year, this one came out of nowhere: exactly how accurate is Bob Monkhouse’s autobiography when it comes to The Golden Shot? And how can you prove anything one way or the other, when most editions of the show no longer exist? Again, well worth reading the comments on this one.

“I Don’t Own a Television Machine”
After watching The Dick Van Dyke Show for the first time this year, it became my favourite sitcom ever made, leapfrogging over all the shows I’ve loved since I was a kid. I have so much I want to write about it, but this will do for a start. (If you’ve never seen the show, I can’t think of a better way of starting 2026.)

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And for more fun, see: sitcoms and the fourth wall, title sequences and Drop the Dead Donkey, the Montreux edition of Three of a Kind, whether Lise Mayer appears in The Young Ones, the solution to a tricky problem on Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, which safari park appears in Marion & Geoff, topical jokes in Absolutely Fabulous, TX date nonsense with Terry and June, John Cleese on regional television, and poking old documentaries on Bob Monkhouse.

Weirdly, my tendency for omphaloskepsis seems to be missing this festive season. I had fun writing here over the past 12 months, I hope you had fun reading it, and let’s mainly leave it at that. But one thing does feel worth pointing out: there have been more comments on this site this year than any previous year; currently 429 and counting in 2025, compared to 295 in 2024. And one of my favourite things is people taking the stuff I write here, and poking it further. Sometimes, it’s the only way the full story ever comes out.

So thanks to everyone who read, liked, linked to, or enjoyed Dirty Feed this year, but thanks especially if you took the time to post a comment on here. The site would absolutely be nowhere near as good without you.

See you next year, which will kick off with a piece on The Peter Serafinowicz Show and library music. Yes: a bold new vision for the site, coming in 2026.

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end of year review