The Comedians

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For the Graham Greene novel, see The Comedians (novel).

The Comedians was a British television show of the 1970s (later reprised in the 1980s) which gave a stage to nightclub and working men's club comedians of the era, including Stan Boardman, George Roper, Roy Walker, Tom O'Connor, Frank Carson, Jim Bowen, Charlie Williams, Mike Reid, Duggie Brown, Lenny Windsor, Colin Crompton, Ken Goodwin and Bernard Manning. It was produced by Johnnie Hamp of Granada Television.

Also featured on the TV show were Shep's Banjo Boys - a 7-piece band comprising (for the first 5 series) Charlie Bentley (tenor banjo), Andy Holdorf (trombone), John Drury (sousaphone), John Orchard (piano), John Rollings (drums), Graham Shepherd (banjo) & Howard Shepherd (lead banjo).

The Comedians began as an experiment for Granada TV. Filmed before a live audience in Manchester, comics each performed 20-minute sets, which were then edited together into half-hour shows. Each edition featured up to ten stand-up comics.

Working men's clubs are numerous in Britain, especially in North East England and have been a useful training ground for artists, especially comedians. Most of these clubs are affiliated to the CIU (Working Men's Club and Institute Union) founded in 1862 by the Rev. Henry Solly. There are also political clubs, as well as Servicemen's Clubs affiliated to the Royal British Legion.

It was remarkably popular during the earlier series. An LP recording of the show reached the best-seller charts, several sell-out national tours followed, including a season at the London Palladium, and the programme won the Critics' Circle Award^{[citation needed]}.

The comedy frequently took the form of anecdotes or jokes and often involved racist or sexist stereotypes. Like other British comedy successes of the day, notably Love Thy Neighbour, this kind of entertainment was acceptable on British television during this period but would not be so today. Nevertheless, viewing the series in retrospect it stands as a major social document of the times.

In recent years the series has been repeated on the (now defunct) British satellite television channel Granada Plus. Upon hearing viewers' complaints about offensive material used in the show, Granada Plus said that if they removed all the sexist, racist and homophobic content, it would leave only the opening and closing credits.