British Comedy Guide

The logo for the British Comedy Guide between 11 May 2009 and 1 January 2011.

The BCG logo between 2 January 2011 and 15 January 2016.

The website was founded in August 2003 as the British Sitcom Guide (BSG), a website devoted to British sitcom TV programmes. The website was established by Mark Boosey, a freelance web developer, originally as a hobby.[1] However, in 2008, it was decided to expand the remit of the website to cover all forms of British comedy, and thus the BSG was re-launched as British Comedy Guide or BCG, and has continued to expand since this point.

Other features added since the site's re-launch in 2008 as British Comedy Guide include a series of podcasts, a section featuring interviews with people working in the British comedy industry and a Twitter-based news service.

The website went through another relaunch in 2016, where it underwent a re-design of the layout, a new logo, and increased coverage of online comedy and people working in British comedy.

In 2015, BCG's data specialist Ian Wolf was awarded the inaugural "Unsung Hero" at the first FringePig Ham Fist awards for his work collating reviews during that year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[4]

BCG hosts a range of podcasts, some of which have gone on to win awards. As It Occurs To Me was nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award in 2010,[9] Do The Right Thing won the Bronze Sony Award for "Best Internet Programme" in 2012,[10] Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown won the 2012 Loaded Lafta award for "Best Podcast",[11] and Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast won the Bronze Sony Radio Award for comedy in 2013.[12]

In June 2013, an episode of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast saw host Richard Herring interviewing Stephen Fry, in which Fry revealed that he had attempted to commit suicide. The story was also reported widely across the media, including the BBC and Sky News.[13][14]

The podcasts hosted by BCG are:[15]

In January 2007, the website launched The British Sitcom Guide Awards, which were later renamed The British Comedy Guide Awards and are now known as The Comedy.co.uk Awards.[16] The awards are notable for allowing the public to choose the winners via an online poll, but with no shortlist - all broadcast programmes are available to choose. This differs from the British Comedy Awards which relies on broadcasters to put their programmes forward for nomination, and only uses a small panel of judges to determine the results. Additionally, The Comedy.co.uk Awards seeks to name not just the winners, but the worst programme in each category too.[17]

In order to be considered for a Comedy.co.uk Award, a programme must be a British comedy which has had at least one new episode broadcast on British TV or radio between 1 January and 31 December of the previous year. The only exception is shows which span across the new year, in which case it is nominated only in the first of the years.[16]

Up until the 2015 awards the visitors taking part in the poll are asked to give three votes in each category: one to their favourite show, one to their second favourite show, and one to their least favourite show. The vote for "top favourite" scores two points for the selected programme, and a vote for a "second favourite" scores one. The comedy programme with the most points is declared the winner in that category. The show which receives the highest number of "worst" votes is declared the worst comedy in that category. The 2016 awards change format, removing the "worst" categories, and people voting for the top three programmes, with their favourite show scoring three points, their second favourite two points, and their third favourite one point. In the first week of voting all comedies from the year could be voted on, in the second week the six most popular shows in every category formed a shortlist.

All of the awards are voted for by the website's users except one, the British Comedy Guide Editors' Award, which is an award voted for just by the controllers of the guide, and is given "to the show, person, channel, or indeed anything else comedy related that deserves some recognition."[18]

• Official website