10 Most Quotable British TV Shows
“People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can’t trust people, Jez.”
While many modern shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones may be multi-award winning cinematic television, British television is just as respected without anywhere near as much scale and scope. Shows like Doctor Who and The Office demonstrate that many of our shows can be enjoyed across the globe, while comedies such as the IT Crowd and The Inbetweeners are critically acclaimed for their comedy, usually more realistic and less over the top than similar American television.
British comedy is such a part of the nation's culture that the public therefore share a generally universal understanding of many sayings, quotes and characters from it. It's so prevalent that people may know a range of quotes from a show without having ever watched it themselves, or they'll maybe be able to quote a series to you word for word without fail. Therefore there is almost a small extension to the British language that is almost entirely made up of quotes and sayings from famous TV shows.
Some shows, however, are timeless, and they continue to be quoted to this day - years after leaving the air.
10. All The Gameshows
Bit of a cheat first entry to kick things off but you could easily fill this list with a tonne of game-show catchphrases spanning decades. They just seem to be timeless, although this is likely due to the fact that they were designed this way by the creators of the show. After all, no game show is complete without a fantastic catchphrase for the presenter to shout at the camera. The Weakest Link is literally named after Anne Robinson's catchphrase!
Be it Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or The Chase, you're sure to hear a slew of different game show catchphrases throughout your life. There's a high chance you'll know and possibly even use some catchphrases without even having seen the show! As we continue to see more game shows through the years our game-show vocabulary is only going to grow.
This is only the first entry however as many of these television shows only have one quote that is used outside of the show by the public, unlike most of the other entries on the list. It's an easy entry for the list but one worth not ignoring! A personal favourite is "no likey? No lighty!" from Take Me Out, but the iconic "you're fired!" from the Apprentice has to be the most commonly heard.