The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 5

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005 5 CELIA WALDEN Julia Roberts turns to modelling Spy, Page 23 ES 1880 NOW SAVE DE: CORN NOW CAVE EE: OFF MARKET Old favourite: comfortable comedy with Open All Hours Comedy writers mourn the days By Richard Alleyne AT THEIR height they dominated the television schedules, enticing up to half the population to tune in. But the British situation comedy, with its cosy sets and cosier humour, has suffered in these harsher times of reality television, seven-day soap operas and 24-hour rolling news. Such has been their decline that Victoria Wood, one of Britain's most respected comedy writers, went as far as to declare the "sitcom is The TV sitcom has two feet in the grave, says Victoria Wood He wouldn't believe it: Richard Wilson as Victor Meldrew in the gently caustic -class sitcom One Foot In The Grave of cosy and contrived humour as the more modern and vulgar sketch Butterflies and Bread, said: "I just don't know what is going on now. I watch about 20 minutes of these new shows and I cannot go on. They are just awful.

"The BBC is not the same now. These shows are not about people any more. They are too vulgar and there are no characters in them." Miss Lane, whose creation Bread once attracted 26 million viewers in the 1980s, blamed television executives who, she said, were obsessed with attracting younger audiences. "The Cutting edge: the popular, brash and coarse Little Britain NEWS BBC shows dominate the channels overtaken by shows such as Little Britain and mock documentaries. Picking up an Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards, the creator of Dinnerladies and Acorn Antiques, said: "Sadly, the sitcom is dead.

The likes of The Office are so good that you can't go back. Everything is very naturalistic now whereas before it used to be quite contrived." Her struck a chord with fellow comedy writers. Carla Lane, who was behind the Liver Birds, BBC is now run by younger people and they just want to entertain younger people," she said. "You never get a show that the whole family can enjoy all at once." Her views were echoed by writer and director David Croft, whose credits include some of Britain's best loved shows including Are You Being Served? Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hide-Hi! "I don't think it's true that the sitcom is dead but I think that the golden age is over," he said. "Sitcoms used to be And finally, Sir Trevor's low key sign off BBC pays bonuses but axes 3,700 A quascutum LONDON Sale Starts Tomorrow Up to off Begins Saturday 17th December 2005 Offer only available at: 100 Regent Street, London W1 24 St.

Ann's Square, Manchester selected concessions nationwide On selected merchandise only. While stocks last about things and people but now they are just about being vulgar and coarse and I deplore them. I find the current vogue for sketch shows like Little Britain also upsetting. I just don't like them. They don't make me laugh." Mr Croft, 83, who retired in 1995, added: "I thought I would give someone else a chance but unfortunately they have not taken it." Armando Iannucci, who won an award for his satirical comedy The Thick of It and co-wrote I'm Alan Partridge, By Daily Telegraph Correspondent THE BBC has paid almost half of its 22,000 staff million in bonuses this year while cutting more than 3,700 jobs.

The figure does not include the £546,000 in bonuses to the said that the demise was exaggerated but agreed that the viewer's perception of the sitcom had changed. "I think that it is in people's minds," he said. "People have reduced the idea of a sitcom to being about the middle-class and set in someone's living room. But it's anything but that really. It's Father Ted and Steptoe and Son.

"A lot of work needs to be done to persuade executives to put comedy shows on because they are a risk. But once established they have executive board or to staff in the commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. The payments to about 10,000 staff were reported in the trade magazine Broadcast yesterday after a Freedom of Information request. The BBC denied that they had been I their own rewards. What is a shame is that there are few performed in front of a live audience." The BBC and ITV both denied that the era of the sitcom had come to an end.

A spokesman for BBC Entertainment said they had around four sitcoms currently showing, including the Green Green Grass of Home, The Vicar of Dibley and My Family and they regularly won more than six million viewers. "The sitcom has been supposed to be dead for years hidden from public knowledge. They are included in the £1-0386 billion figure the salaries section of its annual report. But the figure is not broken down into bonuses. Hugo Swire, the Tories' media spokesman, said the BBC had to be able to attract CHANEL www.chanel.com but it is alive and well at the BBC." he said.

"Audiences are smaller than in the heyday but that's because there is much more competition now." A spokesman for ITV admitted they currently had no sitcoms playing on their channels but did not rule out showing one in the future. He said: "At the moment we are concentrating more on comedy dramas. It is not that we have any specific policy it's just that no good ideas have been put to us." By Hugh Davies THE long and entirely fond goodbye for Sir Trevor McDonald began last night. He retired from ITN News as the constant voice of authority and reassurance in times of trouble and he left with graceful simplicity. as he is affectionately known, the broadcaster who turned "and finally into a national catchphrase, looked out to his millions of admirers and said: "And that brings to an end my association with the News at 10.30.

Thank you for watching and thank you for all your generous messages. Goodnight and Good Bye." He had decided that before the credits rolled he would go without a big speech. "In the end, we're only news readers. viewers, he said: "I thought I'd slink away. I hate fuss, but everyone was so sweet." Sir Trevor, 66, said that apart from a talk show, he would be securing more big interviews.

"I take this very seriously. I can get much more involved in it now. We're also doing a documentary on the 30th anniversary of the Prince's Trust." According to his scriptwriter, David Stanley, Sir Trevor would often say, when trying to cut through complex discussions about how to cover the news: "I am just a simple West Indian peasant. We are making it too complicated. Why don't we just tell it like it is?" Sir Trevor said: "I've been very lucky.

I got the big breaks, get to Bush, etc. The guys gave me the breaks and I owe everything to ITN." Sir Trevor, who became the network's first black journalist in 1973, recalled being "caught up in a riot on the Shankhill Road, when a colonel came down and said something in such a way to antagonise the crowd. He said in his very Sandhurst way: 'If you really want to know what happened here come on up and we'll tell you at the police Two women pulled me back, and one said: 'You take one step and you'll never get out of The broadcaster is remembered for saying to Saddam Hussein: "The invasion of a neighbouring country with such calculated force and brutality is a very un- thing to do, isn't it?" Spy: Page 23 You don't know which books they'd like. But they do. Anglo Saxon poetry Anything but gardening Something that makes me laugh A pink and purple pop-up book National Book Tokens can be bought and exchanged at over 3,000 bookshops across the country.

They're the perfect gift for book lovers everywhere. BOOK Book NATIONAL 410 tokens Token the best staff but he added: "It is most disturbing that these bonuses have become public only because of a Freedom of Information request." The BBC said the bonuses, capped at 10 per cent of salary, were in line with those of similar organisations. Sir Trevor McDonald Nobody elected us," he said. Revealing that a "chat show" was in the works, he said: "It's time to get a life. I've been at this late-night thing for 20 years or more, and I've really enjoyed myself thoroughly.

But one does discover there's life after midnight, or, should I say, before midnight." After a day of on-screen tributes and answering calls from.