At least according to one survey

They are two of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms, frequently topping polls of the best TV shows of all time.

Yet almost no viewers want to see a return of Blackadder or Only Fools And Horses – at least if a survey conducted by Freeview is to be believed.

The likes of The Generation Game and Birds Of A Feather made the top ten list published this week, but while Fawlty Towers topped the survey of 2,000 people, there was no place for the other classic comedies.

Also in the top five were One Foot In The Grave, The Muppet Show and The Good Life and the A Team, in that order. Between them, the shows account for 95 per cent of the votes cast, leaving very little room for other programmes.

The top ten has received much media coverage – however none mentioned that respondents were not given an entirely free choice by pollsters. In fact, 35 shows were listed; however Freeview’s publicity team could not confirm whether Blackadder or Only Fools were among them

Those answering the survey could, however, add their own titles if they felt strongly enough – but that is unlikely to have the same impact as being presented with them as an option.

Blackadder topped a poll for the best TV show of all time last summer, with Only Fools No 4.

Rowan Atkinson recently revived Blackadder as an unscrupulous City banker for the We Are Most Amused fundraiser at the Royal Albert Hall. And over Christmas, Sir David Jason revealed that Only Fools creator John Sullivan was working on more episodes at the time of his death last year.

Published: 5 Jan 2013