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January 2009

Standpoint is published monthly by Social Affairs Unit Magazines Limited, a subsidiary of the Social Affairs Unit (Registered Charity No.281530). The views expressed in Standpoint are those of its individual authors, not those of the Social Affairs Unit Magazines Ltd and its Directors or those of the Social Affairs Unit and its Trustees and Director

Counterpoints

La Commedia è Finita

PETER WHITTLE

There's not much to laugh at these days - especially if you're working class

Back to the Feelgood Sitcom

SIMON HOGGART

The comedy of self-recognition invites us to laugh gently at ourselves, rather than despise others

Not in Front of the Children

FRANCES WEAVER

Cutting edge humour isn't actually cutting edge - it has simply moved from the private to the public

At My Wit's End

JOSEPH EPSTEIN

"The wittiest writer alive" finds it hard to live up to his title

We've Been Here Before

CHRISTIE DAVIES

Critics of Ross and Brand called for sterner intervention from the BBC director-general. Is censorship really the answer?

Goodbye Basil

JONATHAN MARGOLIS

Fawlty Towers is too politically incorrect and too well written to be shown today

Flights of Fancy

ALEXANDER CHANCELLOR

What we need in grim economic times are kindly jokes with no targets or victims