'Only Fools and Horses'

It's silly really but when I came back from England and settled in Jordan, all I could think about was "Only Fools and Horses", the British comedy sitcom I used to watch and indulge in hours of hilarious unmitigated laughter.

The world of the 1990s moved on, the war on Iraq, UN sanctions on that country, massacres in Bosnia, butchery in Rwanda took place. I watched with disgust, misery and hopelessness but I longed as well for "Only Fools and Horses".

For me it was a desperado situation, the British sitcom has haunted me through the 1980s, and all I wanted to do is see of the more thing. I was hooked on British comedy, it seemed to actually be providing avenues of relief that I no longer found available in my new settings.

"Yes Prime Minister" was another, an uproarious parody on the trials and tribulations of the match-making merry-go-around British Prime Ministerial politics and the underlying tug-of-war with the country's civil service, those elitist conservatives who hated change.

So very funny, and so very real, it was mirth, hilarity and glee. I missed those days very much, having been reared on a certain culture that was every bit as different as the one I was now having to adapt to.

As a result the 1990s appeared ever so lonely from me, insular and blinkered and narrow because I stopped seeing things that had long became familiar to me, and now needed to be reared on different viewings and listening which even now 20 years later, have never accepted despite the satellite which threw the open doors of the world asunder.

In the comedy I was clinging to a culture through its funny mannerisms, gestures and gesticulations. The voice, tone, narrative, the quality of the script uttered and spoken with solumness increased the hilarity and gaiety. If you were depressed, then after watching Only Fools and Horses or the like, such would go away.

The 1980s was a great period for British comedy, and it was not one sit-com but a whole series, that I would watch and drool over each evening as the night and winter gripped British society. It seemed that I have lived in a time capsule for I am sure the 1990s was just as full of mirth on British television had I been watching.

Another great funny show was Alo Alo, an outstanding British comedy about life in a French café under the German occupation during World War II. Played by British actors, in different accents, the series just induced fits and fits of giggles that made your chest ache after a while, with the expression of laughing on the floor never the more serious.

I was a great time studying during the day, or trying to and watching television in the evening. The truth of the matter I was becoming a "couch potato"—eyes and ears glued to the television set with the comedy just rolling off the television. You literally could not keep your eyes and ears off the television set.

Another favorite at that time was Cheers about a bar in Boston, an American sitcom and the same was true.

In those days it was the comedy that acted as cultural influence rather than the books, documentaries, soaps or film. Although these were just as good. They were nice and perpetuated the "couch potato phenomenon" but it was the comedy that somehow triggered the culturally-dominated the sphere of my thinking.

I am told comedy is the hardest thing to write, but with the Brits, they have very definitely the knack!