Nightingales
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Nightingales was an unusual British sitcom produced by Channel 4 in the early 1990s.
It revolved around the jobs of three bored nightwatchmen working in a deserted office block somewhere in London. Despite an ostensibly uneventful premise, the programme's episodes detailed surreal, Pinteresque happenings which subverted the usual comedy archetypes in ways which were to the few that watched it, clever and hilariously funny or were to others, including the Channel 4 executives who cancelled it, completely baffling.
The security guards themselves were standard sitcom characters. Robert Lindsay played Carter, the intellectual whose aspirations were invariably frustrated; David Threlfall was 'the stupid one'; and James Ellis played the impossibly optimistic veteran watchman. There was a fourth character, Smith, who was dead throughout the series. The other characters kept his body in the building so that they could claim his salary. The basic setting was also a recognisable sitcom one, that of a number of different personalities forced together (see also Father Ted, Dad's Army, Porridge, etc. etc.).
Beyond this, however, the programme moved into areas more befitting the nightmares of Spike Milligan or David Lynch. Guest characters included Eric the Wanking Teenage Werewolf; an additional security guard who was a gorrila; and Mary the Christmas Allegory, who gave birth to consumer electronics. A running gag involved the question "Is there anybody there?" followed by the half-sung response "There ain't nobody here but us chickens!" accompanied by much arm waggling in the manner of said poultry. This line is probably derived from the BB King song of the same name.
Two series ran between 1990 and 1993. Nightingales was written by Paul Makin, who went on to write the more conventional comedies Chef! and Goodnight Sweetheart. As of 2004 no videos or DVDs of the series have been released by Channel 4 or the programme's producers Alomo. A US remake was piloted but never commissioned. As a sitcom about extracting comedy from 'nothing', however, it could arguably be considered an antecedent of programmes such as Seinfeld or even The Royle Family.