in Dads Army.

A marvellously nuanced performance. A deputy so evidently best qualified through his experience and temperament to lead the platoon but instead has to cow-tow to a lesser inept man, a bureaucratic snob whose every character trait is guided by the monstrous class chip on his shoulder. It's the way le Mesurier's facial tics and eye movements express the constant battle between the frustration of his impotency at being unable to take the initiative of leadership and his sense of patriotic duty and fair play that dictates he must serve his country under such sufferance.

In The Blackadder (first series), Baldrick was portrayed as the smart one to Blackadders dullard.
A switch of roles, a collection of cunning plans, and a lot of general stupidity gave rise to one of the best stooges/foils ever created.

As the series progressed, Baldricks intelligence levels diminished further & further, and so did the characters surrounding Blackadder, so by series 4, Edmund was really the only sane one on screen

Edie Falco is of course brilliant in the title role; the one who steals most of her scenes is Zoe, played by the delightful Merritt Wever. Everything about her performance is beautifully calibrated: her gaucheness, her wish to look more sophisticated than she is, her eccentric intonation. And then there's her wonderful physical performance, how her walk suddenly changes, her use of her whole body. Checking her imdb profile, I'm surprised she hasn't been even been nominated for best supporting actress at the Emmys.

My default levity persona.

from The Phil Silvers Show/ Sgt Bilko. Played by Maurice Gosfield AKA Benny The Ball from Top Cat

I found this 1974 Parkinson interview with Phil Silvers last night and to me, Silvers comes over quite snidey about his former colleague.

He's utterly dismissive, derisory even, about Gosfield and can't even remember his name (referring to him as 'Duane Doberman' throughout several mocking anecdotes)

Sgt Bilko still rules though!

[video:youtube][/video]

Alan Partridge's put upon PA.

...Crane.

and the peerless performance, is that he so dominates the stage when present you have to ask yourself is he actually the sidekick? (Yes I know 'the clue is in the name of the programme' - but George does something similar in the programme called "Seinfeld")

Glee would be unwatchable the others are just too peppy

in Porridge

Hard to imagine now but Porridge was quite a risque proposition for a television comedy in 70s Britain. What's funny about prison and criminals? Ronnie Barker is faultlessly funny as Fletch but it's Beckinsale's Lenny Godber who creates the warmth and humanity that ensures Fletch is a 3 dimensional character. There is much in Fletch's character and commentary that works on both a comedic and a dramatic level. His monologues about how it is inside flirt between sobering reality, black comedy and fantastic straight laughs. If Fletch bunked alone in that cell Porridge would have been quite a different proposition, potentially Pinteresque in it's cynicism, something much darker altogether. The two-hander episode set solely in their cell and which spends half its running time in darkness at lights out would, in lesser hands, have been something quite bleak.

As it is Beckinsale's wide-eyed and naive Lenny Godber, who Fletch can size up in a heartbeat, attracts and guides our emotional investment in the setting and the characters. He radiates optimism and hope to the extent that he represents us in that cell, helping us find the rhythm of prison life to, in turn, find the rhythm of the comedy gold within.

He's much more than a stooge or a fall guy. You see him learn the ropes, treating Fletch as a father figure at first but gradually, over time Fletch comes to treat him as a peer and a confidante. It is Godber's open nature and simple honesty in a den of thieves that gives Fletch the belief in himself that he can break from being a habitual criminal. And Beckinsale was a great reacting actor, the chemistry between him and Barker is superb in its naturalism and it's constantly evidenced in the range of Barker's performance and delivery throughout their interaction. Barker never takes his eyes off Beckinsale when he's in flow and that is largely down to the fact that Beckinsale has his own magnetism in his diffident yet oddly calm and confident style of acting.

He was just very very good.

... in Rising Damp was just as good. And in a very awkward way Don Warrington is just the same in that sitcom. The dodgy (but accurate for the time) racial politics which he sends up and reflects is both brilliant and arse clenchingly painful, which I suspect was the intention...