Bilko beats off Fawlty

Exactly 48 years ago this month a paunchy, bespectacled, wise-cracking - and, it has to be said, not entirely honest - US Army sergeant appeared on our television screens for the first time.

His name was Sgt Ernest Bilko, head of the motor pool at Fort Baxter, Kansas, and his escapades - usually centred on gambling, duping the hapless Colonel Hall and avoiding anything that resembled hard work - were chronicled in an astonishing 142 episodes.

Now, The Phil Silvers Show has been deemed the greatest sitcom ever. A top 20 compiled by the new Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy puts Seinfeld at No 2, while the top-placed British sitcom is Fawlty Towers at No 3.

In all, 11 British sitcoms make it into the top 20, including Porridge (4), Yes, Minister (5), Only Fools and Horses (16) and Dad's Army (19). One animated show charts - The Simpsons at 20.

The guide's author, Mark Lewisohn, said: "Sgt Bilko is sitcom's high-water mark. In 2005 it'll be 50 years old and yet it's still hilarious - with great scripts and magnificent performances.

"The crazy thing is, the show has been buried and forgotten in America, while in Britain it is still revered. Seinfeld was also outstanding and, though the 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers were sublime, to sustain such excellence year after year gives Seinfeld the nod over John Cleese."

The guide has Monty Python's Flying Circus as best British sketch show.

Mr Lewisohn, 45 - whose first TV comedy memory is watching Steptoe And Son (in at No 15) - said he preferred British humour to American.

But he added: "Americans have got the sitcom down to a fine art. There is something about the speed of the wit and the rapidity of the jokes. In Britain, we signpost things and take it more slowly - you couldn't ever say Dad's Army was fast paced.

"Sitcoms have to have believable characters, or characters who are so far from believable they are acceptable on another level. They need good actors and, above all, they have to be funny."

The book also includes the top 20 worst sitcoms - headed by a thankfully forgotten effort from the Eighties called The Bottle Boys, starring Robin Askwith as a south London milkman.

Mr Lewisohn said: "There were all the archetypes - the boozy Scot, the token black, the Welshman and the secretary with the big tits. It was not really very funny."