What are the longest-running sitcoms in the UK?

Showing no signs of hyper-spacing out of our TV schedules, this sci-fi comedy has consistently pleased fans for an impressive 30 years (73 eps so far). Beginning in the 80s on BBC Two, the show was brought back to life on digital channel Dave in 2009, where it has remained the highest-rated show.

Another channel-hopping show, the Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph series began life on BBC One and now continues on ITV. This year will see it hit 29 years once its 13th series airs later in 2018.

Somewhat incredibly, this beast from Scotland (who began life in sketch show, Naked Video) has notched-up 26 years on television. Gregor Fisher's alcoholic Glaswegian got his own pilot in 1988 and finished in 2014 (with a break from 1999-2008), totalling 66 eps.

The initial run of this clothes shop based show aired on BBC One from '61 to '63 (starring Sheila Hancock and Barbara Windsor) and an unsuccessful revival was attempted by the same channel in '75. ITV picked up the show in '77 where it ran for another two seasons, totalling 17 years.

Original Eastender Alf Garnett spouted his working-class pearls of wisdom over three decades and two channels, BBC One and then ITV (who picked it up for one series six years after its initial end). It ran for 16 years but it's also worth noting that the sequel, In Sickness and in Health, (featuring the same cast and creator) aired for another 7 years into the early '90s.

Scotland again; and another to start life in a sketch show (this time, Chewin' the Fat). The hilarious adventures of elderly Jack and Victor are currently continuing on BBC One with this year seeing 16 years since its debut.

Created by comedy legend Marty Feldman with Barry Took, this was a spin off of the successful ITV sitcom The Army Game (which starred a pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell). That show racked up an eye-watering 154 episodes (and thus, in terms of instalments, is second only to Last of the Summer Wine) but Bootsie and Snudge managed to run for 14 years though, we should point out, that there was an eleven year gap between its third and final fourth season.

Acting legends Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer kept audiences coming back for over 13 years and 67 episodes. The BBC One show has been sold all over the world since its run began in 1992.

Hywel Bennett played the ever-unemployed freelance layabout with a doctoral degree in the ITV sitcom which ran for 13 years. It came to an end in 1984 but came back as The Return of Shelley for one series in 1988 but reverted back to Shelley for another three.

Within months of its pilot as part of the Comedy Playhouse series on BBC One, the classic father and son battle started on 1962 and came to end 12 years later with a Christmas Special. During its run, two movie versions were made and the US version, Sanford & Son, ran for 136 episodes.

Sitcom kings Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft brought shop life to laughs with the everyday shenanigans in the Grace Brothers department store. It clocked up 69 eps over a 12 year period. It also spawned a sequel, from writers Lloyd and Croft and featuring some of the cast, in 1992's Grace & Favour which ran for two series.

Note for pedants: we're not including the lamentable one-off revival from 2016.

When the unassuming, but very funny, Lee Mack and Tim Vine vehicle began back in 2006, few would have guessed that its run would last over 12 years (especially as it had been cancelled). Currently, its ninth series is airing on BBC One but there will be a tenth in 2019, bringing its episode count up to 74.

Only 54 episodes were made, but the cringe antics of Mark and Jeremy were spread just over 12 years and made household names of David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It's also the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history.

The NTA-winner joins Red Dwarf, Still Game and Not Going Out in the current raft of longest-running sitcoms. By the end of its current run, Series 10, the ITV show will have notched up 74 instalments over 11 years. No news yet on an eleventh series.

Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker headed London's Harper family for 11 years of japes and is one of the few UK sitcoms to pass one hundred episodes (they made 120).

Created by Susan Nickson, who was just eighteen at the time, the very Noughties sitcom was synonymous with youth channel BBC Three (despite initially airing on BBC Two). Its original cast featured the likes of Sheridan Smith, Ralf Little and Will Mellor and ran for over 10 years when it finished with 80 episodes.

Somehow, old-school luminaries Windsor Davies and Donald Sinden managed to eke out their antiquity-based dealings and tete-a-tetes over 10 years on ITV.