DB7

Peter Kay's 'garlic bread' line voted best in comedy
SHERNA NOAH

PETER Kay's line in Phoenix Nights - "Garlic bread - it's the future, I've tasted it" - has been named the greatest one-liner in TV comedy history.

Uttered by wheelchair-bound nightclub owner Brian Potter, it beat other memorable favourites from the likes of Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers.

The Mrs Merton Show, where the acid-tongued pensioner played by Caroline Aherne asks Debbie McGee: "So, what first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?", takes second place.

Next is The Office, where Ricky Gervais' creation David Brent launches another desperate attempt to boost his credentials as a cool boss.

He tells his employees: "If you were to ask me to name three geniuses, I probably wouldn't say Einstein, Newton... I'd go Milligan, Cleese, Everett, Sessions..."

Fourth in the poll of 4,000 people, commissioned by UKTV Gold, is Father Ted, where actor Dermot Morgan utters the line: "I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do. Whereas priests... more drink?"

The survey put Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder in fifth place, with the vitriolic butler uttering: "He's mad! He's mad. He's madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition."

Steve Crook

My vote, if I had one, would have gone to the Mrs Merton line. That was perfectly delivered and Debbie did a double-take as she realised what she'd just been asked.

Steve

Marky B

I like Peter Kay,but their have been better lines than that. As for the Mrs Merton line,I couldn't stand her or Caroline Aherne. Ricky Gervais' line from The Office:Was that supposed to be funny? In all seriousness,if you were a student of comedy then Milligan or Everett were geniuses,especially if you fail to grasp what Newton or Einstein had done.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

DB7

Too many lines from Blackadder for me to choose from - and Hancock's "A pint? Why that's nearly an armful!"

Steve Crook

Brilliant - but don't bother quoting anything from that, or any Dracula film, if you ever go blood doaning. They've heard them all many, many times before.

Steve [who got his gold badge for 50 donations recently]

smudge

The usual recent memory stuff prevails yet again...

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Vic Dakin

It always will, if its voted by the public (especially phone votes). if the critics vote you still get a lot of revisionism

Remember that 100 greatest singles chart where OASIS had about three top ten entrys?

Cuffy

As one liners go, the Garlic Bread one just doesn't cut it for me.

There are too many to quote, but the shows penned by Galton & Simpson had far greater one-liners.