If You See God, Tell Him

If You See God, Tell Him
Cover of the DVD release
Genre	Sitcom black comedy
Written by	Andrew Marshall David Renwick
Directed by	Marcus Mortimer
Starring	Richard Briers Adrian Edmondson Imelda Staunton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Producer(s)	Marcus Mortimer
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	11 November – 9 December 1993

If You See God, Tell Him is a black comedy television sitcom starring Richard Briers, Adrian Edmondson, and Imelda Staunton. Written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, it was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1993. It comprised four episodes, each 45 minutes long, and was broadcast only once, apart from the first episode, which was repeated on BBC Four on 3 December 2007 as part of "David Renwick Night". The title is a reference to "If you see Sid, tell him", the slogan used for the sale of shares in British Gas plc.

The series is set in London and follows the character of Godfrey Spry, played by Briers. As he is standing outside the post office, a wheelbarrow full of building rubble falls on top of him, causing serious physical injuries (from which he recovers) and leaving him with a greatly reduced attention span. As a result, he spends most of his time watching television commercials, and believes every claim made by them. After seeing an advert for a car, he proceeds to copy it by test driving the same car at high speed along the top of a cliff at sunset, the resultant accident leaving him paralysed.

He convinces his wife to take a relaxing break with him in Hamburg, which he describes to the viewer in idyllic terms before casually mentioning that on the last night his wife "popped out [of the hotel] for a packet of cough sweets and was stoned to death by a mob of drunken soccer fans". This entire backstory is played out very early in episode one, with the main part of the show starting with Godfrey calling his nephew Gordon for help after his wife's death.

Every episode was punctuated by deadpan parody advertisements for fictional products and companies, often juxtaposing the idealistic view of the adverts with the far bleaker reality. Much of the humour of the show derived from Godfrey's cheery interpretations of unpleasant events and circumstances. One memorable scene involves him cheerfully passing a group of people outside his neighbour's flat, blissfully unaware that he has driven the man to suicide, attributing the man's disappearance to him moving up the property ladder.