TV'S rapidly deteriorating sitcoms are no laughing matter, according to veteran comedy writer Vince Powell.

He is appalled at the lack of laughs on the box and puts it down to ageism and the targeting of a quasi-American youth culture.

Award-winning Vince has devised and written a string of TV comedy blockbusters, including top-rating shows such as Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width, Nearest And Dearest, Bless This House, Mind Your Language and the pioneering mixed-race show Love Thy Neighbour.

He says today's comedies are all too often banal, crude and unfunny. And, in the run-up to Christmas, we did not have one British sitcom on our screens.

He says the "fun factories" of the comedy's golden age have become "glum factories", in which cynical, unlovable productions roll off the line, bankrupt of the old mix of love, life, laughter and pathos that endeared sitcoms and their stars to millions of viewers.

More than 20 million people used to switch on to programmes written by Vince for guaranteed belly laughs.

Today, he says, comedy of that genre is shunned by TV executives on the pretext it is old-fashioned, politically incorrect and has little appeal to today's audiences.

But he says: "The truth is, viewers are crying out for funny, old-fashioned shows that make them laugh, without crude jokes about bodily functions, sex and four-letter words.

"Even more so since the events of September 11. People desperately need something to raise their spirits.

"Many of my contemporaries are similarly alarmed at the apparent demise of situation comedy.

"These include such writers as Jimmy Perry and David Croft (Dad's Army, Hi-De-Hi), Eric Chappell (Duty Free, Rising Damp), Galton and Simpson (Hancock, Steptoe) Brian Cooke (Father, Dear Father and Robin's Nest), Esmonde and Larbey (Please Sir, The Good Life), Wolfe and Chesney (On The Buses, The Rag Trade), Dick Sharples (In Loving Memory) and Clement and La Frenais (The Likely Lads, Porridge).

"All those talented writers are still around. So why aren't they writing comedies any more?"

Vince says TV executives have convinced themselves there is no longer an audience for such humour.

American shows such as Frasier, Seinfield, Cheers and Soap are all very well, says Vince but they are not representative of British culture.

He said: "Sitcoms, such as Are You Being Served?, Hi-De-Hi and Steptoe were home-grown laughter vehicles about people living and working on this island. Now there is nothing to fill the gaping chasm.

"Certain TV executives have the mistaken opinion that veteran writers are out of touch with contemporary views.

"Of all branches of the media, that of TV comedy stands alone in practising ageism."

He says that, unlike any other specialisation within the industry, once a comedy writer reaches middle age, he or she is deemed to have lost the capability to amuse.

Vince said: "But this is nonsense. It is the executives themselves who are out of touch.

"Viewers want to be amused and entertained by programmes capable of tickling their laughter glands. Hence the popularity of repeats."

Vince believes he has a winning formula to get the laughter train back on track.

He said: "Persuade a major broadcaster to commission more sitcoms by inviting each of the above writers to submit a show to be transmitted weekly under the generic title Comedy Half Hour or Time For A Laugh.

"Not only would such a series be entertaining but at least one, or more, could spin-off into a series, in much the same way as Steptoe And Son, Till Death Us Do Part and Last Of The Summer Wine were spawned by BBC's Comedy Playhouse.

"It is high time for a renaissance, a return to those halcyon days when viewers could forget their problems and learn to laugh again."

Interview by Gerry Nicholas