One Foot in the Grave grouch Victor Meldrew just won’t believe it - but his catchphrase has been voted the nation’s favourite.
The immortal “I don’t believe it!” uttered by actor Richard Wilson in the hit sit-com saw off meerkat Aleksandr Orlov’s “Simples” from the Compare the Market ad.
Dad’s Army classic “Don’t panic” made famous by Lance-Corporal Jones, played by Clive Dunn was the third best loved.
And Del Boy’s (David Jason) much mimicked “Lovely jubbly” and “Rodney, you plonker!” from Only Fools and Horses both made the top 10.
The study found more than half of adults think the best expressions come from TV shows with one in five saying reality TV had the most popular catchphrases.
According to the King’s College London study, on average Brits use a catchphrase three times a day and three in ten admit to peppering their conversations with well known phrases from their favourite shows.
Experts say the perfect catchphrase is four words long, has to be heard at least four times to register in the brain and must be easy to repeat as well as funny.
The survey of 2,000 adults found a third of people use a popular phrase without knowing its origin with the pub the most likely place to drop it into general chit-chat.
Tony Thorne, language consultant at King’s College university, said: “Catchphrases are a key component of popular culture as they connect the world of entertainment and consumption with the everyday concerns of real people - their feelings and experiences, their shared pleasures and their struggles and frustrations, and especially their triumphs over adversity.
“Catchphrases derive their power from compressing complex ideas into short, snappy sequences.
“A catchphrase such as ‘I don’t believe it!’ expresses a mix of exasperation, world-weary resignation and fatalistic humour that will be familiar from many people’s personal experience.”
The poll put “It is what it is” made famous by Love Island’s Sherif Lanre, 20, just outside the top 20 at number 21 while The Daleks’ “Exterminate!” in Dr Who was at number 30 and comedian Micky Flanagan’s “We’re going out-out” made 34.
