British Television

I'm not much of a television watcher these days but I do like to watch it every now and again. I love the various costume dramas and book-into-movie stuff the BBC does and many British comedies. Of course, we've all send endless reruns of "Have you been served?", "Keeping up Appearances" and so on.

I just finished "The Lilies" on DVD, which I thought was fabulous. It's about a family of Irish immigrants (2nd generation?) living in Liverpool just after WWI. It focuses on the three daughters.

My husband and I watched the first three episodes of 'The Office' on DVD. It is, a weird sort of humor, an uncomfortable humor. I have known people like the boss. Needless to say, one shouldn't watch too much of that in one sitting.

Later on, while watching an episode of the 1985 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, my husband remarks to me, "hard to believe, they The Office and this Pride and Prejudice came from the same place, isn't it?"

We have enjoyed the first two seasons of "Black Books" - a more or less physical comedy set in a small bookshop (it has less to do with books and more to do with drinking. . .). We have found the writing generally pretty snappy, the excessive drinking jokes occasionally old and tedious, but have enjoyed it thus far. On to the 3rd season. . .

In a few minutes I am going to watch the first episodes (DVD 1) of "Upstairs and Downstairs", a series I have looked forward to seeing for a while and now, FINALLY, I got from Netflix.
I have recently watched a few episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster", with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. What a gem! I laughed so hard that tears were streaming down my face.
Like avaland, I love BBC productions, they are the best!!

Black Adder is frikkin awesome.

I loved Black Books! Partly for the humour, but more to enjoy the loveliness that is Dylan Moran.

>4 miss_read: Another 'Black Books' fan here, too. Manny (Bill Bailey) is fantastic! Favourite episodes - 'The Entertainer' in which Manny hides inside a Piano armed with a set of spoons; and 'Manny Come Home' where Manny gets a job at Goliath Books :)

As far as BBC dramas go, I highly recommend the 2005 version of Bleak House.

Avaland, "The Office" grows on you. Like you, the first time we watched a few episodes we felt uncomfortable and not sure we liked it. But now, after many viewings, each episode is a gem and certain phrases have entered our family lexicon.

Ricky Gervais (who plays the boss, David Brent) has done another show called "Extras," which is about actors and the acting profession. HBO has aired it here in the US. It is fantastic!

linsacl, thanks for the encouragement. We do intend to watch more but wanted to take a break . . . it's a lot about power in the workplace and, as my husband notes, the boss keeps changing the boundaries about what's acceptable so no one is really sure where the boundaries are on any given day.

>4 miss_read:, 5 I had never heard of this until Irish author John Connolly presented the staff at the bookshop a copy of the first season as a gift (we had all been supporting him early on and he had been coming to the bookstore each year). digfish_books, just saw the Goliath episode last night. Only 3 more episodes to go:-( Loved "Bleak House" also. I saw Gillian Anderson in "The House of Mirth" and therefore knew what she was capable of (beyond X-files).

>Paola, I loved Upstairs, Downstairs when it aired ages ago on PBS.

Oh yes, digifish, Bleak House is absolutely magnificent!

>5 digifish_books: - 'Extras' finished in the UK over Xmas: Gervais has been lured to the US by Hollywood. His shows are similar, they are both essentially comedies of embarrassment.
If you want another laugh - Gervais was in a new romantic band in the early 80s -Seona Dancing.

Just in case you think the BBC is all topnotch dramas and documentaries the big new show on BBC1 tonight is 'The One and Only' - which is best described as 'Pop Idol' for tribute performers.

I am completely addicted to British Television - but having no access I have to make do with DVDs :(

Mostly the period dramas of course: P&P, Bleak House, N&S, W&D.... On my to-buy list: Cranford and the new Sense & Sensibilty

And more recently I've discovered the crime series: Watching the Dead, Dalziel & Pascoe and most of all New Tricks!

You guys are so lucky! :)

There's a new Sense and Sensibility?? You people are costing me a lot of money.

Yeah :), and so far I have only heard good things about it:
the DVD on amazon

Oh, darn. I'm American and it doesn't appear to be terribly accessible on this side of the pond. I guess I'll have to wait. Thanks for the heads up, though- about Cranford, as well.

Only the first episode of S&S has been shown on tv in the UK - it had an odd start but is promising.

If you like costume dramas then there was a new Oliver Twist on the BBC over Xmas, and ITV made The Old Curiosity Shop.

Cranford is well worth seeing - although it is not really an adaptation of the novel, it is a combination of three of Gaskell's novel(la)s.

What's interesting is that in the UK we criticise British dramas for not living up to the best American shows.

> edited to add that the BBC also recently adapted Fanny Hill.

I don't really watch much television anymore, American or British. What shows I do watch, I watch on DVD.
I did recently come across this British show called The Robinsons that I really enjoyed. It was terribly funny and had Tim from The Office in it. I think it may have been cancelled or something.

really looking forward to Cranford becoming available on BBC-Canada. Have been hearing good things about it from my Brit chums.

I have a nasty cold so we watched the last half of season 3 of Black Books early this evening. I would have to say these last 3 episodes seemed to lose something. . .

>10 lesezeichen: I've watched what's been available of Dalziel and Pascoe on DVD, bought in the UK before available in the US. I love Reginald Hill's mysteries and have enjoyed the adaptations.

For those of you spending money or using NetFlix, I do recommend "Lilies". Good sense of time and place, a nice drama. Too bad they aren't making more of them! (the set is 8 episodes).

Dalziel and Pacoe: Isn't it a pity that only the first 2 seasons are out on DVD (for all I know)? Apparently there is lots more :(

Anyway now I know how to pronounce "Dalziel" when reading the books ;-)

PBS is broadcasting the new Jane Austen adaptations (well, last year's for those of you in the UK), a new bio, and two oldies, Persuasion with Kate Beckinsale and "the Colin Firth" P&P. Starts next Sunday.

I just finished watching all twelve episodes of The First Churchills--now, there's an oldie!

>18 lesezeichen: yes, a pity.

I am currently working my way through MI-5 (known as Spooks in the UK) DVDs at my library. It goes "behind the scenes" of the British security service and is an entertaining, if sometimes over the top, drama. I'm on Series 3 (of 7).

I hate to shatter your illusions, but your selections are very far from being typical of British TV. An awful lot of airtime is taken up with endless re-runs of the Bruckheimer shows, property buying/renovation shows, celebrity chefs and other such drivel. An awful lot of BBC output is taken up with programmes that just copy (or are copied by) other channels.

My own `best of British` would probably include the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series, Fry and Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster and arguably Have I Got News For You (does that work in American ? I imagine it might be incomprehensible. I noticed the usually witty Reginald D What`s-His-Name looked quite baffled on a recent re-run).

Just one question, for any Americans who`ve been over here and viewed the channel Five US. Those weird unseen people who voice the links between shows - those are never genuine American accents are they ? They sound well dodgy to me.

#22 - Too true! When I was studying in the UK we watched an awful lot of Changing Rooms, Ready Steady Cook and a show about Pet adoptions that is escaping me... that and the soaps! Unfortunately, Channel 5 didn't exist when I was watching UK tv, so I can't speak to the accents.

I've noticed that BBC America has hired John Oliver (of Daily Show fame) to do the pre-show blurbs about how to turn on closed captioning (which I find slightly insulting - did people really have that much trouble understanding the accents???)

Some favorite UK shows of mine include Green Wing (when oh when will they bring Season 2 out in the US??), Life on Mars, Silent Witness, Waking the Dead, Black Books (and anything with Dylan Moran), Night Detective (mainly because I like seeing Newcastle locales I recognize), Torchwood and Doctor Who, any of the period dramas (Bleak House was a Christmas gift, yay!), MI-5, Jekyll and of course all the old classics, Upstairs Downstairs, Jeeves & Wooster, Blackadder, etc. We also enjoy comedy shows on BBC America, like Spoons, Little Britain, Goodness Gracious Me, and on and on.

There is a rule that the quality of Food programmes on TV in a certain country is the complete opposite of the average food one gets served in restaurants.
I enjoy the food programmes of the BBC very much.
I also never miss Top Gear

#22 Believe me, I have no illusions. I've spent some time in London, and the reality TV gig is worse there than here. I turned on the TV one night and ran across a pole dancing competition.

The American accents on Five US are about as "real" as Miranda Otto's in The Way We Live Now.

BBC America still runs some good shows, but there's a lot of stuff I don't care for lately. I liked the mysteries with Robson Green (Touching Evil and another one where he's a police psychologist) and got a kick out of the first two seasons of Footballers' Wives (which rapidly went downhill). All those shows about resurrected witches and vampires don't do much for me.

>25 Cariola: ....about as "real" as Miranda Otto's in The Way We Live Now

Must be really awful then?! I watched 'The Way' on DVD and ended up fast-forwarding thru the sections where Otto spoke...

>24 Papiervisje: I love 'Top Gear' (what has The Hamster done to his hair recently, tho'....?!!! :P). Also love 'Time Team' and to a lesser extent 'Grand Designs'.

#25 Robson Green - it`s called Wire in the Blood. My wife`s a big fan - she likes anything involving serial killers and gruesome death.

#25, #26

The vexed question of accents. It always amazes me that even English actors can`t get their regional accents right. I remember an episode of Morse where a trip to Nottingham was needed. I`ve never heard such a bizarre accent as was produced by one actress.

I have no illusions either. I expect the proportion of drivel to good stuff to be about the same in any country. Of course, I can't really speak about current US television as I watch so very little of it (Battlestar Galactica, and I occasionally catch an episode or two of Scrubs). The advantage with DVDs is one can pick and choose.

Avaland, you aren't missing much! Reality TV and competitions of all sorts have taken over, and with the current writers' strike, the regular series (what few decent ones there are) are also suffering. The only US programs that I've regularly watched in years are Grey's Anatomy and House, and I've gotten bored with the first and keep forgetting about the latter.

I never watch TV anymore, but thanks to DVD, everyone and his brother hands me copies of shows that I need to watch. I've liked "Little Britain," "The Mighty Boosh," and "That Mitchell and Webb Show." Real high brow, I know ;)

I don't tend to watch much British-made TV beyond those gorgeous period adaptations, I confess, but I am a HUGE fan of "Dr. Who" and I am hoping for better things from the second season of "Torchwood", which really had promise, I think, but was such a jumbled mess of nonsense in the first season. More Captain Jack - less Gwen Cooper!

I've also watched and loved Ricky Gervais' "Extras" - the fact that he gets famous people to come on that show and play a**hole versions of themselves just cracks me up!

>31 fannyprice: the fact that he gets famous people to come on that show and play a**hole versions of themselves just cracks me up!

Me, too, that was one of the best parts of the first series. The Orlando Bloom and Daniel Radcliffe episodes were particularly funny.

In the second series, Gervais' character stars in a TV series, which is itself a wonderful spoof on "Are you Being Served".

Two of my all-time favorites that made it to US TV from the UK were the Poldark series and Prime Suspect with the amazing Helen Mirren. Poldark (the series--there is a later movie I'm not familiar with) does not seem to be available from Netflix. I'd love to see it again. It was based on novels by Winston Graham, set in Cornwall after the American Revolution.

Yes, loved Prime Suspect. Having spent 20 years in and out of the law enforcement field, I thought the first few episodes to be very credible regarding the difficulties of being a woman within 'the brotherhood'. I also thought it more credible than more TV detective shows regarding the actual work they do (American TV would have them running around and branishing guns throughout the whole investigation...and don't get me started on CSI). I thought it a nice touch that they brought back the character who gave her the hardest time in the beginning to help her through her alcoholism much later on.

Forgot about Prime Suspect, I enjoyed it as much as the rest of you and couldn't be more disappointed that there was a "final chapter." #34 avaland- that was my favorite part of the series. A really unexpected but brilliant idea. I was talking to someone who said that the actor died soon after the show was filmed (not sure if that's true or not).

It's true - the actor was Tom Bell. He was ill throughout the filming, which is noticeable in parts.

>35 twacorbies:, 36 Yes, he didn't look well which, imo, added to his aura as an ex-alcoholic. There was definitely some brilliant work throughout that series.

A couple more lovely entertainments---As Time Goes By with Judi Dench, and Foyle's War. Netflix can oblige with both.

Foyle's War is a favorite in this household. Also A Touch of Frost, which are good books too. In fact I saw on Amazon UK that Frost author R.D. Wingfield has done the first new frost book in many a year coming out shortly.

I was wondering when Foyle's War would get a mention--I was reading down the list and couldn't believe it wasn't coming up. Definitely my favorite program on TV.

Jeremy Brett is the definitive Sherlock Holmes, imo, just as Suchet is the definitive Hercule Poirot. Top Gear is a huge fave in this household. The getting-ancient Mapp & Lucia series with Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales and the redoubtable Nigel Hawthorne is a particular favourite of mine. And I love anything with Dame Dench in it. Yes, Minister/Prime Minister used to reduce me to helpless giggles. Also liked the Hamish MacBeth series even when it got loopier and loopier (and even though Robert Carlyle was pure Glasgow, not Highland at all!).

Tiffin, not only do we like Top Gear in my house, we adore Top Gear Dog!!

No one has mentioned The Good Life yet (known as The Good Neighbors here in the US) ... and To the Manor Born. Wonderful, both of them.

OK, what is Torchwood? My son just mentioned that it is alluded to on Doctor Who. . .

Torchwood (it's an anagram of Doctor Who for those of you who haven't noticed) is the name of an secret organisation that investigates alien activity (in this case, in Cardiff - although why any alien would want to go to Cardiff is beyond me, they would probably get their head kicked in, but that's beside the point). I think it wants to be a little like the X-Files (it's made for adults and is shown after the watershed here) but it was a little disappointing, both in storyline and characters - it has that classic British tv issue of making the characters a little too unlikeable. The new series starts this week in the UK so it will interesting to see if they have sorted out the problems with the first series.
It is not the only DW spin-off - there is a show for kids called "The Sarah Jane Adventures", the title of which is self-explanatory for older DW viewers. There was going to be a third spin-off starring Billie Piper but that was cancelled before it made it to production.

Talking about Billie Piper - has any US channel shown the Philip Pullman adaptations - The Ruby in the Smoke & The Shadow in the North?

For costume drama lovers, BBC have another one showing now, Lark Rise to Candleford.

>44 Jargoneer:, I watched the first season of Torchwood on BBCAmerica over on this side of the pond and although I wanted to love it, I just couldn't. I hope the second season shows improvement.

#42: how can you not love a dog on a car show who gets car sick!

#45

We are three episodes in to the new series of Torchwood and it is a lot better this year. This may be because they have an eye out because they are showing an un-cut version after the watershed and a cut version before the watershed (at 7pm) with approximately the same running time.

>47 andyl: - I agree that 'Torchwood' has improved. IMO much of this has been moving the focus away from Gwen and softening the characters - last year you couldn't help hoping that they would be chomped on by the alien-of-the-week. Making the stories more intimate has improved it as well. The last one reminded me a little of "Sapphire and Steel" for some reason. For younger viewers, S&S was a very strange sf show broadcast in the 1980s.

I own all four Seasons of COUPLING on DVD.
It is hilarious. I just love the Show but think
NBC really messed it up when thry tried to Americanize the jokes for their Audience.
Needless to say it didn't last too long. I felt
they should've shown the original episodes
with the original cast and left the jokes in not
trying to make it more American by changing the jokes around maybe then the Show would've
been a huge success for them. Anyway it was
NBC's loss to do it that way.

Librarianwannabe

mess 49

I agree. I liked Coupling and did not like the American verision . Same for AbFab. Did anyone mention Fawlty Towers?

And an oldie in the sitcoms, anyone know Butterflies? 1970's I think.

Butterflies was a household favorite when I was growing up. I actually got that out on Netflix not too long ago and watched some episodes... talk about blast from the past!

We also always watched Good Neighbors.

Good Neighbours? Do you mean The Good Life? Ahh a bit of googling reveals that you do - it was renamed for the US.

I agree with andyl it was The Good Neighbors.
I never saw the Series called The Good Life.
The Good Neighbors used to be on my local PBS
Station however the entire Series is on DVD
now as well as A Fine Romance. I used to watch
that too. And You Must Be The Husband and
Three Up, 2 Down, Two's Company. I bought the entire four Seasons of Two's Company.

Librarianwannabe

#53

You misunderstand. In the UK it was called The Good Life when the US showed it they called it Good Neighbours and presumably did their own title sequence.

You Must Be The Husband I can't remember and as I recall it wasn't particularly well received over here.

No-one mentioned The Goodies yet? Now there was a comedy series.

The Goodies? I have never heard of that Show before.
I guess I'll have to try to look into it and see if I can
find it somewhere.

Librarianwannabe

There was also To The Manor Born which is currently being shown on my local PBS Station on Saturday Nights. I also used to watch Yes, Prime Minister.

Librarianwannabe

>54 andyl:

Hmm - difficult to imagine that The Goodies would travel well. In fact, difficult to imagine that it would still be as funny now as it was then - I suspect I'd be cringing behind the sofa at the first mention of Ecky-Thump, Funky Gibbons, or Apart-Height...

#57

Well it is a big favourite in Australia. According to wikipedia it was shown in the US in the late 70s / early 80s. I guess some of the visual effects would look a little raw these days but the visual humour would still work. I would love to see some of the episodes again and see if they really do stand up to the test of time. One of the good things about BBC (Radio) 7 is that a lot of the comedy shows (such as I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again) still work today.

There was also LOVEJOY, YES, MINISTER and
BLESS ME FATHER as some other shows I used
to watch at one time or another.

Librarianwanabe

Love The Goodies. When I lived in Detroit, I could catch it on the Canadian station from Windsor.

So The Goodies was kind of like Monthy Python's Flying Circus?

Librarianwannabe

It was like a junior edition.

A couple of older series that I managed to find on Netflix: Campion (starring a youngish Peter Davidson) based on the series by Margery Allingham, another series based on Ngaio Marsh's "Roderick Alleyn" books, and then Peter Davidson again in Peter Lovesey's "The Last Detective" series.

Presently in my Netflix queue I have the "Hamish MacBeth" series as well as "Rosemary and Thyme".

#14 - the new Oliver Twist had the best portrayal of Bill Sykes I have ever seen. I don't know the name of the actor who played him but he managed to be hateful, frightening and pitiful all at the same time. That adaptation is worth watching just to see him.

mess 51

never watched Good Neighbors. Sounds famaliar though. Do you know the one with the guy who time traveled to WWII and had a wife in the present time and a gilfriend from 40 years earlier?

I just love BBC dramas. We spent 4 years living in the UK and whilst (like everywhere now I think) there is alot of very bad programming, UK TV, especially the BBC has a firm grasp on how to make excellent period dramas. They make quite good 'modern' TV as well. We dont watch a great deal of TV, usually just the ABC and SBS (in Australia) and the BBC channels whilst in the UK. It can take years for BBC programmes to hit our screens here in OZ so I have just been on a very BIG buying spree on Amazon.uk and brought a heap of the new BBC and ITV dramas: Cranford, Lillies, Lark Rise to Candelford, Mill on the Floss, Sparkhouse, Persuasion, Fanny Hill, Northanger Abby, Ballet Shoes, Sally Lockhard Mysteries, Northanger Abby and Miss Austen Regrets. Some of these havent been released as yet.. so I am looking forward to some long nights in front of the TV and will report back on what I watch..

We get very few period dramas from the US - do they make many?

>yareader2

Are you thinking of Goodnight Sweetheart? That's the one where he runs a WWII memorabilia shop which has an exit out the back to 1940s London. He has a girlfriend in each era (which I always thought was very dodgy) and I think at one stage he had a kid in the 40s.

#62

The first series was shown with a start time of 10pm and 10.30pm on Sunday nights. In 1970 that wasn't a time when kids were watching. Also the plotline of stuff like The Playgirl Club probably was classed as too adult for kids at the time. Indeed Mary Whitehouse was complaining publicly that the show was too sexually orientated.

The humour was more child-like than Monty Python and it did go on to get a big youth audience. For Librarianwannabe (and any others) there are some clips (some are poor picture quality) on youtube.

>66 primlil: Some of the Edith Wharton are quite good although I'm not sure who 'made' them: "House of Mirth" starring Gillian Anderson was unexpectedly good and "the Buccaneers" comes to mind. I suppose this is a topic for another group...

>69 avaland: - eh....BBC made The Buccaneers and FilmFour made The House of Mirth so despite having American subject matter they were made in Britain.
If you liked HoM then look for Terence Davies' other films - especially Distant Voices, Still Lives, a look at working class life just after the end of WWII: it's absolutely beautiful.

Do things like Lonesome Dove count as period dramas? Would a period drama draw in big enough audiences to be worthwhile to one of the major US drama production companies?

>70 Jargoneer: maybe. What about the Hollywood production of Age of Innocence?

Thank you dreamlikecheese, I think that is right. I know what you mean about the two women.

>71 avaland: - I was going to discuss Hollywood and period dramas but decided to keep the post short.

I think first we need clarification as to what we regard as period dramas: what this thread suggests is that we mean period dramas based on classic (contemporary to the time period) novels. This gives the UK the advantage of a significant number of novels that can be adapted: there are American novels of the period but the major writers such as Mark Twain & Fenimore Cooper were writing a completely different type of novel (I'm sure there was a movement at the time regarding writing 'new' American fiction and not following earlier European models). Both these writers have been filmed regularly, although in Cooper's case they only ever seem to film Last of the Mohicans.
Later 19th century US novelists such as James, Wharton & Crane have also been well-served by the cinema: but for some reason have been (largely) ignored by television - this is a pity as both James & Wharton probably would benefit for having the longer length of the tv serial. (As cities like Boston and New York had well-established social scenes in the 19th century there must have been novelists of these scenes - can anyone help here?).
This could be simply that in the US traditionally money and prestige have been in the cinema, and not television. Because the UK has a very much smaller cinema industry, and because the BBC has a remit that demands it creates programmes of quality and of an educational manner, money and prestige is as likely to be found in tv.
Regarding classics on British tv: it is worth noting that for the last decade the classics made by the BBC are co-productions with American and/or Canadian companies - due to the expense the BBC needs to spread the risk. There are benefits for the BBC though - these programmes are easier to sell abroad than their contemporary shows: something that US tv companies don't have a problem with.
A second point to note is that up until the early 90s and dramas like Middlemarch many of the BBC period adaptations were cheap productions (often made by the educational department) shown on tea-time on a Sunday - they were not the lavish productions they now are.

The reason I wondered about westerns (which I love BTW) is that in a way they perform the same function as period dramas do in England (and I do mean England here). Jane Austen, for example, promotes the myth of chocolate-box England, this dear green land: westerns promote the myth of rugged individualism, of manifest destiny. Austen also deals with social class and mobility - the number one subject in the English novel: in Austen's novels the good are rewarded by moving up in social status.

I'll stop rambling now: I think I've raised enough points for discussion.

Jargoneer

It is interesting that you point out

A second point to note is that up until the early 90s and dramas like Middlemarch many of the BBC period adaptations were cheap productions (often made by the educational department) shown on tea-time on a Sunday - they were not the lavish productions they now are.

Because I am seeing lavish productions for movies/television while the stark, almost-empty stages are winning great acclaim in US. I am specifically thinking of last years stage production of Jane Eyre by The Acting Company. do like the lack of props, it lets me watch the actors act. (If that makes any sense)

Good points, jargoneer. Having come fresh from a pop culture class, I'm inclined to agree with you (and yes, I suggested in a paper that McCarthy's The Road was a neo-western). In the mid-19th century, New England was awash in literary and philosophical culture with Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson, Fuller, Bronson Alcott...etc. Cooper is earlier in the century (1820), Twain comes in a bit later (1865 or so). btw, Cooper's first novel was said to be an imitation of Austen's novels, it didn't go over big apparently.

as an added note, it may be that Westerns no longer speak for the culture in the way that they once did, perhaps this is why so many of us are hooked on period dramas. Then again, it's more likely why people are watching "Lost".

One of the arguments about the decline of the western is that it disappeared into outer space - famously Star Trek as an inter-galactic version of Wagon Train. Perhaps because once the western frontier had been conquered people were looking for another frontier. (I was going to do a final frontier joke here but I just couldn't bring myself to do one).

In the UK the two main channels have a belief that Sunday night should be relaxing, and hence show more programmes with a edge of nostalgia to them. Interestingly, the BBC is showing a series on classic Sunday night programmes - throughout the 70s they were things like The Onedin Line, Poldark, and All Creatures Great and Small.

by Tre, Pol and Pen, ye shall know the Cornish men (Poldark triggered that).

A major pre-occupation at our house is the viewing of seriously naff TV. I know America has made it`s own contributions to this genre - Sunset Beach was a particular classic and one has to mention Diagnosis Murder with it`s tap-dancing hospital consultant who plays the clarinet, does conjuring tricks, heals the sick (in some episodes he roller-skates around the wards to get round faster) and solves murders several times a week.

Here in the UK, we can do it too (or could). One excellent series is UFO, a science fiction series in which fighter pilots in strange blue knitwear save the earth from alien invasion by jumping down laundry chutes. In a recent episode, one was hypnotised by a siamese cat and ordered to destroy a human colony on the moon. Don`t laugh, it could happen.

Does anyone remember a British comedy where the lead character (I think it was Reginald Perrin?) always pictured a hippopotamus when his mother-in-law was mentioned? And his boss always prefaced every statement with "I didn't get where I am today by..."
It was shown on PBS late Saturday nights probably in the early 1980s and I remember it being quite funny, but I can't recall the name of the series.

I also liked Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Rumpole of the Bailey, and the Inspector Lynley series, as well as many of the other shows already mentioned.

>79 fallaspen: - it was called The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (2nd & 3rd series have different titles but they always contain the name), and starred Leonard Rossiter in the title role. I think there was an American version starring Richard Mulligan.

Thanks, jargoneer. I'll have to dig up a copy somewhere and see if I still find it funny.

What were the two female lead characters named in Absolutely Fabulous? AbFab And have you seen the actress that played the daughter lately? I don't know if it was the role she was in, but she looked so old! I loved that show.

Edina and Patsy are the female leads. Saw the actress who played Saffy most recently in episodes of Jonathon Creek about a magician who investigates apparently impossible crimes.

#78 - I laughed aloud reading about the UFO show, nickhoonaloon.

"In a recent episode, one was hypnotised by a siamese cat and ordered to destroy a human colony on the moon. Don`t laugh, it could happen." *Nodding* Indeed, there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio...

>82 yareader2: - Julia Sawalha is currently in Candleford and was recently seen in Cranford - that's the only tv she has made in the last 3 years. I think it is a bit harsh to say how she is looking, she is 40 this year - and unlike American actresses her age hasn't yet succumbed to the lure of the knife.

>82 yareader2:, 85 As far as I know, she has never been promoted as a great beauty in any of her roles, which have been mostly character roles. And I think her face has a lot of character, then and now.

jargoneer, thanks for your comments on period dramas. I agree that clarification of what a period drama is, is essential. I guess in some respects its quite subjective to the individual and I think would in some cases include westerns and other works set in history. I would extend the term to include those programs based on historical fiction as well (Oscar and Lucinda for example - I know its a movie but you get my drift) and not those exclusive to 'classic' books. I guess in my naivity I see all such programs set outwith my own time, as 'period' dramas. Whilst alot of them are based on novels, some are written as stand alone dramas (Lilies?) and I think they should still be included as period dramas.

The ABC here in Australia has a similar remit to the BBC in that it is charged with:
- providing Australia with innovative and comprehensive broadcasting
services
- broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national
identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity
of, the Australian community;
- broadcasting programs of an educational nature

As such we usually get a few programs every year that have some national historical relevance or based on Australian novels. As you say, Britian obviously has a much bigger scope for such things, as their literary history, culture and history is far longer and deeper than the 'newer' nations are. I am only talking about history here in the sense of European settlement in the US and Australia and not the indigenous history (which is a whole different matter).

I agree that with the need to finance such productions has meant in a way that we are receiving much more lavish finished products and I can only see this as being a good thing. If it were not for the BBC, ABC etc having the remit that they do, do you think these productions would be made? I think there would be fewer of them as commercial stations are only interested in catering to the 16-30year old age group with the plethora of reality TV and cheaply made programs.

Oh I just thought of another area of contention and that would be the docu-drama which seems to be making its presence more and more on the TV. I know that Australia has produced a few lately (Dr. Bogle and Mrs Chandler ). I wonder where this fits in all this.

Following up on jargoneer's point about Sunday night feel-good nostalgia, no one seems to have mentioned Heartbeat yet - to my delight this is one of the few British shows that hasn't (as far as I know) been shown in Holland, but I have to endure it whenever I visit the UK. Perhaps it should be shown in the US to demonstrate that British cultural superiority is a myth? Or has it already been shown there?

Heartbeat is based upon the Constable series of books by Nicholas Rhea who was an ex-policeman (in a similar rural force in the early 60s) in real life. In the books the main character is called Nick Rhea. To be honest the earlier episodes of Heartbeat weren't as bad as the current ones. When you consider that ITV also offered up "Where The Heart Is" and "The Royal" things could be a lot worse.

>87 primlil: - completely agree with your analysis. I listen to a few of ABC's podcasts (The Book Show, Philosopher's Zone, The Spirit of Things, etc) - it is some of the best radio available anywhere in the world. UK channels show quite a lot of Australian television - virtually all of it being of the soap variety. Off the top of my head I can't think of any major Aussie dramas that have been shown in the last few years.

The docu-drama is a minefield. I have no problem when it is a drama based on real events but am not keen when it is used in a factual programme, i.e., to illustrate a historical event - then I want talking heads discussing the issues. Too often, it seems that film-makers make a docu-drama because they don't believe the audience have the attention span or intelligence to follow an on-screen discussion: they are a form of dumbing down. Too often, this leads to a change in the sequence of events to highlight the drama at the cost of the facts, and perspective is almost certainly lost.

>88 thorold: - the reason that no-one has mentioned Heartbeat is that no-one ever admits watching it, and yet it gets good viewing figures (in the UK). The only funny thing about it is that it has been running so long that it has now lasted many years more than the decade it portrays - it started in 1964, and now 16 years later is just about to reach the end of 1969. When you take into account that some of the actors have been there for years it becomes quite surreal - no-one seems to notice that 22 yo barmaid who should now be 27 is pushing 40!

>89 andyl:

True - when I first saw it I was quite taken with the idea of 60s policemen on the North York Moors, and the sets and costumes were very good. But it's been running for far too long.

IMDB.com is a great resource if one wants to see what some of the actresses and actors of older costume dramas are doing now. I, just this morning, went in and checked out the whereabouts of the 1995 cast of P&P. Some have been busier than others as noted earlier.

Did any of you see a program based on George Eliot's life? According to IMDB it's from 2002 and is called "George Eliot: a Scandalous Life"

Any good?

>93 avaland: sorry I have never seen it. Just watching Cranford last night - thoroughly enjoying it. Has it shown in the US yet?

I also got Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild on DVD. I havent read that book, although we have it. My daughter really enjoyed it and has now begun the book. I think it was on ITV TV in the UK.

>93 avaland: - I watched it. If I remember correctly it was made in connection with a dramatisation of one of her novels - probably Daniel Deronda or Silas Marner. It was a BBC1 production which is never a good sign; the thinking (wo)man's channel is BBC2 (or BBC4 now). The reason I say that is if a programme like this is on 2 or 4 they give it to you straight, with academics and fellow novelists commentating on the writer: on 1 you get a docu-drama. Bearing that in mind, it provided a half-decent dramatised biography but didn't really discuss the work.
In general, the BBC tv's attitude to literature is shocking - the arts shows that used to cover it are now either gone or avoid the subject. There is a weekly "high-brow" arts review programme on BBC2 that will review any trash that hits the cinema but can only manage a book or two a month, and they tend to be by 'big' names.

>92 avaland:- I would have thought Jennifer Ehle would have done more, especially considering she is an American, but it could be that her identification with Elizabeth was strong enough to put casting directors off. She has had a decent stage career though.
When you look at Susannah Harker's (Jane) career it doesn't look too busy but she too has done a lot of stage, and radio, work. And although her cv avoids mentioning is, she took over the role of Sapphire in the audio dramas of Sapphire and Steel. (For those who don't this show, it was one of the strangest series ever to show on British prime time tv).

A favorite of mine that I watched back in the 1980s is Flambards based on the books by K M Peyton. I enjoyed it so much when I first saw it many years ago, but I was hesitant to get it on DVD because I didn't know if I would like it as much now.

I did.

Also worth mentioning is the book Best of the Britcoms: From Fawlty Towers to Absolutely Fabulous which has a wealth of information on many shows.

We still haven't watched more than the first three episodes of "The Office" - I think we are both still traumatized. I thought maybe watching all the Jane Austen would have a healing effect but it seems not.

I was given "The Office" as a gift and never watched it. I heard it was funny, but traumatized, whoa!

What about Jeeves and Wooster by the inimitable Wodehouse? That was Hugh Laurie in his prime before he sold himself to the US market.

And I have to say that I am a fan of Heartbeat, esp as it is filmed in the town of my fore bearers and the house with the blue door was our 'family home' for generations!!! (according to my mother that is).

Heartbeat is filmed in a number of locations - the police house (the house with the blue door) is miles away from where the bulk of the filming is done.

The majority of the series is filmed in Goathland but according to websites the police house is filmed in Askwith. Both are fairly small villages.

But yes Jeeves And Wooster was pretty good although some of the supporting characters didn't work for me.

Another comedy question.

Jennifer Saunders did a show with another very, very funny Comedianne who has short dark hair and was on the plus side. Then she did a show where she was the Vicker of ?????

You're thinking of the French and Saunders show with Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French. Dawn French later did The Vicar of Dibley which is one of my all time favourite shows.

For all you Torchwood fans (and Wodehouse and Robbie Williams), Entertainment Weekly did a review of Torchwood in their latest issue, and this quote made me squawk:

"As with P.G. Wodehouse novels and Robbie Williams songs, you have to be either British or adolescent to commit to this stuff {Torchwood}; for the rest of us, it's a head-scratching lark."

I must beg to differ with them!!

>104 jagmuse: - Torchwood has been much improved this season, at least until Freema Agyeman (Martha from DW) appeared. She is appalling - one of the least realistic portrayals of a doctor ever.

Coming to the US soon? Yet another reality show. The BBC are showing a new series this week - Murder Most Famous - in which 6 celebrities have to write a murder mystery: the winner will get their work published. One of the celebrities (bear in mind that I use this word in a loose manner) admitted that they never read, that they couldn't even remember the last book they read - fortunately he was voted out first. To give the show credence, the whole thing is overseen by Minette Walters - who, despite being a real writer, gives a performance almost as unbelievable as Freema Aygeman's.

>104 jagmuse:

I can imagine that a head-scratching lark might come in handy on occasion - say when you have both hands covered in flour.

thanks dreamlikecheese. and oops vicker/Vicar. I'll just put that bottle of wine away now!

And did you ever see that movie that Dawn French made with the word chocolate in the title? She was married with kids and problems and she meets an old high school flame who is a tv personality?

Talking of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders does anyone remember "The Comic Strip Presents ..."? Some were very funny - Five Go Mad In Dorset absolutely skewered Enid Blyton's Famous Five.

>108 andyl:

Yes! That was in the days when watching Channel 4 was almost chic.

There was also the one where they imagined the Hollywood version of Maggie vs. the GLC (wasn't it supposed to be Meryl Streep as Mrs T and Charles Bronson as Ken, or something of the sort?), and the "Iron-age village" one, which totally missed its target by demolishing the credibility of reality TV before it ever became popular...

I think you are mixing The Strike up with the GLC a bit.

In GLC - Robbie Coltrane played Charles Bronson playing Ken Livingstone; Jennifer Saunders played Brigitte Nielsen playing Margaret Thatcher; and Peter Richardson played Lee van Cleef playing Tony Benn.

In The Strike - Peter Richardson played Al Pacino playing Arthur Scargill and Jennifer Saunders played Meryl Streep playing Mrs Scargill.

As for reality TV didn't Nigel Kneale deal adequately with that in The Year Of The Sex Olympics in the late 60s?

Yes, of course - I had the feeling that Arthur Scargill was involved somewhere, but hadn't worked out that there were two separate films.

>105 Jargoneer: we just watched our first two episodes of Torchwood and, well, we were mildly entertained but not enough to continue watching. Recognized Owen from the Bleak House adaptation, of course. We can't seem to bring ourselves to watch the other three episodes of The Office (season 1) either.

On the subject of Brit TV, I can recommend a recent episode of Have I Got News For You, hosted by Brian Blessed. I for one admired the subtle dignity of his performance.

>113 nickhoonaloon: - I completely agree: it was a truly stunning performance. Best to see the extended version of the show to see it in all it's glory.

To turn this thread slightly away from literature: Some of my favorite programs are the cooking programs, especially the ones where chefs show their skills in a contest. A few months ago, Masterchef showed some amazing amateurs (that young girl was frightening good) and now I tape every episode of Great British Menu. They give me great ideas for my meals. Not that they are even remotely as good as on TV, but I get new ways of cooking and tasting.
They say the quality of cooking programs in a country is reversed to the general standard of cooking in that country. If that is the case, I am sorry for the british people.

Re 'The Comic Strip presents...', I still remember the joy of watching, as a teenager, 'Mr Jolly Lives Next Door' with Peter Cook as a mad sort of butcher living next door to Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson....

And shamefully I have to admit, more than 20 odd years later I still laugh my head off at that type of humour.

>113 nickhoonaloon:: nickhoonaloon, I really enjoyed Have I Got News for You when I lived in the UK ... is there a way to view episodes from the Yank side of the pond?

I've recently discovered That Mitchell and Webb Look (airing Friday nights on BBCAmerica). Those two guys are hilarious!! Many of their sketches can be found on YouTube as well.

Why does BBCAmerica change their sitcoms just when I get hooked on one? They've dropped Black Books, Spaced, The Peep Show, Little Britain, The Office. I don't like Coupling at all but that's the only one that never seems to stop.
I would love it if they showed all the Rik Mayall shows.

>119 mstrust:: mstrust, I know that some of the programs only produced a limited number of episodes. The Office, for example, had 2 seasons of (I think) 6 episodes each, plus a Christmas special. In many cases the creators quit while they're ahead, while quality is still high, rather than running for so long that the original concept becomes tired.

Re: #118, I just realized there's a bunch of "Have I Got News for You" clips on YouTube ... why I didn't think of that before I don't know. However I'm at work right now ... probably don't need that distraction!!!

#119 mstrust

British sitcoms work in a slightly different way to the US ones. Typically, they're the product of one or two writers, rather than a team so, for example, The Office is all written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Consequently, a run is typically 6 episodes rather than the 20-odd that normally constitutes a US season.

I'm also interested to learn that BBC America is showing programmes that weren't originally on the BBC. Black Books, Spaced and Peep Show were originally on Channel 4 over here.

#118 Mitchell and Webb are just brilliant, aren't they? They've also done three series of sketches on Radio 4 under the title That Mitchell and Webb Sound. I'm not certain you'll be able to find them on the web, but the Beeb does sell them on CD from http://www.bbcshop.com/ and they're well worth checking out too.

ETA lindasacl beat me to it. That's Numberwang!

I think That Mitchell And Webb Sound may well turn up on BBC Radio 7 at some time. As the second series was 2005 it should be available this year (three years is the norm) if the channel controllers clear the rebroadcast rights.

ETA lindasacl beat me to it. That's Numberwang!
LOL, Grammath!

I have all four seasons of Coupling and love it. It is so hilarious I find myself laughing uncontrollably. The NBC version over here was atotal flop. They should've left the episodes with the original British Cast and jokes. By changing every thing around they thought they were their viewers a favor instead of hurting a perfectly good Britcom. The only good thing about the American version of Coupling is that it suffered a very swift death and was taken off the Telly after only 3 or 4 episodes. I don't care for the American version of The Office too much I so much prefer the original British version.

beatles1964

We still haven't gotten beyond the first three episodes of the office. . . first, I think we were traumatized, but now we're just apathetic.

The Office is traumatizing, much more so than the American version. But I like it more.

82-86 Isn't Saffy from AbFab also Lydia from the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice?

Also, do any of you like Black Books? It's been recommended to me several times.

I really liked Black Books once it got past the first season- I think that was a little slow. But the following seasons were very funny as the characters seemed to drink more and become more cruel.

I own Office and I have never watched it. Weird, huh?

I sqw Saffy in something else, not P&P, was it Cranfield?

Yes! I had trouble recognizing her at first, because as someone recently said, she had aged suddenly.

I love Black Books. I watch the whole series a few times each year. Despite what someone said earlier, some of the episodes in the first series are actually my favourites....especially the first ever episode and the one where they house sit and drink the guy's wine.

Actually, my friends and I have always maintained that the best episodes are the first one in each series.

Is there a British TV series called Man Stroke Woman? I've seen clips on YouTube and they were hilarious. Especially the man-cold episode. (Poor little bunny!)

I'm sure that there's a mini-series to be made out of Cranfield as well - it's amazing no-one's done it yet. A little group of aeronautical engineers face the tough challenges of life in the Bedfordshire outback...

#133 Actually, she's in Cranford as well. Just the first couple of episodes I think. She plays the spinster daughter of the man who moves in across the street from Miss Matty.

#136 Thanks Foxhuter I have been waiting for this DVD to be released.

I need other ways then dvd. You see, I am a closet anglophile. No one really knows how much of this I watch. Any of this on Youtube?

>127 frogbelly: we enjoyed most of Black Books, although we thought it was better when the plots didn't revolve entirely around drinking. I did like the episode where Manny goes to work for the chain bookstore. . .

I think that's my absolute favourite episode! I work in a small independent bookshop and a Borders opened nearby about 18 months ago. We always refer to it as "Goliath Books".

I love Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Vicar of Dibley. I'm trying to catch up on more British series via Netflix, PBS (I love Masterpiece Theater and Mystery) and Comcast On Demand. I watch very little American TV these days. I blame my overwhelmingly British blood.

Just watched The Kumars (sp?) the other night, the episode when Joanna Lumley was on. I confess, it makes me giggle.

The Kumars are indeed quite funny tiffin! The first episode I ever had Richard E. Grant as the guest, and the father compared their respective experiences as immigrants. It was a hoot.

#140

your description reminds me of the American movie, You've Got Mail.

#140

your description reminds me of the American movie, You've Got Mail.

Except that I'm not in love with the owner of Borders...though I'm sure the person who started that chain is rolling in cash right about now. Maybe I should hunt them down and cultivate a friendship....

I love BBC America and watch a lot of stuff on there that's been mentioned--Torchwood, certainly; I also love the costume dramas, Cranford most recently, that tend to air on PBS stations (but, alas, are almost never rerun). One of my many favorites was Shooting the Past, which I have on DVD.

But I'm catholic in my tastes, so I also really enjoy the trashy soapy stuff, such as Hotel Babylon, Footballers Wives, and Mile High. Such fun! And it must be admitted that sometimes the accents are a bit thick for us Yanks to follow--slightly off-topic, but I once tried to get my sister to watch Waking Ned Devine, and she couldn't get into it so I regretfully skipped it (for her: I've seen it a few times and enjoyed it thoroughly) and showed her Best in Show instead.

Other things mentioned above that I liked were Lovejoy, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Poirot; anything with Robson Green (Touching Evil and Wire in the Blood, plus Trust and Reckless); Masterchef (for Americans, check out Bravo's Top Chef for a similar competition).

Unfortunately, BBC America shows the same episodes of Bargain Hunt over and over and over, and I've seen them all multiple times, but I've read the series ran for years and I'm sure there are tons of episodes we haven't gotten. Darn.

One thing I particularly liked about British TV when I was there for a few months back in the 90s was short-run series that were made with the end in sight--they told the story and then stopped and didn't try to milk an idea into infinity. One such series I enjoyed was Crocodile Shoes--don't think that's been shown in the US, though.

You know what American show would work well over there, Cash Cab. Ever watched it? It is a yellow cab in NYC where people are randomly picked up and given a chance to win a free ride and cash like a game show. There are clever ways to get help, like a one time, stop a stranger on the street, or one call on the cell phone. And of course the final question which is for double or nothing. Any thoughts?

#148

Actually Cash Cab was (maybe still is) a British show. The format was exported to the US.

LOL. Figures. It is a very fun show, though, and last time I was in NYC I kept hoping I'd end up in that cab. No such luck, of course.

ejj1955 -

Must pass along (and this has absolutely nothing to do with books and everything to do with British TV :-) - if you are a Robson Green fan try to get your hands on "Me and Mrs. Jones." He is almost as wonderful as he is in "Reckless" which is one of my all time favorites.

#151, Orangeena

I've seen that too, and you are right. I also enjoyed "Grafters." Well, what can I say? I've never seen Robson Green and not liked him! But I think in "Reckless" there were so many other wonderful characters--I know it was a bit over the top, but the scene with Michael Kitchen and the dogsled makes me laugh just thinking about it.

# 152 - ejj1955
When Allistair Cooke introduced "Reckless" on Masterpiece Theater he says you can't really figure out what it is - it starts out seeming to be a sentimental family piece, then a romance, next a farce, and he finally says the real reason to watch is for pure fun! You're so right about the characters - almost an embarassment of riches with that cast - Green, Kitchen, the stunning Francesca Annis and David Bradley.
I'm thankful to have found the DVD at overstock.com and watched it with closed captions - my American ear just couldn't catch some of the dialog, especially Bradley.

I wondered who liked Robson Green - most people in the UK celebrate when he is off our screens. Now if we could only get rid of James Nesbitt.

I'm watching the DVD of The Buddha of Suburbia with Naveen Andrews, Brenda Blethyn, and the wonderful Roshan Seth.

# 102: Vicar of Dibly

#106: Many years ago on London visit, we saw "Lark Rise," and it was beautiful. . . I can recall how sad, how true.

#152 You must not have seen "The Student Prince" or "The Last Musketeer." ;-)

Although he's not a very good actor, I agree that there's something extremely watchable about Robson Green.

Cariola, I did see "The Student Prince," but I suspect there's a reason I forgot about it until you mentioned it ;-)

Didn't see "The Last Musketeer."

#154--c'mon, it can't just be Americans supporting the Robson Green career! Most Americans have no idea who he is.

>158 ejj1955: - of course not, he has a career because of the simpletons who watch ITV.

#154 I enjoy watching both Robson Green and James Nesbitt. Am I in the minority in the UK.

Cariola - I agree. Robson Green definitely has something about him. I especially liked watching Wire in the Blood.

Jargoneer - I do not think ITV watchers are all simpletons - some of us like variety be it good or bad.

I think Jargoneer is insulting my taste, but I'll probably go on enjoying Robson Green all the same. And plenty of other low-brow stuff. Gordon Ramsey! Reality shows! Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, Survivor, the Amazing Race, Top Chef, and the ultimate summer sleaze fest, Big Brother.

Sorry--strayed away from BBC America there--but y'all get the idea. Also saw an ep of Top Gear today. Hysterically funny. And don't get me started on Graham Norton.

>162 ejj1955: - there's nothing wrong with Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, and others, like Ugly Betty. Started watching Lost but stopped when I realised it wasn't planning to go anywhere.

I just can't find anything on ITV that is worthwhile, excluding The South Bank Show, which is sad because they used to produce high quality shows. Now everything is either a soap, a reality show, or some form of celebrity show (to be fair BBC1 is as bad at times). They did try something different by broadcasting Pushing Daisies on a Saturday night - despite good reviews it struggled to win viewers and so it was replaced with An audience with some half-wit who used to be a member of a girl group which had one hit but who became the nation's darling by getting her tits out for the boys.

I'm too tired to go back and check to see if this has been mentioned already but do you get Green Wing? It might take a bit of getting used to but it is very good and very funny once you do.

It is a very odd, surreal hospital comedy show and has the same woman in it as in Black Books (it was seeing the BB discussions that made me wonder).

She is also in a show called Love Soup, also very funny.

Oh, that is sad--I liked Pushing Daisies too, and was afraid it had gone away forever, but I'm pretty sure I read that it will return in the fall.

Amazed no one's mentioned Father Ted or the IT Crowd.

Amazed no one's mentioned Father Ted or the IT Crowd.

#167: I was thinking the same about the IT Crowd every time I read this thread. "Memory is RAM!"

We just discovered Hustle, which is BBC I believe, but has been shown on AMC here in the US - we're working our way through all the seasons - love it!

#169 - So good I named it twice. I blame my meds. *g*

"I'm just laughing at this circuit board..."

#171: You are a giddy goat. :-D

I was going to say; 'Don't Google the question!', but then I realised we're trading quotes from the IT Crowd and I told myself to just STOP it, NOW because that's the slippery slope to doing the parrot sketch in the pub and that's just WRONG.

Heeheehee.

One episode of Doctor Who from the series starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper was all it took for both hubby and me to get hooked. By the time BBC America aired Torchwood series 1, just this past fall, I had moved beyond addiction to complete and total obsession. Before the second series of Torchwood ended in April, I had found web sites where I could watch episodes online and keep up with UK viewers. It certainly beat having the series ending spoiled by some dimwit on a message board who just couldn't wait to post a message with a subject line telling the big reveal from the final episode! And then I watched the show on BBC America with hubby, who isn't quite so obsessed.

I do the same thing with Doctor Who, only I've made him watch "Midnight" and "Turn Left" to get caught up, so that we could watch "The Stolen Earth" as soon as it was online.

You don't know how much I envy those of you in the UK who have tickets to see David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in Hamlet.

One of these days I'll get over there. So many of my ancestors came from the British Isles that I'm bound to run into a good number of people who look like me. :-)

'You don't know how much I envy those of you in the UK who have tickets to see David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in Hamlet...'

That would be me, then (she bragged. heh heh).

Doctor Who is LOVE, I totally agree. I've been in love with it since I was 3 years old (there's a Doctor Who group on LT, btw, if you're not already a member.)

I love Robson Green!!! I am not claiming he is the greatest actor to have walked planet earth(and seriously speaking how many great actors are there these days?). I doubt that Americans are the only ones who like him cause I can guarantee you that 99% of America has never heard of him. I have no idea what he has done to earn some of the wrath that he seems to muster by some here but like Cariola said there is something about him that is very watchable. Oh and Reckless is my least favorite of his roles. I thought it began well but then I just got tired of all the melodrama every ten minutes. I didn't hate it but after all the hoopla surrounding it, I was kinda disappointed. The follow up to Reckless was even worse, I kept asking myself why I was watching it and why it was even made.

Oh and I love Dr. Who. What a delight!!! David Tennant is really good. I remember my dad watching old episodes of Dr. Who went I was a child and him loving them so much. I watched it with him many times and for some reason I was really scared by them. Maybe its cause I was a kid. Somehow all that bad lighting and awfully customed monsters must have got to me. But the modern day Doctor is so cool. I first tried to watch it with the previous guy(sorry can't remember his name) and though I liked it, it wasn't enough to keep me coming back. But then David Tennant showed up and now I really really like the show. He and Billie Piper had an amazing chemistry and its sad that she left. I am yet to hear how the new assistant is(not Freema, the other lady, the one who does those comedy skits. Sheesh...I can't remember her name right now).

Well, geez, who wouldn't be scared by the Daleks?

Previous Dr. Who was Christopher Eccleston--I liked him but I think I read he left because he didn't want to be typecast. Sheesh, couldn't figure that out before taking the part?

Catherine Tate is the woman I think you mean. I found her abrasive at first but, as so often happens, the relationship with the Doctor grows and she proves her pluck in a number of ways.

Gilly! That's marvelous! Oh, I am pea green. When do you see the play? You'll have to give us a review. :-)

Trish, I had never heard of Robson Green until "Wire in the Blood" this spring, and I really enjoyed the show. There's just something endearing about him.

The new companion this year is Catherine Tate, and she is only signed for this one season. She's been marvelous. I loved Billie Piper as Rose, and cry every time I watch Rose and the Doctor say goodbye in season 2's "Doomsday." But Catherine's Donna Noble has been a big change. She's older than Rose or Martha, and she isn't in love with the Doctor. Which is a lovely change, frankly.

I watch the shows on the internet every Saturday night so that I can keep up with the UK viewers. This 3-week lag that we have here in the States is a right royal pain!

Actually, ejj, Christopher Eccleston told Russell T Davies on the front end that he would only do one year of Doctor Who, and Russell decided to hire him anyway. I think it was a brilliant choice. I had never seen Doctor Who so didn't have a clue about this regeneration bit. Hubby and I didn't catch every episode of that first season and we missed all 5 at the end where Captain Jack came into the show, so we didn't know about David Tennant. When the ads started showing for the new series, I was heartbroken to find out that Christopher Eccleston wouldn't be back.

It didn't take long before David Tennant had completely won me over.

My husband has now figured out that the easiest way to get me away from the computer is to play the Doctor Who theme music. I can name that tune in 3 notes! And I'm flying down the stairs to get my spot in front of the TV.

3 week lag? I wish we had a 3 week lag. They showed the Christmas special last night. I think that puts us about 12-13 weeks behind! The most annoying part is that after this week's cliff hanger ending, I won't have internet access for the next couple of weeks so I'll have to wait for ages before I'll see ending!

Oh, ouch, you must be in Australia.

Indeed I am. Land of some of the most dedicated Who fans, but we regularly get shafted by the TV stations. I'm not sure if it's the ABC's fault or the BBC's fault.

>Bookshop_Lady. I'm going right at the end of the run - I think I got some of the last tickets on the planet. I'm going to see Love's labour's Lost on Nov. 10th then Hamlet on the 12th. It's been ages since I saw Shake at Stratford and I'm really looking forward to it.

#181

Yes, I'd read that as well as the "typecast" thing. Personally, I liked Eccleston and I like Tennant, and if he goes on his merry way at some point, I'll probably like the new Doctor, too. It's more important that there's good writing/plots/relationships with the companions/overall sense of wonder and possibility, I think.

#185 I'm so envious--I've never seen Shakespeare at Stratford and oh, how I would love to. Enjoy!!

#186 - I agree with you about liking both the newest Doctors and the writing being the most important thing. I really would like to see Ken Stott take the role as the next Doctor, should it become available any time soon. I think an older Doctor would be interesting and Ken Stott is a pretty phenominal actor so the combination would be (should be) outstanding.

And our own Library Thing author Rob Shearman is considering going back to write for them, so I might start to lobby him on that. He wrote the episode Dalek, where Christopher Ecclestons Doctor first realised they hadn't all been destroyed.

OH! OH! There's a story that's just BEGGING to be told, although Paul Cornell may get first shot at it.

Remember the series 3 two-parter, "Human Nature/Family of Blood" where the Doctor became human and used the name John Smith to teach at a boys' school? He kept a journal of his dreams, "A Journal of Impossible Things," about a traveler and a blue box and incredible creatures. When he returned to himself, he left the journal with Joan Redfern.

So what happened to it? Did Joan keep it, throw it away, burn it? Did she marry again and have children? Did the children find it in her belongings after she died? Did she stay single all her life? Perhaps a child or grandchild of one of Joan's siblings found it?

Or did Torchwood hear about it somehow, and perhaps that journal is locked away in one of their vaults? Ianto would know, since he's been working on cataloging all the items. But unless it was Jack himself who found Joan and retrieved the journal, he might not know about it at all.

It's just one of those little things that sticks in my mind. The Doctor was careless to leave a journal like that back in 1913, but the dialogue and the camera work made it all too obvious that he knew Joan had the journal when he left her to go back to the Tardis. Since Paul Cornell wrote the 2-parter and the novel that it was based on, he may get first dibs on the diary story. But someone needs to tell it.

Oh well, I better get back to these books or I'll talk Doctor Who and Torchwood all night! :-)

I heard Robert Carlyle is being considered for the next Doctor when David Tennant decides to step down... I would be happy with that choice...

The BBC reportedly is about to offer David Tennant 1.3 million pounds for the 2010 Series 5. He's so good in the role, I personally hope that Steven Moffatt keeps him around long enough to equal or break Tom Baker's record of 7 years.

There are at least a dozen actors who are being considered to replace Tennant, according to the UK press and tabloids. But, as David T. himself said, reporters have been asking him when he's going to quit since the very day it was announced that he had signed his contract.

I've only seen Robert Carlyle in a couple of things, and both times I had trouble understanding 90% of what he said. If he does get tapped to be the Doctor in 2 or 3 or 10 years, either they get him a speech coach or I'll quit watching and wait for the DVDs so I can read the closed-captioning.

What roles have you seen Carlyle in that make you think he would be a good Doctor, Jagmuse?

I agree that I would be happy for David Tennant to rival Tom Baker in number of season, definitely.

I have liked Robert Carlyle in most everything I've seen him in, and I think he has that good balance of crazy, scary and sweet that works well in a Doctor. Trainspotting (scary/crazy), Full Monty (sweet), etc.

I liked him in Once upon a time in the Midlands, and I also liked him in Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School.

Off the top of my head anyway.....

So who else are they talking about in the British press? Over on IMDB there are folks who want either Billy Nighy or Billy Connolly....

John Simm, who played The Master in series 3's "Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords" has been mentioned more than once. Which could be an interesting bit of casting and opens up a lot of possibilities, if Steven Moffatt should choose to cast John in a later series.

Also mentioned as being "in the running" are:

Steven Fry, Michael Sheen, Harry Lloyd, James Nesbitt, Mark Gatiss, Daniel Radcliffe, Simon Pegg, Mackenzie Crook, David Morrisey, Sean Pertwee, Jennifer Saunders, Bill Nighy and Joseph Gilgun.

Wow. What an interesting collection of folks. I loved John Simm as the Master, and agree that could be very interesting to see how that plays out. I also really like Sean Pertwee.... interesting interesting.

I'm surprised that Dr Who has such strong supporters - I have been watching it since the Tom Baker years and finally gave up in disgust at it at the beginning of the current series. For every decent episode there were too many episodes of just running around shouting; too many meeting famous people; too many "I miss Rose" moments; and way way too many sonic screwdriver moments; among other things. The biggest indictment of the show is that the last series of Torchwood was better.

Ah, jargoneer, then you've missed the whole reason for the first 3 seasons if you haven't watched series 4. There are story lines that have run through the first 3 seasons that are coming to their culmination now. In fact, this series of Doctor Who is my favorite of the 4 seasons. I watch online so I can keep up with the UK viewers so I've seen the first part of the 2-part season finale. It was a wonderful episode and the last part promises to be an edge-of-your-seat kind of story.

By the way, the events of Doctor Who, series 4, and particularly the events of the 2-parter, are going to have a big impact on what happens in Torchwood next year.

Russell T Davies is writing the 2009 bank holiday and Christmas specials now. But after that, Steven Moffatt takes over as showrunner beginning with series 5. There could be quite a lot of changes in store for the series then, so I hope you'll drop back in and see what Steven does with the show.

Torchwood is getting a new showrunner for their 2010 season but it hasn't been announced who is taking over.

#194: The biggest indictment of the show is that the last series of Torchwood was better.

If there's any indication that our TV tastes do not match up, this is it. Disagree x 10,000. :) I wish they'd just yank Torchwood and put John Barrowman back on Doctor Who.

Torchwood isn't as consistent in its writing yet as it needs to be, but it is getting better. With a new showrunner taking over after next year's miniseries, maybe it will become the show it should be.

I'd like to see Ianto travel with the Doctor, maybe not even for a full season since we want to keep Gareth David-Lloyd free to film Torchwood as well. But I think Ianto's personality and the Doctor's would play well off each other.

I wonder if this is partly a cultural thing - when DW was brought back it was deliberately Americanised (Russell T Davies is on record stating this): i.e., more action, faster editing, more effects, more 'relationships', etc. In doing that it lost much of the charm that it used to have - don't get me wrong, there have been some good episodes: Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace, for example. Interestingly, the best episodes slow the action right down, and concentrate on stronger stories.

Blink and The Girl in the Fireplace are both Steven Moffatt stories. Girl won a Hugo Award, if I'm not mistaken. Blink has been nominated, and among its competition is Paul Cornell's series 3 two-parter, Human Nature/Family of Blood. Those 2 episodes were also wonderful, very intense emotionally.

I enjoy the character-driven shows more than the non-stop action episodes. Here's hoping we get more of them under Steven Moffatt.

And here's hoping the next companion is going to be Sally Sparrow from Blink.

Interestingly, the best episodes slow the action right down, and concentrate on stronger stories.

I can definitely agree on that. And agree on Blink and Girl. In fact, almost all of my favorite episodes from these 4 seasons have been the Steven Moffat episodes (that includes Doctor Dances/Empty Child & Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead).

#49 - I never really appreciated Coupling when it was first on in the UK but am just watching it now and crying with laughter.

The character Geoff is chatting up a woman on a train who he has only ever seen from behind before but has been admiring because of her "pert head."

When he sees her from the front he is willing himself to say something sensible and comes out with "You look just like the back of your head." I don't think I will ever be able to think of that again without snerking with laughter. The conversation just got worse from there. Hilarious.

#176
I, too, would love to see Patrick Stewart & David Tennant together in "Hamlet"...hopefully, it will be recorded to DVD sometime...and shown on TV...maybe for PBS' "Great Performances" series?

#170
Loved "Hustle", great ensemble cast esp. Adrian Lester ('Mickey Stone') & Marc Warren ('Danny Blue'). I missed the 'Mickey Stone' character in Season 4 (the final season???).

Recently started watching "New Tricks" on my local PBS station. Also like "As Time Goes By".

#203

"As Time Goes By" is one of my favs.

I finally saw the BBC Adaptation of North and South (2004), and really enjoyed it. It was like a much darker Pride and Prejudice to me, combined with Dickens and maybe Les Miserables. I'm thinking of buying the DVDs.

#205 I recommend buying the Elizabeth Gaskell Collection. It includes North and South, Wives and daughters, and Cranford, plus lots of extras. Well worth the extra money.

I love North and South. I'm currently watching the BBC Robin Hood series, and it's fun to compare Richard Armitage as Thornton and Guy of Gisborne.

I DVR'd Cranford, and I mean to watch Wives and Daughters. I probably will invest in the collection. Gaskell was so under the radar for me - I've only had The Life of Charlotte Bronte in my collection up till now.

I've started watching the Robin Hood series as a result. Though this seems like my kind of show, I really am in it for Richard Armitage. He's lovely in a dark kind of way.

I know exactly what you mean!

Me three--I just love watching how Guy of Gisborne is so totally in love with Marian (and how she shamelessly manipulates him). He's intense and quite, quite sexy.

Does anyone remember The Adventures Of Robin Hood with Richard Greene as Robin Hood? My Mom and I are currently watching the first season from 1955. It's been real good.

beatles1964

#210 Oh, yes, loved it when I was little. (Now that I'm a big girl, Guy of Gisborne has my heart.)

The Adventures Of Robin Hood is a new series to us since we had never seen them before and are experiencing them for the very first time. I wasn't familiar where Walton-on-Thames was located and had to Google the name to find out. It sounds like a very beautiful place to visit and live. I think we will look into buying the rest of the series since it ran from 1955 through 1960. I hope the rest of the series is out on DVD.

beatles1964

I think the theme song to The Adventures Of Robin Hood is cute, catchy and sing-alongable just like The Addams Family and Gilligan's Island.

beatles1964

I read Gaskell's Wives and Daughters recently and then watched the (1999) DVD. Both the book and series were terrific.

#213: wasn't that the theme song that Monty Python did a take-off of with:
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
With his merry men
Steals from the poor
And gives to the rich
What a b*tch, Robin Hood
etc.

#215 Yep, except they changed the name to Dennis Moore, who stole rich people's lupins.

I highly recommend it. Here are a few excerpts from the song...

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
galloping through the sward,
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
and his horse Concorde.
He steals from the rich,
he gives to the poor,
Mr Moore, Mr Moore, Mr Moore

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
Riding through the night.
Soon every lupin in the land
Will be in his mighty hand
He steals them from the rich
And gives them to the poor
Mr Moore, Mr Moore, Mr Moore

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
Dumdum alum the night.
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
Dun de dun dum plight.
He steals dumdum dun
And dumdum dum dee
Dennis dun, Dennis dee, dum dum dum

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore
Riding through the land
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore
Without a merry band
He steals from the poor.
And gives to the rich
Stupid bitch.

of course! Dennis Moore...how COULD I have forgotten? Thanks, dreamlikecheese (that wouldn't be Wensleydale, by any chance, would it?).

Wensleydale always makes me think of Wallace and Gromit. Wallace can usually be found wearing a white shirt, brown wool trousers, green knitted pullover, and a red tie. He loves cheese and crackers. The thought of Lancashire hotpot keeps him going in a crisis. He enjoys a nice cup of tea or a drop of Bordeaux red for those special occasions. He reads the Morning Post, the Afternoon Post, and the Evening Post, and occasionally Ay-Up!, which is a parody on Hello! magazine. I believe he found the moon to be made of this!

Mmmm. cheese!

I used to live in Lancashire and I have to say that not once did I ever have a Lancashire hotpot. I would say I must be missing out, but having eaten English food, I suspect not.

Mmmm, English food! Back in my pre-vegetarian days, I had to eat school dinners at a school in Lancashire. The main ingredient most days was a kind of brown sludge. It could be served with pastry on top (meat pie), with a layer of mashed potato (shepherd's pie), with slices of potato (Lancashire hotpot), with chunks of potato and carrot (Irish stew), or with pasta (spaghetti Bolognese). In those days vegetarians had to undergo ritual humiliation by sitting at a special table in one corner, so I never found out what they got - probably a soya-based version of the brown sludge.

I suspect that a hotpot prepared by Gromit would be rather more tasty...

I think the brown sludge is more diagnostic of them being school dinners. The mention of spag. bol. at school indicates that you are young enough that you should have avoided the worst of the war to early 50s food.

yare, have you seen this chicken? *grin* Yes, I was thinking of W & G too.

I think we need a new thread - this one is taking yonks to load. I'll start one.

Before we go, I'd like to point out there's a scene in the Wallace & Gromit adventure The Wrong Trousers where Gromit has been imprisoned and is seen reading Crime and Punishment by Fido Dogstoyevsky. It's little touches like that which made those films so brilliant.

...and can I just say that Wensleydale is a cracking cheese!

I've got the first DVD set of the Robin of Sherwood series from the BBC in the 70s & am watching the new series which is about to wind up it's second season on BBC America. I like them both-the new series is sort of Robin Hood on steroids the away they get out of the most impossible sirtuations while the older series is a kinder, gentler version of the old legend. 8^)

I like the song Brave Sir Robin Ran Away from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

Bravely bold Sir Robin
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die.
Oh brave Sir Robin.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways
Brave, brave, brave brave Sir Robin

He was not in the least bit scared
To be mashed into a pulp
Or to have his eyes gouged out
And his elbows broken.
To have his kneecaps split
And his body burned away,
And his limbs all hacked and mangled
Brave Sir Robin.

His head smashed in
And his heart cut out
And his liver removed
And his bowels unplugged
And his nostrils raped
And his bottom burnt off
And his pen_ _

"That's... that's enough music for now lads,
there's dirty work afoot???"

Brave Sir Robin ran away
("No!")
Bravely ran away
(I didn't!")
When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and feld
("no!")
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
(I didn't!")
And gallantly chickened out.

Bravely talking ("I never did!") to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat.
("all lies!")
Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Robin!
("I never")

beatles1964

Robin of Sherwood (if you mean the one with Michael Praed and then Jason Connery) was ITV not BBC. It was also an 80s series.

I remember seeing the one in the 80s with Sean Connery's son Jason on MPT every Saturday night.

beatles1964

>225 Grammath: Grammath ~ check out my profile pic :)

See you all in Part 2 of this thread!