Sherlock = Cat; Moriarty = Mouse; Sherlock = Brilliant telly!

Sunday’s finale of Sherlock tops the good news/bad news list this week. First, let’s get the bad news out of the way….Sunday’s episode is the final episode in series two and, according to series producers, production on series three won’t begin until early 2013 in a perfect world. Now the good news….

Sherlock “The Reichenbach Fall” is the most perfect 90 minutes of television and the best episode so far that have come from the brilliant minds of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Sunday’s finale sees the return of the truly insane criminal mastermind of Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott). What could be better than a consulting detective and consulting criminal engaging in a constantly escalating series of high-stakes face-offs that begin in the courtroom and end in the “solution” of an inescapable final problem.

Critics on both sides of the pond have called Sherlock “The Reichenbach Fall” both mind-blowing and gut-wrenching. I’m in, how about you?

Earlier this year at the BBC Showcase in Liverpool, when I mentioned to Andrew Scott (Moriarty) that, having just seen “A Scandal in Belgravia” and thought it was brilliant telly, he all-too-quickly summoned up that hint of a Moriarty smile and said, “…you haven’t seen anything yet, referring to Sundays final episode. He was right….you haven’t.

CBS’ Elementary – Behind the scenes

Elementary, the CBS version of a 21st century Sherlock Holmes, is set in New York City and stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. With CBS’ announcement yesterday that Elementary will be broadcast on Thursdays at 10p ET, the same slot as NBC’s short-lived remake of Prime Suspect last Fall, CBS’ Elementary will definitely start from behind the proverbial 8-ball as there has already been and will continue to be comparisons to the brilliant BBC/PBS version, Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

While the evil side of me wants to come up with a Las Vegas-style over/under as to when CBS will pull the plug on their version of a modern day Sherlock, that’s probably not fair without at least giving it a chance. What’s going to make it difficult to like is that, looking at the trailer, the trademark Steven Moffat production techniques, which add greatly to the coolness factor of the BBC/PBS version, along with genius performances from both Cumberbatch and Freeman, are nowhere to be seen in the CBS series. Both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu appear to be capable of really strong performances. Hopefully, the writing, another Steven Moffat advantage, will be up to the task.

PBS announces Call the Midwife for Sept 2012 broadcast

For fans of British telly, the first day of the PBS annual meeting in Denver could easily be the best given the announcement by the network that they have acquired the broadcast rights to the mega-BBC drama hit, Call the Midwife, which stars Vanessa Redgrave, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris and Jessica Raine. Fans of the British comedy series, Miranda, will love seeing Miranda Hart in her first dramatic role also. While currently in production on series two in the UK, which will premiere on BBC 1 this Fall, PBS will premiere series one beginning Sunday, September 30 at 8p ET/7p CT. Downton Abbey fans will love this one as you follow Jenny as she navigates the lower London East End filled with children, workers and a culture that is remarkably different from the wealthy English countryside where she was raised.

Watch Call the Midwife Preview on PBS. See more from pbs.

Call the Midwife is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth. The story follows twenty-two year old Jenny (Jessica Raine), who in 1957 leaves her comfortable home to become a midwife in London’s East End slums. She expects to find a hospital, and is surprised to find that the clinic is a convent. Working alongside her fellow nurses and the medically-trained nuns of Nonnatus House, Jenny quickly experiences the harsh living conditions of the East End while discovering the warm hearts and the bravery of the mothers where each one a heroine in Jenny’s eyes.

Sundays will definitely be appointment telly this Fall on PBS with Call the Midwife leading in to the second season of the PBS Masterpiece presentation of Upstairs Downstairs.

Fry and Laurie getting the band back together

While the final episode of House is a mere six days away on Monday, 21 May, thankfully, Hugh Laurie is already trying to limit his down time. Seems as though Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are ‘getting the band back together’ for a yet to be determined project. The British Comedy Guide has reported that the great comedy duo (A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder) will reunite in the not-too-distant future now that House has ended and Laurie seems primed to head back to the UK.

Fry, as is usually the case, took to Twitter on Monday with the following 140 character gem of a tweet: “Hugh Laurie and I are cooking up a project together. We will be working again soon. Sorry to be mysterious but more news when I can.” Ever since the duo reunited for a 90-minute UKTV GOLD special, Fry and Laurie: Reunited, marking the 30th anniversary of their partnership, there has been speculation of an impending lengthier reunion.The two reminisced through 30 years of friendship, careers and sketches during the special.

Personally, just the thought of them getting back together for any kind of project is good enough for me.

Celebrate British Sandwich Week with a Bacon Butty

While we are still several months away from the 294th birthday of the Earl of Sandwich (3 November, 2012) and National Sandwich Day, it’s time to pay tribute to the 250th anniversary of the invention of the sandwich during British Sandwich Week, now through 19 May. It was 1762 when John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, ordered beef served between slices of bread, a request that would become a global convenience meal in thousands of different forms.

According to the British Sandwich Association, Montagu asked for the meal so that he could eat while continuing to play cards while his friends asked “to have the same as Sandwich“. The first written record of the sandwich was in the Kent town of Sandwich, which is the earldom of the Montagu family…hence, the ’sandwich’ was born.

While America will head right for the hamburger, for me, only one sandwich comes to mind as being worthy of consideration for the title of the best sandwich around to celebrate with this week, the Bacon Butty, the pride of Great Britain. Saveur magazine published this recipe for the Bacon Butty in their Sandwich Issue this past year, but the definitive recipe I found comes from food.com with not only a detailed recipe and instructions, but a scientific formula developed by scientists at Leeds University in West Yorkshire as to why this is the perfect celebration sandwich.

The formula is: N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time, ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method, C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon. Any questions?

What’s your favorite sandwich and how will you be celebrating this week? Whatever you choose, don’t forget the HP Sauce.