Visitors can also take a tour of Krustylu Studios (where the Krusty the Klown Show is filmed) or stop off at the likes of Moe’s Tavern, The Guilded Truffle and Krusty Burger.

In the day and age of ‘what have you done for me lately’, Springfield continues to be on the cutting edge with an attraction that will solidfy Homer’s hometown as the tourist destination. With its name sppropriately changed to Simpton Abbey, who knew that Downton Abbey was actually set in Springfield?

Matt Groening’s Simpton Abbey

The Simpsons became the latest TV show to spoof ITV/PBS period drama hit Downton Abbey with last nights season finale on Fox. It not only featured Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane, but the episode, titled ‘Dangers on a Train’, featured MacFarlane’s character Ben falling in love with Marge Simpson and bonding with her over their shared love of a Downton-esque period drama called Upton Rectory.
 

 

When two formidable series collide like this it’s almost too much for anyone’s mind palace to imagine so, virtually 100% of the time, merges like this are better left for the imagination. There are some, however, that you wish could happen just for fun. Given the photo below, while the U.S.S. Enterprise won’t officially be ‘boldly going where no man has gone before’, it would be pretty classic to see Captain Kirk at Downton. Stranger things have happened…
 

With Star Trek Into Darkness director, JJ Abrams’ recent visit to the Crawley household during the filming of series 4, temporarily, the worlds of futuristic spaceships, intergalactic battles and a murderous terrorist played by Benedict Cumberbatch met the Downton world of British social hierarchy, polished silverware and endless Dowager Countess’ classic one-liners. Unfortunately, before too much time elapsed, Abrams was caught whipping up some eggs in the kitchen by a very stern-looking Mrs Hughes. Thank goodness Mrs. Patmore wasn’t around.

Abrams was in the UK as part of the publicity tour for one of the most anticipated films of 2013, Star Trek Into Darkness, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch. Star Trek Into Darkness in theaters worldwide on May 16.

The cracking new £5.25 million ride puts the absent-minded, cheese loving inventor and his uberintelligent canine companion in good company fronting a campaign to encourage people to holiday at home in the UK. The Visit Britain campaign also includes Julie Walters, Judi Dench, Jamie Oliver, Stephen Fry and Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint. Over the next month, Wallace and Gromit will ‘travel’ around England in their trademark motorbike and sidecar on a road trip intended to highlight tourist attractions. Following Blackpool, the two will visit the National Space Centre in Leicester, reflecting Wallace’s interest in space travel, while other destinations are expected to emphasize the importance of the British cheese industry.

Wallace and Gromit’s ‘Great Adventure’ is part of the overall campaign designed to inspire Britons to schedule a ‘staycation’ this year.

Shaun Evans, who was brilliant as the young ‘Endeavor’ Morse in the pilot episode, returns for the new films written by Inspector Lewis creator and Morse writer Russell Lewis. Roger Allam returns as Endeavour’s senior partner, Detective Inspector Fred Thursday. In addition, author Colin Dexter served as consultant for the series ensuring four weeks of greatness on both sides of the pond.

As they have for Sherlock, Spooks and Downton Abbey, the always brilliant Radio Times staff have created a not-to-be-missed walking tour of Oxford featuring all the favorite stops along the way of Endeavour Morse and Inspector Lewis.
 

Illustration for Radio Times courtesy of Katherine Baxter.

Word to the wise: While I would normally advise readers that ‘these are professionals, do noy try this at home’, I leave you with just a warning. The entire walking tour is about 7 miles long and will take about 3 hours. Don’t spend too much time at The Trout Inn, the favorite watering hole of CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll and Colin Dexter. That said, if you make it all the way, you can deservedly spend the remainder of your time at either the King’s Arms, the oldest pub in Oxford, or White Horse pubs, both of which were favorite Morse watering holes.

As with both their TARDIS and Fawlty Towers listings, those crazy real estate bloggers over at Movoto have decided to speculate on just what Downton would look like from a listing standpoint had Matthew’s generosity not happened and Lord Grantham would have been forced to sell. Of particular note, even though it was built in 1878, it has been updated since with both telephones and electricity so it’s well worth giving it a look.
 

Photo copyright 2012 News Group Newspapers Ltd

In addition to Tenth Doctor David Tennant and his companion Billie Piper, Joanna Page (Stacey, Gavin and Stacey) and Jemma Redgrave (Frankie) have been added to the growing cast list for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special. According to bleedingcool.com, seen amongst the characters on the ground were Ingrid Oliver, of Watson and Oliver fame wearing the fourth Doctor’s scarf. Oliver’s character can also be seen scanning the eleventh Doctor with something. Kate Stewart of UNIT (the daughter of The Brigadier in ‘The Power of Three’) is present also, with some of her UNIT back-up, and in one sequence she appeared to be handing The Doctor a sealed letter from Queen Elizabeth the First (Joanna Page).
 

T-minus 227 days. Are you ready for some Doctor Who greatness?

More from the real estate bloggers over at Movoto (based on an idea from Andrew Liszewski at Gizmodo) where they have found a way to combine their fondness for British television with their periodic down time during the work day. This time they attempt to put a price tag on what has to be the most recognizable fictional hotel on the planet, Fawlty Towers. While the hotel that the series was loosely based on, the Hotel Gleneagles, is now a Best Western in Torquay, the method of determining the actual asking price was the well-known, amongst real estate folks at least, Comparison Model which compares hotels in the area to determine the cost of $/room. The much easier but highly questionable Mini-Fridge Method of determining what a hotel charges for a can of Coke and multiplying by $10,000 was abandoned when it was discovered that The Gleneagles Hotel doesn’t sell Cokes. Go figure.

First up – assign a value to the location, which is the primary selling point for most, if not all, property. How can you possibly put a price tag on the English Riviera? Second, revenue potential. With 26 rooms in total, 22 to those lovely seaside guests such as the Major, Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby and 4 reserved for ‘staff’, asking price was calculated based on potential occupancy of the 22 bookable rooms. Based on similar hotel listings in the Torquay/Buckinghamshire area, the average per room cost is approximately $46,000. So, doing simple math, to acquire the iconic Fawlty Towers will cost you only $9,942,000. Sounds like a lot, but a far cry from the $2.58+ billion that the TARDIS would cost.

Up tomorrow, if you’re wanting something in-between your dream B&B and the ultimate time machine/spacecraft, maybe putting in an offer for Downton Abbey will be more to your liking.
 

According to the self-proclaimed crazy novelty bloggers over at Movoto where the lighter side of real estate rears its head every once in awhile, it’s going to cost you anywhere from just a little over $50K to just over $2.5 billion for the likes of the TARDIS as a potential second home. On the upside, depending on how you look at it, you might be able to ‘steal’ the TARDIS for a mere $50,000, but, that’s just for the outside. To get the inside, you’re going to have to shell out a little over $2.58 billion more. Let’s take a look from a real estate perspective….

Location, Location, Location

When you look at it from a pure real estate perspective, the Time and Relative Dimension In Space or TARDIS, is both a time machine and a spacecraft, all-in-one. To begin with, the Movoto folks abide by the real estate golden rule that location is one of the most important aspects of determining price. Given the fact that the TARDIS is a spaceship where location and view are pretty much destined to be perfect at any time, this gives the property a leg up on any other property available as the view, according to the listing, never has to be a brick wall.

Size does matter in real estate

While it’s virtually impossible to determine just how big the TARDIS is (on the inside, of course). Fortunately, in the episode, “The Invasion of Time”, the TARDIS was described as being the size of the Empire State Building, or 2,248,355 square feet. As you can see from the infographic below, at an average London per sq foot price of $1,147.65, the inside and of the TARDIS would cost $2.580,324,616.75. That, coupled with the cost of the outside, which would be $50,497, makes the TARDIS a very affordable $2,580,375,113. Any takers?

Check back tomorrow for another, possibly more attractive, real estate listing that I think you just might be interested in. It’s certainly more affordable. How about putting in an offer on Fawlty Towers?

Back in 2008, the BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history Miracles of Evolution series had captured footage of Adélie penguins taking to the air. Film maker, writer, former Python turned BBC presenter, Terry Jones, explained that, instead of huddling together to endure the Antarctic winter, these penguins actually take to the air and fly thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they “…spend the winter basking in the tropical sun“. Following Jones’ report, stick around for a very informative behind-the-scenes video which explains the dangers that Terry Jones encountered during his discovery!
 

 
To actually see how the BBC is able to make the impossible seem possible and see the great lengths that BBC producers have to go through on a daily basis to bring you the kind of stories that you will see no where else with footage unmatched anywhere on the telly today is truly brilliant.

Even though they have now vacated Television Centre, the Beeb never ceases to amaze….

Miranda Hart spoke of how she cried with happiness in the loos on her first visit to TVC, and that she would often look down from the gallery to the now-defunct Studio 8 (where her comedy series Miranda was filmed) for writing inspiration.
 

In 2010, upon hearing that we were going to be taping in TC8, the same studio where they taped the likes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By to name a few, we started to inquire about the general history of Television Centre. Now that the day has come that the historic studios of Television Centre are no more, I’m really glad I started asking a lot of questions.
 

Every so often, you run across a site on ‘the internets’ that you just have to share. This particular site came to our attention when we were taping the host segments at TC8 in BBC Television Centre with Moira Brooker (Judy, As Time Goes By) and Philip Bretherton (Alistair, As Time Goes By) for our Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen special that aired in March 2011 on PBS.

Martin Kempton, a former BBC staffer and current freelance lighting director who is working or has worked in virtually all London television studios, has put together an unbelievable archive site that covers the history of not only BBC Television Centre, but the old BBC studios, ITV studios and the numerous independent studios around the UK such as Shepperton, Molinare and Pinewood, to name just a few.

Billed as An Incomplete History of London’s Television Studios, this site just might be one of the main reasons that gives validation to the Internets. It includes not only text history, but schematics of most of the buildings including the infamous ‘question mark’ Television Centre building, just enough technical explanations to make you dangerous and a host of links to other television history sites on the internet.

A quick glimpse of what’s in store if you go to the site is the story of how BBC Television Centre got its shape. “As the story goes, architect Graham Dawbarn came up with the design. Given a fifty-page brief he retreated to a pub for inspiration and with a plan of the oddly-shaped site in his head he pondered on the problem. How to fit eight to ten studios in this area – giving easy access to scenery and separately to artists, crew and audiences. Gazing at it for a few seconds he doodled a question mark on an envelope and the penny dropped. The shape was perfect.”

If you are at all interested British television production or just an overall comprehensive television history of this sort, bookmark it and visit everyone once in awhile. The hundreds of pages are totally overwhelming for one sitting so just use as a resource every so often if you have a question or for the next time you need some witty banter cocktail party trivia.