For a mere $12,085 you, too, can have the opportunity to say “…What is a weekend?” or. perhaps, “…I couldn’t have electricity in the house, I wouldn’t sleep a wink. All those vapors floating about” at Highclere Castle.

The visit, which is good for up to four people, begins with coffee in the Countess of Carnarvon’s private morning room, followed by a tour of the State Rooms with the countess or her husband, the Earl of Carnarvon. Lunch is served in the State Dining Room, including fine wines personally selected by the Earl. After lunch it’s off to explore the estate via 4×4 vehicle.

The tours are offered by NoteWorthy Events, specialists in the creation of custom travel itineraries throughout the UK to the ‘upstairs’ members of the household and a 7-year winner of the Top Travel Specialist Award as given by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

In case of bad weather, visitors can tour the castle’s Egyptology exhibition, housed in the cellar. Interestingly, it was the fifth Earl of Carnarvon who funded Howard Carter’s excursions to Egypt, where he discovered King Tut’s tomb in 1922. The high-dollar afternoon concludes with high tea with the countess.

If you’d like to pack your own lunch and just tour the castle, gardens and the exhibition as you would if you were a member of the ‘downstairs’,  you can put down about $73 for admission for a family of five. Hmmm….guess that makes lunch worth about $12,012.

All in all, I’d consider this a bargain. Some people pay this annually for Super Bowl tickets….and they still have to buy their own lunch.

Finally, PBS has firmly planted the flag on the television landscape and taken back its rightful place on the February 6 cover with the series two finale of the series that is sweeping the nation, Downton Abbey. In what reads as if General Hospital’s Luke and Laura were on the cover and in true American commercial television fashion, the caption reads, “Will Wedding Bells Ring for Matthew & Mary?”

FYI, the finale of the second series will air on Sunday, February 19 at 8pm CT/9pm ET on PBS stations across the U.S. as part of PBS’ Masterpiece series. Can’t wait to see what PBS program is on the cover of TV Guide in the year 2044….

Danny Cohen, controller of BBC One, hopes this new adaptation of PG Wodehouse stories will bring his work to a whole new generation of viewers and create renewed interest in the original Jeeves series. Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and Guy Andrews will star in Blandings, a six-part comedy series based on the stories of PG Wodehouse. This is great, pure and simple, to those that have loved Jeeves & Wooster for the last 20+ years, many of whom consider Wodehouse the greatest comic writer in history of the English language,

The series will be set 1929 and filmed on location in Northern Ireland. Jennifer Saunders will star as star as the unconquerable Connie, sister to the perpetually confused Lord Emsworth, to be played by Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew, Harry Potter, Winston Churchill, The King’s Speech).

Writer, Guy Andrews, described the series by saying: “Blandings Castle is dysfunction junction, the home of a chaotic family struggling to keep itself in order. Clarence Emsworth, ninth earl and master of Blandings Castle, yearns with all his soul to be left in peace; preferably in the company of his beloved pig, The Empress. But he never is. There is always someone who wants him to do something. Presiding over the blitzkrieg on his equilibrium is the baleful figure of his sister Connie, with whom he shares the house; at her shoulder is Clarence’s brainless younger son Freddie and a panoply of friends, enemies, servants, spongers, private detectives, bookies and confidence tricksters.

Andrews added, “For any writer, it is the rarest privilege imaginable to have Wodehouse legitimately available as source material. Instead of just stealing from him as we usually do.”

Can’t wait.If you haven’t seen Jeeves and Wooster, check it out. Well worth the time.

The premise of the online test has a number of known foreign spies working in London who have been ordered home immediately under suspicious circumstances.

• MI5 is seeking to find out why and if there is any potential threat to Britain’s interests.
• Each player is given case files on two of the agents, information from an undercover agent and newspaper and police reports.
• At the end, there are four questions to answer – each worth a maximum of eight points.

If you find yourself doing well enough, and there’s a website link to the Security Service’s How To Apply section. On the Security Service side of the equation, officials have said they intend for the test to give a more realistic insight into life inside the real MI5 than Spooks ever did. For the real Security Service, it’s not all explosions, poisonings and a higher than the law allows per episode death count.

Want to see how you stack up? Take the test here at the official MI-5 website.

A senior Whitehall source said: “…Spooks is a great TV show, but the violence can put women off applying for jobs at MI5. A career in the Service is about brain not brawn, carefully piecing together vital intelligence to protect the UK and its people.

The Security Service website is careful to say that: ‘An incisive intellect and finely balanced judgment are essential, as are outstanding verbal and written communication skills. You must be able to demonstrate resilience and the ability to cope with setbacks, as well as the ability to work well in a team and quickly establish rapport with a wide range of people.”

What are you waiting for? You could be the next George Smiley. Me? I think I’ll stick to explosions, poisonings and high body counts.

Here’s where I’m compelled to mention a few failed attempts over the years….

• Coupling – lasted only a few episodes even after using British scripts verbatum
• Chateau Snavely, Amanda, Payne – all failed American versions of Fawlty Towers
• Red Dwarf – unaired pilot
• The IT Crowd – unaired pilot
• The Rear Guard – failed Dad’s Army re-do
• Beane’s of Boston – Are You Being Served re-make that made it to pilot stage only, thankfully.

Let’s not even talk about Prime Suspect, the AbFab pilot attempt by Roseanne Barr or the discussion of a Vicar of Dibley re-do starring Kirstie Alley.

Thankfully, The Guardian has a keen eye and brilliant sense of humor over this as they offer some thoughts as to the subtle changes that will be made. I particularly like how The Nags Head will now have to be a Hooters in order to Americanize the series. Can’t wait to see what “lovely jubbly” will translate to in “American”.

Laura Mackie, director of drama at ITV, said, “It is so exciting to have an actress of Shirley MacLaine’s stature joining our brilliant Downton Abbey cast for series three and a tribute to the show’s success on both sides of the Atlantic.”

“My late grandfather directed Shirley MacLaine in Gambit in 1966 so it is a delight for me that she will be joining us on Downton Abbey,” said Carnival managing director Gareth Neame. “Julian has written another brilliant character in Martha Levinson, who will be a wonderful combatant for Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess and we are excited at the prospect of Shirley MacLaine playing her.”

The third season is expected to premiere in the U.K. in September, with a U.S. premiere to follow, most likely in January of 2013 as part of PBS’ Masterpiece Classic series. Yes, I know, we’re only 1/2 way through the second series at this point in the States, but I’m already looking forward to a few Kodak moments when MacLaine’s character crosses paths with the Dowager Countess.

And Now for Something Completely Different….

Written by Terry Jones, Absolutely Anything, tells the story of a group of aliens who use an earthling as their plaything. According to Variety, Jones and Gavin Scott (Small Soilders, The Borrowers) have been working on the script for the past 20 years. The sci-fi farce, which will reunite fellow Python troupe members, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and, hopefully, Eric Idle, will be a combination of CGI and live action. In addition, Robin Williams will lend his voice to a talking dog named Dennis. Jones stressed that this is not a Python film but did acknowledge that the group, in true Python fashion, will each play several characters in the film. According to The Wrap, the film will begin production this summer in the UK.

Anticipation will be at an all-time high for this one. Unfortunately, with that anticipation comes the incredible pressure to be better than what everyone on the planet remembers the Python troupe for some 40+ years ago. No matter what Terry Jones says, it will be viewed and compared to past Python brilliance, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Life of Brian. That said, I’ll be in line just as I was in 1974 at the Esquire Theatre in Dallas for the world premiere of The Holy Grail. I’m guessing they won’t hand out coconuts this time around.

For others, if you’re thinking this is a to close to call, then I offer you a couple of thoughts. One, regardless of the outcome, there will be a Super Bowl next year. Are you really interested to see if Tom Brady can win another Super Bowl? And, two, you will need to see episode one of Being Human before next Sunday, 12 February as that’s when episode two will be transmitted. No need to do the math on this one. Being Human it is. Glad I could help everyone with their decision.

Unfortunately, for those that know the story of BH, it’s not as simple as the old ‘boy meets girl’ from decades ago. It’s more along the lines of ‘…a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost get a flat in Britsol’. That’s all you need to know prior to seeing the trailer for next Sundays premiere of BH4…

Just as most do for any sporting event, you can’t tell the players in Being Human without a scorecard. Another reason BH4 will win out on Sunday, as their ’scorecard’ takes the form of a video. No 150-page program needed to identify their ‘players’.

Being Human 4 Hal ‘prequel’:

Being Human 4 Tom ‘prequel’:

Being Human 4 Annie ‘trailer’:

Any question now as to what you’ll be watching on 5 February in the UK? FYI, for U.S. readers, best bet on American premiere is that it will be Summer 2012 on BBC America. At least then, the only sports option will be the MLB All-Star Game. Hardly a choice.

PBS’ Masterpiece series has just released the first trailer for the premiere of Sherlock “A Scandal in Belgravia”. All I can say is, set the DVR now for May 6 at 8:00pCT/9:00pET on your local PBS station. You can thank me on May 7. If you have trouble viewing below, click here.

Watch Sherlock Season 2: A Scene from Ep. 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.