Brit TV
Happy 75th, BBC! You don't look a day over 74.
Just a bit late to the party, but we finally got there, nevertheless. 75 years ago this past week, Wednesday, 2 November, to be exact, the BBC launched the world’s first regular television service in 1936. Although only a lucky few in the south of England could receive the signal, it was still considered the [...]
The greatness of Outnumbered comes to the U.S.
With lots of new British series coming to the U.S. via public television in early 2011, I decided to mention one that I’ve tracked for awhile and really can’t wait for. Partly because it’s a brilliant series, but mainly because of a far-fetched article that surfaced yesterday about the BBC hit series, Outnumbered, alluding to [...]
Briers: "Reality shows ruining television as we know it"
Leave it to the great Richard Briers to be able to brilliantly put in to words what I have thought for a long time. With a resume that includes the British comedy classic, The Good Life, along with other notable series in both the British comedy and drama worlds such as Ever Decreasing Circles and [...]
What British comedy teaches us daily
Whether you’ve been watching your favorite British comedy for years or you’re new to the game, it’s a genre that makes you laugh, makes you forget about both the week past or the week ahead and you appreciate the intelligence with which the writers, actors and production personnel go about their business to be the [...]
An IT Crowd U.S. remake? Why, grandfather, why?
Well, it has been several weeks since my last rant against U.S. producers trying to re-make British comedy genius. Please don’t insert “But, look at The Office…” here. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s a short list with The Office, Steptoe and Son and Till Death Do Us Part. Not bad for over 40 years of [...]
Dawn French on her newest project, Roger and Val Have Just Got In
He’s a botanist at a local garden centre. She’s a food technology teacher. The he is Alfred Molina and the she is Dawn French. The two star in the newest addition to the BBC Two british comedy line-up beginning this coming Friday titled Roger and Val Have Just Got In. It’s not “laugh out loud [...]
Doctor Who, Sherlock and more bowing down to the greatness of Steven Moffat
After having just finished screening the first Sherlock installment from the great Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it seems only appropriate to, yet again, say that both writers are brilliant. With Moffat, you have a writer that had just a little bit else going on this past year. First, he took the helm of Doctor [...]
Roy Clarke discusses the last of Last of the Summer Wine
As we reported here earlier this summer, the world’s longest running situation comedy on television, Last of the Summer Wine, is coming to a close in the UK this coming Sunday, 1 August. Transmission is scheduled to begin on many U.S. public television stations as early as November 2010. How does one begin to bring to [...]
Inside BBC Television Centre
Toured the BBC Television Centre while in the UK last week. The BBC, which is considered the largest broadcasting organization in the world, houses its television operations at the Centre in White City and Shepherd’s Bush in West London housing most of the 5,000+ employees. First up, a little history of the Television Centre facility. [...]
The absolute greatness that is Penelope Keith
LONDON, July 17, 2010 – Yesterday was one of the highlights of the trip this time. As you read in yesterday’s post, we started the day off by interviewing Roger Lloyd Pack from The Vicar of Dibley and The Old Guys. What a genuinely nice individual. Penelope Keith at the Brooklands After that, we ventured [...]
