Not long after Monty Python’s Flying Circus premiered on KERA-TV in Dallas, one of my earliest memories of watching British comedy on public television was to ‘religiously’ watch Dave Allen at Large. A somewhat non-descript sketch comedy series featuring an intellectually brilliant Irish comedian that sat in a high bar stool with a seemingly bottomless glass of […]
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Figuratively, not literally, it’s been a rough decade for the characters that Ben Miller has played so brilliantly. In Worst Week of My Life, Ben’s character, Howard Steel, made it standard practice to put himself in absolutely dreadful situations and proceed to make things worse by trying to either put things right or explain what […]
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First off, ITV had me with the headline, Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar to star in Unforgotten, but when they added the tag line, “Two can keep a secret – if one of them is dead“, I began clearing space on my DVR for when it premieres. Starring Nicola Walker (Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax, Scott & […]
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As hard as it is, post-Downton Abbey, life can be good as long as there is a steady stream of news from the production set where cast and crew are currently filming series 6. Especially, if the first bit of news arrives only one week removed from the finale of series 5 was broadcast on PBS’ Masterpiece series. […]
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At long last, the 2015 Poldark with Aidan Turner (Being Human, The Hobbit) in the lead roll as Captain Ross Poldark will premiere tonight on BBC One. American Poldark fans needn’t be worried. The steamier re-boot of the 1975 classic, which starred Robin Ellis as Capt. Poldark, is coming to PBS in June 2015. As many of […]
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Forty years ago this month, in a scene reminiscent of the Beatles’ first trip to America, four members of the Monty Python comedy troupe landed at Dallas’ Love Field and were mobbed by adoring fans. The troupe had just flown in from LA where Monty Python and the Holy Grail had just been screened for the first time to […]
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Calling all Clunatics! How would you like to be an extra in the forthcoming series of Doc Martin? If so, the good news according to the Cornish Guardian, is that the show’s producers soon will be holding a casting session in the program’s adopted home of Port Isaac. The bad news? It’s this weekend! It will be […]
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As everyone seems to be jumping on the ‘Throw-Back Thursday‘ (a.k.a. #TBT) bandwagon these days, I figured why not Tellyspotting! Every week (on Thursdays, of course), I will try to come up with something that will either be a fun reminder of British television of the past or introduce you to something new that you […]
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Thankfully, this is getting to be commonplace with respect to hearing good news about quality British drama series before the previous or even the first series is aired in America. In what has seemed to become more the norm in recent years, series such as Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, Mr. Selfridge, Endeavour and even […]
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My educated guess is that every year for the past 5 years when Downton Abbey comes to a close, you probably wake up the next day with the stark realization that, at best, there are between 6-10 months before we find out what the next bad thing is that will to happen to Bates and […]
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