What makes Blackadder Goes Forth an instant classic (ok, besides the writing and the acting) is the fact that not only does it include Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson as Edmund Blackadder and Baldrick, but it also features the return of the greatness of Hugh Laurie as Lieutenant George, Stephen Fry as General Melchett, Tim McInnerny […]
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Golden Globe-winning actress Ruth Wilson, best known for her brilliant portrayal as research scientist/highly intelligent sociopath Alice Morgan in the psychological drama, Luther, returns to PBS Masterpiece in a very personal sort of three-part drama, one based on her own grandmother’s memoir about her life and their complicated family history. Wilson was last seen on Masterpiece over a decade ago in […]
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With the 100th anniversary of World War I just around the corner on 28 July, news comes out of the UK that there actually was a real-life Captain Blackadder and Private Baldrick. According to military genealogy company, Forces War Records, not only that but just by doing a bit of Sherlockian research they quickly discovered a […]
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One of the greatest things about British television AND one of the most maddening for viewers is the fact that the number of episodes in a series is limited. Unlike their American television counterparts, most British drama and/or comedy series are anywhere between 6-10 episodes max. In some cases like Sherlock or DCI Banks there are only three episodes each season. Three brilliant films but still only three. On the upside, this allows viewers to see their favorite actors in other roles, many times crossing over from drama to comedy or vice versa.
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Just as Kevin Doyle (Mr. Molesley) found that there is life beyond Downton Abbey with his current gig as Colonel Roland Brett in the World War I drama, The Crimson Field, such is also the case also for Jessica Brown Findlay, who played Lady Sybil in Downton. While Doyle has the security of knowing he […]
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It seems as though the British comedy Blackadder is at the center of a lingering controversy some 25 years after the last episode premiered on BBC One in 1989. The debate is heating up as the 4th August of this year will be the 100th anniversary of when Great Britain entered World War I in […]
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Overshadowed just a bit by that little series we know as Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge, starring Jeremy Piven and Katherine Kelly, which airs on ITV1 in the UK and PBS in the States as part of the Masterpiece series, will return in 2014 with 10 new episodes. Based upon the life of flamboyant American entrepreneur […]
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Given that there are still a few episodes left in the first series of Mr. Selfridge for U.S. audiences, there may be more spoilers than the law allows in today’s post so read on at your own peril if you are in the U.S. It’s safe to say that in both the U.S. and the […]
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Downton Abbey I & II – 16 hours in 5 minutes It’s hard to believe that a mere two years ago, the world had never heard of Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess, Matthew & Mary, Carson or Bates. It was January 2011 that the Julian Fellowes penned drama series crashed the U.S. television party as […]
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From the Department of Life’s Lonely at the Top comes news out of the Downton Abbey 2 camp that the second series is coming under fire not only from avid viewer critics but also the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary himself. Mirroring the uproar caused by brief visual glimpses of an extraneous television aerial […]
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