Friday scattershooting – British style
Doing a quick search around the Internets, there’s a lot going on in the British television world, whether it be the not-so-breaking news that your favorite hotel from hell manager, John Cleese, has magically decided he likes Germans now after 35+ years, the news of yet another failed attempt at an American re-make or just tracking a big week of news for everyone’s favorite boss, Ricky Gervais, as he has a brush with royal greatness, begins filming the new season of Curb with the great Larry David and, then, learns his newest series, Life’s Too Short, has been commissioned for a full season by the BBC.
U.S. version of Gavin and Stacey shelved
In what may be a signal that American broadcast networks and producers are coming to their senses, news has surfaced that the hit BBC comedy/drama, Gavin and Stacey, has been had the plug pulled before it was even plugged in. Even with co-creators of the British hit, James Cordon and Ruth Jones, involved, somehow I just can’t see New Jersey and South Carolina taking the place of Barry Island and Essex, Good move, ABC.
Ricky Gervais and the Queen?
Seems as though there’s more than one fan of Ricky Gervais in the Royal family. Prince Harry attended a recent Gervais stand-up show where he also revealed earlier in the day to the comedian that he was “bringing Gran“. Even though she didn’t come to the show, Prince Harry brought back the next best thing. Gervais, who admitted later he was petrified that she might actually show up, said: “He got me to sign a beer-mat for her.” The message he scrawled read: “To Liz II, Cheers! Ricky Gervais.”
John Cleese decides he loves all-things Germany
If it’s true that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery“, we should have all recognized this about 35 years ago when perhaps one of the funniest British comedy sketches on the planet aired in episode 6 of the first season of the great, Fawlty Towers. John Cleese has now revealed that he’s had a secret crush on Germany all these many years. In case you’ve forgotten, I leave you with a little Friday funny to jumpstart the weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0&feature=fvsr
See you next Friday as we make this a regular weekly feature for more scattershooting around the British television landscape. As we close in our first anniversary of Tellyspotting, let me what you’ve liked so far, what you want to see more of or what you can live without. You can either comment or send e-mail to tellyspotting@kera.org with your thoughts.
Cheers.
