North Texas = BBC West on Saturdays
Ok, the BBC and Channel 4 may not have “officially” established a western division of the best of their broadcast line-up, but North Texas viewers will become a bit more anglophile beginning tonight (Saturday) on KERA with an all-new line up of the best of the best from the UK.
We begin the night with the regularly scheduled broadcast of the great Doc Martin, starring Martin Clunes, at 7:00pm. Then….
8:00pm – Last of the Summer Wine – Roy Clarke’s 38 year run as writer for the longest running sitcom in television history comes to a close with the final two seasons of the series never before seen in North Texas.
9:00pm – Hustle – lead by the master, Mickey Bricks, this team of con artists ‘liberate’ greedy fat cats from the ill-gotten gains. While the life of a grifter is exciting, there are risks that come with the rewards.
10:00pm – Worst Week of My Life – Howard (Ben Miller, Primeval) and Mel (Sarah Alexander, Coupling) are getting married…if they can survive the week leading up to the wedding. The groom manages to lose the wedding ring (a priceless family heirloom), knock out the best man, accidentally grope his future mother in law, hospitalize his fiances granny, throw the in-laws’ beloved dog Binky into a cement mixer and was accused of impregnating a psychotic stalker from the office. And, we’re not even to the wedding day yet….
10:30pm – Black Books – Bernard Black is, in a word, foul-tempered. Ok, that’s two words. Call him eccentric and you’re being too kind. Along with his best, and for obvious reasons only friend, Fran, he single-handedly keeps the wine and tobacco industry in business. Add in someone to play with, his assistant, Manny, played to perfection by the great Bill Bailey, and you a book store that prides itself on selling no books.
11:00pm – Outnumbered – imagine you’re a couple with three, relatively ‘difficult’ kids. Ok, let’s just come out and say unruly to be on the safe side. Ben is a pathological liar that loves hypothetical questions, Karen asks more questions than the law allows and Jake, who’s the easy one, as he’s just a teenager who is obsessed with girls. Essentially, you’re “outnumbered”. The cool thing about this series is that much of the kids dialogue is improvised which gives it that perfect childlike, inquisitive, dialogue that the adult actors have to react to accordingly.
11:30pm – Reggie Perrin – you know the story from the classic original with Leonard Rossiter. The great Martin Clunes stars as the middle-aged, bored executive who is rapidly tiring of the daily grind at work and at home after ten years at Groomtech as you can see here.
