The alternative Christmas message is a message broadcast by Channel 4 since 1993, as a sometimes humorous and sometimes serious alternative to the traditional Royal Christmas Message. Usually featuring a contemporary, often controversial celebrity delivering a message in the manner of Queen Elizabeth II (and now King Charles III), the tradition started by accident when, running a series of programs on “Christmas in […]
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Much like watching It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, Tuna Christmas or, as evidenced by a recent admission, Die Hard, one of my annual Christmas traditions is to listen to John Cleese’s adaptation of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas from podcast No. 28. Never mind that there have been endless readings over the years by the likes […]
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While Larry, the Chief Mouser at 10 Downing Street, deservedly grabs most of the headlines these days in the British press, there’s another British cat the warrants a bit of ink (and, not just on page 3 of the The Sun). England’s Winston Churchill gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the best known and […]
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File this one under ‘reason #(I’ve lost count)’ that I would love to live in the UK. In keeping with their long-standing tradition of airing brilliant telly on Christmas or Boxing Day, Sir David Jason hosts The Story Of Only Fools and Horses at Christmas, the 90-minute feature documentary reflecting on the show’s Yuletide episodes, including […]
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By the mid-’60s, the British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon that had taken America by storm. So much so that even popular TV sitcoms wanted to join in the fun. Often mistaken for another British singing duo, Peter & Gordon, Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde, aka Chad & Jeremy, made the leap to the small […]
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Filming is underway on an all-star production of Gill Hornby’s best-selling and much loved novel Miss Austen. Miss Austen takes a literary mystery, one where Cassandra Austen notoriously burns her famous sister Jane’s letters and then reimagines it as a fascinating, witty and heart-breaking story of sisterly love, while creating in Cassandra a character as captivating as any […]
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In keeping with the brilliant UK practice of making both Christmas and Boxing Day a day to stay home and watch great telly, Beyond Paradise will premiere its first ever Christmas special slated for broadcast this holdiay season on BBC1. As with its predecessor, Death in Paradise, guest stars have traditionally queued up to be either the prime […]
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First it was Lead Balloon, now it’s Bad Move. Somehow, Jack Dee can easily make you feel like you don’t have a bad life after all. Nothing can compare to what he faces around every corner every minute of every day. Dee’s on-screen characters are a daily reminder that things could always be worse. In Bad Move, Dee’s […]
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Now that Thanksgiving is in our collective rearview mirror, it’s time (and, ok) to focus our attention on the forthcoming December holiday season. While thoughts of holidays past rank high on most everyone’s list as to what causes them to look forward to this time of year, there is a desire on the part of […]
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THankPhoto courtesy: ITVIn addition to stopping for a moment to be eternally thankful for my much better half, Kim, our friends, long-time and first-time Tellyspotting readers, good health and our kitty, MiniBoots, no Thanksgiving would be complete without recognizing the contributions made by two classic British series for not only setting me on a lifelong path of […]
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