Toured the BBC Television Centre while in the UK last week. The BBC, which is considered the largest broadcasting organization in the world, houses its television operations at the Centre in White City and Shepherd’s Bush in West London housing most of the 5,000+ employees. First up, a little history of the Television Centre facility. […]
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Thinking back some 12 years ago, I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Judi Dench for an earlier production, The Best of British Comedy for American Public Television. I was even more fortunate to be able to interview her a second time for the upcoming program on British comedy writers for PBS as I’m […]
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Stephen Fry, who many have tagged as the 21st century Oscar Wilde, told the Radio Times in an interview that came out just as we were leaving the UK that the BBC needs to start giving the viewing public a little credit. Fry stated, “I think programmes only work if they matter to you, because […]
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Seems fitting as we landed on this side of the pond fresh from two weeks of interviews for the March 2011 PBS special on British comedy writers that we learned Red Dwarf co-creator and co-writer, Rob Grant will present a two-day comedy writing course at The Comedy School in early October in Camden, London. Grant also […]
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There are times that BBC commissioning folks get it right and times they don’t. Mulberry is one of those “didn’t get it right” moments in British comedy history. After two wonderful seasons (13 episodes) with brilliant scripts by Bob Larbey and, then, writing partner, John Esmonde and a wonderful cast headed by Karl Howman in […]
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After having watched The IT Crowd the other night on Channel 4, I now get how really well done it is. Written by Graham Linehan, who wrote the great Father Ted and the even greater, Black Books, I had only seen a couple of episodes of season one and, to be honest, couldn’t see what […]
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LONDON – July 19, 210: It’s Sunday night. You know the drill. Whether you admit it or not, you can’t wait to settle in and cap off the weekend with your favorite British comedy programs wherever you are across the U.S. or abroad. Just so you know, I kept the tradition alive last night 5000 […]
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LONDON – July 18, 2010: It just keeps getting better and better as we continue our interviews for the doc on the British comedy writers for PBS. Yesterday, it was another day, another highlight as we talked with Dawn French, writer, actor, comedy genius. Dawn talked at great length about her good friend, Richard Curtis, […]
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LONDON, July 17, 2010 – Yesterday was one of the highlights of the trip this time. As you read in yesterday’s post, we started the day off by interviewing Roger Lloyd Pack from The Vicar of Dibley and The Old Guys. What a genuinely nice individual. Penelope Keith at the Brooklands After that, we ventured […]
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Another day, more British comedy greatness. Started the morning off with a drive to Kentish Town in North London to visit Roger Lloyd Pack, who stars as Owen in The Vicar of Dibley. What a gem of an individual and an unbelievable wealth of knowledge about comedy and acting. Roger did share some interesting observations on […]
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