Last of the Summer Wine, the long-running British situation comedy written by Roy Clarke (Open All Hours, Keeping Up Appearances, Still Open All Hours, Young Hyacinth) lasted for a mere 31 seasons encompassing 295 episodes (1973-2010) and featured the trials and tribulations of three pensioners (Bill Owen as Compo, Peter Sallis as Norman Clegg and Michael Bates […]
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Let me just go ahead and start with the following observation and get it out of the way. There’s NO WAY Blackadder is 40 years old, is there? As the series ran from 1983-1989, 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the Richard Curtis/Rowan Atkinson/Ben Elton series so, it must be so. To celebrate, UK’s Gold Channel […]
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Today, William Shakespeare would have been a mere 459 years old. While his true birthdate remains a mystery (he was baptized on April 26, 1564), it is generally celebrated on April 23, the same day England’s patron saint is celebrated with a laundry list of ‘happenings’, St. George’s Day. It was a mere 407 years ago […]
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One simply cannot let Easter pass without paying tribute to the genius that is Monty Python & the Holy Grail. There are literally thousands of lines and/or scenes that millions of fans worldwide can quote or reference, and there are few that don’t gravitate to a seemingly innocent looking rabbit that surprises a group of tourists who seek […]
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Fresh off a successful return to telly as part of last months Red Nose Day, Sir Tony Robinson is teasing a possible return by suggesting a Blackadder linked project is ‘in the works’. While this doesn’t quite fall into the ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ category given the endless rumors that have surrounded a possible return of Blackadder over the years, I do find myself cautiously optimistic even though it doesn’t appear that Rowan Atkinson is involved.
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Red Nose Day has to be the single most brilliant example known to man and/or woman of how an entire country demonstrates the ability to create brilliant content and rally around a charitable cause. To label Red Nose Day in the UK as a cultural phenomenon is doing it an injustice. It’s an institution. The entire country gets […]
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Aside from the brilliant series, I Claudius, it seems like an ‘Ides of March’ (the 74th day of the Roman calendar) cannot pass without thinking of the classic BBC comedy, Up Pompeii, starring the late, great Frankie Howerd.
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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then satirical parody imitation must be off the charts. From the the Dutch satire TV show De TV-Kantine, comes their own take on the iconic BBC series, Keeping Up Appearances with Carlo Boszhard, Dutch TV personality, singer, impersonator, and host as Hyacinth. While admittedly just a tad bit ‘over the top’, […]
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While it’s been roughly 3 millions years, Red Dwarf recently celebrated its 35th anniversary of the series which premiered on BBC Two, 15 February 1988. Through 35 years, 12 seasons, 74 episodes and 1 TV feature length film, there has been very little change to Red Dwarf, the series that began with a radiation leak aboard the Jupiter […]
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One of the few upsides of another year of semi-living under a pandemic cloud is the opportunity to send good wishes for a very happy birthday to the brilliant Dame Patricia Routledge, who turns 94 today. Given Hyacinth would have been appalled at the possibility that I might forget to drop a card in the […]
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