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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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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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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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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If you find yourself finally winding down your National Cat Day 2023 celebration and wondering what you will be doing next to fill the void, not to worry! Today (Friday, November 3) was National Sandwich Day in the States so, if you’re like me and you need a well-deserved break from well, most everything from 2020, and are wondering […]
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Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot Sketch”, one of the most famous of the sketches in the television comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, was written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese and first performed by Cleese and Michael Palin in December 1969. Known for its beautiful plumage, the remarkable Norwegian Blue prefers ‘keeping on its back’ and, […]
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There’s a simultaneous joy and danger to cleaning out drawers and files as, good or bad, you never know what you might run across. In this case, it was pure joy to stumble onto a memory from our time attending the annual BBC Showcase in Brighton from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. Each year, 500 […]
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Unfortunately, it’s not a new series of Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman but, for my money, it’s the next best thing as the brilliant Lucy Worsley will tackle the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and his literary creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in an upcoming 3-part documentary. Doyle came to hate Holmes and killed him […]
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Much like a periodic viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Casablana and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I have to revisit the greatness that is Desert Island Discs every so often just to ground myself . Having celebrated its’ 80th birthday on 29 January, 2022, BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs is perhaps the coolest show […]
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