• The Queen’s Christmas message: 1957-2011

    The Queen’s Christmas message: 1957-2011

    The Queen’s Christmas message – 2011 Thankfully, this “new medium” of television, as The Queen put it some 54 years ago, took hold thus allowing for The Queen’s Happy Christmas message to be seen and not just heard each year on Christmas Day. Following the tradition that was started in 1932 by King George V, […]

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  • The best Michael Caine? Not many people know that….

    The best Michael Caine? Not many people know that….

    Michael Caine is flat out brilliant. For starters, he’s one of only two actors that has been nominated for an Academy Award in every decade since the 60’s. Can anyone guess the other one? He’s been a part of such film genius as The Ipcress File, Alfie, Sleuth, Hannah and Her Sisters, Cider House Rules, […]

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  • Happy 75th, BBC! You don't look a day over 74.

    Happy 75th, BBC! You don't look a day over 74.

    Just a bit late to the party, but we finally got there, nevertheless. 75 years ago this past week, Wednesday, 2 November, to be exact, the BBC launched the world’s first regular television service in 1936. Although only a lucky few in the south of England could receive the signal, it was still considered the […]

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  • Kryten wins "Best TV Robot" competition – Duh!

    Kryten wins "Best TV Robot" competition – Duh!

    Old news, but worth celebrating by the members of the Red Dwarf Nation everywhere. After all, who doesn’t love the affable Series  4000 service mechanoid whose given name is Kryten 2X4B-523P. As reported on by the folks over at Red Dwarf, Gary Pinches from The Digital Fix has, at great personal sacrifice, researched countless hours of […]

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  • BBC Showcase – program highlights

    BBC Showcase – program highlights

    As day one of the 2011 BBC Syndication Showcase in New Orleans has come and gone, I can honestly say to everyone that, as viewers of your local PBS station, you are in for a treat given what we saw today. This is the third annual showcase whereby BBC Worldwide Americas gathers PBS station programmers […]

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  • OMG: HP Sauce changes recipe after 116 years

    OMG: HP Sauce changes recipe after 116 years

    With a bit of full disclosure up front, I will admit my only experience that allows me to talk about this subject is having attended a number of BBC Showcase meetings over the years in the UK whereby the answer to everything that dealt with food seemed to be “…just add a bit of brown […]

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  • Happy British Cheese Week 2011!

    Happy British Cheese Week 2011!

    Find yourself in the UK with no plans this weekend? Not to worry. Tellyspotting is working very hard on your social calendar behalf. Knowing, also, that there may be many of you who choose to celebrate British Cheese Week 2011 at home quietly with a group of close friends and your favorite milk-based food product, be […]

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  • TV aerials in Downton Abbey spotted on eve of DA2 premiere

    TV aerials in Downton Abbey spotted on eve of DA2 premiere

    We’ve all secretly done it…meticulously watched films or television shows searching for that elusive shot where sunglasses are worn in one scene, but disappear from the same scene when the camera cuts to a different angle. There have long been rumors that in one of the battle sequences in the John Wayne film, The Alamo, […]

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  • The Man in the Rubber Mask

    The Man in the Rubber Mask

    Powell’s Bookstore in downtown Portland. Bookstore mecca. Billed as the largest new, used and out-of-print bookstore on the planet, it occupies a full city block with over 3500 sections and over 68,000 square feet of nothing but books. Ok, there’s a not to be missed coffee shop too, but, essentially, it’s books, books and more […]

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  • The London Underground in a multi-screen world

    The London Underground in a multi-screen world

    Harry Beck was a London Underground employee who, basically, decided that the physical locations of the mostly underground stations were irrelevant to travelers of the day whose main desire is to know how to get to one station from another. It was the topology of the railway mattered. His uncommissioned idea was make clearer design […]

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