Regular readers of Tellyspotting are, no doubt, keenly aware of just how much I do not care for American remakes of British comedies or mysteries. The American broadcast streets are littered with failed remakes of the likes of The IT Crowd, Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf, Coupling, Spaced, Absolutely Fabulous, Men Behaving Badly, Life on Mars, Skins, The In-Betweeners, […]
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Most fans of any television series are satisfied enough to just buy the entire series on DVD. Some may visit the town where a favorite series was filmed such as Port Isaac (Doc Martin), Holmfirth (Last of the Summer Wine) or, on my personal bucket list travel destination, Portmeirion (The Prisoner). For some lucky buyer, Edmund Ramsdale took his love of a certain British comedy series to not just the next level but far beyond that.
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In an attempt to shed their title of being voted ‘the least funniest country in the world‘ following a 2011 international survey conducted by Badoo.com, Germany has begun filming on a German language version of the British sitcom, Miranda. Currently with the working title of Ruby, the series will star German actress Anna Böger in the […]
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John Cleese has spent the better part of five decades looking at what makes creative people so darn good at it. As one of the original founding members of the Monty Python comedy troupe and then alongside former wife Connie Booth being the creative force behind Fawlty Towers which just so happens to be, IMHO, the greatest British comedy […]
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As we inch closer to the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Monty Python’s Flying Circus in America, no self-respecting celebration would be a true celebration unless it begins where it all began…in Dallas, TX, courtesy of KERA TV, the PBS affiliate in North Texas. Thanks to Ron Devillier and Bob Wilson for having the foresight […]
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Taking an unfortunate page out of the Mulberry playbook, Channel 4’s thinking-person’s comedy series, Home, has not been renewed for a third series. Sadly, it could lead one to believe that cerebral comedies are short-lived while those with a lowest common denominator storyline can continue on well past their sell-by date.
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Aptly described in the British press as “Talking Heads meets Keeping Up Appearances“, the highly successful BBC Radio 4 series, Ladies of Letters, made the always dangerous leap to television back in 2010. Facing an immediate uphill challenge from the sheer fact that the radio series starred the greatness of Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales, […]
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If you been with Tellyspotting as a P1 since Day 1, or if you have joined the conversation at any point over the course of the last ten years, you are probably acutely aware of my lack of tolerance for poorly done American television remakes of British television output. This holds true mostly in the […]
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Easily the funniest comedy of all-time, the 12 episodes (yes, there were only 12) of Fawlty Towers are nothing short of comedy perfection comprised of brilliant line after brilliant line and unmatched to this day, some 45+ years after its premiere in 1975. Not only is it a masterclass of comedy writing and performance, the series […]
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These R.I.P. posts seems to be coming at an alarmingly fast rate these days and while all of them are devastating to those of us that have literally grown up on British comedy and drama, this one painfully hits home as the wonderfully brilliant Trevor Peacock has died. Known as the lovable but bumbling Jim […]
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