Whether you’ve been enjoying British comedy for a number of years or have just discovered in recent years, Ronnie Corbett is a name that you need to be familiar with. Unfortunately, while Ronnie Barker (Open All Hours and Porridge) is no longer with us, Ronnie Corbett happily turns 79 on December 4. Ronnie Corbett first met […]
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Widely recognized and voted on as the #1 worst hotel on the planet, yet named the #1 television program of all time by the British Film Institute, Fawlty Towers is 30 years old! What better way to mark the anniversary than to painstakingly remaster a new DVD release. Why consider this painstaking? Well, not only […]
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With a scheduled release on Christmas Day, the movie Sherlock Holmes conjures up memories of the definitive Sherlock Holmes for not only fans of public television, but fans of Sherlock Holmes. That would be Jeremy Brett. Sorry, Basil Rathbone fans. Just no comparison. There will be arguments from the camps of Rupert Everett, Peter Cushing, Basil […]
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Well, it’s not British, but it’s a classic and it has something to do with turkey. If anyone can find the entire clip of this, I’d love to have it. For those of you that remember this, enjoy! For those of you that don’t, you need to find it. That said, we hope everyone has […]
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That’s the question that viewers often ask when watching British comedy on public television. It’s not unusual to see your favorite British comedy actor or actress step out of the roles that we have become friends with over the years and stretch themselves using their formal training in period drama, contemporary drama, hit movies, American “sitcoms” […]
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What better way to celebrate John Cleese’s 70th birthday than with a look back at, perhaps, the two most classic clips from the greatest British comedy of all time. I will admit, however, that I’m feeling the same way about hearing John Cleese turned 70 on October 27 as I did when seeing the 25th […]
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As we continue to pay tribute to the true beginning of television comedy as we know it (or think we know it), the Pythons will reunite in New York on October 15 to receive a BAFTA award. Let’s hope that Graham Chapman gets a little bit better treatment this time than he did during the […]
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Fawlty Towers has to be the greatest 12 episodes of comedy ever. The UK version of The Office is a close second (much better, I think, than the American version, but that’s a debate for another day). This is a re-write of an article I did several years ago, but bears repeating as we begin […]
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October 5, 1969. Not as momentous an occasion as, say, July 20, 1969 or August 15-17, 1969 but it is a date that will live in not only television comedy history, but comedy history. 40 years ago Monday, Monty Python’s Flying Circus hit the airwaves on the BBC. Maybe you remember, maybe you don’t. […]
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Welcome to Tellyspotting – Your Brit TV Pub! From Peter Cook to Ricky Gervais and from Upstairs/Downstairs to MI5 (Spooks), the Brits produce some of the best shows on television. As Vice President of Television Programming at KERA (Dallas/Ft. Worth), I have a job that affords me the opportunity to screen and evaluate much of the […]
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