You might recall our recent post on the upcoming tribute to Stephen Sondheim by Dame Judi Dench that was to occur at the BBC Proms this past Saturday night at Royal Albert Hall. She described her part in the tribute as “hugely exciting but daunting“. After seeing the clip below of the performance, I’m reminded […]
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He’s a botanist at a local garden centre. She’s a food technology teacher. The he is Alfred Molina and the she is Dawn French. The two star in the newest addition to the BBC Two british comedy line-up beginning this coming Friday titled Roger and Val Have Just Got In. It’s not “laugh out loud […]
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After having just finished screening the first Sherlock installment from the great Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it seems only appropriate to, yet again, say that both writers are brilliant. With Moffat, you have a writer that had just a little bit else going on this past year. First, he took the helm of Doctor […]
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“This is not a remake but a completely new version, set in a different era with a whole new cast of characters.” That quote, in itself, from Piers Wenger, head of drama at BBC Wales, makes me really wish it was 2011 already when the new Upstairs Downstairs comes to PBS’ Masterpiece series to celebrate their […]
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Seems appropriate to follow up our last two posts with both a look back and a look ahead at the BBC Proms which is currently the happening event at Royal Albert Hall now through Saturday, 11 September 2010. Most recently, Doctor Who and the Daleks invaded Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, 24 July and Sunday, […]
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Not since we all witnessed the end of the David Tennant era and beginning of the Matt Smith era on Doctor Who has there been as much viewer anticipation for a series premiering in the UK. Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Hawking, Small Island) and Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitchhikers Guide). It premiered this past Sunday on […]
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Thinking back some 12 years ago, I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Judi Dench for an earlier production, The Best of British Comedy for American Public Television. I was even more fortunate to be able to interview her a second time for the upcoming program on British comedy writers for PBS as I’m […]
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Stephen Fry, who many have tagged as the 21st century Oscar Wilde, told the Radio Times in an interview that came out just as we were leaving the UK that the BBC needs to start giving the viewing public a little credit. Fry stated, “I think programmes only work if they matter to you, because […]
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Seems fitting as we landed on this side of the pond fresh from two weeks of interviews for the March 2011 PBS special on British comedy writers that we learned Red Dwarf co-creator and co-writer, Rob Grant will present a two-day comedy writing course at The Comedy School in early October in Camden, London. Grant also […]
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There are times that BBC commissioning folks get it right and times they don’t. Mulberry is one of those “didn’t get it right” moments in British comedy history. After two wonderful seasons (13 episodes) with brilliant scripts by Bob Larbey and, then, writing partner, John Esmonde and a wonderful cast headed by Karl Howman in […]
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