PBS | Tellyspotting

Posted March 18, 2021 - No Comment

‘All Creatures Great and Small’ begins filming on S2!

When I wrote a while back that the new reboot of All Creatures Great and Small had all the potential to become the next Downton Abbey, that may have been a little presumptuous on my part but not by much based on viewer reaction, critical acclaim, the official word from Channel 5 and PBS that the series had been commissioned for a second series but, now, with confirmation that production filming has begun, it’s a given, hopefully. ACGS was a great way to kick off 2021 and Masterpiece’s 50th anniversary season! What better way to kick off the next 50 than returning to life in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s and series 2 of All Creatures Great and Small!

Posted March 9, 2021 - No Comment

No, No, No, No, No! — R.I.P., Trevor Peacock, a.k.a. Jim Trott in ‘Vicar of Dibley’.

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 […]

Posted March 6, 2021 - No Comment

Timothy Spall joins Lesley Manville for Anthony Horowitz’s ‘Magpie Murders’ on PBS

While it was recently announced that Foyle’s War creator, Anthony Horowitz, would adapt his best-selling novel, Magpie Murders, as part of PBS’ Masterpiece series, at the time there was really no movement other than that given the on-again, off-again UK production coronavirus lockdown. Things have begun to look up, however, as Magpie Murders goes into production next week in Suffolk […]

Posted March 5, 2021 - No Comment

Live in a sitcom? The BBC’s Writer’s Room is a fun behind-the-scenes resource for British comedy and drama fans

Given the events of the last year, you’re probably at a point where you feel like you are either living in the middle of a sitcom or more like a nightmare. Nightmare aside, if you’ve ever thought, as I’m sure we all have at one time or another, 1) this would make a great sitcom or, […]

Posted March 2, 2021 - No Comment

Remembering the Cream Reunion Concert as The Royal Albert Hall celebrates 150 years!

The one and only Royal Albert Hall has been home to more legendary moments in music history then the law allows. While the past year has been more than challenging for this iconic venue, the concert hall that borders London’s Hyde Park in South Kensington is nothing short of a national treasure….and, has been for 150 years! My first memory of attending a concert at Royal Albert Hall occurred some 15+ years ago in 2005 to see the Cream Reunion Concert as part of the filming for the PBS series Great Performances,

Posted February 9, 2021 - No Comment

Radio 4’s ‘Annika’ makes the leap to the small screen with Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed

From the time I was first introduced to the acting talents of Walker in her role as DI Susan Taylor in Touching Evil (co-starring with Grantchester‘s Robson Green), followed by her time as Ruth Evershed in Spooks (MI5), guest roles in Luther, Being Human and Inside Men, then her more recent efforts in Scott & Bailey and Last Tango in Halifax, once again I’m convinced she could […]

Posted February 2, 2021 - No Comment

Challenges aside, ‘Call the Midwife’ getting ready for home delivery of S10 soon!

While producers of “Call the Midwife” were able to, thankfully, ‘deliver’ the annual Christmas special just in time for Christmas Day 2020, the full season of the drama did not arrive in time for its usual January slot this year thanks to COVID-19 and a five-month production delay. But, there seems to be light at the end of the Poplar tunnel…

Posted January 18, 2021 - No Comment

Could that be ‘Sanditon 2’ we see on the horizon? Maybe so….

Without trying to get anyone’s hopes up to much, there just might be joy in Mudville around the corner as there have been rumblings about the possibility of a second series of Sanditon in our collective future. For much of Planet Earth, dreams of a second series had pretty much gone up in flames much like Tom […]

Posted January 13, 2021 - No Comment

Jenna Coleman hints of a possible 4th series of ‘Victoria’ in our future!

It’s been what seems to be a lifetime since we collectively closed the book on series 3 of Victoria back in early 2019. It was confirmed last year that Victoria was taking a “bit of a breather” after its third series, while producers decided where to take the story next. But, that may be about to change.

Posted December 20, 2020 - No Comment

‘The First Churchills’ started it all as PBS’s ‘Masterpiece’ celebrates 50 years

On January 10, 2021, PBS’s Masterpiece series, the long-time anchor of the Sunday night line-up, turns 50. It was Sunday, January 10, 1971 that The First Churchills, about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, starring John Neville and Sarah Hampshire was first broadcast. Another notable event occurred on that same day in 1971 as it marked the start of a 22-year stint for Alistair Cooke, the British-born American writer, journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster, as as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre from 1971 to 1992.