• A pre-Oompa-Loompas Willie Wonka heads to the big screen with an amazing cast in tow!

    A pre-Oompa-Loompas Willie Wonka heads to the big screen with an amazing cast in tow!

    Full disclosure. Re-makes tend to scare me, whether it’s big or small screen. Pre-Endeavour, prequels used to scare me too. Neither really ever came close to meeting expectations based on the original until Shaun Evans brought a young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse to life during his early career with the Oxford City Police CID.

    While I’m reserving judgement on an announced 2023 release of Wonka, given it will be really hard to touch Gene Wilder’s definitive 1971 portrayal of the iconic children’s literary character, recent announcements as to casting may just have me looking forward to this one.

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  • The greatness of ‘The Prisoner’ turns 54 this month!

    The greatness of ‘The Prisoner’ turns 54 this month!

    While Fawlty Towers will forever remain the great British comedy of all-time, perhaps the greatest television series of all-time (sorry, folks, it’s not Downton Abbey) turns 54 later this month. The Prisoner is made up of 17 hours of  pure telly greatness running on ITV in the UK from 29 September 1967 through 1 February 1968. It […]

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  • 83p pints at the ‘OFAH’ Nags Head pop-up in September

    83p pints at the ‘OFAH’ Nags Head pop-up in September

    On the outside chance that acquiring The Blackadder Pub for a cool £450,000 is a bit out of your price range, how about a pub with prices straight out of the eighties. Fortunately, one is about to land in London — but there’s a catch as, according to the Londonist, The Nags Head is only going to […]

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  • ‘Bob’ immortalized with statue in Islington Green

    ‘Bob’ immortalized with statue in Islington Green

    With his trademark scarf in tow, Bob now permanently presides over Islington Green providing, perhaps, the best photo op this side of the statue of Mr. Bean in Leicester Square. The stray ginger tomcat, who sadly crossed the Rainbow Bridge in June 2020, became a global celebrity after the emergence of his heartwarming friendship with busker […]

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  • For sale: ‘The Blackadder Pub’ — AND….it comes with a house!

    For sale: ‘The Blackadder Pub’ — AND….it comes with a house!

    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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  • Remembering ‘Test Card F’ and Carole Hersee, the ‘test card girl’.

    Remembering ‘Test Card F’ and Carole Hersee, the ‘test card girl’.

    Known within the BBC as Test Card F, the iconic image was used on television in the United Kingdom and in countries elsewhere in the world for more than four decades. Like other test cards, it was usually shown while no programs were being broadcast. While I never experienced ‘Test Card F’ in real-time, I first became aware of the ‘test card girl’ during the British police procedural, Life on Mars, as the card was in use during the time in 1973 that Sam Tyler ‘woke up’ following a near-fatal car accident.

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