Ever since that fateful day in 1974 when KERA, the public television station in Dallas, became the first PBS station in the U.S. to broadcast Monty Python’s Flying Circus I have wondered just what went on in the heads of Oxford graduates, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, and Cambridge graduates, Eric Idle, John Cleese and […]
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As Downton Abbey barrels towards its second series conclusion on Sunday evening in the States, it’s time for the UK to return to 165 Eaton Place with the beginning of the second series of Upstairs Downstairs. (PBS broadcast in the States is, tentatively, Spring 2013.) On all counts it has been a tough year for […]
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CBS gets more ‘Elementary‘ every day We’re all aware of CBS’ plan to produce a pilot for a 21st century Sherlock series for possible pick-up by the network beginning in Fall 2012. And everyone knows how I feel about this idea given some earlier comments about NBC’s failed attempt at Prime Suspect. This one, however, […]
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Not since the photo of the Doctor Who/Wizard of Oz mash-up with the somebody dropped a TARDIS on my sister graphic has ‘crossover’ talk hit an all-time high in the world of geek. Before a flood of comments come my way, I’m using the ‘geek’ as a good thing and in the most complimentary of […]
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David Kelly. He was Grandpa Joe Bucket in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, rode a motorbike naked in Waking Ned Devine, starred alongside Peter O’Toole and Peter Ustinov in the Irish mini-series, Strumpet City, and played a vicar in The Italian Job. The Dublin-born actor possessed a “wicked sense of humor”, according to […]
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Nothing screams Valentine’s Day like a bit of British comedy. SInce Hallmark tells us it’s a day for couples what better way to celebrate than to take a look back at those couples that have been a part of our collective telly families for a number of years. Unlike Hyacinth, I hope you’re ok with […]
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Sunday, 19 February, will be a night of quality telly watching whether you find yourself in the UK or the U.S. For U.S. audiences a day that we’ve all been waiting for, but a day viewers obsessed with Downton Abbey secretly hoped would never come. Sunday, February 19 at 9p ET/8p CT, the season finale […]
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If you’re a broadcaster or producer, you just thought your clashes with the FCC began back in 2004 and Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” incident. A full 30+ years prior to that special Sunday, one of the producers of the brilliant Python film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail was approached by a member of […]
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Even though the unspeakable is getting ready to happen with the second series of Downton Abbey set to come to a crashing halt on February 19 on PBS, 2012 is shaping up to be a stellar year for British television on both sides of the pond. In the States, we still have Great Expectations, Birdsong, […]
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The mere thought of this brings back many classic early 90’s memories of watching Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in Jeeves and Wooster. Adapted from P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories, the series brilliantly told the story of a young gentleman with a minor aristocratic upbringing (Laurie) and his ‘personal gentleman’ (Fry), whose duty is to separate […]
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