Pining for Fiona and Maxine...

Foot, if you're looking for more sketch comedy I highly recommend "That Mitchell and Webb Look."

Sketch comedy will only get me so far. I'm really looking for a threesome with Maxine and Fiona.

Brit tv gave us the Doctor. Then there is the James Bond movie franchise. That pretty well wraps up all debate on quality of programing.

Dana - I started watching Ripper Street (on demand). This looks like another enjoyable diversion.

Have you seen The Thick of It, foots?

It's fucking awesome. Though, you might need to google odd details of the Brit political scene it shouldn't be any harder to understand than West Wing was for Brits.

Note: Malcolm is a political fixer/press manager/enforcer for their party. At this point their party is in power. But it's looking inevitable that they're going to lose the next election (they're the Labour Party just before the current tory/lib dem coalition came into power) The ex-girlfriend Malcolm wants Ollie to get back in with works for the opposite party.


None of this is sfw language wise.



Couple more clips:






A view from the other side: this is one of the coalition parties now in power:

Incidentally, the sort-of-sketch show Jam, originally began life as a radio show. A strange mix of monologues, music and sketches.

Here's the first episode, minus the music sections (opening monologue is about 7 mins):



Here's how it translates to the screen:

The first sketch after the intro has the guy who played Dr Statham(?) in GW; also, the skit on 'symptomless coma' around 7:40 is hysterical:

Like Winamp.

dana, you once touted a brit tv show about .. hm. outsiders? outlast? outcast? I don't remember...

the upshot was that there was some problem with spirits of some dead people that prevented them from "moving on" or somesuch. I watched the first couple episodes, they were great. There are a few people in the story that can move these lost souls along, but there's danger. One of them is endangered in the early part of the story... I just can't remember the rest but I did like what I saw.

What was it that I saw? Please?

The Fades :P

Alas it never got picked up for a second series, because BBC Three has had to reduce its original drama productions from 3 per year to 1.

Ah, that's it. Thank you.

:)

thick of it, fave scene. There's that Scottish guy from Utopia.

Just started on Monday night, an 8 part crime drama: Broadchurch

The first part was excellent!

Stars David Tennant amongst others:)

Foots: have you come across Chelmsford 123 at all in your foray into Brit TV? It ran for two series: one in 1988 and another in 1990. It's one of my all time favourite shows. I was gutted when it only ran for two series. But ya know...not untypical for Brit tv :p

From wiki:


Here's the first ep: apols for the picture quality it's old :p

writhing in anticipation for part 3 tonight. It's funny, I'm starting to recognize a lot of Brit actors from Greenwing, Smack the Pony, and other shows. I keep seeing Olivia Coleman and I'm really impressed at her range.

I just power disked through House of Cards and noted the huge disparity between British story writing and US story writing. It would be a fascinating study to compare the cultural and economic forces that shape TV in each of our countries.

The feeling I get from American TV is the heavy reliance on the cliffhanger ending to entice the viewer to tune in next week. This goes on and on with no end ever in sight. It's why I won't bother tuning in the the next season of House of cards.

The feeling I get from British TV is that there is a story and it is divided into 5 parts. My desire to tune in next week is driven by good writing and story telling, not cliffhangers. Sure, in Broadchurch there's more to be learned but there seems to be a larger story arc at play and not just and endless series of rises and falls like a moebius roller coaster.

I suspect there may be a certain freedom that show writers have at the BBC that the writers in this country don't have, vis a vis corporate masters. I don't really understand the economics of British TV though.

Broadchurch is actually an ITV production. Independant terrestrial (network?) commercial channel. But there's a lot of cross over in terms of the production companies they use and in terms of casting as well.

ITV and Sky have both really upped their game producing good tv in the commercial sector (Sky = subscription satellite channels). The BBC is hit and miss, but its unique place within the market means it can fail from time to time and continue to produce and to take chances. The commercial channels have had to really push the boundaries in order to carve a place.

Btw: did you see the original British House of Cards? I haven't watched the remake yet, but looking forward to it. I loved the original. In case you haven't, here's a clip: