Brit TV show recommendations

[DanaC]

Love Nyman.

[footfootfoot]

watched the first ep of Shameless UK last night. Pretty good.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

watched the first ep of Shameless UK last night. Pretty good.

something's turned up too far. I found that everlasting trainwreck hypnotizing. I could not turn away. I WANTED TO, but I could not. I was helpless.

Please continue, you'll not be sorry.

[Trilby]

Cherry-that pic of you is GREAT!

The US version of Shameless is pretty funny and effed up. My sister, my OWN sister, insinuated that I needed a less squared away guy- like FRANK in my life.

chuh. He'd make me look like a positive angel, he would.

[footfootfoot]

Finished the first season of Shameless and I liked it, in one way I can see how it could go on for 8 seasons where Green Wing only went two. But in another way I wish Green Wing could have gone on a bit longer. I guess there's only so much coal in a seam...

I didn't really take to Campus, it seemed like a less coherent version of GW. I watched a few eps of No Heroics and felt it didn't really get off the ground, I liked Nicholas Burns a lot in Man/Woman, but found his character in NH too painful to watch. It seemed like this show could only go so far before it used up all its possible jokes.
Really liking Smack the Pony.

[DanaC]

I didn't like Campus. Nice idea, going for that improv style again, but just didn;t work at all.

[DanaC]

You might want to check out Big Train as well. Some of the same people as in Green Wing and Spaced and a few other shows. Very funny sketch show.

[DanaC]

And Jam...which is sometimes very funny, and sometimes weirdly unsettling. With many of the same people from Big Train and Green Wing, from Chris Morris the guy who made Brass Eye...another must see British series from the 90s.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by DanaC

You might want to check out Big Train as well. Some of the same people as in Green Wing and Spaced and a few other shows. Very funny sketch show.

Oh thanks so much! I saw that sketch years ago and didn't know where it was from. I love that one.

[Big Sarge]

Sundae - wow, you look great in that pic.

I've just finished watching all 3 seasons of Downton Abbey. I'm thoroughly hooked. I am convinced Brits have the best TV series

[DanaC]

No way man. We have two or three contenders for seriously good tv series at any one time. That's aboutit. Taken across any decade we've usually contributed a handful of kickass tv shows to the world.

America makes so much more television than us, so there's a fuck of a lot of bad tv, but there's also a lot of really great tv too.

You don't generally get to see the really shit Brit tv, you only get the highlights :P

In this thread recommending Brit tv, other than Utopia and Black Mirror, most of the recommendations are for old shows, most from the 90s and early 00s.

When we do it well, we do it very well. And it used to be that BBC and Channel 4 dramas in particular were much better than their American equivalent, but that started changing about 10-15 years ago with the rise of HBO and the other cale channels. Moving to a subscription model freed up thiose channels to make truly magnificent television without being held hostage to advertisers' sensibilities. Now they are absolutely setting the tone and the BBC and Channel 4 are lagging way behind.

[DanaC]

That said: you might want to check our Ripper Street, Sarge. I think you might like it. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the period details are lovely. There's a brilliant character called Drake, a former soldier now a police sergeant.

I think it's my favourite tv show right now. My favourite group of characters. It has a nice buddy feel to it. The central trio of Inspector Reid, his sergeant Drake, and an American doctor, formerly a Pinkerton, now living in Whitechapel in a brothel run by his sometime lover (wife? not sure yet) Long Susan, bounce off each other well.

[Sundae]

Whitechapel is better.
Just because of the cast

I agree with Dani, though.
Often, our written/ radio reviews are all about the excellent drama shows coming out of the US, and how we can never compete with the budgets (true) or the stellar cast (well - an opinion based on movies I think.) Certainly some American TV is held in extremely high esteem here. Because it's only worth buying in the best.

Grass is always greener and all that.

Being proud of my country I do think we squeeze out an extraordinary amount of talent for a small island. But of course the huge help is that we speak the same language (albeit with regional variations.)

Yes I prefer British comedy than American, but I think that's a matter of immersion. And there are comedies on both sides of the Atlantic that would send me stark staring mad if I had to watch them non-stop. And they're ratings winners. Sigh.

[DanaC]

hehehe. Let's face it though, Pembers could star in a 4 hour drama about watching paint dry and you'd be glued to you telly :p

Not that I am equating Whitechapel with watching paint dry. I never got into it when it was on. Watched some of it but it didn't draw me in like Ripper Street does. I might give it another go when RS has finished. Jump forward to the modern era in the same place. A lot of critics are talking about how the two series work well as companions, bookending the Ripper killings so to speak.

[Sundae]

Funnily enough I watched Yule Never Leave (Sky+ off GOLD) the other night, just to spot Jeremy Dyson's cameos. And see the lovely Mark Gatiss in his adonis wig.

But yes, I have a 3 DVD box set of Animals at Work (CBBC) just because it's hosted by JB. Kept meaning to donate it to the out of school club, but I'd only have been offended if someone switched it off for yet another Disney film...

I'm a loyal stalker.