Be Excellent To Each Other :: View topic - General Purpose UK TV thread

Trooper wrote:

Ooooh, I meant to watch that but totally forgot. Can you download to a tablet on 4oD I wonder? Be good for the commute home

I appears not

Get it for tomorrow then!

sdg wrote:

Trooper wrote:

Ooooh, I meant to watch that but totally forgot. Can you download to a tablet on 4oD I wonder? Be good for the commute home

I appears not

Get it for tomorrow then!

I have a way, I think. To the remote session downloadatron!

I started watching The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on Netflix at the weekend. Stars David Cross as a US salesman sent over to the UK in order to sell a terrible energy drink called Thunder Muscle.

For fans of the Office, Inbetweeners, Always Sunny, Arrested Development, etc.

Great British Bake Off is back!

I started watching The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on Netflix at the weekend.

Quite impressed by BBC2's "Peaky Blinders" last night. We ended up watching it back to back with the new Boardwalk Empire and there are some obvious comparisons, probably unfair ones given the relative budgets, but it really held its own I thought. Worth watching anyway.

I felt sad both when he shot the horse, and just before when he was holding the gun to it.

Sir David Jason to star in 'Open All Hours' Christmas special

Lynda Baron and Maggie Ollerenshaw will also return as nurse Gladys Emmanuel and Mavis in the 30-minute one-off episode Still Open All Hours.

"I'm really excited to be bringing back Open All Hours," said Jason. "I am sure there is an audience out there who would like to see what Granville has been getting up to in the corner shop.

"It will be a great family show for Christmas, and a fitting tribute to the legacy of Arkwright."

Granville will be seen running the grocery store with his son, having inherited it from his uncle Albert Arkwright (Ronnie Barker).

Roy Clarke, who wrote the original series, will return for Still Open All Hours.

"This has been fun - a great opportunity to work with David Jason again and to suggest how things at that corner shop might look today," said Clarke.

BBC controller of UK comedy production Mark Freeland added that he hoped the special episode "will bring broad grins to lots and lots of faces at Christmas".

Open All Hours originally aired between 1973 and 1985, running for 26 episodes across four series.

Open All Hours originally aired between 1973 and 1985, running for 26 episodes across four series.

ETA: I'm not saying that's better or worse, simply noting that it wouldn't happen these days.

Jesus, it's a different (TV) world these days; can you imagine a show running over 12 years these days and only racking up 26 episodes?

No Ronnie? No point.

Bamba wrote:

Jesus, it's a different (TV) world these days; can you imagine a show running over 12 years these days and only racking up 26 episodes?

The IT Crowd ran 2006-2013 and has 25 episodes. Lewis has been running since 2007 and has 29 episodes. British TV is still pretty slow moving most of the time.

It's definitely slower and smaller scale than US TV with it's near-minimum 20 episode seasons and whatnot but 12 years/26 episodes is still a pretty surprising a statistic I think; even your two examples there only cover half the amount of time.

I think everyone else gave up on this but the new (final) season of Misfits starts tonight on CH4

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/misfits

They lost all of them, didn'tthey?

"Toast of London" - Matt Berry, nonsense, it's all good.

Just found out that BBC4 starts on HD today. Finally!

Kern wrote:

Just found out that BBC4 starts on HD today. Finally!

Does that mean... It couldn't be... Ceebeebies HD?!

I was a bit teary at the end.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

WW1 happens

Author:	Trooper [ Tue May 14, 2013 14:31 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
sdg wrote: Trooper wrote: Trooper wrote: Ooooh, I meant to watch that but totally forgot. Can you download to a tablet on 4oD I wonder? Be good for the commute home I appears not Get it for tomorrow then! I have a way, I think. To the remote session downloadatron!

Author:	Trooper [ Tue May 14, 2013 14:43 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Trooper wrote: sdg wrote: Trooper wrote: Trooper wrote: Ooooh, I meant to watch that but totally forgot. Can you download to a tablet on 4oD I wonder? Be good for the commute home I appears not Get it for tomorrow then! I have a way, I think. To the remote session downloadatron! No bugger has uploaded it, how thoroughly antiquated.

Author:	markg [ Thu May 23, 2013 22:48 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I'm accidentally watching "Vicious" on ITV. Fucking Hell.

Author:	Cras [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:51 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Started watching Luther the other day. It's fucking brilliant. Idris Elba plays the lead. It's on Netflix. Watch it.

Author:	Satsuma [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 13:07 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
No. It's terrible. I've seen series 1 & 2 and it got worse over time. Acting, plot, dialogue... everything is as tired as Luther's character endlessly pretends to be. Poor poor guy from The Wire.

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Author:	Bamba [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 13:14 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Disagree; I've watched the first two seasons of Luther with the third one sitting in the queue and I've enjoyed all of them immensely.

Author:	myp [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 13:22 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I started watching The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on Netflix at the weekend. Stars David Cross as a US salesman sent over to the UK in order to sell a terrible energy drink called Thunder Muscle. For fans of the Office, Inbetweeners, Always Sunny, Arrested Development, etc.

Author:	Bamba [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 13:43 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
SilentElk wrote: I started watching The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on Netflix at the weekend. Stars David Cross as a US salesman sent over to the UK in order to sell a terrible energy drink called Thunder Muscle. For fans of the Office, Inbetweeners, Always Sunny, Arrested Development, etc. We watched this a while back and it was alright; it's not as funny as the castlist suggests it should be and it's mostly carried by Cross being ridiculous in his usual way.

Author:	Trooper [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 14:54 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Great British Bake Off is back!

Author:	sdg [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 14:57 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Trooper wrote: Great British Bake Off is back! Yay!

Author:	Doctor Glyndwr [ Wed Aug 21, 2013 15:08 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
SilentElk wrote: I started watching The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret on Netflix at the weekend. Starts middling, gets worse. The Increasingly Poor Episodes Of The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret.

Author:	Kern [ Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:30 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I watched 'The Wipers Times' last night. Charming period piece about the trench newspaper, and the device of using real material from the paper as the basis for skits worked really well. Only bit that grated was the obligatory senior-officer-who-doesn't-approve part, which just felt a bit cliched in its portrayal.

Author:	markg [ Fri Sep 13, 2013 15:11 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Quite impressed by BBC2's "Peaky Blinders" last night. We ended up watching it back to back with the new Boardwalk Empire and there are some obvious comparisons, probably unfair ones given the relative budgets, but it really held its own I thought. Worth watching anyway.

Author:	BertyBasset [ Fri Sep 13, 2013 23:26 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Do you like bleak, dark, well acted British cop / murder dramas ? Couple of new ones started recently : "What Remains" & "The Guilty". Watched the first two episodes of each so far and am enjoying both of them. If you like this sort of thing ("Broadchurch" is a well-known recent example) then these are worth checking out IMO.

Author:	zaphod79 [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:38 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Bamba wrote: ETA: I'm not saying that's better or worse, simply noting that it wouldn't happen these days. Plenty of historic and classic series were only a handful of episodes and repeats were more carefully managed back in the day when they were only filling 3 channels during a few hours in the day (daytime tv did not exist and the channels all were shut down late evening). Looking at IMBD it seems to have been split over a long time and thats probably because the people who were in the show were busy with other things Pilot in 1973 Series 1 in 1976 Series 2 in 1981 Series 3 in 1982 Series 4 in 1985 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074036/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Author:	Trooper [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:42 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I'm guessing the breaks were because the script writers needed the time to get their heads round the next complex story arc.

Author:	gospvg [ Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:08 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
My daughter made me watch Citizen Khan yesterday - sheesh it's crap !!

Author:	Kern [ Tue Nov 12, 2013 23:07 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Just caught the first part of Dominic Sandbrook's cultural history of Cold War Britain. As enjoyable as his previous series on the 1970s and his range of books. He uses a great mix of archive footage and anecdote to give a real flavour of the times. Worth catching.

Author:	Kern [ Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:44 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
markg wrote: Quite impressed by BBC2's "Peaky Blinders" last night. We ended up watching it back to back with the new Boardwalk Empire and there are some obvious comparisons, probably unfair ones given the relative budgets, but it really held its own I thought. Worth watching anyway. Yes, watched it last night. Found the lead in particular fascinating. Will definitly be watching the rest of it.

Author:	Kern [ Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:27 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Enjoyed episode two. Still can't decide if the use of modern indie music works in this show or not, however. I think I'm getting a little soft as I age, mind: ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! I felt sad both when he shot the horse, and just before when he was holding the gun to it. .

Author:	markg [ Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:35 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I'm still really impressed by it. It frequently looks absolutely amazing too, the opening scenes last night were probably the prettiest I've ever seen from a UK show.

Author:	zaphod79 [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 14:02 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a52 ... ecial.html Quote: Sir David Jason to star in 'Open All Hours' Christmas special Lynda Baron and Maggie Ollerenshaw will also return as nurse Gladys Emmanuel and Mavis in the 30-minute one-off episode Still Open All Hours. "I'm really excited to be bringing back Open All Hours," said Jason. "I am sure there is an audience out there who would like to see what Granville has been getting up to in the corner shop. "It will be a great family show for Christmas, and a fitting tribute to the legacy of Arkwright." Granville will be seen running the grocery store with his son, having inherited it from his uncle Albert Arkwright (Ronnie Barker). Roy Clarke, who wrote the original series, will return for Still Open All Hours. "This has been fun - a great opportunity to work with David Jason again and to suggest how things at that corner shop might look today," said Clarke. BBC controller of UK comedy production Mark Freeland added that he hoped the special episode "will bring broad grins to lots and lots of faces at Christmas". Open All Hours originally aired between 1973 and 1985, running for 26 episodes across four series.

Author:	Dr Zoidberg [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 14:16 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I'd much rather watch that than a new Only Fools.... Good stuff.

Author:	DavPaz [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:00 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
No Ronnie? No point.

Author:	Bamba [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:06 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
zaphod79 wrote: Open All Hours originally aired between 1973 and 1985, running for 26 episodes across four series. Jesus, it's a different (TV) world these days; can you imagine a show running over 12 years these days and only racking up 26 episodes? ETA: I'm not saying that's better or worse, simply noting that it wouldn't happen these days.

Author:	Doctor Glyndwr [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:56 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Bamba wrote: Jesus, it's a different (TV) world these days; can you imagine a show running over 12 years these days and only racking up 26 episodes? The IT Crowd ran 2006-2013 and has 25 episodes. Lewis has been running since 2007 and has 29 episodes. British TV is still pretty slow moving most of the time.

Author:	myp [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 15:56 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
DavPaz wrote: No Ronnie? No point. He's dead against the idea.

Author:	Bamba [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 16:08 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Doctor Glyndwr wrote: Bamba wrote: Jesus, it's a different (TV) world these days; can you imagine a show running over 12 years these days and only racking up 26 episodes? The IT Crowd ran 2006-2013 and has 25 episodes. Lewis has been running since 2007 and has 29 episodes. British TV is still pretty slow moving most of the time. It's definitely slower and smaller scale than US TV with it's near-minimum 20 episode seasons and whatnot but 12 years/26 episodes is still a pretty surprising a statistic I think; even your two examples there only cover half the amount of time. That said, I haven't done any real checking to see if this is still 'normal' so maybe my mental model is indeed being unduly effected by the amount of US TV I consume.

Author:	Trooper [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 16:14 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Naomi Campbell is my mental model.

Author:	zaphod79 [ Mon Oct 07, 2013 16:25 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Bamba wrote: It's definitely slower and smaller scale than US TV with it's near-minimum 20 episode seasons and whatnot but 12 years/26 episodes is still a pretty surprising a statistic I think; even your two examples there only cover half the amount of time. The time given does add 3 years between what was a 1 off 'pilot' play in 1973 and then the start of the first series in 1976 (so 3 years for it to be approved as it were). I think only the longevity of it makes it stand out - if you look at stuff like Fawlty Towers Season 1 (6 episodes) was 1975 , Season 2 (6 episodes) 1979 , if they kept going at that pace then you'd have had Season 3 in about 83 and season 4 in 86 which would have made it 24 episodes in 11 years

Author:	zaphod79 [ Wed Oct 23, 2013 14:12 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
I think everyone else gave up on this but the new (final) season of Misfits starts tonight on CH4 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/misfits

Author:	DavPaz [ Wed Oct 23, 2013 14:26 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
zaphod79 wrote: I think everyone else gave up on this but the new (final) season of Misfits starts tonight on CH4 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/misfits Stuggled with the last series. Losing most of the original cast was a huge blow.

Author:	Mr Dave [ Wed Oct 23, 2013 14:28 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
They lost all of them, didn'tthey?

Author:	zaphod79 [ Wed Oct 23, 2013 14:42 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Mr Dave wrote: They lost all of them, didn'tthey? Yip - all the originals are now gone

Author:	kalmar [ Mon Oct 28, 2013 15:25 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
"Toast of London" - Matt Berry, nonsense, it's all good.

Author:	Bamba [ Mon Oct 28, 2013 15:31 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
kalmar wrote: "Toast of London" - Matt Berry, nonsense, it's all good. Ooh, new Matt Berry stuff? Excellent, to the downloadatron!

Author:	Warhead [ Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:23 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
kalmar wrote: "Toast of London" - Matt Berry, nonsense, it's all good.

Author:	Kern [ Mon Dec 09, 2013 21:48 ]
Post subject:	Re: General Purpose UK TV thread
Just watched last week's ''Imagine' documentary on Machiavelli. Really good, even if you're not really into the game of politics. Even better, it has Peter Capaldi reading excerpts from 'The Prince'.