Much like North American TV, then. I dunno about those old shows representing British culture or life to any degree of accuracy, I just find them very funny.
I meant to say it's current TV that stinks, but yeah I agree that there have been some great shows in the past (you missed Only Fools and Horses).
Hey, Mindfield. Where you born in England by any chance? Or have you lived over here for a while? It's just you seem kind of English in some of the vocabulary you use and also a while ago you noticed me using some cockney slang.
You're right about current TV -- on both sides of the pond, really. I never got to see Only Fools and Horses though, but I'm trying to catch up on great Britcoms I never got to watch years ago. Hard to find some of 'em, but whenever I come across something on my impromptu list, I'll grab it. No, born and bred in Canada, but I grew up with a lot of British shows. TVO in Ontario, and WNED (PBS) in Buffalo would often carry Britcoms or British shows, so I'd watch them on cable. I loved watching them, always liked the accents, so I suppose over the years I've absently picked up a bit of the vernacular. Plus, I've always had aspirations to be a writer, so incorporating new words, slang, synonyms, and such into my vocabulary has been something I've always done, and the English have a crapload of fun slang terms and colloquialisms. My maternal grandfather was British too, so I suppose that played a part as well.
Favorite moments from the BBC: Little Britain: First Season with Daffyd (I am da gay!) and Ting Tong (Pwease Mr. Dudwee, one more night) League of Gentlemen: "It's a local shop!" Young Ones: "That's Rick with a silent P." Monty Python: Mr Neutron sketch "OK! Hold everything! Hold everything! Hold it! Lay off! Lay off... Where is he?" Lifeboat sketch: Sailor #5: Listen...chaps...there's still a chance. I'm...done for, I've...got a gamy leg and I'm going fast; I'll never get through. But...some of you might. So...you'd better eat me. Sailor #1: Eat you, sir? Sailor #5: Yes. Eat me. Sailor #2: Iiuuhh! With a gamy leg? Sailor #5: You didn't eat the leg, Thompson. There's still plenty of good meat. Look at that arm. Sailor #3: It's not just the leg, sir. Sailor #5: What do you mean? Sailor #5: Well, sir...it's just that - Sailor #5: Why don't you want to eat me? Sailor #3: I'd rather eat Johnson, sir! (points to sailor #4) ANYTHING FROM DOCTOR WHO AND THE CURSE OF FATAL DEATH!!!!! And the most under rated Doctor: Peter Davison (who also played the meat of the day in Hitchhikers)
Both great shows, but SCTV was my favourite. Pretty dated stuff, but even watching it today there's some great funny moments, and some great stars came out of that show. Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis, Martin Short. About the only one from that show that didn't make it huge was Joe Flaherty, who mostly turned up in bit parts in movies that had other SCTV alum in it.
Oh right, now I understand. Yeah, there are tons of accents, slang terms, colloquialisms etc from different areas of the England and the UK. Being English myself, it feels like regional accents/dialects vary more so than in the US. But I can't really tell as I'm not very familiar with US accents.
The League of Gentlemen is awesome, one of the few modern comedies worth watching. I just wish they'd keep it going. Other notable suggestions would be Phoenix Nights, Saxondale, I'm Alan Partridge, Black Books, The Mighty Boosh and Peep Show. Apparently Red Dwarf series 10 is due to start filming in January, and 11 is also on the cards. There is no series 9 due to that dreadful "Back to Earth" special messing up the timeline. As long as they manage to recliam the show's former glory I might just be able to forget that thing ever existed.
Thanks for the suggestions, Mid. I'm gonna check out each one. "Back to Earth" sucked so bad it made cheap geriatric hookers look good. I'd love to hear one person say they liked it so we can all chastise the hell out of them. Oh! And we're forgetting "The Office".
I Love the Mighty Boosh. Also I've enjoyed watching the IT Crowd. Lot's of nerdy references in there to keep me entertained.
There aren't really that many variations in accents in the US and Canada. In the US you've got New York (esp. Brooklyn/The Bronx) as seen spoken by stereotypical New York Italian tough guys; Boston (think Cliffy on Cheers), Minnesota (think the movie Fargo), and the common southern accents of Texas and surrounding areas everyone's probably heard. In Canada we have what I'd call no accent (like the rest of the US, just a normal North American dialect), Francophone, and Newfoundland ("Newfie") which is essentially an anglicized Irish. I've heard of the many different dialects in England though from a friend of mine who lived there for a few years. Londoner, Cockney, Brummie, Manchester, to name a few. I always found that kind of interesting given England's size and compactness.
I never saw the "Back to Earth" thing, which is apparently a fortunate thing, but I have up to series 8. Was this Back to Earth thing anything to do with Bob Grant/Doug Naylor books? And Benny Hill. I should have added that in my list. Good old risque slapstick fun.
I don't think so. It was a special produced so they could gauge the public response and figure out if it was worth making another series. It was full of self-referencing jokes, bad jokes and reused jokes, the public pretty much shunned it. It was painful to watch since I've loved everything about the show since I was a kid. Somehow though, they decided to go ahead with another series anyway despite the negative backlash...
Read the books. Nothing in common. Nothing. Loved Benny. The theme is one of my ringtones and I got my photo with him (sorta) at Madame Tusseuds! How could I leave him out! I also love Eddie Izzard and Dame Edna, possums! (those two should get together)
Maybe they realized a show with a bunch of recycled and overused crap in it wasn't a very good yard stick. Either way I'm glad to hear they're making another couple of series. Loved the entire series up to this point (special notwithstanding since I haven't seen it and probably won't) and loved the books, too, though Grant and Naylor should have kept collaborating instead of splitting up to do their own individual books. Never really cared for Izzard for some reason. I just didn't really find him all that funny. He has his moments, though. Dame Edna is funny though.
Eddie Izzard is strange, in that he kills his own jokes. He's a funny guy and I find lots of the stuff he says clever and humourous, but then... he carries on with it, dragging out the same joke until I'm left thinking "well, the first line was good".
I totally understand what you mean. Then he looses himself and starts joking about jam! Ha! I just think its funny how he gets so far off tangent and then somehow comes back. Also he does a good Sean Connery doing God.
Any other Doctor Who fans have the hots for Tegan? Whoo boy! I was about 16 then and she gave me screamin' thigh sweats! Good golly Miss Molly!
