I just saw an ep of Eastenders today. Miserable old Pauline doesn’t want lezzy Sonya to visit with Chloe and wants her and Martin to be her only ‘parents’…I first started watching 20 years ago. As the old joke goes, ‘so it was later, the same day, that…’
Since the OP didn’t specify that it had to be a TV show I’ll mention “The News Quiz” which I save, looking forward to listening to it on my drive to work Monday Morning. Runner up would be Melvyn Bragg’s “In Our Time.”
So many, but:
Inspector Morse
Inspector Lewis
Broadchurch
Good Neighbors
Fawlty Towers
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Grantchester
Life on Mars
The Two Ronnies
I, Claudius
To the Manor Born
Top Gear
Blackadder
Ashes to Ashes
'Allo 'Allo
Yes, Minister
Yes, Prime Minister
Sharpe (entire series)
Father Brown
All Creatures Great and Small
I could go on and on
A small update to this.
Additions: Doc Martin (should have added this then…used to be a HUGE PBS staple of mine several years ago), Father Brown, and Sherlock (THE UTMOST BRILLIANT MODERNIZATION EVER…I was very hesitant as a Sherlockian who is an immense fan of the original canon, but am so, SO glad I took the plunge.)
Hoping to add: Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (got’em lined up on my Netflix queue…after finishing Sherlock, plan to watch Strange/Norrell next for Halloween viewing).
I loved Sister Wendy. And Benny Hill.
Miss Marple and Poirot
Keeping Up Appearances
Are You Being Served?
Looking back over the thread, I’m surprised to realize that no one (including me) has mentioned Mulberry. I rather enjoyed it for the short time that it was shown here.
In the US, it was just called UFO. Project UFO was a different program running at the same time, purporting to be based on actual Air Force UFO reports.
As a youngster, I enjoyed the Anderson shows: Supercar, Fireball XL-5, Stingray (I used to have a Troy Tempest hand puppet), Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. They also did a Western called Four Feather Falls that I only learned of recently. But we didn’t get Joe 90 over here, as far as I remember.
I watched the live-action shows, too, but IMHO the puppets were less wooden.
The Great British Baking Show. Everyone is so humble and nice to one another!
How do people get British TV? I know a few of these mentioned are on PBS, but most I’ve never heard of. Are they on the internet? Does cable offer BBC?
There is a cable channel called BBC America, although it shows programs from ITV, Channel 4 and other UK outlets as well as BBC stuff. (And increasingly, non-British content, like Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it’s just started to show CSI: Miami. At least with TNG, they have the excuse that the lead actor is British.) Other shows are available via Region 1 DVDs but you have to seek them out. And there’s a streaming service called Acorn TV that shows a lot of stuff, mostly detective dramas from what I can tell.
Peep Show, which I love, has been mentioned. I was recently shown a clip by someone on this Board of another show by the two Peep Show guys called That Mitchell and Webb Look. You can find various clips on YouTube. Hilarious.
gently smacks her head I can’t believe I forgot it myself…I LOVED Mulberry when my PBS carried it a few years ago. Very, very underrated show…I just wish it had a longer run and a proper ending (we never found out if Mulberry would side with his father, Death, or his mother, Springtime/Life…but based on his overall gentle and at times comical nature, I think I know which way I would have bet).
A previous post reminded me of YouTube. A fair number of UK shows are available, in whole or in part, on YouTube. I’ve been spending down time at work watching old episodes of QI, for which entire episodes are on YouTube.
Yeah, I’ve been playing The Champions, Department S, The Vicar of Dibley, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and The Baron (which I’d never heard of before) on YouTube while working around the house. Haven’t been giving them my full attention, but, hey, it’s YouTube; if something sounds interesting I can play it back.
Acorn TV, baby!
Only mentioned once so far, and it’s worth another, One Foot in the Grave. Had one of the best final episodes ever; not the laugh riot of Newhart, but beautiful in its own way.
And there’s an Australian show I loved that I think would appeal to the same fans who like British comedies, The Games. It was a faux documentary about the organizing of the Sydney Olympics. If you’ve ever seen the youtube clip The Front Fell Off it’s the same guys who made The Games, and the same sort of deadpan humor.
And there was a show ages ago that ran on Masterpiece Theater in the U.S., Private Schulz. It was a comedy about a German petty criminal during World War II who gets involved with an SS scheme to crash the British economy by flooding it with perfect forgeries of 5-pound notes. Haven’t thought of that show in ages. Looks like it’s on youtube; I’ll have to check it out again.
I find the format of the questions very interesting. And you’re right, it is incredibly difficult. I think it would be a bit easier if I knew the cultural references (or if there was an American version); I’m never going to get a question about Blue Peter presenters.
In the newer area:
Line of Duty
Our Girl (well the first series with Lacey Turner as the lead)
George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces / Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year
Sherlock
I watch a lot of documentaries (mostly on public broadcasting) and have never seen a British one that wasn’t fascinating. I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Connections yet; I remember James Burke also had a regularly scheduled science show with audience participation when I lived in Britain during the '70s.
My favorite documentaries will always be The World at War and The Ascent of Man.
(Incidentally, I’m a fan of just about every other show mentioned in this thread.)
Has anyone mentioned The Prisoner yet? (The original, with Patrick McGoohan.) Or, for that matter, McGoohan’s Danger Man (aka Secret Agent)? Another such show I liked was The Persuaders, with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. (Sadly, it only lasted one season.)
Game shows: ***Weakest Link ***and Mastermind.
A comedy I watched several years ago on BBC Entertainment: My Family.