(horrific failure to add a gif from Major League II)
My wife and I have been binging English stuff for a while now. We started with Sherlock and Death in Paradise on Netflix
We have now moved on to Midsomer Murders and Poirot on Britbox and New Tricks on Prime.
Anyone else binging? Found anything cool?
As for Brit detective stories, Endeavour is great, and has Roger Allem; I’d watch anything with him just for his voice. And Shakespeare and Hathaway are two investigators who are pretty funny.
PBS Masterpiece Theatre finished their excellent WW2 drama “World On Fire”… so they just started over, re-running episodes. Excellent dramatization of the resistance in Poland.
Now PBS is showing “Atlantic Crossing”, a beautifully-done story of Norwegian royalty fleeing to America, with Kyle McClachlan as FDR.
You can catch up on some episodes on PBS.org…
Actually, the Brits had nothing to do with Atlantic Crossing. It was a co-production of PBS and the Norwegian public broadcaster.
Line of Duty has been sweeping the UK recently with some of the biggest viewing figures for a drama in years. It’s about AC-12 who are the police force’s internal investigation unit.
It’s an ITV Production that airs on the BBC. Must be available on Britbox.
Speaking of Masterpiece – earlier this year, they ran a new adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small, which was really well-done.
I have several friends who love the comedy Derry Girls, though I haven’t watched it yet.
If you like Midsomer Murders and Poirot, you’ll also enjoy Foyle’s War, a detective series set on the south coast during World War 2.
Endeavour has been mentioned already, but the original Inspector Morse and the spinoff Lewis are also great.
We really liked Derry Girls here, and it was good to get a perspective on “The Troubles” that I hadn’t had before. I also highly recommend “Moone Boy,” which had some similar humor, especially around the Church.
Vera is one of my favorites.
I watch Heartbeat on TVO every Friday evening. It’s a long-running, kind of soap-opera-ry series about life in a small Yorkshire village during the 1960s, but it’s well done and the characters are engaging.
Doc Martin is a similar dramedy-type series set in present-day Cornwall. Martin Clunes is great as the misanthropic village GP, and the gorgeous Caroline Catz plays his wife. If it’s not currently on PBS, you can usually find it on another cable channel.
I’ve been to both Yorkshire and Cornwall. That was more than 40 years ago. I hope to God I can go back in the time I have left.
I like some of their panel shows, though many British references obviously go over my head. Prime has some episodes of QI, Mock the Week, 8 out of 10 Cats, and my favorite, Would I Lie to You. Clips and some whole episodes can be found on YouTube.
On a far darker note is Broadchurch, the story you’ve seen before about an outsider cop with a bad history we won’t know about for a while investigating a murder in a small town where everyone has secrets. Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen it before like I have, but it is still one of the most compelling series I’ve ever seen. That one is on Netflix.
Great Britain has two world-class contenders in the area of comedy. The older one is Fawlty Towers, and the new one is The IT Crowd. Honorable mention goes to the Vicar of Dibley.
You gotta check out Taskmaster, a game/panel show. I think they are actually on YouTube for free. I didn’t think I would like it but it’s one of the most delightful things on TV now.
You might like the mystery show Jonathan Creek on Britbox. It’s about a magician (or a guy who designs magic tricks actually) solving crimes. Pretty fun.
There are so many classic comedy series, it’s hard to name them all. My favorites include Dad’s Army, ’Allo, 'Allo!, The Thin Blue Line, and Smack the Pony.
I’ll also watch any cartoon from Aardman Studios.
Taskmaster is awesome, and yes, the shows are available on YouTube. Many shows are, but usually not authorized uploads. Taskmaster is available courtesy of the show owner/production company.
Someone mentioned 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown and that’s great. I also really like The Big Fat Quiz. Both are available on YouTube, though probably not officially.
Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, so I will throw in a vote for one of my favorite shows: “W1A”. It’s on Netflix.
Any show with Catherine Tait or Tracey Ullman is hilarious too.
Foxes Afloat is but one of many YouTube channels devoted to canal narrowboats. The one I like best is Cruising the Cut, by David Johns. He has recently pulled back from canal cruising a bit, and has slowed down his rate of posting new videos. But there’s a lot of older stuff there to watch if you enjoy canal boats.
I will second the suggestion of Jonathan Creek , which is available on BritBox. The early seasons are best, in my opinion. Once Caroline Quentin left, I lost interest. I also really enjoy the aforementioned Line of Duty.
My wife has been watching a cop show called The Bill, which seemingly ran forever. It’s all over YouTube. I don’t know how well it was regarded in Britain. My wife loves it, but I find it a little cheesy.
Some of the Britcoms were really funny. I particularly enjoyed Black Books and Father Ted.