I’ve been watching University Challenge on YouTube. Surprising myself with knowing some answers…until they start with the cricket and football (soccer) questions.
I’ve always liked Mastermind, ever since Magnus Magnusson was the host.
Been watching Marcella recently, which isn’t bad. You have to get through tons of personal drama that isn’t typical – though far from unknown – in English detective series but I’m entertained.
I think the queen of modern English detective series, now that Helen Mirren has moved on, could be Carey Mulligan if she should choose to do so. She was fantastic in Collateral.
Probably repeating myself but I am fascinated by Euro crime shows where gunplay rarely is written into the script. One of these days we’re gonna have to have a discussion about the impact of US crime shows on the “good guy with a gun” belief that so pervades our country.
But doesn’t that go back to the movies - Westerns, Edward G Robinson and all that?
Them, too. Yes.
Most Englishmen my age would have spent a good part of their youth running around with a cap gun shooting (Red) Indians and Germans with gay (in the old sense) abandon. Most cop shows (The Blue Lamp, Z Cars) reinforced the principle of unarmed cops defeating the bad guys, unlike the American imports where the bad guys usually ended up dead.
That was then, of course. In the era of terrorism, even quite “regular” cop shows now sometimes include officers who have (often in contested circumstances) shot someone. But that reflects current realities - how different from the furore created by even the hint, in Z-Cars, of a police officer involved in domestic violence!
The recent megahit show Line of Duty (a British police procedural following an anti-corruption unit) has a lot of gunplay. That said, the shooting is mostly performed by Authorised Firearms Officers who have completed the appropriate risk assessments. It’s an odd mix of high-octane thrills and paperwork.
Actually, I think that it’s not typical for anyone to end up dead on American police shows. I’d have to spend a while looking through a list of such shows to know for sure. Most of them end up with the criminal getting arrested or going to prison after a trial.
I was on that. 
But The Sweeney overlaps with the last years of Z Cars, and that was pretty violent.
Yeah, yeah.
We believe you !
(ie, PICS !)
Don’t have any! I think a couple of friends took screenshots when it was shown. Several people on here know me in person and know I was on it.
I didn’t win. Scored a respectable 23 - only actually got three wrong, plus one pass; I was fast, but my questions were long. The winner was the highest scorer of the new scoring era (at least at the time; I haven’t checked. And he was lovely - all us contestants went out and got erm, well-oiled, after the recording). So it’s an honourable loss.
We are binging Poirot right now.
Poirot had to be, HAD TO BE, the basis for Monk.
I tried out for it twice during the three years I lived in England. I didn’t get chosen either time. I know slightly someone who was the overall winner for one year.
If I may ask, what was your category?
I’ll message you.
If you look at the other character names, you may see hints of another famous detective.
That’s pretty good under pressure. While I am a repository of useless trivia, I strongly suspect that my brain would completely freeze up were I in the chair.
I’ve been bingeing on Q.I. lately, and I’ll say this about the British. They can make the most vulgar subject sound cultured and dignified.
One question host Stephen Fry asked was “What did Watson do eight times, but Holmes only once?” The answer: he ejaculated. Back on Doyle’s time, “ejaculate” meant more along the lines of “exclaimed.” The panelists had a field day with that one. They worked in every ejaculate pun they could think of with the dignity of generals awarding medals.