Forums » Smalltalk » British TV

So...noticed something on the darth vs andryn thread...people here actually know what Sherlock is! I love that show!(Was also excited to see Sherlock and Watson were Smaug and Bilbo in the new Hobbit movie) And Doctor Who...Merlin as well! Anybody else around here love watching British tv?

So can't wait for the Doctor Who Christmas Special!

Bwahaha. Yes indeedy. LOVE my British tv. Jekyl and Being Human also rock. Primeval, and of course Doctor Who, Sherlock, Merlin, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Luther (though I regret that I haven't seen much of this show), I'm sure there are more...but my brain is gone right now.

Merlin's good. I'm not a fan of Doctor Who, but I have a rather large weak spot for the likes of "Allo Allo", "Dad's Army" and "Are you being served?" *is British*

I'm happy to watch most of the shows that have been discussed so far in this thread. Looking forward to the next few episodes of Merlin.

The other show I enjoy is Spooks, which is a very gritty and deadly serious spy drama. Sadly it ended after 10 seasons earlier this year but I've been rewatching the occasional old episode since. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock/Smaug) was in one of the episodes I saw the other day.

Speaking of which, they've released a picture of Martin Freeman as Bilbo. For those who want to see Link

Like disducibus, I'm also British

I tried to explain the concept of 'Dr Who' to my Japanese teacher today. I think I made a mess of it .

Ah...you lucky British people! We don't get season 4 of Merlin here until our "Syfy" channel picks it up in January. Mostly what we get to see of your tv over here is what airs on BBCA. We have our own version of Being Human too, which I am enjoying a lot, but I'd love to see the original too.

As long as you didn't try and use the Amy Pond intro to explain it Claine. I don't think anything could mess it up more than that. I hate that thing! Makes The Doctor sound like he's Amy's imaginary friend

It's interesting to see what you guys 'across the pond' are actually watching, makes me want to see if I can find some episodes online or something. To me, British tv seems really different than American tv, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

I'm so excited for The Hobbit! And Darth, I could listen to you read that whole book haha. I love your accent. (Off topic and not British tv but oh well)

I was going to make a topic about some of this, but since this is here, I'll res this up instead. I have, legitimately, not seen very much british television at all. I've heard great things about it from my friends who do partake in it, especially the Who stuff, and I've only seen a wee little bit of Merlin, but for the most part it's an unexplored horizon for me. Is there anything you guys would recommend? I'm open to most types of humour (you see what I did thar?) and would like to get into it a little bit, just to see what's out there. American television is getting pretty dull - we can only launch spinoffs of Family Guy and the Simpsons so much, and reality shows got old for me before they were even being aired. so wut do gaiz

Well depending on what you like, I highly recommend Doctor Who and Merlin. If you have netflix, or access to netflix from a friend, all of it is in there. I'd start from the 2005 "9th" doctor era, since that's what is most popular right now. Plus you don't even need to know anything about Doctor Who to start from there, it'll fill you in on the back story as you go along. I'd watch it in order, though you don't need to...until you get to the 11th Doctor stuff.

Merlin is also a good series, but I'm not sure if it's in netflix or not. I like how they've twisted the classic king Arthur tale and turned it on its head. You've still got all the same characters, just...not in the roles you'd be expecting to see them. Merlin and Arthur are the same age for instance, and Merlin is Arthur's servant.

If you like mystery stories, I'd also highly suggest Sherlock. It's set in a more modern day London, and I love the spin Moffat is putting on it.

However like I said above, I'm really limited on what British tv I can see, since I only get what's on BBCA, or in itunes. Not sure if the stuff I listed is really generic or not lol. But I enjoy them! if you find something else you like, come back here and share it with us!

Merlin is indeed on Netflix, also if you do have Netflix I'd highly recommend the Catherine Tate Show. Very entertaining comedy sketches.

Doctor Who from 2005 onwards is worth watching in order. As Loki said, you don't have to but there is still a rough storyarc to it.

And if you find yourself enjoying Doctor Who, there's the more adult themed spinoff, Torchwood. There are a few crossovers in both shows, so if you want I can provide the correct viewing order.

Older British comedy shows I can recommend include Red Dwarf (imagine a scifi sitcom about the last human alive) and Blackadder (each season is set in a different period of British history).

If you like Simon Pegg, Spaced is a great show to watch. He and Nick Frost created it before they got into movies and each episode is basically a parody of a different part of geek culture.

QI is a quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry. They cover little known facts about a range of subjects. Always interesting and always very funny.

Spooks is the spy show I mentioned before. Not much in the way of comedy there but it is an excellent drama series. I believe it was renamed MI-5 in the US.

Thanks Loki

I don't think I'll be reading the whole book but I'm glad you like the accent. If you do want to hear more of it, I'm in all the RPR videos on YouTube except for the song.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it greatly . While my current internet connection is a bit... derp, I do have a friend that has access to Netflix. I think I'll start with the new Who stuff like everyone suggested, and look into almost everything that Darth mentioned.

Man. British television sure is fluffy.

Did you know Doctor Who tv signals have been bouncing back to Earth in space after almost 50 years?

http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm

"And speaking of which we have just started the digital recovery of signals that contain lost Doctor Who episodes."

Black Books

Oh my gosh! I can't believe I forgot about Torchwood!! I love Captain Jack Harkness. Not sure how I feel about Miracle Day, not even sure that it counts as British tv

If you're gonna start with Doctor Who, I just wanna mention that series(season) 4 ends in a set of specials that -must- be watched in order. I'm sure anyone that watches it on the boards could give you the correct viewing order if/when you make it to that point In general I'd watch the whole thing in order, but I'm super picky like that. I know a lot of people that skip around though. Drives me batty!

Here's the correct viewing order for Doctor Who and Torchwood:

• Doctor Who season 1 and 2
• Torchwood season 1
• Doctor Who season 3
• Torchwood season 2
• Doctor Who season 4
• Torchwood season 3 (Children of Earth)
• The Doctor Who specials (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time Part 1 and 2)
• Doctor Who season 5 and 6
• Torchwood season 4 (Miracle Day) takes place during Doctor Who season 6 but there are no crossovers.

Loki, I didn't enjoy Miracle Day much either, it didn't really feel like Torchwood at all.

Darth, I wish I knew you when I started watching Who in the beginning. I was SO out of order that when I finally rewatched everything my first Doctor was 10 and he was regenerating within about a dozen episodes for me. Oi, I suggest that you definitely watch in the correct order. And Torchwood in order is fun! You notice a lot of things that way! (And it's less confusing later.)

Yeah, I watched all of Doctor Who, then went back and watched Torchwood and got really confused on the timeline. Wish I had known it went in that order when I watched!

And yeah...I dunno. I didn't really feel for the new characters in Miracle Day. Even Jack seemed a little lackluster. I was like...ready for aliens! Children of Earth was amazing, but I miss the old...serial? type episodes where they were looking for aliens lol as far as I know it's on hiatus for now, and there are talks of John Barrowman maybe returning to Who for the 50th anniversary. I sure hope so, Captain Jack is one of my favorite companions!

I'd talk more about Miracle Day but I dunno how to do spoiler tags and I don't wanna ruin it for anybody else

Just a note for anyone that was curious about Sherlock, it's only $7 this week in the itunes store! The download is for all 3 episodes of series 1.

A very good deal. It's worth mentioning that even though it's only three episodes, they are feature length.

Here's the trailer for the show, if anyone is wondering what it is

I remember loving me some Cracker and Wire In The Blood.

I mean, I'm a real sucker for lots of crime shows anyway, but they were both excellent, and started up quite a few years before Criminal Minds did.

And the things that went on in Cracker and Wire In The Blood made almost all the crime shows in America look like complete wusses by comparison.

Acting was also excellent.

My parents were also really into Spooks, but I didn't bother to watch it much for some stupid reason.
I guess being a stupid teenager that was all "EW TV WITH MOM AND DAD?!" had something to do with it.
Need to get around to watching it somehow.

I also liked a bit of Merlin, but it's one of those shows I just get tired of if there's too much of it at once, you know?

Dad was also pretty fond of Midsomer Murders, but my mom usually fell asleep when it was on. Long as hell episodes, man.

Also really liked A Touch of Frost.

Right now he's watching the "Masterpiece Mysteries" series/collections/whathaveyou on PBS when he can DVR them.

I guess all these crime shows are basically the way we pull our Father/Son bonding off.