British Shows - Recommendations Needed
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Anonymous
| ^^agreed. Brit/Australian actors get their jobs based on talent. I love that they’re so normal-looking. And many live in normal housing and drive regular cars. A breath of fresh air. |
Anonymous
Truth. |
Anonymous
| I'm the Brit who posted the long list above. Be kind to yourselves, Americans! I still love lots of American shows - The Americans, Breaking Bad, the West Wing, Friday Night Lights, Homeland before it went crazy, House of Cards before it went bad, etc. I think the acting in most of those is excellent. |
Anonymous
Oh - DH and I have already started noticing that! the acting is so SO far superior. I wonder why that is, that the quality of the acting is so much better. |
Anonymous
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The Great British Baking show is so good. I can never get over how kind the contestants are to one another. It's nothing like Food Network or Top Chef.
I use to watch an animated show years ago called Bob And Margaret. It's probably on YouTube. Not quite like the Simpsons or Family Guy but for adults. |
Anonymous
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There's a show from 2009-2010ish that you can find on Hulu. Supersizers Go. It stars Sue Perkins from Great British Baking. She and the other host each episode spend a week living (and mostly eating) like a different period in British History. It's both educational and also hysterically funny. Since for most of these eras, water wasn't drinkable...the hosts are pretty much drunk the whole time.
It may be my favorite show of all time. |
Anonymous
Some of it has to do with the way British and American actors are trained. Americans are more likely to be trained in "method acting," which can certainly create great performers (Dustin Hoffman was an extreme method actor, for example). But it also means that if the source material is weaker, American actors may not be able to overcome it, because they haven't learned other ways to convey emotion and depth. (My favorite story comes from the filming of the movie Marathon Man, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier. Hoffman had filmed a scene in which his character had not slept for three days. Hoffman looked like hell, and admitted that he had not slept for three days, either, in order to achieve emotional verisimilitude. Olivier famously responded, "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?") A lot of British television and movie actors came up through the theater world, and many continue to do both. And the ability to convey emotion even when you aren't feeling it yourself is even more important in live theater--you can't do multiple takes until you get yourself in the right head space, and you have to repeat the performance night after night. And American actors are often chosen more for looks, so you have very attractive people who aren't the best actors. |
Anonymous
New poster. PP, are you watching the older, Mel/Sue/Mary/Paul version of GBBO (as the Brits call the "Great British Bake-Off," titled "Baking Show" in the US due to that litigious Pillsbury Dough-Boy and his lawyers)? Did you know that Noel Fielding (who starred in "The Mighty Boosh") is now one of the two hosts of the newer edition of GBBO? If you love Boosh, just wait until you see Noel and his legendary shirts inside the baking tent. Anyway. Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig took over the hosting duties from Mel & Sue when GBBO, as the Brits call it, moved to another network. I personally love both Noel and Sandi, but just want baking show fans to know that the hosts do change. Stick with it -- it remains the most supportive and friendly competition ever. I loved Mel & Sue as well, but was tickled to see GBBO embrace the oddness of Noel, and I have always loved Sandi Toksvig.. It's an adjustment if you're a huge Mel & Sue fan but give Noel time to become your new, insanely dressed friend who rocks the guy-liner. I also tip my hat to your Alan Partridge mention, PP. Knowing me, knowing you, a-haaaa..... To the OP: Now, see what you started here? Bless you. Randomly, another huge vote for "W1A" and its predecessor series, "2012." Both are "mockumentary" reports on, respectively, the inner workings of the BBC and the 2012 Olympic organizers. Either you will love them or hate them, especially W1A, which takes infuriatingly inane workplace communications to new heights (or depths) of pure repetitive idiocy. It's...genius, to me, but I guarantee you will want to chuck something at your TV when the characters start another circular conversation.... |
Anonymous
You can also find chunks of Supersizers Go on YouTube if you don't want to pay for Hulu! It's like that show "Drunk History" only better because, well, Sue. |
Anonymous
Again, also available (legit!) on YouTube. Love Tony Robinson as a host of these and other shows. If you like the Walking through History series, look up Time Team (ran forever, tracks archaeological digs) and also in random documentaries in a series called Timeline (which features many unrelated docs). If you like British history documentaries, may I recommend anything with these historians: Lucy Worsley -- the most game historian ever, never met a costume she wouldn't wear or a historic pursuit she wouldn't try herself Dan Brown -- coolest kid in your college history class, the leather-jacketed dude who is all about Plantagenets and bloody battles Helen Castor -- your favorite professor, rather a cool presentation but always, always puts women at their rightful place in history |
Anonymous
| In addition to many of the other great suggestions in this thread, you might want to try "The Five" on Netflix. |
Anonymous
| + 1 for Scott and Bailey, it is like the best kind of brain candy. |
Anonymous
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Here’s a good list of British period dramas compiled by Vulture.
https://www.vulture.com/2016/10/british-tv-period-dramas-sorted-chronologically.html |
Anonymous
Oh thanks for reminding me of these - 2012 and W1A - I loved them! That girl.. Siobhan Sharpe.. I've met so many people like her in work settings, I loved her and those programs! And sad that GBBO is finished for the year again, I wasn't sure if I'd like it after it moved to C4 but it really is just a great format and it works just as well. Loved Rahul! |
Anonymous
| A Very British Scandal, miniseries on Amazon, with Hugh Grant as Prime Minister, was brilliant. Funny, outrageous, and true! It was unlike anything I’ve seen. |