Television programmes

Maybe if you bought a tv and paid the fee maybe there would be more of it

Cheeky young Ally!
Not my fault you don't need a tv licence to watch the i-player- thats the law- I simply take advantage of that law.
And I refuse to fund Eastenders, endless antique and house hunting shows and makeover programs- the BBC shouldn't be making those- leave that to commercial stations.

the hollow crown does look fantastic, I guess us over here in the US may have to sit on our thumbs and wait for it.

the Hollow Crown looks fab, I wonder if I can find it on one of Pettys Romanian websites?

I do like a good make over show though the one with the sadistic blonde in glasses is weirdly satisfying.

Its the first of four. Next up Henry IV pt 1 & pt 2 and lastly Henry V- cant wait.

And nothing wrong with makeover shows if they're your thing Mrs Figg- I just don't think its the sort of thing the BBC should be spending licence fee money on. Not like there is a shortage of such shows on commercial tv.
The BBC is in a unique position- they don't need to be populist to attract advertising money- they can take risks, take chances on new writers, new show types. Yet they hardly ever do these days- instead they try to compete for ratings with ITV- ITV do X-factor, BBC do a version of The Voice to compete.
ITV have a leading soap, so the BBC has to have a leading soap- but they don't have to do any of that- ITV need it to attract advertisers the Beeb don't.

{{{And I can take a hint Mrs Figg- I'm searching it out for you, no luck so far}}}

the one with Tom Hiddleston?? I WANNA SEE IT SO BAD!

Yeah he's in the three Henry films. Not sure when they are due to be shown.

Here's the trailer for Henry IV Part 1 (well so its called but there is clearly chunks of Henry V in there too)


And a clip from Richard II where the dying Sir John of Gaunt chastises the King.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpA9-GGA0g&feature=related

And a bit of Hnery V

oh my... I want this nooow!! D: oh Tom Hiddleston!! *-* <3 asjkbgasbg!!!

Bit of sloppiness on the Daily Show (Global edition) which opened on a speil about how wrong it was to rename Big Ben 'Elizabeth Towers' as a gift to the Queen- except the tower is not called Big Ben- thats the name of the bell. They only changed the name of the Tower its in. A quick check on wiki could have told them that!- very sloppy. I expect better from you Mr Stewart!

It's also commonly used as slang to refer to the tower as a whole. Anecdotally, I've never heard the tower referred to as anything else before tonight. At least one notable dictionary agrees with me.

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/big-ben

It is true people commonly refer to the entire thing as 'Big Ben' but this has never been accurate and most Brits know its not technically accurate (although few most likely could have told you what the tower was called before). It was simply called, rather dully, The Clock Tower of Westminister, it is now, in recognition of Elizabeth II's long and popular reign renamed Elizabeth Tower- the bell however is still Big Ben. People will still refer to it as Big Ben and are no more likely to start calling it Elizabeth Tower than they were Westminister Clock Tower.
The Daily Show piece was on the basis that the name Big Ben had been replaced and was no longer going to be used- it has not, neither in actuality nor in peoples minds.

Makes sense. I guess they couldn't be arsed to brush up on all of of you limey's words.

limey- is that a word for Brits or the English?

Royal Navy. And by extension, all their countrymen.

this came up as an alternativ after the henri IV video.

I'm gonna leave now. Bye. (sorry)

Love The Office, priceless TV show

I just watched the latest in the BBC's Shakespeare Season- Henry IV Part 2.

Part 1 was on last week. I had only read the play once and it had not leapt off the page at me in the way others did. I have never seen it performed and usually thats the problem. Usually you see facets you had not seen reading off the page.
But Part 1 was much the same on screen as it was on the page for me in that the story, for Shakespeare, seems really straight forward.
King who got crown by deposing the old King is getting old. His heir to the throne, Harry, however is spending his time with disreputable types, getting drunk in taverns and shagging a lot.
Thats pretty much it, insert inbetween humorous drunken japes, some thievery and a bit of debauchery.

But here's the thing, having watched Part 2 Part 1 starts to be seen in a new light. This is really brave stuff, then as now.
Imagine a set of films is announced from a famous director (no one knows writers anymore except Moffat, but he's a God ) and the first one comes out- its over 3 hours long and all it does it set up the scene and the characters for the rest of the parts. Its story elements aren't really that satisfying in and of themselves as they are only parts of a much bigger overall plot line.
Even in Shakespeare day this must have been a risk; writing a play, rehearsing it, sorting the stage directions and props and putting it on for a run (then as now longer the better) it could easily be as long then between parts as between films is now.

But it works. Subtelties sown early on come to harvest later in big payoffs.
And I can easily see why crowds of the day and ever since have loved the old rogue Falstaff, and despite him getting stick from some I thought Simon Russell Beale was excellent in the role.

My only real question here is why? Whats wrong with watching the UK superior original? We watch loads of US shows here- why can't the US watch UK shows as they are without feeling they have to remake them (badly and less successfully) every time?

As a fan of American teen movies/shows of all decades (well 80s+) I think I could get into this show. As the trailer seems just like your typical Jonah Hill movie, I think I may like it to some degree

Though every joke in the trailer seems to be from the UK version. If it's an identical remake I will not watch!

I watched the finale to the Shakespeare season: Henry V.
Been really looking forward to this. One of my favourite plays and done with the skill and money of the BBC- shame then I thought it was pretty bloody awful.
I dont know if it was because I knew the play so well or not but it semeed crudely abbreviated compared to the others but worse were some of the choices made regards Henry's famous troop rousing speeches- for some reason, best known to themselves, they opted to have Henry give these speeches with barely a change in his voice to a small group of his closest knights and lords, rather than to rouse the mass of troops.
I found it flat, unmoving and lacking in any sense of drama and pace.
Hugely, hugely disappointed. Watch Brannaghs version instead is a hundred times better than this lukewarm version.


Some kind soul has put the entire Richard II up on youtube however- it was superb and a fine start to the season- shameit went downhill from there.
But this is class stuff:

I was watching that! My main quibble was that entire scene with the Princess speaking French with no subtitles! Also, I didn't know the Duke of York was black back then. My cousin had a few quibbles about the no singing, no boys & luggage & no traitors and he said he didn't like the 'glove scene'. I was like WTF dude I'm struggling enough to understand the plot as it is

Well there wouldnt have been subtitles when Shakespeare put the play on either Ally- not sure if this meant that more folks back then spoke French- quite likely. Or if he reckoned there was enough English in it to still make sense if you don't.

Can't believe the BBC left the traitors scene out- its iconic- and the scene where the French nip round the back and kill the baggage and the boys- its after that Henry gives his "I was not mad until this moment" speech and orders the French prisoners be killed in retailation- in the BBC version, which misses out the baggage and the boys, Henry just seems like a violent nutter when he declares he is going to kill the prisoners just because Essex got killed in the battle. Completely undermines the whole message Henry has been preaching to his men the entire time. Poor stuff I thought.

Heres what you missed Ally- the traitor scene form Brannaghs version. (Henry's speech in this version has been abbreviated still however) This vid starts a little late- what the Chorus has just told the audience is that Henry has found out about the traitors- but they dont know he knows.



And in my view this is a much more rousing, moving version of the 'we happy few' speech than the lucklustre version in the BBC's.



Id recommend giving the Brannagh version a watch.