Author Archives: Christine

I was really looking forward to Luther, having heard of Idris Elba’s great performance and the show’s grim, twisted storylines. After the screening, which was admittedly highly stylized and cinematic in nature, I was left a bit underwhelmed, though entertained. … Continue reading →

I found it interesting in our discussion on Monday how the British classify drama into so many distinct categories. But even more so, I found it interesting how most of those categories did not seem to translate to US audiences, … Continue reading →

This post by Time TV critic James Poniewozik is about anti-hero characters on American TV, but it makes me reflect on some of the things we’ve been talking about in regard to British comedies and dramas and about how perhaps … Continue reading →

ITV’s Wild at Heart has been cancelled by ITV, even though it still does quite well in the ratings, and the cast is claiming it’s because ITV is broke from Titanic. A sizable grain of salt is required considering the … Continue reading →

The Baftas have announced the nominees for the Audience Award, with the winner chosen by popular vote (this is the one that Only Way Is Essex won last year, stunning many, including Martin Freeman). Sherlock is the only nominee we’ve … Continue reading →

A BBC arts commissioner blames low visibility for arts programming on insufficient marketing by the BBC.

“Organizers of the London Olympics approached the Who’s manager to inquire about having Keith Moon play at an Olympics event despite the drummer being dead for nearly 34 years, the Sunday Times reports.” Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/olympics-organizers-ask-keith-moon-to-play-closing-ceremony-20120413#ixzz1rzBjQQEQ

BBC3 is developing a new combo of reality TV and sketch show: “A new BBC3 sketch show will attempt to repeat the “structured reality” trick of The Only Way is Essex – but this time with laughs. Boom Town will feature a cast made up … Continue reading →

“Channel 4 has pulled a comedy sketch in which blind man groped a female nude model in life art class in front of duped students.”

Just came across this article from the NYT in 2009 discussing how the Mighty Boosh guys were hoping to succeed in America. Given that it’s 2012 and we have yet to see that happen, I guess it didn’t work out.

I saw a Twitter conversation unfold today between British TV writers Andrew Ellard and Richard Naylor about the comparative role of setting in US and UK sitcoms. Naylor wondered why so many US sitcoms have detailed, specified settings (i.e. Seinfeld … Continue reading →

More detail on the low ratings for Mad Men on Sky Atlantic.

As in the US, UK TV offers a bifurcation between single-cam sitcoms, which are considered hip and are on the whole more critically praised, and multi-cam or studio audience sitcoms, which are fewer in number, critically framed as dumbed down … Continue reading →

Here’s a profile of Armando Iannucci, the writer of The Thick of It who’s now doing the remake Veep for HBO.

If you’d like to watch some Royle Family to pair with Monday’s assigned article, this lovely person….I mean, this craven law breaker has posted all the episodes on YouTube. I’m planning to show clips from Series 2, Episode 5, “Barbara’s Finally … Continue reading →