Jonathan welcome back to the anglotopia podcast howdy howdy that's an indiana greeting right i guess you're like i'm not gonna touch that so we're gonna do british tv this week because Jonathan british tv is the by far the most popular thing on angletopia there's lots of ground in the cover but what we want to focus on is our first exposures to uh our each of us will talk about our favorite british tv shows dramas and comedies and then i want to do a roundup of all the ways you can watch british tv now because there's we're in the golden age of british tv right now and there's so many ways you can watch it so there's lots to cover so why don't we start with your british tv first okay so um Jonathan I was as far as teenagers go I was a I was like one of those I was a homebody like I had a couple really I had a couple really close friends and um my ideal Friday night was as a teenager was um or excuse me Saturday night was my local PBS station used to air old black and white movies And so, like, that was my idea of a good time. But before they would air the movies, they would show two British shows. They would show As Time Goes By with Judi Dench. Great show. I always thought that her character in that show was the epitome of class. Just very distinguished and elegant and ladylike and, like, something to strive for. Like, hashtag life goals right there. to my, you know, 16 year old self. And then my other, the other show, and it, it's also made an impression on me, John would say, would be keeping up appearances with Mrs. Bouquet, no, Mrs. Bucket, and her love of doing all things proper and British. And I just adore her. Like she's my spirit animal yeah yeah um but those were my those were my first um kind of exposure to british tv it was minimal but i tuned in every week to see to see you know the hijinks that hyacinth got up to um because they were always fantastic and yeah that's that's i mean i don't have a lot to go on there i what i didn't have cable my at the time my internet access was extremely limited well and Jonathan like for context you weren't really an anglophile not at all so you just liked it because you liked it it wasn't because it was british exactly so you become an anglophile by proxy later on yes Jonathan so anglophile at gunpoint no i'm not kidding just totally kidding Jonathan so my british tv first yeah this is fresh because i actually wrote about this in the book i'm working on right now but my the first really british tv show i remember watching is mr bean oh yeah on pbs yeah on pbs yes and i remember late at night in the summer like i would turn i turned it on and like there was this weird british guy who didn't say anything yeah like it was Jackie slightly off it was slightly but in a charming way and it was hilarious and like and like mr bean Jonathan was my spirit animal oh my god yeah if i'm if i'm hyacinth and you're mr bean can you folks can you imagine what that marriage looks like i'm just saying oh we should have got the mr we should um for those of you who are watching this on you you well not bobblehead you have the car too yeah so Jonathan anyway yeah so i was a huge mr bean fan i just i loved it like uh it's difficult to explain why I mean, it's just, I liked his ridiculous adventures around Britain, and I liked seeing all the very British places. And keep in mind, this was British in the late 80s, early 90s. So, you know, some episodes of Mr. Bean are pretty bleak. Jonathan I always liked that he just, like, I'm going to say something very un-PC, and so I apologize ahead of time for the swear. Mr. Bean just does not take any crap. He just is like... Jonathan Just gives no Fs. Jonathan yeah he's just like yeah i'm not gonna do that i don't care about social protocol like no and for for that i kind of love him a little bit which is not like you by the way i just want to point that Jonathan out by follow the rules so um yeah so i think my favorite episode mr bean was the one where he goes to the school on the school open day oh yeah that's probably my that's probably classic being for me and I just love this image it painted of England and like I just loved it and Jonathan yeah Jonathan I watched every episode of Mr. Bean and that was that was my first Jonathan is that the one where he puts the chair on top of the car? Jonathan no Jonathan I think that's probably my favorite Mr. Bean episode where he puts the chair on top of the car so good Jonathan and now since then Mr. Bean has become Jonathan with their movies well he's Jonathan he's recognized worldwide Jonathan because it's Ron Atkinson Jonathan Well, they were able to license the show because there was no language barrier. So everybody knows who Mr. Bean is in the farthest quarters of the world. Jonathan What does that say about human culture, though, too, that Mr. Bean resonates globally? Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan I think that's pretty cool. Jonathan He's become an ambassador for Britishness and made Rowan Atkinson a very wealthy man. Jonathan Yeah. And he doesn't have to say anything, which is incredible. He doesn't have to say anything. Jonathan I mean, I think the best, most popular part of the Olympics opening ceremony in 2012 was the Mr. Bean bit with the keyboard. It was one simple bit, and everyone freaking loved it. Jonathan I happen to respectfully disagree. I think Daniel Craig bringing the Queen into the opening ceremonies by far was my most favorite part. Jonathan So, yeah, so Mr. Bean was my first British TV show. and then followed by that was this weird show that I saw late at night on the weekends and like it was psychedelic and there were people running around these cheap wooden sets and I was like 11 so like girls were in miniskirts and this was exciting to me and there was a crazy guy with a long scarf and weird hair and I was like this show's really weirding me out but there's pretty Jonathan girls in it and that's how i started doctor who oh my god which doctor was that do you know i think Jonathan it was i think it was the um the long scarf was um oh man folks you're gonna have to pull this angle file cred right here i'm sorry i haven't covered doctor who deeply in a long time okay Jonathan the one with the long scarf ted baker that no that's the shoemaker great british shoemaker I'd be more than happy to Jonathan I gotta look this up Sorry podcast Jonathan I'd be more than happy to review any Ted Baker shoes out there Tom Baker Tom Baker Oh Ted's brother I doubt they're actually related Jonathan I'm a huge Sci-Fi nerd So the show appealed to me But the show is also awful To this day I'm a huge Doctor Who fan Jonathan Really? Jonathan Well, I'm going to split here. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, but to this day, I cannot handle classic Doctor Who. I do not like it. Jonathan Again, we've been over this in podcasts. Send your letters to Jonathan at Anglotopia. Jonathan I really became a Doctor Who fan in 2005 when the show came back after its decade. Jonathan Christopher Eccleston? Jonathan Yeah, Christopher Eccleston. That's when I started Doctor Who. He's not my doctor. David Tennant's my doctor. Jonathan Yeah, David Tennant for life right here. Jonathan But so, yeah, I remember watching the movie in 1996 that was on Fox and being really excited about it because it's British and it was science fiction. And I remember being terrible. Jonathan Like, again, letters to Jonathan at Englutopia. Jonathan But that's the thing, though, is I love terrible British TV. Jonathan Oh, my God. Jonathan Because even terrible British TV is a lot better than a lot of American TV. Jonathan I'll give you that. Jonathan So, yeah, so it was, my love affair with Bush Tea really started with Mr. Bean and Doctor Who, even though I was never really a classic Doctor Who fan. But then. Jonathan Oh, you know what other one is? Oh, oh, oh. With John Cleese, where he's the innkeeper. Jackie I cannot think of them. All Fawlty Towers. Jonathan Fawlty Towers would be on on PBS occasionally, too. I would laugh so hard that my parents would be like, what are you watching? like i mean like laugh so hard that your side hurts kind of laugh yeah i think um i didn't see Jonathan faulty towers after we met okay for a while so it wasn't part of my it was like i love faulty towers Jonathan john cleese well you know faulty well you know what's really funny though too is that my parents knew who John Cleese was. I didn't. I was, I don't want to say too young, but in a lot of ways, almost too young to know who he was. But ironically, now my Anglophile card is going to get pulled. Not a huge fan of Monty Python. Jonathan I'm not either. I dislike Monty Python. Jonathan I'll watch it. Don't get me wrong. I'll watch it. Jonathan It's a little out there for me. And since we're pulling Anglophile cred, I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles either. Jonathan Again, letters. Jonathan Podcast is over. Jonathan Letters to Jonathan at Anglotopia. They're over-reading. OMG. You did not just go there. Jonathan They were the Coldplay of the 1960s. Jonathan Oh. Oh my. Jonathan I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I love Coldplay. Jonathan We are going to have. Oh, again. Letters to Jonathan at Anglotopia. Wow. There was so much wrong there. I don't even know where to begin to unpack. Jonathan So back to British TV. Uh-huh. Jonathan You need a life raft. Jonathan It's back to British TV. I didn't really become a true Doctor Who fan, though. Most classic fans wouldn't call me a true Doctor Who fan. Jackie I didn't really become a Doctor Who fan until the revival in 2005. Jonathan That coincided with us watching a lot of British TV together. You actually got into Doctor Who with me in the David Tennant years. Doctor Who was very important in the development of Anglotopia because we covered Doctor Who a lot when we started. Jackie Yeah, it was very popular. Jonathan that so Doctor Who I like I like Doctor Who um the new season is all right I let uh what's her name Jonathan um the new female doctor which I think is really cool that they did a woman doctor she's great I'm Jonathan all for this she's great so I have no complaints about her as the doctor there's a lot of sexism and misogyny about a female doctor but it's an alien that can change sex and lives forever I mean that's really going to stretch your bounds of imagination but that's beside the point. So yeah. Jonathan So we thought it would be fun. Are you ready to transition? Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan We're going to talk about some of our favorite British TV. Jonathan Our top tens. Jonathan I know I don't have ten but I've got my tops. Jonathan Well I've got ten comedies and ten dramas. Jonathan Okay. From an issue of magazines. Jonathan Issue 9, which came out last spring. We did a big article on the BBC and I did my picks for Angletopia's top 10 comedies. Jonathan Which means John's. Jonathan Which means mine, but there's also comedies on there I'm not a huge fan of. Jonathan The most popular. The general list. Jonathan So, my number one favorite British comedy is Yes Minister and the sequel series Yes Prime Minister. It's a classic political comedy show and it gives you such an insight into the politics in Britain and how the civil service works Jackie and it's so funny Jonathan between the three main characters I mean they're just when they're in a room together it's just electric the way the comedy works it's real dry sarcastic and droll comedy and I just love it Jonathan yeah I'm going to interject real quick here and just say that by far the british do great dramas you you you will be spoiled for choice with british drama but there is something about british comedy and i don't know if it's the sense of humor or the variety or what it is but i would put british comedy against american comedy any day and i know that jackie at anglotopia is going to get letters for that fair play but that is just my Jonathan opinion you just put a disclaimer at the beginning that warning contains opinions careful there dude careful um so if yes but this result was a product of the 80s and the thatcher years it's very it can be very dated if you want a more modern take it is very dated you want a more modern take on Jonathan politics watch the thick of it um which is on my top 10 list awesome yeah it's it's it's really funny but it's extremely like if you are very sensitive to swearing this is not for you filled with swearing it literally every other word but it's so good it's so good it's got uh peter capaldi Jonathan before he was doctor who and he is his comedy chops are so much better than his drama chops Jonathan yes he is so bitingly mean but funny just does not miss a b like it is right there Jonathan uh malcolm tucker is one of the greatest can malcolm tucker be my spirit animal without the meanness yeah like he's one of the best comedic villains ever created yes wow that's a that's Jonathan quite a combination highest since malcolm tucker so it just makes me uptight with a foul mouth Jonathan like the show has real has coined some great words like omni shambles which is a situation that's a shambles but from multiple directions some people would argue Brexit is an omni-shamble Jonathan we're not we're not waiting in an opinion Jonathan we're not talking about that or giving an opinion no don't send us letters okay so number two Jonathan no that would be number three because you did yes prime minister well I said it's a corollary to yes Jonathan because it's kind of in a similar vein Monty Python is a classic British comedy I'm not a huge fan Jackie of it but it is funny Jonathan Monty Python's Holy Grail is really funny that's alright I saw the guy with the arms chopped off and the legs chopped off Jonathan that is funny Jonathan there are funny jokes in Monty Python Jonathan okay I'll give you that Jonathan if you watch all the original Monty Pythons in an episodic order you just have to wonder what kind of drugs they were on oh my god Jonathan again letters to Jonathan Jonathan I mean there is some out there stuff wow I'm just going to get a neon sign Jonathan to put on the wall behind us For those people who are actually, for our YouTube viewers, that just, that's going to just light up like a neon. Jonathan at Anglotopia.net. Like, it's just going to come on. Jonathan Number three. Alo, Alo, which we've not actually watched. Isn't it Alo, Alo? Like, hello, hello? Alo, Alo. It's a comedy set in World War II, which, I mean, not exactly. Jonathan We had, what was it? Hogan's Heroes. Hogan's Heroes. Jonathan It's set in a French town in World War II. It's really funny. I've seen a few episodes. I highly recommend it. As Time Goes By, we talked about that. That's a good comedy. Jonathan Oh, it's a good one. Jonathan Black Adder is a classic comedy. Jonathan I couldn't get into that one. I tried. Jonathan I really tried. It's a tough one. Some of the later episodes are kind of really out there. But it's that very dark, biting humor. And what I like about Blackadder is that it assumes you know a lot about British history. So, like, it's very intelligent comedy. Jonathan Ouch. No, I wasn't. Wow. I'm going to be sending a letter to Jonathan in Anglodopia. Jonathan Here, have a Chucky Biscuit. Jonathan No. Nice. Oh, man. Jonathan Wow. So after that, Dad's Army is another classic British World War II comedy about the misadventures of the Home Guard during World War II. And then Fawlty Towers is classic. It's the best 19 episodes of television ever produced. Jonathan Wow, that is a really high statement. In comedy. Why? Jonathan Well, that's the thing. Jonathan I disagree. I respectfully disagree. Jonathan There's not that many episodes of it. And it's funny in every episode. Jonathan It is funny. And I think it's really funny how pieces of it have made their way into not just British culture, but American culture. Without going into it too deeply, we had a really not great experience staying in Britain once. And the innkeeper reminded us so much of Basil Fawlty that we refer to that person as Basil Fawlty. And we both know who we're talking about. Jonathan Whenever we say, when we talk to our British friends about where we're staying, if we're having a bad experience, we just say, oh, they're like Basil Fulton. You're like, oh, yeah, we understand. You can use that as a slang term for bad hotel experience. We had many. Jackie Yeah, we have. We have. Jonathan Keeping up appearances is a great one. Jonathan Love it. Love it. I love. Jonathan I'm not a huge fan of it. Jonathan I love the juxtaposition of Hyacinth trying to, to some, I could see, my feeling with her is that she's always trying to better herself. I agree. And, you know, when she goes over to see her dad and her sister and they're living in a way that she's not comfortable with. I love the scenes. My favorite scenes in that show are where, although she came out of that situation, where they really almost intentionally make her feel uncomfortable. And it's just, I find it really funny to kind of make her skin crawl. Like, it's funny. It's really funny. Jonathan And then Only Fools and Horses. Jonathan I haven't seen that one. Jonathan That's pretty funny. of Dullboy and the family that does their independent businessmen in the east end of London. It's really funny. Jonathan Actually, it sounds really funny. Jonathan It's classic. I think Sanford and Sons is a remake of it. Jonathan Oh. Jonathan An American remake of it. There was an American remake of it. Jonathan Okay. Jonathan Maybe it was Sanford and Sons because it's about an old man and a son. Jonathan Oh, maybe. Jonathan There's some similarity there. I could be wrong. I'm sure Penance will tell me if I am or not. the comments and then red dwarf is a great sci-fi comedy it's like the it's the comedy antidote to doctor who i sat on a spaceship millions of years in the future and it's it's really funny i could not get into it it's not my thing i liked it and it's it's funny um i'm gonna add a few more to Jonathan this list though you haven't asked me any of mine yet either it's not your turn yet oh i didn't know Jonathan we were taking turns i'm taking turns i'll also add peep show to this list you totally just scooped Jonathan my scoop dude oh yes you did okay who who turned you on to peep show we discovered no we we discovered no i did i did i was flipping through the channels and there was literally nothing on and it came on and i was like all right i'll give it a try i was laughing hysterically you were in the other room and you were like what is so funny i'm like john this is the funniest show i've ever seen and then you kind of like got sucked into it and i was lucky because they did another episode Jonathan right after and from then on i was hooked we got home and binged the entire series oh man well it Jonathan and there is olivia coleman's in that yes as sophie right yeah she's like just i don't know if she's just starting out but that is the first time i ever saw olivia coleman and mark i love how socially awkward mark is and i don't mean to um i don't mean to offend you but i see a lot of similarities Jonathan between your personality and mark's personality and that i'm slightly offended no it's not it's Jonathan not meant as an offensive like really into history really um just kind of again like mr bean doesn't really put up with anything that any guff um but also at the same time has a good heart to to a certain extent like oh and jeremy oh my god like most lovable idiot ever oh and um uh what's his friend hands super hands super hands super hands yeah seriously um if you guys are looking for something funny to watch you will not be disappointed with peep show it's very quirky it's very british it is incredibly funny the in betweeners oh oh it's so good so good so funny Jonathan the rest of my shows are on also on your list so i'll let you take over with your list oh okay Jonathan so i said um then we'll do dramas okay okay cool um another so mine are a little dated um as far as comedies go um but they are still my standbys um the it crowd um i cannot tell you how much i love the it crowd i saw it we were in britain the first time i saw it and it's these two really lovable um i use the word nerd in a very kind and compassionate way yeah because you're married to one well i just the the world's run by nerds which is awesome um by computer guys and not all computer guys are nerds like i know that that word like is it's not a slur anymore well yeah it's not meant as a slur either at least not coming from me um so these two really lovable it guys um that just kind of left to their own devices kind of they're really socially awkward and then you have jen who comes in um i can't think of the actress's name and i'm doing her a disservice because she thank you she is fantastic in the role and she kind of becomes like the mother hen and pulls the department together and kind of corral corrals um these two it guys these two lovable it guys and she um uh you know in a lot of ways she's very similar to them she's a little bit of a she has some social awkwardness and um by far my favorite like i don't even know like to talk about favorite episodes i have lots of favorite episodes of the it crowd but i think the one where they hand her the internet in the box in the box is really funny like i find it physically impossible not to laugh while watching the it crowd so much so that after so after i had mabel our daughter um i was laid up in the hospital and it was very difficult pregnancy and a very difficult birth and a very painful recovery and i was in the hospital for about a week and there was like nothing to watch and this is um Netflix bought the rights to stream it and I remember laying up in the hospital healing with um you know stitches across my abdomen laughing hysterically at the IT crowd thinking this is such a bad idea it hurts so bad to laugh but it was so funny so definitely the IT crowd um so let's see next would be um we said peep show peep shows on my list little britain oh yeah that's great oh man i miss little britain i do too it's a shame they have falling out it's a variety show um and it is the very best and the very worst of britain and it takes just a really fun look at britain i would also have to throw this in here um on my list and it's not on my list my written list but and i don't know if it's uniquely british but tracy allman's show um that's airing on hbo here in the u.s really british well tracy allman is british so funny i have such a thing for like sketch comedy like that um and i am always amazed at how versatile she is Like, I think, you know, even with hair and makeup and all that, you can turn into lots of different personalities. But, like, to get the character there, I think, is incredibly talented. Next is that Mitchell and Webb look from the guys who did Peep Show. By far, and now I think it's an internet meme. You see, my favorite skit of theirs, it's another sketch comedy. is they're, I think they're like in a trench or something. Yeah, they're in World War II. Jackie World War II, and they're dressed up as Nazis, which is not funny. Nazis are not funny, but. Hans, are we the baddies? Yeah. We have skulls on our head. Jonathan Exactly. I think we're the baddies. Like, really funny kind of dry humor. And I think that's probably, like, I enjoy British comedy more than I enjoy British drama. And that's not to say that the Brits do absolutely stellar. I love nothing more than like a four or five part British drama. Doc Martin I would add one more comedy to the list. Doc Martin. Jonathan Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I don't think it's, it's, it's not my top 10. If it's on, I'll watch it, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't like set the time to watch it. Jonathan Doc Martin is also my spirit animal. Jonathan Yeah. Notice a trend here, folks. Jonathan Okay, so now we'll segue into dramas. So I've got, like, okay, I'm reading these lists I made a year ago, and I'm like, what were you thinking, John? Jonathan I think this all the time. Jonathan Send your letters to Jackie on Angletopia.net. Jonathan Stop abusing your husband. Fair play. Fair play. You had it coming. Jonathan So my top ten dramas. Doctor Who. Jonathan I've always thought of Doctor Who kind of as a dramedy, though. I think he kind of straddles the line. Jonathan Downton Abbey. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan Upstairs, Downstairs. The new one. I never watched the old one. I couldn't get into it. Life on Mars. Jonathan Never saw it. Jonathan I love Life on Mars. Call My Wife. Jonathan Okay, that would have to be in my top ten. 1950s, post-war, Britain. The later series have moved into the 60s. I... That's not as good as it used to be. Yeah, so spoilers if you're not very far along. Like, pause the podcast for a couple of seconds or fast forward. The show... We wondered, the main character who narrates the show in the first season leaves. And so we kind of wondered how it was going to go forward and how you were going to follow the midwives of Donata's house. It's really good. And I think it's a glimpse into kind of the poverty in the East End that used to be there. And in some spots I would argue maybe still is. But just really grinding poverty. And a whole city that made it through a war. And it was really interesting to kind of look. It's not a historical piece. And obviously not necessarily historically accurate. but it was just a really neat glimpse in. And so that being said, I think the latest episode, we're now into the 60s, and the fashion is great, but I think we're both kind of in agreement that they found their success in creating these really emotion-provoking, like dramatic episodes and dramatic situations, and you're always rooting for a good ending, you know happy ending but it feels like in the later series it's to use a word it's a little syrupy it's a little second yeah a little i don't know something something's been lost there in my Jonathan opinion continuing on um the original house of cards you are so bad with that pen uh the original house of cards before kevin spacey house of cards the original house of cards is a bbc production it's very good um it's like the anti yes minister except it's not it's like it's not funny in any way um the foresight is a drama the foresight saga that was really good yeah that was really good not the old one the new one that came out in 2005 um that was really good uh the bleak the bleak house from the mid oddies was really good with jillian anderson i didn't see that one really good and then um uh what was it called the one set in the cotswalt village um set in the cotswalt village gd dench cranberry no cranford cranford yeah yeah cranford that's cranberry cranford was really good yeah that was a good one um how about poldark that was that that's that was the tip of my tongue. Sorry. The new Poldark is really good, which we haven't watched the last two seasons, by the way. What? Jonathan We were just in Cornwall, and we have not watched the last two seasons. We need to catch up. For sure. Snow day tomorrow. That will probably be happening. Jonathan So, yeah, I think that's ten. I lost count, because I'm like, this list is not great. Jonathan At the beginning of the episode, you're like, I'm a great writer. My list is not great, no. I think that is great. Jonathan um broad church yes that broad church is one of the best dramas to come out in the last 10 years Jonathan well think about it like okay so we've always been we'd like to think at least we've always been very keyed into british tv and like what's on and we've missed some really good british dramas this year because we've been just kids and work and life and traveling what was it we just the bodyguard oh man so good you guys so good and there was another one with uh we watched mrs wilson fantastic kept us on the edge of our seats but there was one with sandra oh that we've missed Jonathan oh uh killing me yeah we haven't watched that which is supposed to be incredible but i think Jonathan it's more hype but let me move backwards so broad church yeah i remember so like i said we were always really keyed into british tv and we started watching broad church um and a lot of our american friends like are kind of oblivious to british television which is fine um but i remember it was a thing here yeah it became a thing here and it wasn't streaming here you couldn't bbc america oh okay is but even before that even before it started streaming or it was on bbc america like you were starting to hear whispers about how good broad church was event tv in britain it became event well it became an event tv here which in this day and age event tv is not a thing anymore not really and so i remember like we had a viewing party do you remember like we had to find out who killed danny latimer and i will say again olivia coleman's in that as well and she is fantastic i mean the range that that that her character plays is heartbreaking and incredible um but i remember thinking so the first season is all about the murder of a little boy danny latimer um in this seaside dorset place village where we've actually Jonathan been yeah that was one of the things that attracted us to show it's like oh it's filmed in dorset Jonathan all right yeah at the seaside which dorset check seaside check between seasons we actually went to go we did and we saw the those beautiful orange cliffs oh um i uh the name of the village for real is west bay west bay part of report go see these cliffs like if you were in that part of the world television show aside it's beautiful it is stunning but i felt like the rest of the world discovered dorset so yes but okay and then i'll wrap up about broad church um the fact that they had a second series yeah about the trial well well the the trial the second season was about the trial okay then they had a third series about something different but i remember thinking how are they gonna how are they gonna like make this interesting like how are they gonna draw this out this is not gonna be great you know like i my fear was that it would be one of those series that you were like you should have just packed it away when it was great and been done Jonathan no still knocked it out of the park so good broad church um i feel i should bring up some classic shows i really liked i love inspector morse yeah that one's very good classic inspector morse um i like uh lewis it's not as good as morse but it's still very good and then um the new endeavor which is the prequel to Inspector Morse is really good. So I love Morse. Another one of my spirit animals. Jonathan Well and they do some Jonathan I love Oxford. That's really why I watch it. I just love the setting of Oxford. Jonathan Well Oxford in itself is almost a character in the show. And I think what's really cool is that British TV drama done weekly where it is like we said it's event tv but i also think that and send the letters to jackie at angliotopia nobody does period dramas better that or period drama miniseries better than the bbc or i mean yeah i mean there's like no phone in it in there Jonathan yeah and that's why they the dramas become so big here because there's nobody producing period dramas in the U.S. Jonathan No, it's all like reality TV. Jonathan Yeah, it's expensive and it's really hard to do it right. I think, I mean, the last period drama I can think of that was on U.S. TV was John Adams. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan And that was a BBC co-production. Jonathan Yeah, and that was like full period. That was so good too. Jonathan I don't think Game of Thrones really counts because Game of Thrones is a fantasy show. Jonathan Well, is that a British? That's an HBO production. Jonathan That's an HBO production. so that that's like the only exception to that i guess that's not a period no it's not it's fantasy but again it's a very expensive show to produce yeah i can't i mean we have great period shows Jonathan like mad men but even that's recent history that's not like that's 1950s or 60s there are no Jonathan early 20th century or 19th wait um there was one that aired on pbs um and i'm never going to remember the name oh the hospital mercy hospital street mercy street yeah um that was really good Jonathan but i um i don't think i don't think it's on anymore i don't think it had a super long run Jonathan yeah so but pbs had to do it again that was a pbs thing because they they know they have the Jonathan the well the big oh go ahead i'm sorry they have the knowledge from working with masterpiece how to do drama yeah period drama well and that's a lot of if you want to view a lot of those great british dramas masterpiece theater is a show runner um for pbs that brings a lot of those great british yeah um uh miniseries over but i think it's sad that the big american networks you really don't like they don't make tv like that anymore like you don't find it and even some of the cable networks i mean we keep talking about hbo i think they probably try and do it more than any other but I have to wonder what's in it for them I mean when you come up against streaming services like Netflix who just seem to keep knocking it out of the park and Amazon producing their own content now like but I guess that's kind of a good segue maybe Jonathan into how do you watch Jonathan all this great content Jonathan we're in the golden age of watching British TV and when we started Angletopia it was not it was hard you had to work to find british tv yeah and now it's everywhere and that's great Jonathan but most of it's pre-recorded british tv yeah too like live stream is still a little i'm gonna Jonathan talk about that but that's um i'm gonna talk about that but okay so she mentioned pbs that's usually people's first introduction to british that was mine in the u.s mine too um and there's a lot of There's still a lot of great British TV that airs on there. Jonathan So look up your local public broadcasting network. Jonathan Yeah. I mean, if you want to watch British crime dramas and comedies, safe comedies, that's the place where you can... Jonathan Yeah, I don't think you'll ever see that Mitchell and Webb look. Jonathan You won't see Peep Show on PBS. Jonathan Or IT Crowd, unfortunately. Jonathan And as a corollary to that, PBS has their own streaming service, so you can usually stream the stuff. And for people who don't know what streaming services are, it's where you watch TV shows over the internet. Jonathan It's pre-recorded. Pre-recorded. It's not a lot. It's legal to do. It's legal to do. Jonathan You know, like we have Roku in our house. There's also the Amazon Fire Stick. Jackie Chromecast. Jonathan Chromecast. Most TVs are smart TVs now with all the streaming services on them. Jackie You can do it online. You can do it online. On a tablet, a phone. Jonathan but we prefer to do it on TV. Jackie That's how we consume TV on TV. Jonathan So yeah, so there's PBS and that's a free way to do it. We're going to go through lots of free ways and ways that cost money. Now, because of the way international TV show rights work, it's a very fragmented market for British TV and because of the output of the BBC has to be 50% of it by law has to be made outside of BBC now. It's made by independent producers and the BBC airs it. There's a lot of shows being sold every year on the international marketplace and every country is different. So I'm sorry listeners who are outside the U.S. This is from our perspective, from the U.S. perspective. A lot of these services are available outside the U.S. But the, what were you going to say? Jonathan You know what show we forgot to mention? Jonathan What? Jonathan which is the BBC, or it was, I don't know if it still is, is their most popular show exported worldwide. Jonathan The Great British Bake Off. Jonathan No, which also deserves an honorable mention. Jonathan Top Gear. Top Gear. Jonathan But I think it's interesting to bring up Top Gear because, and I apologize if I offend, I know Top Gear is a very controversial thing right now, or it has been for a little bit, because of the whole dust-up with Jeremy Clarkson and all of that. Jonathan Yeah, the new hosts that aren't good. Jonathan But what's interesting about that is we were just talking about streaming services. And now their show is over on Amazon, right? Speaker 6 The Grand Tour. The Grand Tour. So, um... Jonathan Sorry, I didn't mean to throw you off for getting there. Speaker 6 Yeah, what was I talking about? Jonathan You were talking about streaming. You talked about PBS is free to stream. Jonathan So, the first paid service we'll talk about is Acorn TV. For those who aren't familiar with Acorn, we have a long relationship with Acorn, but they're not paying me to tell you this. They're one of the first companies that brought over British TV to the U.S. Jackie In a big way. In a big way. Jonathan They would sell the DVDs. Like if you bought Inspector Morris or Jeeves and Wooster or any of the classic British comics and DVD, you were buying Acorn's DVDs. And so they were positioned well on the market to launch a British TV streaming service back when streaming services became a thing. So they launched really the first British TV streaming service because they blocked up the rights to a lot of the stress they have on DVD. And so Acorn TV is, you can get access to anywhere on the TV, on the computer. Jonathan Anywhere you have internet access. Anywhere you have internet access. Jonathan It's $4.99 a month. Jonathan We have a subscription. We have a subscription. Jonathan It's like $50 a year, and it's worth every penny. I mean, they have a great catalog. They're adding new stuff every few months, and they've moved into doing their own productions. Jonathan We have not come even close to exhausting what is there. Jonathan If you want to watch all of Doc Martin, that's where Doc Martin is. If you want to watch all of Poirot, I think Poirot is on there, they have a great back catalog for a lot of classic stuff that you can't view anywhere else. And that's one thing I want to point out, is there's actually a lot of overlap between a lot of these streaming services. You can find a lot of shows on several services. Jackie So do your homework. So do your homework. Jonathan If you're looking for a specific show, you can just search the services for that specific show. But I would never get a service just for a specific show. You want to see their whole overall catalog. And Acorn's a good start. They've got a good mix of comedy, drama, and factual programming. So they got a lot of great documentary series that British airs. Jonathan Which, interjection here, is that that's something that doesn't really fall into comedy or drama. But British television, I would say that probably 70% of our total television viewing are British documentaries. Jackie Yeah, they make the best documentaries. Jonathan Nobody does a documentary like British. Jonathan They're factually accurate. Jonathan They are full of information. there's a lot of reasons for that the you don't find documentaries like that here in the u.s very very rarely will you yeah i mean even on the cable networks that are factual it's very Jonathan hype driven and like they have to it's driven by commercial market demand so the quality is not there britain and bbc the bbc and itv and the other networks they have a public service remit so they have to produce that good factual programming and so they just they put out Jonathan some of the best documentaries the travel documentaries like yeah i've seen places of the world places around the world that you will never see anywhere else on television that people travel to and share their experiences and it's just been fantastic yeah and so a lot of Jonathan the streaming services will get these documentaries because they're low-hanging fruit because there's no one else airing this stuff here so um so acorn gets a lot of those so that acorn gets the inkletopia recommendation um next is brit box they're the new kid on the block i mean it's two years now but uh they're 6.99 a month that he gets 69 a year um they are a partnership between the BBC and ITV in Britain. So it's like a partnership and they have a huge catalog. There were some TV problems in the service for started, but they've kind of ironed it out. It's more that conforms with what you expect from a streaming service now. Huge catalog. They've moved into producing original content now and also they have a great feature called the now feature where they're bringing over stuff every day that the same day it airs in the uk Jackie which is an innovation that as anglophiles we've wanted for a long time because yes one of the Jonathan most frustrating things as a british tv fan is having to wait for british tv to get over here Jonathan because of that because it has to be sold in the national marketplace and the rights have to be secured like it could take like a year it could take forever and that's why it's such a huge deal Jonathan that Doctor Who is aired in the same day in the U.S. and the U.K. It took a lot for that to happen. Jonathan Which, interjection again, for those who are U.S. cable subscribers, there's also the BBC America channel. There is a, are you? Okay, never mind. I'm done. Jonathan So, so Brett Box is, I think I said this when it came out, It was kind of the British TV service we've all been waiting for. People still kind of complain that, why can't they just give us access to the BBC iPlayer? For those that don't know what the iPlayer is, in Britain the iPlayer is basically the BBC's version of Netflix. Whenever the BBC airs anything, it immediately goes on the iPlayer and you can watch it anytime from any device, whatever. As a license you pay, you have access to the BBC anytime you want. we're never going to get the iPlayer in the U.S. The way international rights work for TV shows, that's never going to happen. And workarounds with using VPNs and virtual private networks, those have been banned by the BBC. You can't even do that anymore. So we're never going to get the iPlayer, so we can only hope for somebody to make something similar that has a huge catalog, and BritBox is really the closest we're going to get. But it's, like I said, great selection. They have new stuff constantly coming in. Great factual programming. Great drama slate. Great comedy slate. My stance is that every Anglophile should have Acorn and Britbox together. Because together it's still cheaper than Netflix. Jonathan Well, you have those two together. You're not going to miss a whole lot of content, really. Jonathan Yeah, and you're going to have stuff to watch forever. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan So then we... Amazon Prime is a huge source of great British drama now. Because like I said, a lot of... 50% of output at the BBC has to be from outside the BBC. So a lot of great BBC shows are getting sold to the streaming services now. And they're going to Amazon and to Netflix. And Amazon Prime, they just had... Jonathan The Bodyguard. Jonathan No, that was Netflix. Jonathan Oh, sorry. Jonathan But they're constantly getting new British TV shows, costume dramas. Jonathan We just saw, kind of by proxy here, we started one last night. Not British, it was Irish. Jonathan Cherry Girls, that was on Netflix. Jonathan Oh, sorry Amazon. Jonathan So Amazon Prime is not, like, they have a huge catalog of general TV. their selection of British TV is much smaller than the other, than like BritBox or Acorn, but they're getting some good British drama that you don't want to miss. So if you have an Amazon price description, it's a nice bonus to have it. I don't know if I would get it just to get the British TV stuff, because I think you would watch through all of it pretty quickly. Jonathan Yeah, like Amazon for lots of different... And when Amazon gets Jonathan a lot of the PBS stuff, Jonathan So that's where you watch Downton Abbey. Jonathan That's where I watch Lewis. So then Netflix is the big boy on the block for British TV because they're getting a lot of the BBC and ITV's output now. And also a lot of great factual programming like Escape to the Country and Grand Designs and... Jackie GBBO. Jonathan They secure Great British Bake Off, which here is called the Great British Baking Show. Jonathan which PBS also airs Jonathan not anymore they're not going to air anymore because Netflix scooped them so increasingly you've got to have these streaming services to see a lot of the great new British shows I mean we have a Netflix subscription because we've had them for years yeah so we have a Netflix subscription there's a great there's a great stuff on there that's been on there for a while like the IT crowd peep show I think was on there I don't know if it still is Jonathan I don't know if it is either Jonathan so I highly recommend having Netflix but the thing is Jackie there's so many streaming services now Jonathan it's as much as having cable it's ridiculous a lot of people I know their strategy is they'll get it for the free trial or a month or two they'll watch all the shows they want to watch and then cancel it that's a popular option Jonathan we're not necessarily endorsing that either it's just letting you know Jonathan there's a new newer channel that i haven't actually tested yet it's called best of british tv and it's available only on amazon amazon prime it's a channel through amazon prime it's like it's like 399 a month and they have a selection of british tv looks like it's mostly documentaries and stuff i haven't tested out yet but i will so i'll just keep an eye on angletopia let you know how that is there's a new one called historyhit.tv which is dedicated completely to history not just British history but history in general it's a creation of Dan Snow if you watch a lot of British TV he's a very famous British TV presenter who specializes in history and he partnered with a bunch of people to launch this new streaming service dedicated completely to history and it's an offshoot of their podcast called History Hit. Jonathan And for those of you who are listening, we'll put links and show notes to all of these because I know we're giving out a lot of information. So just FYI. Jonathan Don't worry. It's like, I think it's like $3 or $4 a month, $50 a year. It's pretty good. It's pretty heavy on the Dan Snow stuff. he's been producing some original stuff for it um a lot of documentaries that he's fronted on british tv he's gotten the rights for to put on it um there's plenty to watch my only gripe about it is that they still haven't released their roku channel and that's what we have we have a roku so like i can't watch it on my tv so i haven't really watched a lot of the catalog because i don't want to sit in front of my computer to watch to watch it but it's it's pretty good and it's an up-and-comer and there's a brand new one that's been out since last year who I'm giving a test drive to right now called trueroyalty.tv and it's completely dedicated to content about the royal families of the world with a focus mostly on the British royal family because that's a ton of stuff about and so far I think they said there's like 250 hours of content but there's a ton of great documentaries I haven't seen anywhere else and a lot of stuff that's older that wouldn't get licensed to be on any of our streaming service so it's it's a $4.99 a month i think it's $60 a year very interesting so far they don't have a roku channel yet either but they said they're working on it so i'm looking forward to giving that more of a test drive um bbc america um bbc america has been around for quite a long time um but it's not run by the bbc no it's all and it hasn't been in a long time it's it's kind of kind of a partnership between a and e and the bbc but a and e's like it's like the kitchen nightmares channel yeah that and and this channel is really frustrating for angle files because you think it's bbc america oh it's going to be the bbc and that's what it was at first yeah it was you Jonathan They used to be able to watch news on it. Yeah. It was great. Jonathan They used to have the BBC News on it. They still might, I think. I don't know. But they're... Jackie I haven't seen any. Jonathan Most cable sources have the BBC World Channel now, which is all news. It's 24-hour news. Jackie So I think BBC America... Which is great. Jonathan Which is great. Jackie So I think BBC America stopped with showing the news. Jonathan They used to have great documentaries. That's where we found location, location, location. Jonathan We watched... planet it's the documentary that they did about the attenborough stuff yeah um oh i can't think Jonathan of what's the name of it planet earth thank you yeah so that's where a lot of that stuff premieres first um but the actual british tv they shown out was very low for a while they were airing star trek most of the time i love star trek but it's not british and it's so it's is it patrick stewart is that the connection no the connection is that it brought in ratings it's a very ratings driven channel and it's it's it's it's suffered from the fate of that many of the niche cable networks have suffered from more like discovery channel and the learning channel like they're all they all chase the ratings so they don't really do what they were set out to do i remember when Jonathan the learning channel used to be learning yeah so so bbc america still gets good stuff like they Jonathan that's where you watch Doctor Who and the fact that they have the same date airs in the UK Jackie that's great. That's a big deal. Jonathan That's a big deal. They moved into original dramas like they were the co-producers for Killing Eve. Jackie Killing Eve. Jonathan So it's nice to have in your cable package. If you do cable. Can you stream that Jonathan BBC America anywhere do you know? Jonathan Well you have to have cable to show it. Is that the only way you can get it? Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan So I bbc america but it's nice to have in your package when there's if you are buying cable if you have cable and there's something to watch um bbc america and then the last thing we'll talk about is uk tv anywhere um this is a service that we've had for quite a few years and it's um it place shifts uk tv which is not illegal um to go through them to do it go through them to do it so what they do is you get a box for the top of your tv and then it place shifts um and by that it makes it look like you're watching in the uk right but it's not a vpn like it's but it gives you live British TV as it's airing in the UK. Jonathan We found it extremely useful, especially when there's breaking news Jonathan going on in the UK. From a business perspective, we couldn't survive without it because when there's a big news story breaking, it's better to get it direct from the source. Jonathan Absolutely. Jonathan The service is great. It's got HD now. There's a huge selection of channels. channels uh for it's got free view which for those that know what free view is it's the it's the free satellite channels you can get in the uk it's got almost all the channels it's kind of like if you don't buy cable here yeah but it's up at satellite yeah and the it's it's great it's sometimes technically it can it can glitch a little bit yeah um it's expensive though um and actually we actually don't have it right now because we cancel it in our cost savings drive unfortunately because Jonathan it's like 30 to 40 a month um but that being said like um not to bring up like really horrible things but like when there have been terrorist attacks or you know here in the u.s even though we're we're really keyed in in british culture um you know a lot of times as much as i hate to say if something's going on that is either really good or really bad we begin to hear about it like it starts to kind of like drip on twitter and for a long time it would be like okay go you know we'll go switch on the box and go see what's going on and so um in a lot of ways we've been able to kind of follow what's going on in really tragic events and be able to communicate that out in a responsible manner. Jonathan So, like I said, it's a good service. It's expensive, though. And it does what it says on the tin, but it requires you to buy a set-top box that you have to run Ethernet to it because while it works over Wi-Fi, it works way better over Ethernet. Jonathan Don't try and do it over Wi-Fi. Just don't. Jonathan And it's useful for when you want live British TV. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan The problem with that is that there's a six-hour time difference. So live TV here, you know, when you watch British evening TV, it's in the afternoon here. It has a function that allows you to record things and watch them later. It serves its purpose when you want live TV. But, again, we didn't use it a lot to watch a lot of our favorite British TV shows because a lot of them were on commercial networks, and you've got to sit through commercials, even though British commercials are amusing. Jonathan Well, and we, they are, they actually are really fun. But we've got access to so many different streaming services that really, I mean, we only really watch news live on it. Jonathan Yeah, that's one thing we've learned. Jonathan Or sporting events, or the boat races, the Oxford-Cambridge boat races. Jonathan And even that BBC, the BBC World News Channel airs that. Jonathan Yep. Jonathan So, you know, our thing is that the way we consume British TV now, we kind of just rely on the streaming services. We've learned patience over the years. And we know that when there's a really good show airing in the UK, that it'll be on the U.S. streaming services in a few weeks or a few months. So there's really no rush. from a business perspective it doesn't really make sense for us to write about it until it airs in the U.S. anyway so we prefer just to see things when they come out here but yeah, it's a good service we can recommend it Jonathan but we don't really need it anymore can I say though that none of these services have paid us to talk about this at all today we are just trying to give a very broad overview for those who are interested in how to watch British television. I think that's important to note that we're not. Jonathan Yeah, and all of these services, you need broadband internet. Yeah. I know that not everyone has broadband internet, and they can't watch just streaming services, which sucks. Jonathan But most people will have a local PBS channel, which is a great place. Your local library, too, here in the U.S., you can find a lot of really good British quality television. You can check out DVDs, that kind of thing. That's a great spot. And I actually got a really good primer in a lot of British television that way growing up. Jonathan Yeah, that's a great idea. Also, buying the DVDs is still the old-fashioned way of doing it. most great british tv shows get released on dvd here and you and they're pretty affordable well Jonathan and most of them are good enough that you would want to watch them again yeah it's worth i you Jonathan know my stance is that the streaming services are great but i like to own the shows i really like because they won't always be on the streaming services because the catalogs change constantly Jonathan so taste change what might be funny and acceptable one you know at one point in time changes yeah Jonathan like you know in our in our dvd library i got jesus wooster i've got um which we didn't even mention as a favorite yeah i've got foils war yeah faulty tower i think we have faulty towers yeah so we we like to we like to just have this you know buy the shows we really like and And even the ones that aren't released here in the U.S., you can get a region free player and get them in the U.K. Jonathan The nice thing about owning some of your favorite shows, too, is, like, I remember a couple of years ago, you were down with a really bad flu. And you were just completely laid up in bed, like, just so sick. And you binge-watched all the way through Foils War. I know. That's great. And it was so there. Jonathan It's a great way to spend being sick. Jonathan I mean, there are times where, like, if you're snowed in and your internet's out, pop in a DVD. Like, we're going to watch a whole series of this. So. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan So, and oftentimes the quality is better on DVD. True. If your internet's glitching or slow, you know, the streaming quality degrades. So, yeah. So, I think that's everything. I'm sure there's something we forgot on that list. Jonathan Oh, are you kidding? There is tons of British TV we have forgotten. That later we're going to be sitting at dinner and go, Oh, I forgot to mention. Oh, and this was so good. Jonathan And there's constantly new stuff coming out. Which is great. I mean, the BBC is constantly on TV or Trinidad. Great British Trinidad constantly. Jonathan We didn't even talk about The Bodyguard. Which was like an international hit. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan So good. Jonathan We were late to that bandwagon. Jonathan We were, like, first, what, ten minutes, boom, you're hooked. It's so good. Netflix, you said, has it? Yeah. Seriously, if you have Netflix access, it's worth giving Netflix the trial just to watch this. It's a really good, edge-of-your-seat drama, like, for me, at least, I get very nervous when I watch a show like that, like, high-tension drama. Like, I had to knit while I watched it because it was just, like, it was that tense. Like, what's going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen. Like, so good. Jonathan Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's. Jonathan Yep. Jonathan I think if you have any favorite British shows, please leave in the comments what your favorites are. You know, TV shows are very personal. It's like music, you know. Everyone's going to have different favorites and different. Some people will hate certain shows. Some people will love certain shows. Jonathan And granted, you know, we had one hour roughly to talk about this. So we know that there is so much great content out there that got left out. Yeah, so if we left out. Just because we didn't mention it doesn't mean. Jonathan Yeah, if we left out your favorite show, please don't write letters to us. Well, we tried. And I'm sure we'll do another British TV-themed episode eventually. Oh, yeah. So, all right. Well, thanks for listening. And we'll see you next time. Jonathan Bye. Bye.