Jonathan Welcome back to the Anglotopia podcast. Jackie Hi, hi. Have you missed us? Jonathan Yes, we had a unexpected hiatus for the last, what's almost six months now. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan So it's time to come back and we'll explain why, where we've been and what's been going on in a little bit. But first, this podcast is sponsored by the Royal Oak Foundation. And for those unfamiliar with the Royal Oak Foundation, they're the American Friends of the National Trust in Britain. The National Trust is the organization that owns a lot of Britain's great stately homes and preserves them for everybody and keeps access to them. It's a great organization. And Royal Oak is their American partner and they fund various restorations. But the big thing is that if you're an American, you join the Royal Oak Foundation, you get free access to all National Trust properties, parking. And then the Royal Oak also has lectures around the U.S. in the fall and the spring. And they bring great British authors over who do great lecture tours. And they're just overall, if you're an Anglophile, it's a great organization to be a member of. Jackie Well, and the funds go directly towards or to the National Trust to keep great British properties open to tourists and for, you know, to preserve that. great unique Britishness you know that is so wonderful to experience and every year they Jonathan usually have an appeal for a specific thing I think last year they were they had an appeal to Jonathan keep the Churchill artifacts at Chartwell as in his home I think this year it's the Jonathan Bickling or Blickling library that they're going to restore so yeah that's it's a great organization and Angletopia followers can join with a discount. We'll put a link in the show notes, but if you go to their join website and put in the coupon code Anglo2019, you can get a 10% discount on your membership. Jackie We've saved a ton of money just by joining. When you join here, you get a card that says Royal Oak and you get into National Trust Properties for free. Jonathan And you just show them the card. Jackie yeah yeah so sorry that's the dog in the background the great sir winston churchill Jonathan our dog who is being very naughty maybe we'll edit this out i don't know yeah so anyway that's who the podcast is sponsored by the royal oak foundation good work check them out check them out there will be a link in the show notes um So where have we been these last six months? Well, the big thing is in the springtime, the podcast kind of ramped summer vacation. And our kids are home on summer vacation. And I work from home. And Jackie works full time outside the house at another job. So there was never a good time to record the podcast because the kids were always here. And she was always working. And I'm always working. Jonathan There's just never been enough. Jonathan The conditions have never been perfect to record the podcast. But we just got to the point where we're like, it's been too long since we've done one that we just need to record the podcast even with the kids here and just edit them out if we have to. Jackie Because we've really got to report these podcasts. Not only that, late summer I had some health issues. Jonathan Yeah, she had major surgery, which put her out of commission for almost two months. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan And I was caring for her. Jackie But we're back. Jonathan We're back. We're back. And I had some health issues last month. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Jackie We're a hot mess over here. Jonathan Not really. Jackie Not really. We're, you know. Jonathan So, and the big thing, though, is that, and I'm going to talk more about this on Angletopia next month, is I have been working part-time for another company based in Ireland. Freelancing. And that's kind of been taking up half of my work time. And so I've kind of been fitting Anglotopia in when I can. And there's just been no time for a podcast. Jackie But. But. But, like, we've got some bigger things coming down the pipeline. But we just want to assure everybody that Anglotopia is here to stay. Jonathan No matter where our attentions pull us. Jonathan It's our first child. So, yeah. And we, so it's time to do some podcasts. Jonathan Yeah. Jonathan So this is going to be a catch-up podcast. We're going to talk about a bunch of things, British style, that have been on our minds for the last few months. Talk about some upcoming travel plans that we have. Bring up, show you some products in the Anglotopia store that we have right now. Jackie Do we want to talk about what we saw on TV yesterday at all? Jonathan No. Let's leave Prince Andrew out of this. We avoid controversy. Jackie Oh, it's so... I'm searching for the right word. Well, maybe because I can't even come up with the right word for it on the spot. Let's just say not good. Maybe we will avoid it. Maybe I'll write an editorial or something about it. Jonathan Not for Angletopia. Jackie Nice. We don't do controversy. Nice. Jonathan So we'll talk about what's going on with my book, some recent books I've read, give you a rundown of the Great British TV we've watched in the last few months. Jackie And Great British TV coming out. Jonathan Yeah. And then talk about getting ready for the holidays British style. And then we'll finish with some travel stuff about the Cotswolds. So, but the first order of business in the podcast is what tea are we drinking? Jackie What tea are we drinking, John? Tell me all about it. Jonathan We are drinking Cornish Smuggler's Tea. For those who aren't watching the video, it comes in an orange box. We discovered this tea last year on our drive from Lanzanjana-Groats when we were in Cornwall and fell in love with it. Jackie It was in our hotel room. Jonathan It was in our hotel room and it was like, it's a cup that they served a breakfast. We really liked it. And after some research, I found out that nobody in the USA sells it. Jackie It's really nice, smooth. It's not really strong or sharply caffeinated. I mean, it will give you a good kick of caffeine if you want it. But it's not like, let's say, like a Yorkshire tea, which is delicious. Jonathan It's a good daily drink. Jackie It's like rocket fuel in the best possible way. Jonathan It's a good daily drinker. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan So we found out that nobody in the USA actually sells this. and as we really wanted some, we're like, how do we get this? So I got in touch with Cornish Tea, and we have started selling it in our store, which we'll put a link in the show notes. And it's been a great seller for us. It's been really popular. We've tried other teas, and they haven't sold. Jackie But I think this is like the best afternoon cuppa. Like if you want a good afternoon cuppa where you get a little bit of caffeine but a really smooth taste this is this is the tea yeah i drink this um every day after lunch Jonathan so um yeah so we have plenty in stock for christmas we sell it in these boxes that come with 80 tea bags um they don't have loose leaf yet but they have told me that they will have Jackie loose leaf soon well and to all of our readers and listeners out there if loose leaf is something you really really want for this tea please let us know we've done loose leaf before and everybody Jonathan said that they really wanted it and then nobody bought it yeah so so if you want this in loose leaf please let us know yes um but we probably at this point we probably won't have it till after the new year because they haven't told me that they have it ready oh man that would this like Jackie would make the perfect pot of tea for like after after christmas lunch when you like pull out dessert because it's it's just it's soft in the best way and smooth and yeah so check this out Jonathan i'll have a link in the show notes it's uh 17.99 a box oh yeah so it's not that expensive and it you know 80 tea bags that i'll get you through a couple months yeah for sure so um so the first thing i want to talk about is our new newsletter yeah we um new and improved new and improved newsletter email newsletter so for the last like 10 years we've been on mailchimp and um to be honest mailchimp is very expensive it's a good product it's a great product but it's very expensive and as angletopia has been struggling this year we've been trying to cut costs where we can and this is one of our biggest monthly costs i think we spend five grand a year on email sending Jackie because we want to reach out and touch our fans communicate with our fans yes so it's a very Jonathan expensive thing so i am investigating alternatives and it also falls on the purview of the freelance work i've been doing is digital marketing so i found a new platform for our email newsletter that's much more affordable and uh we rolled out a new design a few weeks ago for both the angletopia newsletter and the londontopia newsletters and i'm very happy with the results and we've had good back from everybody but if you were a subscriber to our newsletter and you all of a sudden stopped getting it um double check your spam folder or your promotions tab in gmail because for some because it's changed it might have ended up somewhere else where it's not supposed to be Jackie so you can always reach out to us too yeah and you can always email me directly and i can help Jonathan troubleshoot where it is so um that's the the big angletopia news the new newsletter um Jackie then i guess do we want to talk about ireland now yeah big exciting news drum roll Jonathan so part of the i'm not going to name the company i've been doing work for just because i haven't warned them about this so i need to talk to them first but um the company i've been freelancing for um they are bringing me over in december to come to the office and meet everybody and in ireland in ireland yeah the company's based in ireland in carlo ireland and they are bringing me over to you know do a head office visit and meet everybody and get some work done um it's a business trip i should be clear that we're not paying for it we're not financing this they're not financing this incletopia has nothing to do with this um but jackie is coming with because we were able to get you a ticket for $100 using our miles. Jonathan True story. Jonathan So she's going to come with and just tag along, and she's going to entertain herself while I'm at work. Jackie Well, I have family from Ireland. Jonathan So my people come from Italy, and they come from Ireland. Jackie And it was really cool. I was able to do some genealogy, and I found the Catholic parish where my great-grandparents were married, which is incredible. So I'm definitely going to go see that. And then the village of Eglish, A-G-L-I-S-H, Eglish? Probably Eglish. Eglish, maybe. I apologize if I'm destroying the pronunciation, but that's where my family comes from. So I will definitely be visiting. I think that's super duper cool to be able to go and see where my people come from. Jonathan Yeah, so neither of us have ever been to Ireland. And we've focused all of our travel resources on going to England as much as possible. So it's never been a place. Jonathan Well, the main British island. Jonathan Yeah, it's just never been a place we've been able to go to. Jonathan Right. Jonathan So while this is a business trip and I'm going to be working 90% of the time I'm there, we will have a couple days on the weekends when we can explore and get a sense of the country and explore around. Hopefully, you know, have some fun experiences. Jackie dear readers if uh if you know of any places in ireland that you would definitely recommend that we see please leave it in the show comments um particularly anywhere on any of the coasts that Jonathan are really really beautiful that's totally my jam the we're gonna be in carlo which is south Jackie east sort of south central east yeah it's north of dublin it's like right here to the people who Jonathan watching um it's south of dublin oh it's south of dublin yes oh right it's an hour south of dublin yeah sorry my bad so we're gonna that's where i'm gonna be where the head office is and then yeah so any recommendations on things to do in that area we are we know nothing about ireland Jackie well foods to try yeah definitely want to have a true irish guinness because i've heard there's Jonathan so much better there yeah so so yeah so that that feeds into my next question or our next topic is when are we going to england again um there was that explosion again yeah somebody is blowing things up in our rural indiana town welcome indiana so um not really i don't want to throw We don't know where we're going to Britain again. Jackie We desperately want to. Jonathan Yeah, I want to go every day. But the state Angletopia is in currently we can't travel. Jackie Well, we're doing better than we were at this time last year. We're doing much better. But it's a year of repair and recuperation. Jonathan And we just can't so many travel. Jackie Unfortunately. Jonathan Yeah, and Angletopia needs to support us as a family more than us gallivanting around the British Isles. Jackie Well, no, let's walk that back a little bit because I don't think, I would not use the word gallivanting. Jonathan I love the gallivant. Jackie Well, there has never been a time where we have went to England and we've not either been taking pictures, doing interviews, taking meetings, like we have a scheduled this or that tour for something amazing that's been arranged. like we never go over and just relax i mean we just don't do it so i i think that yes you could say like some gallivanting but when i think of the word gallivant i think like la la la la like we yes we're tourists but we're tourists with a purpose if that makes sense so i i definitely want Jonathan to point that out yeah so we're we're not traveling at all this year which we've talked in 2019 we've talked about um as for 2020 remains to be seen we the the exciting thing about me working with this company in ireland is that ireland is a 30 to 40 minute flight from great britain so if i go back there again to the head office then we'll have more opportunities to visit to visit britain than we do now so that's that's definitely something that could happen in 2020 um we'll just have to wait and see we'll just have to wait and see as far as anything concrete there's nothing concrete in our agenda for 2020. So I'd wanted to do Hadrian's Wall next year, but I didn't meet my goals this past summer to kind of do that. So we'll just have to wait and see how many miles I walked this winter, I guess. But there's no event we have planned. But not a day goes by where I don't think about how we can get back so as soon as an opportunity presents itself well we will take it an opportunity Jackie presents itself and financially the picture looks right yeah that we can afford that the business Jonathan can afford so agree speaking of business uh we wanted to highlight some products in the angletopia store that we need to shift christmas is coming this is coming and that's why we have Jackie christmas cards so for those of you who are watching us we're kind of showing these christmas cards which not only are beautiful but they have like a collective tin yeah they come in a tin That they come in. And so what's really nice is you can send Christmas cheer, but then you get a lovely Christmas tin to keep if you'd like. Jonathan Yeah, and there's eight cards in each one. There's various different designs. We will put the link in the show notes, obviously. Jackie Oh, I've dropped a thing of Christmas cards. Jonathan So, but we, to put, not to put too fine a point on it, we overbought those. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan And we overestimated their popularity. So we have a lot of them. Jackie So buy some Christmas cards. Jonathan So we've discounted them by 50%. Jackie Like, red alert, hot deal. Jonathan Yeah, they're $9.99 to $10. So if you want Christmas cards, and you're going to send Christmas cards, which you would need to do soon because it's middle of November now. Jackie Yeah, it's time. Jonathan So buy some Christmas cards, please. Jackie Well, buy some Christmas cards, and you get a great tin for yourself. Jonathan Yeah. Another thing I want to point out is the brand new Great British Film and TV Map from Marvelous Maps in the UK. Jackie I love these. These make amazing stocking stuffers, not just for an Anglophile, but for a movie buff. There's a lot of great British movies that have become cult classics, and it shows all of the locations. Well, not all of the locations, but a really good number of locations of where some of your most favorite British movies have been filmed. Jonathan Yeah, and it's the same people who made the adventure map that has been a good seller for us. Jackie People have really liked those. Jonathan I'm not going to unfold it because it's massive. But yeah, they list all the famous filming locations. Also where something is set, even if they didn't film it there. There's some trivia about films. And they have a trip planner so you can plan an adventure that hits all the major filming locations. And so you can kind of... It does the top 50 films and where they were filmed. Jonathan How fun would that be? Yeah, it's just packed. Jonathan 2,000 film locations. I mean, it's just packed with information. These are the kind of maps that you could just stare at for hours. Jackie It'd be a nice one to frame even. Jonathan Yeah, the company sells an unfolded version that you could have framed. Jackie Oh, nice. We don't sell it. No, but you could always frame this if you wanted to as well. Jonathan So, yeah. So, that's it from the store for now. Those are the things, you know. Jackie But keep an eye because we've got lots of great British products. Jonathan And they released a food map this year that we forgot to sell. So, we'll have their food map after the holidays that has, it's basically a guide to the British Isles and their food. Jackie So, it's a cool map. Jonathan makes me think of sunday roast um some people have been asking me on the comments and on our site uh what what's the status of my book i wrote my book called adventures in angletopia um nothing has happened no that's not nothing the book is done it's been professionally edited by a developmental editor and i've been i'm in the query process i'm trying to find an agent to Jackie represent it you can send bottles of alcohol to anglotopia towers so if any if any agents are Jonathan listening to this podcast please get in touch um i have a book ready to go and a built-in audience Jackie to sell it to how many words is it 190 000 words it's non-fiction it's based on it's a travel Jonathan memoir about um why do you love britain so much yeah the number one question i get asked is why do I love Britain so much and so the book is a is an answer to that going back to when I became an Jackie Anglophile as a kid and and you not only do you talk about like being like your love of England and how it blossomed and developed you also really you chronicle the birth of Anglotopia and kind of all the way through really till last year but what I really like about the book is aside from those really great things. There's a lot of travel anecdotes in there that we haven't necessarily shared with readers. Lessons we've learned, fun things that we've done, mistakes that we've made, cultural gaffes, because there have been quite a few and some have been spectacular. But it, I don't know, I think it, if you love Britain, if you love travel, if you are a big anglotopia fan um i'm really excited to see what will happen with this book well thank you you're Jonathan my number one fan oh so and she's not just saying that because i say nice things about her in the book he's funny so um next i wanted to talk about some great british books i've i've read um and that you've had to hear about no it's all right um so three very different books um first up is confessions of a bookseller by sean by tell and it's um a sequel to the diary of a bookseller and um sean runs the biggest secondhand bookstore in scotland and Wigtown, which holds a literary festival every year. And he's a very curmudgeonly Scot, and he's been keeping diaries about the joys, tribulations, and hilarity of running a secondhand bookshop in the current climate against Amazon and the big bookstores. So it's really funny. It's really interesting, and it really paints an interesting picture of southern Scotland. So I highly recommend his book, both his books, actually, especially if you're a bookshop nerd like me and you like bookshops, you'll love this book. Jackie Well, and keep these in mind because people will be traveling for the holidays. So if you need a book on the airplane so you don't have to talk to the person next to you, there you go. Jonathan Highly recommend this one. The second one is, this is the wrong one. Jackie oh well that's the sequel he's always reading something british which i absolutely adore so oh that was gorgeous the the sea room by adam nicholson which um i got from Jonathan um stanford's in london and it's adam nicholson he's uh the he's a he's a an author he's a posh author whose father was had literary connections to the sackville west family and all that and um so his father owns three scottish islands the shant islands and they and if they're ever looking Jackie for someone to leave them to i would be delighted to take them off their hands so they're they're in Jonathan the hebrides um in the far north north of scotland and his father left him gave him the islands when he was 21 years old and so this he were he he started writing this book when he was getting ready to hand the islands over to his son when he turned 21 and so he writes about what it's like to live on the island he doesn't live there full time you can't live there full time and it's about watch me it's a complete history of the islands their geological history their social history and their nature history it's a seabird colony it's just it's one of the best books i've ever Jackie read about scotland it's beautiful too you've read you've read pieces of it to me yeah i read Jonathan pieces of you while we were in bed and it's talks about sailing and talks about how he built the boat that he takes there and it's just a wonderful wonderful picture of this place and it's an Jackie excellent example of place writing and i want to say because i want to back up real quick because that might make some readers uncomfortable he meant he read it to me while i was in bed recuperating Jonathan so so yeah so that's the sea room by adam nicholson again the links in the show notes and then another this is probably my favorite book i've read this year so the third book i want to talk about is the salt path by rainer winn and uh when you read the dust jacket it doesn't sound like the most uplifting of stories um uh they lose their house due to a dodgy business dealing and are going to be homeless and the husband and the couple he is diagnosed with a terminal disease that's going to eventually kill him. So they decide to do the sensible thing and go for the 630-some-mile southwest coast path walk from Devon all the way around Cornwall through Devon again in Dorset. And because they're homeless, they live in their tent, and they have no money, and they rough sleep along the way, and they have a life-affirming, fantastic adventure and they're dealing with the grief of losing their home where they raise their family and it was their livelihood because they ran a holiday business. And it's just a fantastic slice-of-life travelogue about an interesting geographical location. And the author has a sequel coming out where she rehabs like an abandoned piece of farmland. So I highly recommend this book. It's been on the bestseller list for weeks and weeks and weeks. You can get it on Amazon. So we'll put a link in our show notes. So the next topic we were going to talk about is the current British TV that we've watched, are watching, and are going to be watching. So do you have anything? Jackie I'm trying to think back. We just finished GBBO, or Great British Bake Off. Jonathan Great British Bake Off, yeah. Jackie Oh, man, that was really, I really, really enjoyed it this season. Jonathan Yeah, and it's streaming in the U.S. on Netflix. It should be, the complete season should be on there now. Jackie Yeah, I think so. Jonathan So, yeah, it was, I'm not a huge fan of that show, but it's such a British show. Jackie Like, I'm not a big sweets fan. Like, if you put a plate of cheese out, you will definitely catch a Jackie. But like cakes and pies and biscuits and that kind of stuff normally. But when I watch GBBO, I'm like, I need a slice of cake now. Like, it's crazy. And I will say that I think the person who won, no spoilers. The person who won definitely deserved it. But at the beginning of the series, that's not automatically who I would have picked out as the winner. There was somebody else who I would have picked as the winner. I'm not going to say who because I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it. but it was nice it was it was uh it's always just such a fun one to watch Jonathan so um it's not british um it's irish but we've been watching father ted Jackie did we talk about dairy girls too because i'm thinking of like have we i don't think we've talked about on the podcast oh because they're gonna do gbbo for christmas yeah which i'm getting Jonathan ahead of myself here yeah uh dairy girls is one of the funniest new british comedies that's come Jackie out in the last couple years is it an irish comedy though or is it a british comedy or is it somewhere Jonathan in between northern irish so i guess it's a technically we're gonna tread really lightly yeah i mean we'll call it a northern irish comedy but it's aired on british tv and it's fantastic it's on netflix and it's about a group of girls in dairy londonderry in northern ireland in the 90s at the sort of the end of the troubles near the end of the troubles and the end of the first Jackie season again not giving a cliffhanger away but the way the end of the first season ends like we binged it like we like hardcore binged it like it was like one of those where netflix is like are you still breathing do we need to send help kind of binge it we were completely transfixed by it And the way the first season ended, I turned to John and I'm like, wait, did what happen? Did that actually just happen? Like, did, you know, I don't want to give anything away, but the ending left us like, oh my gosh, what? Did something just happen to the characters? Like, what just happened? And I'm like, John, quick, look it up, look it up, what happened, what happened? And then we were thrilled when we watched it, like, two weeks later, I think the second series dropped. Jonathan in the uk in the uk and then we were cheated and watched we were able to watch it but it's on Jackie netflix now yeah so definitely if you um if you get the opportunity highly highly recommend it is really really funny and it's some good 90s nostalgia no matter you know no matter where you are there are some very 90s things going on we like this trend of 90s nostalgia in our Jonathan popular entertainment because we grew up in the 90s so yep um when i asked my irish co-workers what shows should i watch before we come to ireland in december they said watch father ted Jackie or father ted oh you were gonna get letters for that uh and dairy girls sorry i've got a bit of a cold here and dairy girls drink a tea dear i know i've i've just about drank it all gone though Jonathan um so yeah we've been watching father ted which is absolutely hilarious yeah if you're if you like Jackie to show black books or the it crowd it crowd oh my gosh is like right it's the same the it crowd Jonathan same producer and creator so it has a very similar feel like there's the straight guy there's the idiot and then there's like the wild card guy yeah and it's just it's really funny it's comedic genius it's very dated yeah but it's okay it's very 90s but the jokes are timeless it's i mean it's jokes about catholicism and ireland and it's it's just generally funny and and they it's it's been illuminating to watch because now as i've as we've watched it i've gotten a lot of the jokes in the company slack that i didn't get before so it's been very useful for those of you who don't know what slack is it's a messaging channel yeah a messaging chat for people who work in an office Jackie but can i because it's the same guy who did father ted did the it crowd and slightly off topic i want to share a really funny anecdote about the it crowd so it's one of those shows that it doesn't matter what kind of mood i'm in or if i've had a really horrible day if i turn on an episode of the it crowd it's one of those that i can't help but laugh like really kind of like from the gut belly laugh so when i gave birth to our daughter um she was born by cesarean section and the the hospital I didn't have anything to watch as I was recuperating because that's a long hospital stay. And so I was looking for something to watch and I had my iPad and I was like, oh, I'll just watch the IT crowd. It's really, really funny. So for those of you who've had abdominal surgery, you know where this story is going. If you've had any sort of abdominal surgery, it hurts to laugh. I mean, like, not like it hurts a little bit it really hurts to laugh but i was so bored i was like okay i'll just watch the it crowd and not laugh you can imagine how well that went like i need an extra dose of pain medicine like even the nurse came in she's like what are you watching you are cracking up in here so no joke i've probably seen the entire series what seven eight times now like it just oh love love the characters anyway sorry that was a really weird roundabout anecdote Jonathan here to talk about all things british wow so other british tv shows um we a fun one i've really enjoyed the last six weeks um it's called zombote i don't know that one hey i've been watching it without you because i didn't think it interests you and it's a comedy very much in the vein of like shauna the dead and it's um it takes place in uh i want to say birmingham i'm pretty sure it's birmingham and uh it's the zombie apocalypse happens how would i not like this and the the Jackie the main characters escape by going on a canal boat okay this sounds like jackie bait it's Jonathan hilarious well we can binge it i saved it i actually kept it because it's so funny so they're on a boat and it's zombies well that's great it's a canal boat it moves at four miles an hour i've Jackie been on a canal boat i know it doesn't have a sail it's still a boat but it's it's the most british Jonathan concept for a zombie show that takes place on a canal boat is it something like um let's make a Jackie pot of tea and then we'll go out and kill some zombies basically there are there are cups of Jonathan teammate and like they have to like clean the blood out of the kettle it's lovely it's like it's a zombie show but it's not gory or scary it's just it's it's not the walking dead no from Jackie emc no it's just funny that sounds very very british and very funny it is very british and it's good in the is the humor very dry no it's not very dry oh really yeah the main character Jonathan she's a she's like a she's a you know a gamer who never leaves the house but she spends all time playing zombie video games so this is like her jam like it's her dream to live through a zombie apocalypse so she's like has all the the planning and like all the knowledge that all the other idiot characters need to survive that's hilarious it's really funny so it's on hulu it's streaming on hulu love hulu yeah so uh i highly recommend it it's funny so i guess maybe Jackie that's what we'll be watching later uh well we got something else to watch later yeah we have Jonathan several things actually um we haven't watched it yet but the crown season three has dropped on netflix as of today so we'll start that tonight um for sure for those who aren't familiar with the crown it's made by the same people who made the film the queen back in the early 2000s peter morgan and the same kind of producer so it has the same similar feel and season one and two took Jackie place in the 50s and early 60s and so good it's it's i mean the story is amazing but the set decoration and the and the wardrobe is worth it alone i mean it is so good it chronicles the Jonathan early part of the reign of queen elizabeth ii claire foy as the queen and matt smith as they're incredible well one of the problems though they have with the show is that the characters would age out of the actors so with season three there's a time jump and they recast everybody which is which is clever so they can so they can cast older people well and i think it speaks Jackie to the queen's reign i mean there's a lot of time there so they cast uh olivia coleman as the queen which she's amazing in everything yeah she's amazing everything that's perfect casting like she's gonna be great can i say where i first saw olivia coleman oh in peep show in peep show how far she has come like so good so every time i see her even in the most amazing roles like she just won an oscar for uh what was it was she played which the favorite yeah she was incredible in that but all i could think to myself when i saw her it's sophie it's sophie so sorry to Jonathan olivia coleman well i have an olivia coleman anecdote um to this day i swear i saw her in the tube station at old street like i i could swear it was her like short hair and everything Jackie maybe i'm convinced it was her um so you did the very british thing and you just didn't bother her Jonathan of course and then um they recast duke of edinburgh as uh tobias minzies i don't i think that's how you say his name um who was an outlander and he's like an everything and then who's he an outlander he's the the evil british soldier oh that's gonna be hard to watch Jackie some things are scarred on my memory he's a good actor he is a great actor if you if you really hate a character then the actor or actress has well i mean we hate his character so much we Jonathan watched beyond season one of outlander this is true no it's season two we started season two we never finished yeah and that's where we stopped it's just that's just not entertaining spoiler that's a spoiler oops sorry i'll i'll bleep that out yeah um so yeah so the crown sees and they Jackie cast hell in the bottom carter as princess margaret oh so good yeah so we cannot wait to watch that tonight so yeah that's the crown uh so if nobody sees us for a couple of days we're okay we're watching the crown and we haven't moved from the couch in three days 10 out of 10 one hour episodes that's a lot to a lot to go 10 one hour it's 10 hours yeah so if we started at six o'clock tonight and didn't sleep and didn't sleep we can still both wake it make it to work on monday morning Jonathan i'm totally kidding um another we started this but we haven't we kind of took we haven't watched Like we watched the first two episodes and there's five more we haven't watched. The World on Fire. That's the new World War II show piece. Jonathan Oh, yeah. It has Helen Hunt in it. Yeah, Helen Hunt is in it. Jonathan It's on BBC One. It's going to be on PBS soon. Jonathan It's really, really good. Jonathan Yeah, they've kind of taken a different track with a lot of the British World War II shows. instead of it just being set in britain that's set all over europe and how the war is affecting Jackie people all over europe and kind of how it unfolds and kind of starts in a lot of ways yeah it starts Jonathan at the beginning and i believe the plan is they're going to do a season a year of the entire war so it's so cool it's really good um highly recommend it and helen hunt is in it i know i keep saying Jackie like oh my gosh but like she she it seems like at least to my knowledge she took a long pause from doing anything and she's back in it and she's great in it like i would watch her in just about anything but she's really good in it uh like the whole cast is absolutely phenomenal but um it was just and i really like her character she plays an american journalist in europe at the start of the war and she plays a you know she's obviously a woman and i think even um you know her character her character has got some gumption you know she's she's a bold character and very very reminiscent of uh martha gellhorn yeah i think that's very fair so really good though really Jonathan really good yeah it's very good highly recommend it we need to finish it but we just need too busy Jackie it's just who's got the like time i just need time so um you haven't been watching this but i Jonathan have and it's so good um his dark materials has started on hbo and bbc in the uk and that's like the big budget drama this fall on the bbc and on hbo and it's so good based on the books by philip pullman i mean the books are great but the show is very faithful to the books very high production values looks great acting is superb they cast it perfectly everybody who's been cast in their roles was perfectly cast so far and i cannot wait to watch episode three i mean it's just so good um and they're already filming the second season so we know like the whole trilogy of books is going to get made and i believe they have plans to do the the new trilogy that philip pullman is writing so we're going to be seeing this show on the airwaves for a long time to come and it's It's so good. Highly recommend it. Jonathan It's airing on BBC One in the UK right now, Jonathan and then it airs a day later on HBO in the US. So definitely check that out. It's fantasy, but it's an interesting kind of fantasy. It takes place in a world that's very much like ours, but slightly different. And it's really good. Did you like the Cockfields? I did. Jackie is that the show you were watching yeah yeah that's funny it's that we not weird it's the wrong word it's British funny there are some shows that love to kind of uh American okay so the difference between Americans and Britishness Americans tend to steer away from awkward like awkward situations like if you see that in comedy it's usually like very slapstick but the British tend to really excel at awkward moments in comedy like making comedy out of awkward moments in a way that it's not slapstick they're not called they're just kind of letting the situation like present itself as it is where you see the absurdity of it and like it was one of those where i couldn't look away because it was just it was hilarious and i think it's like watching a car crash in slow motion but i also think it's so relatable yeah like yeah the show it's called the cockfields Jonathan and it's about a a london couple going to the isle of white to meet the the son the guy's parents for his birthday weekend it's got um diane morgan who is hilarious she was in um is that the girlfriend that's the girlfriend yeah she was in the netflix show with um with uh what's his name the guy from the office uh ricky gervais um after afterlife she was in that so that she was one of the workers in the newspaper so she's really funny um she did a show called kunk on britain where she Jonathan did a sort of a faux documentary on the history that was hilarious that was so funny that has that Jonathan hasn't aired anywhere here because it's not really the kind of show that would come over Jonathan but if you get a chance you find it somewhere it's worth it look it up on youtube she's just she's Jonathan hilarious she's at a very dry like she delivers her jokes in a very dry matter of fact way and it's just it's funny and so this role is she's she's the girlfriend who goes to visit the Jackie boyfriend's family in the isle of white for the weekend and they're just odd and they're just odd and it's just but it's really funny i like it well what's funny about it too is his family is odd And it's almost like her interpretation or how she's seeing his family is reflected back to him. Where it probably seemed a little different but somewhat normal because, you know, families have oddities. Like it's just the nature of families and inside jokes and that kind of thing. But it's very funny. I definitely recommend it. It's good for a good laugh. Jonathan And then the final show I wanted to talk about is, we watched it together. is The Reluctant Landlord. Jackie Oh my gosh. So funny. Jonathan Yeah, I just... That's probably my favorite British comedy this year. Jackie Yeah? Jonathan And I've seen quite a few. It's a show created by and starring Romesh, Ring, and Nathan. Jackie Who is like your total man crush Jonathan right now in the worst way. Jackie No, in the best way. Jonathan This guy, he's a stand-up comedian and he's just hilarious. Jackie He's funny in everything he does. We watched him in a travel show earlier this year. Jonathan Yeah, the Misadventures of Romesh Ring and Nathan. Jackie Where he supposedly goes to the worst travel destinations. Jonathan It's so good. Jackie It's great because he is deliciously sarcastic, which I have such respect for. Jonathan And so this show, it's kind of semi-autobiographical. And it's about his dad dies and he runs his pub, takes over the pub. But he doesn't want to do it. he has dreams of being a rapper Jonathan gangster rapper Jonathan and but he's stuck running the family pub with his wife and kids living above the shop basically Jackie but they're all good sports about it Jonathan yeah and it's just it's so funny like it's the chronicle of basically what's the word a misanthrope who doesn't want to do this job and refuses Jonathan to find the humor in it Jonathan and what everyone else does and there's a fun cast of characters who are always in the pub and um it's now done two seasons six episodes each and it's just it's so funny i love his mother Jackie the character of his mother who's just like this overbearing lovely woman that is just always like tangled in the goings-on of his life and it's just you know oh one of my all-time favorite scenes and i don't know which which series it was but where the mother-in-law comes over and reorganizes the daughter-in-law's kitchen and then she walks in and she goes she says something along the lines of like it's organized now or now you'll be better able to find something and the daughter-in-law romesh's wife just like sits there and drinks her tea and just looks at her husband like uh get your mother out of here now before i lose it it's just it's it's brilliant it's really Jonathan really funny i don't know where that streaming here i don't even know if it is but it's got to be somewhere yeah it's really funny maybe try youtube or something i don't know it's got to Jackie be out there but yeah but we we should talk about a little bit too if you really enjoy his humor yeah he's the travel show yeah that i had mentioned is so worth it somebody's got to air that because Jonathan it's gold it's commuted gold what is it the misadventures of romash ringanathan that's it i'll look in the show notes i'll see if it's airing anywhere here and put it in the show notes but Jackie what i love about it okay so his kind of funny i don't want to say shtick because i don't want it to sound disrespectful because he is legitimately funny while he does this travel but what's great is he really does travel to places that at least most Americans don't travel to. Jonathan Yeah, like he went to Zimbabwe. Jackie Yeah, but what's really cool is they're still educational. Jonathan It's still a travel log. You still learn stuff, but it's funny. Jackie Yeah, like he goes to, was it Nepal? Is that Nepal? Jonathan No, he went to Mongolia. Jackie Mongolia, that's right. I'm sorry, Mongolia, which looks incredibly beautiful and long way round went through Mongolia. I remember that, but you don't see, at least here in America, you don't see a lot of travel logs where they go through Mongolia. And it looks incredible and beautiful and just definitely watch it. It's super funny. It's educational. Jonathan Yeah, if you – I recommend looking him up on YouTube. Jackie Yeah, super funny guy. Ramesh Ranganathan. Jonathan I just spell it like it sounds. You can see some of his stand-up. He's so funny. And then he also did a show on Showtime here in the U.S. called Just Another Immigrant where he's pretty well known in Britain and he's constantly working, but he's almost unknown here. So his goal was to move to the U.S. and take over America. And so he moves to L.A. with his family and then tries to become... Jackie His character in the show. Jonathan No, it's a... Jackie Oh, wow, okay. No, they really did this. Jonathan Sorry. It's a rowdy TV. scripted reality tv so they came he came to the u.s with his family and then he tried like zany scheme after zany scheme to like become known in america so he could fill the greek theater Jackie on a certain day in december right i remember that oh i remember now super funny yeah don't Jonathan give it away don't give it i'm not gonna give it away but the it's streaming on showtime and after you've watched it um they also have the comedy special they recorded when he actually does the show at the greek and if um it's kind of the greatest hits of romance ring and anything so if you've seen any other stand-up like that's kind of what his america show is so highly recommend that Jackie um but we are wait you know what else we saw this year what we saw the martin clunes documentary of the islands of america yeah that was really really good that was good that's yeah that's on Jonathan acorn tv um that was really good he did went to alaska california didn't he do he did louisiana Jackie he did the the eastern coast as well and we saw billy connelly did another one where we haven't finished that i thought we did finish it finish it oh where he goes to salem and yeah like billy connelly is one of those more like i can watch him read a phone book and be completely entertained like he is just so wonderful and friendly and warm and i love that you know you know it's one of those where when you have a somebody british that comes and tours america they tend to point out the lovely or the absurd here and it's kind of great to kind of see our culture mirrored back to us at times um and he just it's brilliant um so you'll have to put a link in the notes to that as well because it's it's really good like like i keep i think i know i keep mentioning it but he goes to salem and like really like gets into the whole like witch trial thing and that kind of thing which you know there's take you know everybody has their own opinions about it but um it was just it's really good i highly recommend it um picking up on your point about martin clunes Jonathan um the new season of doc martin that dropped that just ended in the uk and here um it's streaming now on acorn tv the whole new season should air on pbs next year him and louiser him and louiser yeah and it's really good the doc martin has been very that's a kind pet name we don't mean to be offensive in any way uh doc martin's been very hit or miss the last few years there were a couple seasons that were kind of dreadful but um oh you went there i can have opinions um but last season and this season are actually really good um this season is was pretty good i you disagree with me Jonathan I don't know. I just, it gets difficult. Jackie It's getting old. Because, like, I just, I feel like there must be something in the water of this, you know, kind of made up town where everybody is so incredibly accident prone or, like, strange or bizarre or rare diseases or, like, that kind of thing. I think that, I mean, I get it because he's a doctor and that's why you have to keep, like, I totally get it. but it strays into the absurd sometimes. Jonathan I like it because it's a very relaxing show to watch. Jackie It's beautiful. The scenery is incredible. Jonathan Yeah, it's very low-impact TV. Jackie Yeah. Jonathan And it's nice to just sit and be in Port Isaac Cornwall for an hour. Jackie I completely agree with you. Jonathan So it was good. You know, the Doctor had to deal with some stuff this season. Jackie He's got to deal with some stuff every season. Jonathan And it ended on a cliffhanger, which I won't spoil. Jackie Dun, dun, dun. Jonathan Yeah, so they had said last time around that this ninth season was going to be their last or the eighth season. It's the eighth season there. It's the ninth one here for some reason, the way the PBS split the seasons. But they said that it was going to be their last. But apparently Martin Clunes has walked that back and said that if ITV commissions more, they'll make more. Jackie Here we go. More adventures in Port Isaac. yeah or port wind port wind yes it's actually port isaac is yeah i really i really liked it Jonathan this season because um we've been to port isaac where they film it and it's so beautiful it was Jackie really cool it's so cold too like we that's what we did the lance into john of groats drive and it was supposed to be like warm and we neither of us packed coats which was just stupid we knew better i was like oh it's gonna be warm i don't need a coat i actually bought a coat in port isaac like a wax um like a wax covered waterproof kind of like a ceiling coat almost um lightweight and got me through the trip and i love that coat i call it my doc martin coat actually Jonathan so we need to start wrapping it up now yeah we have not covered a couple topics that we wanted to cover but we like to keep us at an hour because i wouldn't want to listen to us for more than an Jackie hour and if you've made it through the whole hour you've been very generous so we're gonna we'll Jonathan save the things we didn't talk about for next time so we'll talk about british christmas next time oh my favorite the cotswolds next time um we thank you for coming back and listening yes we miss you guys we're gonna try and do this more regularly now um although we say that on the precipice of the holiday season we'll be home more so you know you'll be home more but um so again this podcast was sponsored by the royal oak foundation go check them out the american affiliate of the national trust by joining them you get in all national trust properties for free in scotland wales northern ireland and it's a great organization to join um if you use code anglo 10 or anglo 2019 you can save 10 on your membership we have a family membership we've saved hundreds of pounds no joke over the years on admission fees so and even if you never travel it's really preserving such yeah the money goes to british landmarks yeah it goes to preserve british heritage which Speaker 5 is a worthy cause absolutely so thank you for listening and that'll be it from us trio Bye-bye.