Jonathan Thomas (00:01.196)
Welcome back to the Anglotopia podcast. I'm Jackie Thomas. Jonathan Thomas. Mr. and Mrs. Anglotopia. Welcome to a new season of the Anglotopia podcast. It's been a minute, hasn't it? Yeah, there's been a little bit of a break, but we are dedicated to bringing the podcast back and releasing it regularly. Yeah, for a new season. So thank you so much for taking the time to listen or if you're watching us, welcome back. So,

In today's episode, we're going to talk about some new updates to Inglotopia. So if you've been on the website, what like this past six months, past six months, you've noticed some changes. We'll talk a little bit about why there are some changes and the great things that it does for our readers. We're also going to talk about, you're probably wondering why we have all this Lego on the table, not just set dressing. We'll talk about the exciting reason why.

Then we're going to talk about the Anglotopia books behind us on the bookshelf. Bunch of Anglotopia books. Shameless plugging. Right. And then we're going to talk about some British or British adjacent television and we'll recap today's episode with a look ahead for the next season. So with that, John, do you want to be mother or shall I? We'll pour the tea and we'll get started. You can pour the tea, I guess. Okay. So.

Why don't you talk while I'm pouring the tea? So if you're listening, we have tea service set out. This is our our London Underground tea set we purchased on a trip 10 years ago. Yeah. my God. It's collectible. I don't think you can buy it anymore. I'm sure you could find it online somewhere. It's what is it? It's our favorite. It's like 20s or 30s. Yeah, it's Art Deco. We there.

They're meant to be prints from the London Underground posters, but put on teacups and slusters. And we're serving Britannia tea, which is from Cornish tea. It's one of your favorites. It's one of my favorites. Unfortunately, we're out of stock on the store right now, but we'll have it soon. But it's a great mid morning tea. I like to say that Cornish tea is the perfect daily drinker after lunch.

Jonathan Thomas (02:22.19)
My favorite tea for breakfast is Yorkshire tea, but this is a great in between TV. I tend to be a little bit of a Fortnum and Mason girl. I'm not going to lie. Fancy. Yeah. Well, I can't help it. So, so why don't we talk about Lego? We've got all this Lego on the table. Like this is a lot of Lego, but it has a theme. What's the theme of this Lego? Well, the theme is so we are.

Because of a change in work situation for for both of us. I have more time to spend on Angotopia and London Topia than I used to in the last five years. So we are focusing on growing the website and growing the business. And one of the ways we're doing that is we are having a series of contests this year or sweepstakes, however you want phrase it. And so this is our second one. You may remember our first one. We gave away your supply T, which was.

Notice the theme. Crazy popular. What tea did you give away? The cordage tea, a year's supply, which is like, it was like, cheers to the winner. 400 and some tea bags of cordage tea. That's a lot of tea. To drink more than one a day if you're so inclined. That's a lot of tea. And a bunch of other tea paraphernalia. So that was, that was a great prize. It was a great prize. So to top that, we thought, what can we do to top that in the second quarter? Coming up is...

So Lego released this beautiful red phone box Lego set. Yeah, and it's massive. It's like a couple thousand pieces. I haven't actually put mine together yet, but it's it's I thought that's the perfect prize. But then Lego still has several other London. Yeah, we've got our London architecture with it's like the London Eye skyline. You have one of these, I think I do have.

I think that's yeah, I think that's in the office the Latopia office then there's was this Lego creator So there's like a bus a bus and like another it's another it's got postcard type like a little London scene And this one is the the little red bus And so the prize is you get all four of these. Okay, so how do people enter the contest? What is the contest for? So the link is it will be in the show notes as usual or you can go to London Topia and you'll find it there

Jonathan Thomas (04:38.862)
And this is to promote London Topia. For some of the London theme, which I'll go into in a little bit. Yep. And you can enter you to enter. You have to sign up for the London Topia weekly newsletter. So that's sent out every Thursday to to to people who subscribe. And it's all about London. Latest articles we published about London, the latest events we've published in our new events guide and the latest to tourist attractions we've published in our new attractions guide on London.

So and then we're doing this contest a little differently. You have. Because a lot of people are cheeky and like to enter more than once and don't think we don't notice we noticed we noticed so we this new software we're using to manage the contest gives you the opportunity to enter more than once and so do that. So like you if you also sign up for the Angotopia newsletter you get another entry.

If you like us on Facebook, you get an entry. If you like us on Instagram, you get an entry. And there's so there's 10 ways to enter 10 chances. And believe it or not, a lot of people have done all 10. Well, I mean, this is like we won't like say the actual monetary value of how much Lego is on the table. OK. It's like $300 with a lot of Lego like John walked out of the Lego store like with bags of Lego. Well, plus I had to get one for me. Well, yeah, of course.

So when does the contest enter the contest? When does the contest end? The contest ends June 1st, so we'll release this probably tomorrow so that gives people a couple weeks to still enter and then we'll choose the winner and the lucky winner will get all these wonderful Legos. And if the winner is so inclined, if you want to send us a picture when you win, we'd probably love to share that out. So good luck to everybody. Please get your entries in. Really, really fun.

Contest and I know we're not gonna we're not gonna talk about it, but I know Sorry, if you hear that John stirring his tea, but we got it stir the sugar. I know Okay We will have another contest don't say what it is because I know it's in the works But when are we thinking about the next contest third quarter? So so July August this summer. We'll have another awesome price package We'll have another one in the fall for for around Christmas. Yeah, so

Jonathan Thomas (06:58.798)
Why don't we talk a little bit about some updates to Inglotopia. Like this is for the website. And if you've been a long time reader, first of all, thank you for your continued support. Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting on our socials. Thank you for engagement. You know, the website is, you know, it's John's job.

One of John's jobs and you know, it's, yeah, it's, I don't know. Who knows anymore, right? But it helps support our family. So we want to thank all of the Anglotopia readers for your continued support. So it's a long intro to say what's new on Anglotopia. So the big changes, well, they started on London topia last year. Okay. It rolled out a new design, to update the website and that.

Because it had been a long time, right? Yeah, it's been almost 10 years since we've that's a long time. And I don't know if you know when you browse the Internet website design changes and to be stuck 10 years ago really sets us back. So for lots of reasons, we won't go into it's very technical because it's boring. That's a whole podcast. But the major thing is that even though we have a mobile app, which is free, download it iOS and Android.

90 % of website traffic comes to Angotopia from people's phones. And so. So the website is kind of designed for mobile first reading, so it's optimized to look nice when you read it on your phone. It's optimized to low quickly when you read it on your phone, and it also gives us a framework for all the new cool stuff that we're going to be releasing throughout the rest of the year, like an events guide, a traction guide and all that stuff. So it.

It makes it so it's easy to navigate and easy to use on the phone. Well, we want our readers to be able to have a really great reading experience no matter where you choose to read it. It's still great online if you're accessing from a computer or tablet. It's still very responsive. I mean, I'm biased, but I prefer to read it on the computer because I think that's where it looks the best.

Jonathan Thomas (09:18.958)
But it looks second best, I think, on tablets. So if you have an iPad, read it on the iPad. It looks great. I always read it on my phone. Yeah. And then there's the phone. And again, everybody does their internet research for British things on their phones, you know, because. Well, not everybody, but. Most people. I mean, yeah. How often have we been sitting in front of the TV watching a British TV show and we're like, where was that filmed? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, you're you're so you're so.

spot on with that. So, but essentially, although there are some design changes, people's favorite features are still pretty much there. The great content that you know and love is still there. And we've got just some incredible things planned for the next year, which we're not going to talk about now. But we've got some big things this year. We try to publish something every day. We don't always succeed, but we try to put something out every day.

And we try to do it along the lines of what we've always done. British culture, British history, positive, right? A positive corner of the internet where people can celebrate all lovely things British. And that way, you know, there's so much garbage on the internet. There's so much negativity. You're not going to find that on Angle. Yeah, we try not to know that you can go find that elsewhere. You don't have to look hard. And so there's, there's plenty of other places for that. So if you want to have, we're not it, but.

Yeah, if you want to have a good time and learn about British stuff, then come hang out with at Angle -Topia or London -Topia. So very cool, very cool. And I know that you've put a lot of time and effort into that. So John's really been head down, sleeves rolled up, big cup of tea, like.

the redesigns usually happen on the weekends, because that's when traffic is lowest. So if you ever browse it on a Saturday or Sunday and something looks broken, that's why. Yeah, because he's working on it. I'm fixing something. Yeah, but so that's not the only like kind of new and improved and you know, I feel like Anglotopia and London -topia kind of like had a glow up, right? So you, the newsletter.

Jonathan Thomas (11:27.438)
So Anglotopia or London Topia? Because we just talked about London Topia newsletter. So yeah, because we haven't fully done the reboot of the London Topia newsletter yet. That will happen after this contest is over because we're going to have thousands of new subscribers. Perfect. So let's talk about the Anglotopia newsletter. We've been sending that out for almost 15 years now. That is the core weekly of Anglotopia. Right. It goes every weekly, every Wednesday. And.

It's gone through several iterations and it's always been a digest and summary of everything we've published in the last week. Plus, you know, a message from us or the latest products in our store. But this year we're kind of pursuing an email first strategy. Yeah, because email is super important because while we have a website and we shout about it as much as we want, people will check their email more than they check websites. Well, and so and with social media, like it's kind of a little bit of a gamble. What?

Yeah, I see. And they don't know like five years ago, we will we could publish an article on our Facebook page and thousands of people would read it and see it. And that's how people would interact with us because they would see it in their feed. And sometimes they wouldn't even realize we had a website. Yeah, that's true. And now people primarily when they want to read something, they read it through their email. Yeah. So email is big for us. And so.

our number one goal for this year, like with the contest is to grow our email list. So now that's a long way of saying the long way of saying I'm sorry. I keep getting too detailed here. I know. Her job is to keep you on track. So so the what's new with the Anglotopia newsletter? So the London topia, the Anglotopia newsletter has a new design. John, but why does it have that? Because it's nicer. It looks nicer. OK, and it's but it's also it's designed in the.

with the mindset that you could sit down with a cup of tea and, and, and read through it and in a long amount of time. So we've added more pictures. there's now we've always been photo heavy. There's always a photo heavy, but now there's a photo at the top that we pick every week. We kind of curated something that we haven't shared before. and then further down the newsletter is we're giving away a free desktop wallpaper.

Jonathan Thomas (13:47.758)
Yeah, of a pretty thing in England, like free, completely free. So it's a picture. Usually we haven't shared before. Sometimes I can't resist my greatest hits, but it's a picture from our travels and we, we give you the link to the full resolution image that you can put on your desktop. You can put on your TV, you can put anywhere you want. It's completely free. Yeah. And we give a little, like a little mini essay on the significance of the picture and why, you know, what's in it and what's important.

But then the other thing is we want people to spend time with the newsletter and read it and learn something, not just click through the website. Like it's a fun, like. It's like a dessert. It's like sitting down with a favorite like dish like I cannot wait until like you could still digest it fast, but the the the good yummy part of it is the new weekly post. So it's the it's a new essay and usually in the middle of the newsletter.

that is about an experience we've had a place we've been to something interesting that is we find interesting like an essay like a little it's a little mini essay. Well, that we usually with another picture and it will sort of the goal with it is to delight you or to intrigue you or to encourage you to visit somewhere you may not have heard of. And so there will be one of those in the newsletter every week. And so, you know,

And the newsletter is free and the newsletter is free. So this yeah. And so then you can, you know, every Wednesday when we send it out and you receive it, you can, you know, bring yourself a cuppa and sit down with your favorite phone or tablet or computer and read through all the lovely British stuff that we that we put out. It sounds like lovely, like on a Sunday morning before the our children are up, like nice cup of tea. Get my tablet. Yeah, you know, and newsletter.

You know, there's a romance to reading magazines and things. People don't really do that anymore. So they do, but not as much as they used to. So now you can do it on whatever device you prefer. Sure. No, that's really cool. So we'll have a if so. If you're not already subscribed to the ankle to be newsletter, the subscribe link will be in the show notes and you can just go to ankle to be dot net slash newsletter and you can sign up there anytime. Well, and really sign up for both because we're not going to.

Jonathan Thomas (16:10.734)
Yeah, we're not going to spam you like that's not that's very not cool. So we really are respectful of. Yeah, we try to be. And you know what? And there's a one click unsubscribe if you don't always if you don't like what we always so nothing's worse than when you can't find that unsubscribe button because it is supposed to be there. Yeah, it has to be there. And it's astounding. How many like how many don't see? Yeah. So email you asking to unsubscribe. Well.

sometimes it's a little tricky for folks though, but it is there. it is easy to unsubscribe. so that being said, we've got more new like my gosh, it's like I said, it's a glow up episode, right? so you have been, aside from the website, the newsletter, you have been writing and writing and writing away. so you had how many books in this?

three books? Is it three books in a year? Like, well, I'm finishing the third and a half finishing the third one. Okay. Okay. So so like, so we'll talk a little bit about the books. Yeah. So our one of our, cause I have more time strategies for this year is to, is to release more Angotopia books for lots of reasons, but mostly because you love Britain and you want everybody else to love Britain. And I like making books. It's very fulfilling to make a book and they,

usually sell really well for us and they're good for the business to have a healthy library of books. Well, we know that our audience really loves them and supports them. And it's not like, I don't know, if you've been with us for a long time, like, you know, we bring a unique perspective to British culture. And one of the, I wouldn't call it a problem, one of the abundances of Angotopia is we have over 10 ,000 articles on our website.

from almost 17 years now of publishing. And that's a lot. And it's also very hard to find a lot of that stuff in the archive. You know, there are people who will scroll through every page of the archive. But sometimes you may like you may not know that a few years ago, we published an entire series of articles, 50 articles on Britain's great houses. That's that book.

Jonathan Thomas (18:33.966)
And so so we're grabbing it. So if you're on camera, if you're watching us, you can see it. It is. The book is called Great British Houses and it is the Anglophiles guidebook to Britain's stately homes. So we publish these articles years ago. Right. And I've always wanted to compile them into a book. And it just it's always been at the bottom of the to do list. Just haven't had the time. And when I finally sit down to do it earlier this year, I realized that.

all the articles needed to be updated and rewritten. So a small project to just compile everything and put them up and put a book out became a big project. So right. And we want it to be as accurate as possible. It's possible. Cause a lot of the, a lot of these houses are living houses. I feel like, sorry, if you're listening and you're wondering what that tapping is, John keeps like tapping the top of the book. So I've taken it away from them, but I can't my hands to myself. So, so the,

These houses are living houses and things are constantly changing. So we've tried to update every single article to reflect the current situation that each house has, because some have been like Wentworth Woodhouse, which is one of the future articles. Its ownership has changed several times in the last decade. It's now owned by a trust, but managed by the national trust. It's really complicated stuff. And so we we want to like break that down and make it easy to understand. Like, can you go? Can you not go? And so and so this book.

We just released last month book to this. This is like this a beefy book. So there's 50 chapters like beefy for for a guidebook, I think. And it's every house has a history of the house. You can visit the house. Why the house is important. Key facts about the house. And there's a picture. There's pictures of every house. Some houses only have one. Some have several. It depends on what we have from our own library and what we can license like it. You have.

You have no idea how hard it was to get a picture of checkers. The house of the country house of the prime minister. Yeah. Well, for security reasons. Yeah. Like we can understand. There's not a lot of pictures of it. And so that's out now. We just released it last month. It's been a great seller for us. So thank you if you bought a copy. Yes. And you can buy any of our books at any time on at our store store .anglotopia .net. They're on Amazon. They're ever there.

Jonathan Thomas (20:56.59)
every other bookstore. You can order pretty much any bookseller. You can order through any bookseller. They're on Kindle. There. There is an audio book version of this one, I believe. And there's an audio book version of of one of my other books. But we didn't put that on the agenda. That's OK. We'll talk about it another time. Yeah. And so but what's the other like so because we've got you have been writing and writing and writing and we haven't.

The second book that came out within the past year that has been really fun is this is the London Topias dictionary of Cockney slang. So our other slang dictionary is our bestselling book. And that's our just our general. Yeah, it's general British slang. And so our most traffic page on London Topia is the Cockney slang page. And so I was like, well, that tells me that I should make a book about it.

So I took our dictionary on London -Topia, expanded it, added hundreds of words, added more phrases. And then I also wrote a bunch of essays on the history of Cockney slang, the culture of East London, famous Cockneys, everything you could possibly want to know about Cockney slang, the East end of London and all of that. And a nice little compact dictionary, which is available from Booksellers Everywhere, from us, from...

It's a fun little book and it is. It's a we intend to put out more fun little books like this, which leads us into the third book coming out this year. Writing, writing, writing. There's more! You get the super prize package. So right now, alright, it's a two cup of podcast. Hey, that's everybody joined us to have a cup of tea. Let's have some tea.

So you are working on a Bridgerton book. Yes. So Bridgerton obviously took the world by storm. Yes. And so good. The third season is coming out tomorrow, in fact. So you can tell when we're recording. I had wanted this book done by then, but life deadlines as what as the guy that checkers into the galaxy says.

Jonathan Thomas (23:15.342)
I love deadlines. I love watching them fly by. If there were never a true statement, right? So it's the book is it's going to be it's called the Angle Files guide to Bridgerton to the world of Bridgerton and is a guidebook to Georgian and Regency Britain. So it's not so much about the show and the books. It's about the world the books inhabit.

to give you a historical grounding for why the show is the way it is and why the characters act the way they do. Social norms and cues and culture and... Who are important Georgian and Regency figures and, you know, even Georgian slang and Georgian manners, Georgian sport, Regency sport, like... So if you were gonna, like, throw a Bridgerton party, this book would be a great primer. Yeah.

You could read this book and know everything you need to know. Exactly. You have an absolutely proper Georgian event. So the book is should be done. Again, I hate to make promises. The book should be done by the time the second half of the Bridgerton new season drops in June. It better be done because we're talking about it. So it better be done. Yeah. So it will be look out on the website for announcements or in our email newsletter.

or social media, we will shout about it from the rafters. Absolutely. And it's going to be a fun book. Yeah. And I think that it'll be a good book for Anglotopia to put out. So with that being said, we've talked about a lot of new, like a lot of new. And so when we are not actively working on Anglotopia, right? Well, definitely you.

and me sometimes were like consuming British media. And there has been so much great, like I know we're not like I'm sure we're going to get comments and letters and that kind of thing. But there has been so much great British movies and television and things that we've watched and read and all of that good stuff. So I thought. Let's talk about, I mean, let's talk about some British TV, but I think we definitely have to.

Jonathan Thomas (25:35.284)
address the High Clare Castle in the room because there was a huge announcement this week. Yeah, way to mess up my show notes, focus features. No, we're so happy about this. That's something we kind of all thought was inevitable. But we were waiting for official confirmation, right? Trust but verified. Which came, was it Monday? Yeah, I think so. It was Monday. So there is going to be a third Downton Abbey film. Yeah. So the the filmmakers decided to print more money.

And they're going to make another Downton Abbey film, which is filming now, actually. Yeah. They just waited until they started to make the announcement. What do you think it's going to be about? Well, we don't know. We don't. We don't know. We're just speculating. My speculation is that it'll probably take place six months to a year after the last film. I'm not going to give away any spoilers of the things that happened in the last one in case anybody hasn't seen it. No spoilers. But the.

There will be a change in lineup characters based on who they cast. Yeah. So you may remember Paul Giamatti was in the last film as Cora's brother. They've cast him again and made a big, big show of it in the press release. So what I suspect is going to happen is that the the main characters will be visiting the U .S. to sort of 1920s America. That's interesting.

That's my spec that's completely my speculation. I have no inside information but based reading the tea leaves of the of the announcement I Suspected because in the last film half of it took no spoilers. Well, it's not a spoiler. Okay, half of it took place in France For plot reasons which I will not divulge because that would be spoilers So what but you know, they know that the meat and potatoes of Downton Abbey is the house and the house

So what they'll probably do is what they did in the second movie where half of it takes place in France half of it still following a B plot back at, you know, Downton Abbey. Okay. So I suspect there will be bits of America and bits back in England kind of please both both both sides of the story there. I think you're probably right, but I would I mean, I guess people would like start to age out of the show. But I would love to see like the house turn like World War Two. I think that would be like really cool or.

Jonathan Thomas (28:01.678)
Did they do, I apologize, I have a knowledge gap here. Did they turn the great houses into hospitals during World War I? Yeah, they did. well, we've already done World War I. Yeah, and World War II. So World War II would be They were used as hospitals, schools. They were used as... be... Divelets for soldiers. But right, like... For the secret services were based. Folks are gonna... Like, characters are gonna age out of the roles, right? By the police? Well, that's the thing is, the way the timeline of the show has worked, it's always moved very slow.

Yeah, like because the show started in 1912 and the Titanic sank right that's first episode and that's the first episode and then we went through World War two we went through the late World War one or I'm sorry Yeah, World War one the late, you know through the 19 early 1920s and we're in the timeline of the show We're still in the middle of the 1920s. And so I've always wanted them to kind of jump ahead to World War two because there's a lot of interesting storytelling possibilities there and that's the writer I

the fiction writer in me is because by then the kids would the kids would be grown up so they would be they could take a center stage and have to go off. It's almost like a whole other generation. It's a whole other generation. And you know, that generation is very consequential to the to the history to the history of the country house in England. And there would be some major changes if they kind of followed what history books have written about that era. Exactly. But I suspect they're kind of maybe.

I mean, every period drama in the early 20th century eventually does World War II. I mean, even all creatures, great and small is now in World War II. So I kind of feel like maybe that's the next movie, maybe the next next next movie. Or maybe they would do. There were rumors earlier this year that they do want to do another another show down to NABBY, not just do movies. And so it would make sense that they could, you know, that the movies in the show could.

exists in different timelines. That's possible. And they could just do it. They could do a time jump in a TV show and do the late thirties and forties. And cause there was so much they could do that. yeah. yeah. And, but you know, we'll see. Yeah. But that's an exciting, exciting announcement. If they're filming it now, I suspect it will come out either in the spring of next year or the next fall. Yeah. I think that would be pretty, we will be there on opening day with Bell's on. So.

Jonathan Thomas (30:23.79)
Let's move on then to some of the great things that we've some of the great British or British adjacent. Yeah, like things that I'd be by British adjacent. I mean like things that are taking place in Britain. And we'll explain. Yeah, we'll explain that in a minute. So the first one you want to talk about is Masters of the Masters of the year. So. On HBO here in the US. No, it wasn't. No, sorry. It was on Apple TV. OK, so.

If you're familiar with Band of Brothers in the Pacific, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, they've always wanted to do a series focused on the air war. in addition to doing, you know, the ground soldiers doing the Pacific and now they wanted to do the air war. And so this show was in the works for like 15 years. It's beautiful. And, so it finally premiered earlier this year on Apple TV and it obviously all the, most of the characters are American. It focuses on Americans.

But it's set in at Thorpe Abbots in the eastern part of England. So pretty much 90 % of the show takes place in England. So you get a inside of the American characters interacting with the British people. You get kind of an American and British view of World War II. You know, when the characters go on leave, they go into London.

There's a great episode in the middle of the series where one of the characters goes to Oxford and goes to a conference during the war. And that's actually probably my favorite episode because I'm a Oxford stan. And. There's just tons of beautiful scenery in England, tons of insight into culture. But in a through a very American lens, it's interesting, it's highly recommended, it's nine episodes.

It was a little too intense for me. Yeah, I mean There are in the early episodes the battle scenes are very intense very They are very I mean anxiety inducing well, and I think it puts into perspective right what what these men did yeah like After the first episode I turned it I turned to her and I was like I am NOT a man Those are those are bad

Jonathan Thomas (32:48.366)
But as the show goes on, there's less battles because I think the budget kind of got spent, so there's less battles. More character oriented. It's like a really weird thing to say, but they are shot so beautifully too. I mean, they are just to be sitting comfortably on my couch and watch, right? And I don't want to be insensitive to those who served and

lost their lives in that conflict but to feel that sense of like I hate to use the word anxiety almost like my I just I cannot wrap my head around what it had to be like to survive that and then go on and live the rest of your life like so many people did it was it's absolutely incredible what an incredible sacrifice yeah and some of the characters in the show that they followed through the whole show they survived and they went

their lives and live full lives like nothing that happened and it's like how like I get a flat tire and I'm like your eyes are here for weeks like a hail damage a couple weeks ago yeah ruin our month I mean I know right gosh what does it say about anyway the I highly recommend watching it the aerial battles are that's what I'm saying are intense but they're also really they have a they have a beauty about them the way they've shot them

And the I recommend watching the biggest TV you can in 4k with a good sound system. If you can, if you can, because the sound will envelop you. Yeah. But I also thought like it not just the air battles, like the production quality costume set is like it was top notch all the way through. A lot of my favorite shows lately have been on Apple TV. Apple has.

really invest in their shows and we're not being paid by Apple like this is not a plug. They look fantastic and they just don't differ. So well why don't we move on to our next show the three body problem. Yeah so interesting show really interesting. So this one was on release on Netflix a few weeks a few months ago and it was just announced last night they've renewed it for the rest for the rest not just the second season the rest of the books the rest of the books so they're gonna

Jonathan Thomas (35:12.078)
the story. So why don't you give folks an idea of what is this show? Yeah, because this this wouldn't normally be a show we talk about because it's science. It's hard science fiction. I am a huge, huge science fiction fan, but you can't see over there. But that whole bookshelf is sci fi books. I am not. I'm like, I don't know, sci fi light. Would that even be fair? Like you like my toe in every once in a while, but.

So the three body problems based on a series of books. and so the first season tracks the first book, which I have not read the book. The book is very, it's big. It's a very big book. and it's, it's not about anything particularly British, but what is British about it is 90 % of it takes place and was shot in the UK.

Yeah, even the bits that don't take place in the UK. We're shot in the UK. Well, and it centers around a group of Oxford. Yeah, it centers around a group of scientists who are scientists or no students. There's Yeah, they're signed their career scientists. They met at uni. They all know each other from attending Oxford together. And so while it's a it's a parallel world, that's a future, it's kind of futuristic II in it. And it's telling everything is visibly British.

I mean, it's approachable. Many of the characters are British or they're or they have British accents. A lot of there's American actors, too. And there's because it's a global story. It's so good. The book is written by a Chinese author. A big chunk of the story does take place in China, at least in this last season, does it take place in China in the future? I believe so. I know I haven't read the book. I haven't read too far ahead in the synopsis. OK, yeah, no spoilers. But.

You know, there's there's a lot of tropes in science fiction. A lot of science fiction can be very much the same, which is why it doesn't appeal to a lot of people. But this is the most different sci fi show I've ever watched, where we watched it in both of us. Like our minds were blown. Yeah, I was completely and I'm not a huge sci fi fan, but the character development was really good in that I really cared about what happened to the characters. And I have to say, like they.

Jonathan Thomas (37:35.342)
Speaking from an outsider, obviously, like they capture that kind of like Oxford spirit, like where like that culture of education is celebrated and respected. And as the characters start to encounter these really strange phenomena that science really kind of can't explain, right? It's going, they kind of step back and go, well, like I'm an Oxford trained.

Astrophysicist right and I can't make sense of this and so it it's really good and I you know I would encourage folks even if you're not a sci -fi fan because I wouldn't necessarily consider myself like I don't hate it I just it's not my preferred but I like I was like is that on tonight like like episodic TV right like there to watch it well it's eight episodes so it's not a huge commitment

Really, really good. I think it's like an hour an episode. Yeah. And they've renewed it for more. So they're like the story will be concluded. Highly recommend it. If if if you're only mildly interested in sci fi, but you love British things, it's a very British show, even though it's kind of billed as an international show. Like give it two episodes and if it does nothing for you, then you could say that you tried it. But it's yeah, it's really good. It's made by the the guys that the Game of Thrones.

so they use a lot of the same actors and a lot of the same production people. It was really good. So it's like I could sit and rewatch it. It was that. Yeah. And I bet I wonder that'd be a great like winter binge. We're snowed in. Well, and I wonder if you sit and rewatch it, if you notice new things each time, because the story is complex, but it's not so complex that you can't follow it. But why don't we move on to our next show, though, which was another Netflix show, which was The Gentleman.

So I was really I was like, I had to force her to watch this one. He says force like he means that gently like I was not like strapped to a chair. You can look at your phone while you watch it. And then she was enthralled. So it's actually so it's a Guy Ritchie show. And if you're familiar with Guy Ritchie's films, he has a particular style and picture like it's very Guy Ritchie, Guy Ritchie tropes. Usually they involve gangs, drugs and like intersect and.

Jonathan Thomas (39:55.31)
little violent, a little violent, a little in your feet, very stylistic, anti -Bridgerton, anti -Bridgerton. Yeah, the anti -Bridgerton. Right. We've like, we've like gone through the spectrum, right? So, I mean, during the pandemic, a movie came out called The Gentleman directed by Guy Ritchie. And it was about aristocrats who get involved in the marijuana trade. And because the movie kind of got buried during the pandemic, a lot of people didn't see it. And I did. I saw it because I'm

I like you see all the British. I see all the British things. And I it was really good. That looks apparently thought so, too, because they're like, why don't we take this concept to make a TV show out of it? And so while the movie and the TV show have nothing to do with each other. The TV show follows a similar concept, so the main character, he his father dies and he inherits the big country estate.

the English countryside. But he's a secondborn son. He's a secondborn. He's not supposed to inherit it. And so there's family drama there. aristocratic family drama, beautiful houses, badminton house, which is not open to the public. Gorgeous. But it is in the book. Great Precious Houses, we talk about badminton house and and it talks about how it turns out the the the dead father was keeping the family afloat.

by allowing a pot growing operation underground on one of the farms of the estate. And so then what ensues is the zany like. You know, he's very like the main character played by Theo James is very straight and like he doesn't straight as an arrow. He want these people there, but like he gets sucked in Godfather style. It's so good. It's so it's so much fun. And there's beautiful lands, English countryside landscape, beautiful houses like.

funny aristocrats like there's so much to love about this if you love British stuff. Well and I love that the head of the growing operation is is the woman running the operation essentially is a woman. She's played by the character Suzy Glass and she's her father is in jail and I use that term or prison lightly because he's living in prison basically. Yeah like it's like clubbed.

Jonathan Thomas (42:11.758)
But you know, she's she's kind of the heavy on the outside and you know, she is strong and powerful and her name carries weight and it's just all the characters in the show like nobody phoned it in like it it the characters are really well developed. They're really interesting. You find yourself rooting for people that you wouldn't root for and vice versa. Just I really like.

I don't know. I thought it was going to be like another kind of British house show that was just like, it's not that. No, it's not. It completely turns the whole kind of like I said, the anti -Bridgerton, anti -Downton Abbey kind of turns everything on its head a little bit and like shakes it up and it's a little violent, but the characters in it are so they're just so rich, like the Reverend, right? Like.

Yeah, it just so rich, really. And just great storytelling. So very British all the way through. Normally would not. Again, this is another one that normally I wouldn't sit down and like. Really enjoy, but I enjoyed it from start to finish. Which one was, your favorite, your favorite. What? So, John, where were you last week?

All last week, Clarkson's farm. No, you didn't actually go to Clarkson's farm. Haven't been able to do that yet. OK, so what is Clarkson's farm? Clarkson's who don't know Clarkson's farm has returned to Amazon Prime and for folks who don't know Jeremy Clarkson, one of the hosts on Top Gear and the Grand Tour. A few years ago, he bought a farm in the Cotswolds and he named it Diddley Squat because that's how much money it makes him.

And he sold Amazon on making a show about his farm. And so they they shot it during the pandemic. And it ended up being Amazon's most popular TV show they've ever made. So ever, ever. Yeah, like super popular, like more popular than the Grand Tour, I believe. And so Amazon's like, well.

Jonathan Thomas (44:36.014)
We're going to keep this train going. We're going to order more of those episodes. And so because it was it and I have farmer friends in England who even love the show. It is a very authentic look at the challenges that farmers face in Britain and somewhat in the US as well. But the things farming is very different here than it is in the UK. And so the it just follows the trials and tribulations of Jeremy Clarkson as he tries to farm his.

farm and make money off of it. And they've introduced the you know, a cast of characters that have, you know, they all have their fans now there's Caleb the tractor driver, there's Gerald, the guy that does the stonewall repairs and like, who you can't understand anything he says his girlfriend, his Jeremy's girlfriend. that's the correct way to it is still they're not married. Okay.

Lisa, Lisa Hogan, who they have a great chemistry, like they work really well together. And so there's not there was a second that like the first season was a huge hit. They made a second season. It was a huge hit. And so finally they follow a farming year. So now the third season was just released and last week or within the last couple of weeks. Like they have to do that. You know, like Netflix, the common joke, like, are you still alive? Do we need to call for help?

You haven't showered in two days. I think I watched four episodes in a row one night. Yeah, he like binged all the way through. And so what's what to love about the show is, is I mean, you have to kind of like Jeremy Clarkson shtick, which is he's a bumbling. You like you could like. We like some people love him. Yeah, some people hate him. Some people are like. But he you have to admit he's a great he's a great writer and a great storyteller. And so he brings that to the show.

I wouldn't say he's not, but I will say that he's like, he's a celebrity. I know of him. I wouldn't, I wouldn't personally like seek out something that was created by him, but, and nor am I necessarily interested in British farming. I just, it's not an area of interest to me, but it makes for compelling TV. Like the episode where they had piglets on like,

Jonathan Thomas (47:01.838)
And I can't believe I'm sitting here saying yes, that I watched something like that about piglets. And I was like super invested, like, my gosh, the baby piglets, like to the point where I had to stop watching. And I won't give anything away about the episode, but like, yeah, it's very, it's very British. It's very, very British. Well, the thing, the thing I love about it is if you've ever watched Top Gear, the way they make the show, they make it in a cinematic way so that there's just,

so much beautiful scenery. Yes. Shot in a way there. You just sit there and you're like injected into my veins. Yeah, this is this is like, this is like, I just want to be there right now. And when you watch it in 4k on a big TV, you're just like you're there. And you hear the birds and the nature and that's the interesting thing about Clarkson is he genuinely cares about the landscape of his farm. He cares about the wildlife. He doesn't just want to.

Extract economic value from his farm. He wants to create a nice place to live in a nice place forever for everybody to enjoy and thankfully this season the last season the last first two seasons there was a huge focus on his battle with the planning people in Oxfordshire on on Getting him getting permission to do various things on his farm They've kind of dialed that back this season and focus more on the farm stuff

the comedy stuff, the beautiful landscapes. It's still there. It's still in the background and they actually, I don't want to give it away, but it's not as prominent as like, you're not going to the planning meetings like you were the second season where you're just like, okay, so boring. I sympathize with those who have legitimate grievances because I am sure that there are legitimate grievances there. So I don't want to minimize that at the same time, cause something can be a couple of things at once.

really funny. It made for very funny TV. So highly recommend the new season of Clarkson's farm. Yeah, they're going to make a fourth season. They're filming it right now. Nice. So I think we'll have that show for a while until Jeremy Clarkson is probably sick of doing it. So we've went through a lot today. So why don't we? Yeah. Why don't we wrap it up?

Jonathan Thomas (49:19.982)
And before we go, let's talk a little bit really quickly about what's in store for this season of the Inglotopia podcast, because you've got some big things on, like we're not going to name names. We're not name dropping, but you've got some big things. So as part of the big Inglotopia reboot this year, we're also rebooting the podcast. And so our plan.

is to release episodes or record early. At least we're going to do seasons. Yes. So we'll do a season and then see what worked, what didn't work and then do the next season. But that way we can, you can expect an episode on a regular schedule. I'm not promising that schedule now. Okay. I don't know what it will be yet, but our goal is also to not just be us talking. We are going to bring guests into the podcast. Not necessarily.

physically here. But so I've already had conversations with some very interesting guests who are really good guests, very excited to be on the podcast. One is a bestselling author who cannot wait to come talk about her book, and I cannot wait to interview her about it. We've got some travel experts who are quite keen to come on and talk about their their area of travel. And we've got

several others who are interested, who are going to come on the podcast. So we will, we're using a new platform to manage the podcast so we can, it's more, it's much, it was very daunting to bring the idea of bringing in guests because recording their audio, like it was, it's a very technical and complicated process that I will not bore anybody with, but we're using new software that kind of like automates everything. And so it makes it super easy to bring in guests. So.

That's gonna, hopefully the next episode after this, it'll be a guest podcast. Well, and listeners and viewers, if you have an idea for a guest, somebody that would be great on the Inglotopia podcast, let us know. We are recruiting guests for the rest of this season. I think we've got a couple spots left, but definitely into next season. So...

Jonathan Thomas (51:41.614)
We just want to make sure that the podcast stays relevant and is bringing you enjoyment and the things that you want to talk about. I think additionally, if folks have ideas for. Topics for topics. Yes, so our, you know, our goal as always with everything we do is to create a positive thing that is a place to enjoy British travel, history and culture and.

Hopefully we will do that with the guests and with the podcast as we do this upcoming season. So yay for season one. Here we go. So closing thought like what so sign up for the London Topia newsletter or the contest for the contest. Sign up for the Anglotopia newsletter for lovely British stuff in your every week. All of every both newsletters are completely free. Then we have the books, right?

the new website, like so much going on, so much going on. So with that being said, I think we'll say goodbye. My tea is cold. So thank you for listening and we'll see you next time. All right. Bye bye.