Looking down Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London SW7
things anglophiles like
Ask the Anglophile
January 24, 2012
January 20, 2012
Radio Reigns Supreme
One way the UK absolutely trumps the US is in radio programming (sorry, Howard Stern). This is due, as I learned whilst studying journalism in the UK, to the fact that Britons have not given up on radio for that idiot box, we Americans call the TV. But, with such excellent radio programming, why would you give it up? So, the reasoning seems cyclical to me.
From this side of the Atlantic we cannot tune into British radio as easily as residents of the UK, but thanks to globalization brought to you by Apple Inc., it has gotten much easier. A lot of, if not most, top BBC radio programmes are available to download via iTunes podcasts in the States. Most of these distinct topic programmes air on a weekly basis and feature some British talent you may even recognize from the telly (ie, Graham Norton has his own Radio 3 podcast). The expansive range of topics these shows cover is bound to pique at least one of your interests.
I am quite partial to the BBC’s comedy programmes. My favourite of which being Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4. Each Friday The Now Show or The News Quiz summarize and satirizes the week’s big news events, serving as an entertaining and informative programme. The Now Show, starring Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, does this through sketches, while The News Quiz, helmed by Sandi Toskvig, obviously takes a quiz format.
Recently, I started tuning in to Radio 4’s Comedy of the Week, which features a different half-hour, comedy routine weekly. It is a great way to hear an array of different types of sketches and perhaps find a favourite new comedian.
There are dozens and dozens of news and topical shows to chose from as well. Being the arts and entertainment lover I am, I subscribe to Front Row Daily, for the latest on art exhibits and musical and theatre performances.
Another way to get your British radio fix is the BBC World Service Radio, available live through the BBC News app for iPhone. It includes the most up-to-date global news stories and some great human interest stories.
You can always listen to live BBC’s radio stations or segments that already aired on your computer with the BBC player, available on each station’s website.
Chelsea xx
January 16, 2012
Reverend Ricky
I’ve always been behind Ricky Gervais. He’s British, he’s funny… yup, he pretty much checks all the boxes for me. So, after last year’s Golden Globes, I steadfastly backed my man. In fact, I cannot think of one celebrity or public figure who came forward to say they found Ricky’s hosting jabs offensive. Yes, he was controversial, yes, he was hitting below the belt, but the media seemed to be the only ones making waves about the show.
The only joke that really stirred a substantial amount of controversy was Ricky’s religious sendoff. “Thank you God, for making me an atheist,” Ricky said as the credits rolled, as if he was saving his big punch for the last second. To me, the fact that freedom of religion and freedom of speech have been standard in this country for centuries, makes this pun an absolutely credible joke. Ricky has a right to not believe in God, just as much as anyone has a right to believe in God. But since Ricky is in the (growing) minority, this comment caught some heat from religious groups, or as Ricky would most likely refer to them, “Jesus Freaks.”
I was not the least bit surprised when Gervais was named the Golden Globe host for this year’s ceremony. He will obviously be bringing in some huge ratings. What will Ricky say? Who will Ricky insult? Is anyone safe? The world is bound to have these questions and will tune in for the answers. I found last night’s performance to be equally entertaining as the 2011 Globes. I don’t think he was afraid to push the envelope just as far or even further this year.
My only criticism for Mr. Gervais is his current persona on the Twitter. I love to follow comedians on Twitter because they usually use the platform as an opportunity to tweet their comedic point of view on current events (I highly recommend @MindyKaling and @ConanOBrien). Ricky, would be brilliant at this, but instead he has turned his Twitter account into a personal crusade for atheism. I do not mind Ricky standing by his viewpoint or defending his beliefs, but he is a comedic figure, not a religious figure and his tweets have become quite one-track. I know he is abrasive by nature, but I think people would appreciate his beliefs more if they didn’t continue to overshadow his talents.
Stick to the comedy, Ricky! It’s what you do best.
I, for one, am excited to see Ricky back to non-religious centered comedy in the upcoming HBO series, Life’s Too Short. This show seems to be quite similar to his other HBO hit, Extras, but with Ricky’s friend Warwick Davis taking the lead role as an out-of-work dwarf actor. Extras was some of Ricky’s sharpest comedy, so I am hoping for the same when Life’s Too Short premieres next month, although I fear I may be setting the bar a bit high.
Chelsea xx
January 14, 2012
Hulu Highlight: Spaced
Simon Pegg is an official member of mainstream American pop culture. Not only did he pen and star in cult classic comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but gg also starred in a Star Trek film and two Mission Impossible installments. That is some CV.
But, before Pegg was an international movie megastar, he gained his comedy cred by co-creating and starring in the 1999 Channel 4 sitcom, Spaced. Pegg stars alongside co-creator Jessica Stevenson, as a pair of down-on-their-luck strangers who decide to pose as a couple to rent a new flat. Nick Frost, Pegg’s longtime friend and collaborator has a supporting role as, well, Pegg’s longtime friend and collaborator. And Mark Heap plays the “couple’s” struggling artist neighbor, in one of a long string of eccentric roles for actor.
The quick-paced and trippy series profiles a couple of hapless, lazy 20-somethings who rather complain than figure out what to do with their lives, which leaves them plenty of time to find themselves in ridiculous situations. The “will they, won’t they” romantic tension between Pegg and Stevenson looms throughout both series, but affords room for their characters to develop outside relationships. The show serves as an anthem for drugged out and video game obsessed unmotivated creatives, the perfect series to enjoy with a pizza and a six pack of beer.
Chelsea xx
Both Hulu and Netflix have the two, seven-episode series of Spaced.
January 8, 2012
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
January 7, 2012
Hulu Highlight: Coupling
The easiest (legal) way to watch British television programmes in the US is on Hulu. The site offers some of the best series of British telly past and present, often with every episode available. I would like to make a point to highlight one show a week in this series of posts I am aptly naming, Hulu Highlights.
It was very easy for me to chose Coupling as my first series to highlight. This show is to Britain, as Friends is to the US, but Coupling is even better. A comedy about the commingling sex lives of six young friends living in London, Coupling epitomises the “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” generation. The men are pinned as oblivious and over-sexed cavemen and the women as conniving puppeteers, but you can’t deny it’s quite believable.
The sitcom was created by current Doctor Who and Sherlock writer, Steven Moffat and is based on his relationship with his television producer wife, Sue Vertue (they even named the characters Steve and Sue to accentuate this fact).
The brilliance of Coupling lies in the incessant failures of the show’s characters when it comes to love and relationships. Just when everything seems to be going right for Sue and Steve, he accidentally sees her best friend’s naked bottom.
It does not hurt that Steve is played by the utterly endearing, Jack Davenport. This man could punch a puppy and I would swoon.
Coupling aired from 2000m to 2004 and gained popularity in the US when it aired on BBC America. An American remake in 1993 failed miserably with Jeff Zucker, the CEO of NBC rightly admitting, “it just sucked.”
So, stick with the original. It is provocative, smart and downright hilarious. Ross and Rachel who?
Chelsea xx
January 4, 2012
Todd Margaret: The Ultimate Anglophile
Returning the the IFC airways this week is the American/British crossover series The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. This comedy, straight from the mind of Arrested Development’s David Cross, takes one ne’er-do-well American idiot and drops him in London, where he lies his way deeper and deeper into pure calamity in attempts to market a possibly lethal energy drink to UK consumers.
The series boasts one of the strongest comedic casts I have seen on either side of the Atlantic. Alongside Cross who assumes the title role, is his Arrested Development co-star, Will Arnett as Margaret’s ridiculously ruthless and completely immoral boss. Sharon Horgan, of the absolutely brilliant British series Pulling, plays Margaret’s love interest, a cafe owner and aspiring molecular gastronomist. And The Inbetweener’s Blake Harrison is Dave, Margaret’s lone employee in the UK who constantly exploits his blatant ignorance of British culture and pretty much anything else.
For a show with a main character so dumb, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret is quite a smart and quick-witted series. As the title suggest, Cross carefully calculated each decision Margaret makes so it leads to yet another disaster he is completely inept to handle. The end of the first series left off with every one of Margaret’s lies crashing down in one, hilariously tragic scene.
There are some aspects of the series that only a Brit or Anglophile will catch at first, such as Dave setting Margaret up to believe Sainsbury’s is a local, family-owned establishment. But, I think this makes Anglophiles, like myself, enjoy and appreciate the series even more.
I caught a special on IFC last week previewing the show’s second series and it looks like the show is about to take on new depths. Aspects of the show that were a mystery last year will be highlighted, especially the role Dave plays in Margaret’s transfer to the UK. If you need one more reason to tune in, then brace yourself, because Jon Hamm joins the second series as an American butler in England. Hamm is quite possibly the funniest person to star in a major drama series. If his role in Bridesmaids and hosting gigs on Saturday Night Live did not prove this, than I am sure this new comedic venture will.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret premieres Friday, January 6, on IFC.
Chelsea xx
January 3, 2012
January 2, 2012
The Mighty Fielding
Noel Fielding first entered my life via YouTube in 2007 when his sketch as the hermaphroditic, tutu-clad, “scaly manfish,” Old Gregg, became an internet sensation. I was not aware of it then, but Old Gregg was a character from Fielding’s surrealist comedy show with partner Julian Barratt, The Mighty Boosh. Out of context, this character was mystical and inexplicable . Within the context of the show, Old Gregg is completely mystical and inexplicable, but that is Boosh for ya. The duo live in a flat with a talking gorilla and an outer space shaman, ‘nough said?
I was in high school and naively unaware that the Boosh had a cult-like, faithful following, not only in the UK, but in the states as well. I knew none of this until I started watching the sitcom, The IT Crowd (starring Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd and available on Netflix). Fielding has a supporting and, in my opinion, scene-stealing role as Richmond Avenal, a mysterious goth employee, tucked away in a sterile sever room. Fielding is, physically, a 100% perfect match for this role. He has striking features, pale skin and most identifiably, a messy coif of jet black hair. It may just be me and my unyielding infatuation with Fielding, but Richmond absolutely slayed in this already stellar series.
I was prompted to look into Fielding after his impressionable IT Crowd performance and discovered the entire Mighty Boosh series and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, a musical quiz show on which Fielding plays a permanent team captain. To me, Buzzcocks is Fielding’s best work to date. He is innately and infinitely hilarious, just being himself and interacting with the guests and hosts. I dare anyone to watch this show and not find him completely endearing. Although, if you are a fan of Coldplay, you may be hit hard by Fielding’s blunt distaste of the British band.
Later this month, Fielding will air his new, Boosh-like sketch comedy show, Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy on Channel 4. I think it is safe to say those who appreciate Boosh’s insane surrealism will be quite pleased and the rest of them will probably be best to steer clear.
Chelsea xx
December 31, 2011
Downton, USA
I thought long and hard about which topic to tackle here first. But, since I am American, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a show which is becoming something of a phenomenon here in the states, the ITV turned Masterpiece Classic period drama, Downton Abbey.
Now entering the second series stateside and expected to return for a third in the UK this fall, Downton Abbey follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their in-house staff in the times leading up to and during the first World War.
Named for the eponymous castle in which the cast of characters reside, the show has a number of brilliant qualities that tie viewers to the show. Firstly, the show is craftfully framed by significant historical events, evident in the series’ first scenes, which tackle the aftermath of the doomed Titianic ship. And whilst trying not to give away any crucial details of the show, well, World War I happens and, SPOILER ALERT, we win. Viewers are always interested in peering back in time to see how these great events affected people’s lives, especially during wartime, and Downton provides an array of dramatic scenarios in reaction to each occurance.
Speaking of arrays, Downton’s array of characters affords an intriguing intermingle of dilemmas, prospectives and personalities. The show follows the storylines of both the well-to-do family members and the less-to-do Downton staff. This is not a novel idea, as this was the title basis of the recently revamped period drama of the 1970’s, Upstairs, Downstairs. But, with creator/writer/producer Julian Fellowes at the helm to masterfully bring these characters to life and develop their deep backgrounds, Downton brings incredibly smart crafting to this concept. Fellowes has this talent for creating balance in both the worlds of the haves and the have nots. From the Countess of Grantham’s hilariously bold one-liners and Isobel’s quick wit to match to the deliciously conniving footman, Thomas and the painfully virtuous valet, Mr. Bates, upstairs and downstairs at Downton, it all adds up.
For those looking to start watching the series, I am a firm believer in starting every show from the very first episode, and even more so with Downton. I recommend renting the DVD from you library, since most seem to carry ever PBS production. You can also catch up with full episodes of the second series on the PBS website once they begin to air.
Chelsea xx
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