There's only a handful of people in film/television I'd consider geniuses; they're the kind of creative person I'd like to be, because they bring a singular artistic vision to their work; every project they take on seems to turn out better than their last one.
One of those people is Joss Whedon, creator of such brilliant works as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, Dollh-- er, did I mention he did Buffy?
Another would be Wes Anderson: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited -- I love those films! (though truthfully I'm still a bit on the fence with The Fantastic Mr. Fox). I always look forward to seeing what he's going to do next.
"Now wait a minute," you're probably thinking, "isn't this a blog about British TV? What do Whedon and Anderson have to do with British TV?" Good question. Because the next name on my list is Steven Moffat.
Do you know Steven Moffat? I should hope you do by now.
"You've got something to say about my hair, have you?"
When you think about British television comedies -- and I know you do, too -- usually a handful of the better-known shows come to mind: "Red Dwarf," "Monty Python's Flying Circus," "The Young Ones," "Black Adder," "Benny Hill," "Absolutely Fabulous," "Are you Being Served," "Fawlty Towers"... these are the ones everyone knows, even if you're not especially an Anglophile.
The next tier down in American public consciousness would include, perhaps, "My Hero," "Father Ted," " 'allo, 'allo," "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy," "As Time Goes By," "My Family,"and "Mr. Bean," among others.*
But how about some of the more obscure ones?
There were a lot of other great shows I watched while growing up, the titles of which probably mean nothing except to the hardest of hardcore Anglophile: "Solo," "Agony," "Butterflies," "Chalk," "Joking Apart," "The Piglet Files," "Goodnight Sweetheart," "Spitting Image," "Up Pompei," "Dave Allen At Large," "Father's Day," "French and Saunders," "Never The Twain"**...
This is my very first blog -- EVER! -- so be gentle with me, dear blog reader.
I'd never really thought much until about 10 years ago or so* but I grew up watching British programming, even if I didn't realize it at the time. One of the first shows I remember watching (aside from those pesky Watergate hearings, which irritated me because it interupted what I normally watched) was a television show airing on Sunday mornings called "My Partner The Ghost." In Great Britian, this show was of course called, "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)," (which is kind of confusing, since only Hopkirk was apparently deceased, not the both of them).
In case you're not familiar with it, "My Partner The Ghost" -- or "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)", if you prefer -- was about a pair of private detectives, and in the first episode, you got it, Hopkirk is killed. Of course that doesn't stop Hopkirk from continuing to team up with Randall to solve crimes, starting with his own murder. Randall, by the way, is the only one who can see his partner. Wackiness ensues.
Here's the beginning of the very first episode, "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner"
Hopefully you can see what I enjoyed about it: The off-beat humor, the crackling dialogue, the blonde in the tub... I also like how they jump right into the episode, which goes almost five minutes before the opening credits start (having a cold opening like that is more common nowadays than it used to**)
So, there I was as a youngin' never really conscious of the fact that this show I was watching came courtesy of another country. But it was only the start of a lifelong love affair with British culture.
*This is a totally fictictious number. I have no idea when I first thought about it, but for the convenience of this blog I'm just going to say 10 years and leave it at that.
