Be Excellent To Each Other

Seems that we have some British TV worth watching (and discussing) currently, and no dedicated thread. So here is one, use it or don't use it

In before someone mentions X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, or some other rubbish.

Oddly, when I need moving wallpaper in the background whilst I eat my dinner, I've been watching a lot of BBC Parliament lately rather than my usual fare of News 24 or Sky News. It can be strangely compelling when there's an interesting debate on.

I was thinking non-rubbish drama or comedy series really, which we rarely have.

At the moment I'm liking The Trip and also Lip Service, as mentioned elsewhere.

LOSER!

Yeah, it's been pleasantly surprising so far. Probably my favorite UK show at the moment.

Still don't get The Trip.
I watched this series of Spooks, though - that was quite good.

I haven't heard of The Trip. I'm going to miss Lip Service when it finishes, I've really enjoyed it. Hopefully they start making a new series soon although I doubt we'd see it until at least next autumn.
I'm also loving The Apprentice, it is so cringeworthy!

I thought Terry Wogan made a jolly good host on Buzzcocks last week.

And I also enjoyed seeing Jedward having the piss ripped out of them by everyone the week before. The question is, are they really so thick that they don't realise when they're being insulted, or has Louis told them to ignore it and just think of the shedloads of money they're making?

Was that with Jack Dee as the host? I read about that in some paper. Apparently he called them ‘special needs versions of eachother’

Yes, that was the one. Noel had to swap teams with Phil part way through because it was all getting too much for him.

The Trip is what some might call a post-modern TV show. It's hard to describe why it's good, but I watched the second episode last night and didn't stop grinning / laughing all the way through.
In the first episode it's hard to get a handle on whether it's being played "straight" or is fully scripted, or whether these characters are actually themselves. Part of the enjoyment is working that out.

An Idiot Abroad has a similar motive but does also function as a real documentary.


Anyone watching "Coppers"? That's supposed to be a straightforward documentary, and an especially gritty one, but I've not watched it yet.

Finally got around to watching the TV adaptation of the Mark Billingham book 'Sleepyhead' (on Sky One as Thorne: Sleepyhead).

It was very good indeed. Three one hour episodes, and it worked pretty well. I like what they did with the flashbacks.

I am looking forward to watching the next one: Scaredycat.

We Sky+d Coppers, and so far have watched the first one which was about custody staff in police stations. It is refreshingly and depressingly real, in the way the prisoners are shown to be treated and in how common it is for some people to be in jail. It seems quite well made though, it makes you feel sorry for some people (andtracks the history of some of the regulars) as well as raising a laugh.

I only noticed this was on when the last Sky magazine came through and had a spread on it. I went to set a series link for it, and discovered that the first two episodes had already aired! Cheers, Sky mag
I have recorded the second one but not watched it yet. I have to many things to watch and not enough time to play CoD

Wogan just did "bemused Wogan". Which is fair enough; it's a fairly amusing act still, but he could roll it out on virtually any show on television and I'd chuckle amiably along.

Buzzcocks itself is a shambling corpse of a show though since the departures of S. Amstell and B. Bailey. Jupitus was always fairly awful, but he kind of worked within the dynamic of a show when Lamarr's biliousness (or Amstell's sensational rudeness (and I mean that in a good way)) were more the focus. Now there's a guest host every week and him and (urgh) Fielding have taken up more of a central role, it's pretty fucking charmless and awful.

I thought Amstell was the beginning of the end to be honest. Lamarr often seemed to have a genuine contempt for the people he ripped into as well as a genuine love of music whereas with Amstell it was all just friendly "outrageous" celebrity bum-licking.

What is 'The Trip', pliz?

I detect that you're not keen, then.

I agree that it's not what it was, and Mrs. W doesn't bother to watch it any more, but notwithstanding, I enjoyed both these recent episodes.

It's a gentle comedy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing sort of themselves on a tour of some restaurants in the north. It's ace.

Couldn't watch Alan Davis' 'Whites' after episode 1. I think it's pants.

Did anyone watch this last night?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/todd-margaret

I saw the trailer and meant to but I forgot.

I wasn't convinced that Amstell was the best appointment at first (I loved the, as you say, genuine contempt Lamarr seemed to have for the guests and the show by the end and found it hilarious viewing), but he convinced me by basically being very, very funny. Yes, it did kind of turn into him riffing in a mostly faux-outrageous fashion on the guests that week and the quiz itself took something of a backseat, but let's face it, the quiz format itself isn't exactly the iron horse of the BBC2 schedules, given the ludicrous glut of crap panel shows we've had since it first appeared in (erk) 1996. 1996!

Fair enough if Amstell wasn't your cup of tea (I can understand that entirely), but the fact that the quiz format is basically all that there is now, makes it kind of like a creepy naked shop dummy in a badly lit window of a shop on a desolate high street. At midnight. And it's raining.

I think we all are in this age of austerity.

You'd love it, if only for the restaurants.

From the trailer for episode 1 I really didn't fancy it, but one of my colleagues rates it highly and the comments here make me feel I ought to give it a try.

Ooh, they did L'enclume. I'll watch that one and see what I think. I went there in July and it was incredible.

The food looked very, very fancy. I wanted to eat it though, so not stupid fancy.

The bill was stupid fancy though!

I'd let someone take me there.

Your Mum let me take her there.

I consumed your Mum like a taster menu, in several courses with wine.

I must say there's plenty of juice in that old bird but the by the end of the night I could barely finish the tart.

I recorded it but haven't watched it yet. I have high hopes.

OK, just watched part 3. The scenery was nice.

Misfits is back on E4 and is fantastic.

Is it better than the first season? Because it was rubbish.

I really liked the first series. The writing, humour and characterisation were very good, I thought.

And the first episode of the second series was just as good.

I watched this yesterday. A handful of laughs, some awkward bits that fell a bit flat but overall not too bad for a first episode. Will watch another episode before deciding.

Watched this and the traffic police one - it's very real as you say. In this episode, the cops we follow are quite entertaining characters, and for the most part they aren't having to deal with lowlifes like in the first episode, but obviously there is a very unpleasant side to the job too.

That was right good! Thanks for the recommendation.

The increasingly poor episodes of the increasingly poor decisions of Todd Margaret

It freaked me out a bit. Didin't think much of the other one though, Scaredycat or something.

Misfits has been excellent so far this series.

I watched the first episode of 'Scaredycat' last night, but I was a bit drunk so I can't remember how good it was. I shall watch the other two episodes anyway.

I'm really enjoying I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, mainly because Gillian Poo Lady Hunchback McKeith is so thoroughly embarrassing herself.

Shush, you lot watch X Factor.

Gillian McKeith is the same age as Nigella Lawson.

'You are what you eat', indeed.

I'd like to be Nigella Lawson, then.

I do love the Google image related search for her name.