More British TV Discussion Part II

Highly recommend a new British detective series on BritBox called "Grace"..

Grace is a British crime drama series based on the bestselling Roy Grace novels by Peter James. The first two novels Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead have been adapted into two feature-length films for ITV starring John Simm as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in the lead role. The series was written and adapted by Russell Lewis for ITV and premiered on 14 March 2021.The first episode attracted 7.2m viewers, which made it the fifth-most-watched program for the week of 8-14 March, according to BARB.

I just got a 7 day free trial for BritBox but it's all Vera and Marple and Poirot and MI5 and stuff I've seen.

What are the best shows on BritBox now? I'm assuming Grace is not there yet, r1.

Thanks OP.

Over the weekend I watched a new show "Murder In Provence", ITV is one of the producers, it was just okay for me but others might like it.

Murder in Provence features Nancy Carroll. John Light guest stars in the third episode. Both play regular characters in Father Brown, which are romantically involved.

BritBox has some great murder mystery shows, like Magpie Murders with Leslie Manville as female lead.

I liked "Hope Street," which I learned about here.

I don't think Magpie Murders is available yet in the US :(

I finally got around to watching Good Omens and LOVED it. It’s really funny. David Tennant and Michael Sheen and even Jon Hamm. A second season is in the works.

Anyone in the UK (or here) heard anything about the British version of CALL MY AGENT? Is it in production and who is cast?

R2 - Grace is currently streaming on BritBox. I watched it last weekend. It was very good. Russell Lewis is also the writer for all episodes of Endeavor.

If you are disappointed in 'The Gilded Age", I highly recommend watching a better Sir Julian Fellowes creation called "Belgravia".

Anyone know when the second season of "Van Der Valk" starring Marc Warren is going to be scheduled on PBS? It's already been shown in Australia and some parts of Europe.

Anyone know when the second season of "Van Der Valk" starring Marc Warren is going to be scheduled on PBS? It's already been shown in Australia and some parts of Europe.

Anyone know when the second season of "Van Der Valk" starring Marc Warren is going to be scheduled on PBS? It's already been shown in Australia and some parts of Europe.

Anyone know when the second season of "Van Der Valk" starring Marc Warren is going to be scheduled on PBS? It's already been shown in Australia and some parts of Europe.

^ Sorry for the repeated posts above. DL said I couldn't post but then my post shows up three times??? WTF? DL is one indecisive bitch.

R8 Helena Bonham Carter, Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Phoebe Dynevor, David Oyelowo and Dominic West, Amazon Prime with a release date of around, well now.

R11 - After checking three website, I would guess in October 2022.

R17 - thanks. I'll probably forget everything that happened in the first season.

Cannot wait for that UK Call My Agent!

My guess is a lot of the episodes will be original stories and even better than the French version.

Sorry, I was not a fan of Belgravia. It looked good but the storyline was obvious from the start and the characters were cliches. The big reveal was a cop out, everything sorted so nice and cosy. Why write a story that could’ve been written 200 years ago?

Sanditon Season 2 premiers 20 March 2022 on PBS.

A shame that Sanditon is losing Theo James and others, because the actors got cast in other projects when the show was initially canceled.

Sadly SANDITON is really subpar Masterpiece Theatre. Without Jane Austen's continued writing as a source, the plot got sillier and sillier and I thought that even with Theo James the first season.

Sanditon is based on an unfinished novel by Austen. Of course, Austen fans will cut a bitch for anyone daring to finish what Austen couldn't.

Sanditon = better than average actors, fabulous costume and First Class British real estate porn. I'm all in!

What more could one ask for????

Better than better than average actors, r25.

Better plot, too. The first episode of Season 1 used up everything in Austen's Sanditon and then went its own way. I will confess to watching the rest of it, waiting for Theo James and/or Leo Suter to show up. Won't be watching S2.

Follow the buzz and find the torrent. WTH is wrong with you?

Sanditon was like Seventeen magazine meets BBC -- just a teenage romance novel on tv. Really bland and silly.

Young Wallender tries hard but is poorly written and the lead actor, a hunky Swede (who played the hunk in Avenue 5, one of the funniest shows ever to hit Brit tv) thinks he's a young Brando, all mumbly-wumbly.

Bulgaria was a nice try but didn't take off -- the only good thing about it is Tamsin Grieg's outstanding performance.

Two older shows that are absolutely superb and worth watching: North and South, which is truly extraordinary, and Bleak House (2005), one of the best Dickens adaptations ever.

I recently rewatched Cranford and Return to Cranford and still loved them. So I gave Wives and Daughters a go. Hm. It just kinda sat there, except for Francesca Annis's performance as the shallow stepmother, and I could see where the plotlines were going *long* before they got there. Still, nice to see Anthony Howell of Foyle's War in his first TV role, so not a complete waste of time.

R30

Yes, yes, yes. I love Anthony Howell. I lust after Anthony Howell. He was great in 'Foyle's War.' Everything about 'Foyle's War' was great.

Seems like he's doing a lot of voice work, and he used to do a lot of theater. I don't know why he isn't more famous, or cast more often. Maybe he isn't even going after parts.

Looks like his next project is an animated feature called 'Dragonkeeper' with Bill Nighy and Bill Bailey.

He's 50 years old and never been married. Which is meaningless, but I sure would like him on our team. I've never gotten gay vibes from him; he's just English.

Anthony Howell earned a degree in architecture at uni.

I learned that from one of those cast interviews from Foyle's War.

Did Jane Austen get fired from writing for TV?

This weekend I binged watched Season ! and Season 2 of this show on BritBox. It was really good. I highly recommend.

Murder in Provence. This is really good too! Wonderful location settings, great script and witty dialogue.

I love Roger Allam, Nancy Carroll and John Knight is the guest villain in episode 3.

Roger Allan plays the same part in every show he's in -- grumpy jowly man who moves like a hippopotamus with hemorrhoids.

R36 - Allam not "Allan". Autocorrect is a bitch!

[quote] Roger Allan plays the same part in every show he's in

So? Tons of actors do that. I love Allam.

Just finished ITV's Holding, written by Graham Norton and directed by Kathy Burke.

It's a bit twee at times, like a Maeve Binchey, about the residents of a small Irish village whose lives haven't really progressed after 20 years. Then some DARK SECRETS are unearthed and a policeman with the body of an underwear model comes to investigate from Cork and takes his clothes off a lot.

It's only 4 episodes so 3 hours max. Dame Brenda Fricker has a small role in it but her scene in episode 3 is quite stunning acting. There's also lesbianism, alcoholism and dairy farming.

So do I!!!

R39 - Where can I stream "Holding"??????

R38 - So do I!!!

Holding is on the ITV hub - I can't link to it for some reason

R10- I'd rather watch that 0THER drama set in Belgravia-

R42 - I did a quick google search for Holding. I do not think Holding has yet been released in the USA. I would bet that it will be available for streaming via BritBox when released in the USA. I really want to see it as I really like Graham Norton.

Season 2 of Sanditon concluded on Sunday 24 April 2022. What did you think?

I am looking forward to Season 3 of Sanditon.

Season 8 of Endeavor begins in US on PBS Sunday, June 19. Have any DL Brits viewed Series 8 yet as it debuted in the UK on 12 September 2021?

The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe is very good. Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan at their best. 3 hours across 4 episodes. Another series on the ITV hub.

I've not watched The Ipcress File yet but it's had good reviews and I still haven't watched Our House with diddy Martin Compston, hairy Tuppence Middleton and shirtless muscled Rupert Penry Jones.

I have recently become addicted to "Come dine with me" on youtube. I actually first heard about it when watching the french version ("Une dinner presque parfait") a few times in Paris, but the english version is much easier to understand to say the least. It's just fun, but without all the dumb fake drama of american reality t.v Perhaps that's why they tried to do it here and failed.

Did you talk about "A Very British Scandal?" The first vignette has Hugh Grant as a politician on trial for plotting to kill his gay boyfriend, and the second has Claire Foy and Paul Bettany as the Duke and Duchess of Argylle. Really great, on Amazon.

[quote] Season 2 of Sanditon concluded on Sunday 24 April 2022. What did you think? I am looking forward to Season 3 of Sanditon.

Yep. I really liked it. They are putting Charlotte through the ringer. But I think much of this is based on the realities of that time. The hero this time is very Austenian. Mysterious but not irredeemable.

R48 - Watched both of them. I thought a Very English Scandal with High Grant was better than A Very British Scandal with Claire Foy.

However, both shows are worth a watch or two as I watched each series two times.

I love Endeavour, especially for Roger Allam and Anton Lessor.

Are we including Heartstoppers as a British TV show?

I’m currently watching the second series of Gentleman Jack. It’s great fun because the real Anne Lister was such a character. I can’t help but feel that the way she treated her conquests made her a lesbian chauvinist pig.

I've always wanted to love ENDEAVOUR as I adore the cast and the original mysteries by Colin Dexter. But the plotting in the series is mostly outrageously awful. They deserve better.

Sanditon's S2 seems improved, just from a glance at last week's episode....can anyone confirm?

Has anyone been watching Nicola Walker's new detective series ANNIKA, currently on PBS Passport? It's actually not bad and she's always interesting to watch. Each "whodunnit" is wrapped up at the end of the 50 or so minutes so the series becomes more about Annika and her daughter and co-workers, who are all wonderfully cast.

The first season of Sanditon was basically Seventeen Magazine meets Romance Novels. Just a waste of time, watching that insipid woman utterly charm everyone around her without displaying an iota of charm.

Take that back, R55. I love me some Charlotte. She was young and inexperienced and had no idea what she was doing to men. Especially with big natural boobs and a guilelessness.

Princess Charlotte?

Have any Brit DLers seen the new series (season) of Grantchester. I read something on the internet stating that Will Davenport get married????? I do not like the idea of Will Davenport getting married with regards to storyline of the series. The Vicar needs to be single for the show to work!

I think I agree with you, R58. Unmarried characters make better fantasy idols. I do like this Vicar.

Just watched the first 2 episodes of the new British version of Ten Percent. I liked it but couldn't quite decide if it wasn't quite up to the French version because the plotting and characters were so similar and thus there was little surprise or if the familiarity of some of the Brit actors made the characters less interesting....or what. But I'll keep watching, Good cast over all and wonderful shots of London.

Highly recommend "Signora Volpe" on ACORN TV.

It reminds me a lot of "Murder in Provence" except that it is not as light hearted and the language is both English and Italian (with English subtitles). "Signora Volpe" is produced (showrunners) by the team that brings you the current incarnation of "Midsomer Murders". I am pleasantly surprised at how much I like "Signora Volpe" just as I was pleasantly surprised with "The Chelsea Detective".

My friend and I gave up on A Very British Scandall season 2 in the middle of the first episode. We both thought it was predictable, but had different ideas of where it would go. He thought she was gay, I thought she had a child out of wedlock.

I would ask which of us was right, but neither of us cared that much.

Season 3 of London Kills premiered 06 June 2022 on Acorn TV. All five episodes dropped on 06 June 2022.

Grace Season 2 premiers 21 June 2022 0n BritBox.

Professor T -- the English version -- is not nearly good as Professor T -- the Belgian version. The latter is absolutely excellent, the former doesn't work nearly as well partly because Ben Miller overplays his role, making it seem almost like a parody of someone acting as someone who's on the spectrum - and because it's too politically correct. The Belgian version has better acting and they don't give a crap about correctness.

Is anyone watching "Becoming Elizabeth" on Starz??? Tom Cullen is pretty hot.

I can watch 2012 and W1A over and over. The scripts (especially for W1A) are brilliant.

[quote]I can watch 2012 and W1A over and over. The scripts (especially for W1A) are brilliant.

You'll enjoy 10 Percent, adapted from Call My Agent by John Morton who is responsible for both.

There isn't anyone quite as outstanding as Anna Rampton but it's very well odne.

10 Percent? I don't want that.

(Sorry, I had to. I don't mean to be funny, but Anna Rampton is my favorite character, but I usually talk more like Tracey Pritchard.)

All of those women on W1A are brilliant!

My hubby has one of those internet attachments that allows him (well, he pays for it) to watch current UK television and we're currently watching a great new mystery mini-series called SHERWOOD with Lesley Manville, Joanne Frogatt and a host of familiar Brit actors. It had a slow start (it's about a current village murder that might have origins in the 1980s miners' strikes) but by E3 is deeply engaging. Kind of similar vibe to BROADCHURCH where the investigation unearths all sorts of dirty secrets. Anyone else watching it? I imagine it will show up on Masterpiece Mystery next year.

The new PBS series on Masterpiece Theatre PORTOFINO is absolutely dreadful!

The moving BBC miniseries Four Lives (about the gay serial killer) is now on Britbox. It’s been retitled The Barking Murders.

R71 - From what I have seen, episodes 1&2, I must agree with you. I find the actors well cast, the acting better than average but the script so far is very weak and the production values are very bottom of the barrel budget.

[quote]10 Percent? I don't want that. (Sorry, I had to. I don't mean to be funny, but Anna Rampton is my favorite character, but I usually talk more like Tracey Pritchard.)

There were actually complaints in Wales about Monica Dolan's accent. Admittedly The Welsh complain about pretty much everything but I always thought she was very convincing. Tracey Pritchard sounded halfway between Bridgend and Neath to me, possibly having a mother from Port Talbot.

I was disappointed with the British 10 Percent. The British do “cheeky” very well and there’s zero “cheeky” in the show. Maggie Steed is the only one in the show that is worth watching.

Plus, who are these stars playing clients? They couldn’t get those actresses who are in every other damn show: Keeley Hawes, Nicola Walker, Olivia Colman? Imelda Staunton shows up for a supermarket opening. And her husband, Jim Carter, could have really turned in an excellent performance as one of the clients.

And the assistants are fugly. They chose the worst looking actors. In the French version, the assistants were decent looking people.

Your review, r75, is spot on! I was severely disappointed by the Brit 10 Percent. They really should have just used the talent agency as a spring board and done more original scripts instead of pale imitations of the French. As for the guest stars, I would assume they asked all the actors you mention but they all had the (rare) good sense to pass.

Slow Horses is good. Gary Oldman does good work. I want to read the books.

R74, I had no idea Tracey is supposed to be Welsh. (I have no idea what Welsh sounds like.) I just assumed she was from someplace up north like Liverpool or Scotland.

Actually she sounds a lot like Terry Jones 'drag characters in Monty Python.

Welsh accent.

Monica Dolan’s job was to be funny, not to do a documentary on the Welsh accent.

The US equivalent is when someone does a corny Southern accent as if they are a hillbilly.

I am guessing that this show might be better for Americans because being ignorant, we have no baggage.

[quote]Monica Dolan’s job was to be funny, not to do a documentary on the Welsh accent. The US equivalent is when someone does a corny Southern accent as if they are a hillbilly.

There have been some hilarious Welsh accents over the years. Stephen Graham's accent in White House Farm was hilariously bad.

Rachel Griffiths tried her best in Very Annie Mary, and she sounded like a native compared to Brenda Blethyn and Naomi Watts in Plots With A View/Undertaking Betty. Naomi sounded like she was Vietnamese. Keira Knighley and Sienna Miller were ok in The Edge Of Love.

Most of the Pride accents were quite poor. Andrew Scott in particular.

Graham is a cunt. I know firsthand from being on the set of Boardwalk Empire.

Watched "Grace" Episode 1 of Season 2 last night on BritBox. It was worth the watch but not as good as season 1. Hope the new episodes of Season 2 get better.

Lesley Manville has joined Keeley Hawes, Olivia Colman, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker as "that middle aged actress who's in everything."

[quote]Lesley Manville has joined Keeley Hawes, Olivia Colman, Sarah Lancashire and Nicola Walker as "that middle aged actress who's in everything."

But at least Lesley Manville can act!

The scary matriarch

Lesley Manville can act.

The needy friend.

Lesley also has the feature film of Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris coming soon to a theatre near you.

She’ll also be Princess Margaret in the next season of The Crown but I wish it had been Francesca Annis, instead. Annis really does look like Margaret and certainly can act.

True r88, but Francesca Annis is 77 years old. And by the time they finished filming two seasons, she would be pushing 80. She’d look too old for what they want Margaret to look like.

R89, I think Margaret will be dead by the conclusion of Season 5, though,

Each season depicts about a ten year period, give or take.. I think Diana’s infamous BBC interview in 1995 will be around the second or third episode into the season and the finale will conclude in 2002 when Margaret dies, leaving Elizabeth without her beloved sister. Margaret’s death will have to be treated as a significant moment for Elizabeth so it will most likely be the centerpiece of the finale. Otherwise it would have to be rushed early in Season 6 and that wouldn’t be appropriate considering Margaret’s important function in this series.

Lesley Manville is one of those actors who is always brilliant but never really got her big break despite the PTA getting her an Oscar nom for Phantom Thread.

Quite funny that she was nominated the same year her ex husband and father of her kids Gary Oldman won.

And it's even funnier that she played Uma Thurman in the original stage production of Dangerous Liaisons and is now playing Glenn Close in a tv series of it.

R45 Watched Season 8 ENDEAVOR. Fell asleep. Husband liked it well enough. Shaun Evans looks rough. Strange has lost so much weight he doesn't look like the same actor. Allam looks exactly the same.

I have discovered Dinnerladies. I saw an interview with Jennifer Saunders where she talks about the “brilliance” of the “late” Victoria Wood, who I’d never heard of. Went down a rabbit hole and discovered both seasons of Dinnerladies, which she created and starred in, are on YouTube. It’s a cute show in that “British sitcom” kind of way. Lots of familiar British faces: Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Anne Reid, Maxine Peake, etc.

I am a big follower of British tv and performers, but somehow I totally missed Victoria Wood.

Last week I rewatched the first season of HAPPY VALLEY. It was just as good the second time around.

I keep hoping that if Broadway attempts a revival of Mame, they’ll get Sarah Lancashire to do it. Many Americans knew her from Happy Valley, but even more now know her from the Julia Child tv series.

That season premiere of ENDEAVOUR was deadly! The plot machinations were impossible to follow. I think Roger Allam was rolling his eyes in every scene he appeared in. This better be the final season.

I wish we could watch HAPPY VALLEY S1 here in the US again but it doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere.

Happy Valley is available for streaming from Amazon

OMG, thanks, r98. Obviously, I hadn't checked there recently.

Victoria Wood was certainly talented but I found her stand-up routines to be extremely cutesy. But that was what charmed her to British audiences in the first place. Her comedy was “cozy” at a time when most of it wasn’t.

I watched Happy Valley for free on Tubi. It had commercials, but it wasn’t too bad.

I’ve only seen a few episodes of Morse, didn’t like his character as played by John Thaw. I love Endeavour though, mostly for Roger Allam. I don’t see a connection between the Morse character and the Endeavour character re personality. The Jag, the classical references, the opera and now the house, sure, but I don’t see an older, embittered Endeavour behaving like Morse.

R102

I'm with you. I loved 'Endeavour' even when it was convoluted and the plot intricacies were way over my head. But like you, having watched every episode of 'Morse', I have never seen or felt the connection to John Thaw's 'Morse'. You can put up the obvious clues, as they have, but 1+2+3 doesn't equal 5.

I wonder how much I stick with 'Endeavour' because I love Roger Allam and his character Thursday. But then, I love everything Roger Allam does. And Thursday doesn't appear in 'Morse', so he's a goner in some fashion before the end of the series.

And though I said that I stuck with it despite convoluted plots, I'm disappointed that it appears this season has upped the ante.

R100, I went to see a Victoria Wood live show at what was a very dark time in my life. It was the best £20 I have ever spent. I laughed so much and I walked out of the theatre feeling much lighter. Things didn’t seem quite so bleak. I was so sad when she died.

On Endeavour it's like they have to complicate the plots to mask all the bad writing.

The original Morse mystery books (and the tv series to some extent) were extremely complicated and twisty but so brilliantly written, you didn't care who did it in the end because the journey through the story was so engaging.

I really should have mentioned the incomparable Anton Lesser on 'Endeavour'.. i would watch him read the proverbial phone book.

Is Anton Lesser ever less than brilliant in anything he does?

So I can be happy just watching him and Roger Allam. I am never conscious of either of them acting. They just disappear into the character and the scene.

John Thaw, while not handsome, had a sexy daddy vibe about him.

Shaun Evans looks like he wandered in from a Lord of the Rings casting call.

R104, this was just posted.

Totally agree about John Thaw's sexiness, certainly in the early years of the original series.

But Anton Lesser?? Love him for what he does but he's exactly the same in everything, always looking desiccated, smoking a fag.

John Castle was one sexy motherfucker.

Oh, yes, John Castle! First introduced to him as the police detective in the Joan Hickson/Miss Marple A Murder Is Announced (best Agatha Christie ever filmed for TV IMHO) and then delighted by his lead performance as the roguish music hall magician in the British series Lost Empires opposite a young Colin Firth.

Only then to realize that I saw him years before all that as Prince John (the middle brother) in The Lion in Winter.

Grantchester has become a soap opera. All the vicar does is smoke, drink and have sex.

Grantchester has always been like that. It was never good. Robson Green always slummed and smoked his way through every episode.

WHET James Norton's career? Wasn't he being touted as the next James Bond, among other things??

I just finished the first US episode of season 8 of Endeavour, Striker. I don't watch the British mysteries for the glory of their storytelling. They're actually pretty bad. I do enjoy the performances of the three main characters. I hope PBS will carry Shaun Evans' next series.

James Norton is doing fine. He is filming Season 3 of Happy Valley.

I took me a couple seasons to warm up to Anton Lessor but now he’s right up there with Roger Allam.

The Striker episode, it opened with the football game and two pickpockets in an alleyway divvying up their loot (I guess, it all happened so fast) and Thursday comes up behind them to arrest them. But first he starts beating one up. Then it cut to another scene and it was never mentioned again. Thursday has occasionally roughed up someone, he’s old school, but because it wasn’t referenced in the rest of the episode, I wonder if it’s setting up Something for the finale. Something pertaining to Thursday and the fact that he was Never Mentioned in Morse.

R116

Well, Thursday has no money with which to retire, no wife, and no family. He was set to retire from the force and it is really unclear whether he remained on the force for the the greater good, or for the paycheck.

Something is definitely up. For a while we thought it was going to be suicide, but it may be as a result of his bad actions which is more likely and easier to script.

No cheese and pickle could do in any mortal.

Or, maybe it WILL be suicide and that accounts partially for Morse's general bitterness and cynicism. If they get a good writer, the darkness of Thursday's suicide and all its implications could be masterly.

Nurse Barbara from Call The Midwife is now on Grantchester and she’s got her eyes on the vicar!

He’s back with his wife, the son is in Northern Ireland in the Army (and the IRA is a threat), the daughter has gotten over whatever snit she had with her life. True, he’s lost all his savings but he will have a pension. He dabbled in the dark side two seasons ago with those crooked cops but that’s all done with. He’s always been a very steady character; neurotic Morse is more likely to commit suicide.

I can’t imagine the writers coming up with a plausible scenario in the two remaining episodes (which have already been shown in the UK) so my guess —and hope— is that they just forget the continuity.

Last night’s show was much more straightforward until it got to the business with the clock hands being signal flags code in Welsh and I hadn’t picked up on the accent.

Didn’t Strange look good in that tux.

R95 - Where did you watch "Happy Valley"? I have not been able to find it on any streaming service I have access to.

R106 - Roger Allam is once again above brilliant in the new BritBox original series "Murder in Provence" co-starring Nancy Carroll. Allam and Carroll have fantastic chemistry. Scripts are very well written.

It has been announced that there will be one more season of Endeavor. Endeavour will conclude with Season 9.

R121

You can watch it on Amazon Prime. Check also the services below.

After watching Happy Valley, I had to look up Sarah Lancashire's resume, and have watched almost everything she's done. She's just a fantastic actress. Loved her in Last Tango in Halifax, and of course Julia. I'm sort of obsessed with her.

I watched Happy Valley for free on Tubi. It had commercials, but it wasn’t too bad.

R125, same. I even found an episode (it’s divided into three parts) of Murder Most Horrid where she stars with Dawn French.

I agree that Allam and Nancy Carroll (from Father Brown) were wonderful together in Murder in Provence, (and Patricia “the barricades of ‘68” Hodge too)…the plotting was so-so, but the direction was terrible. I hope they do a new series and really put some money into it.