British TV 2022-2023 (part 3)

Watched the first episode of "Ridley" last night on PBS. "Ridley" is from the same production team that brings us "Vera".

It was pretty good. Looking forward to the next episode.

Also, Julie Graham has a supporting role. I discovered and am a fan of Julie Graham from playing "Cat Stone" in "Queens of Mystery".

Just watched the first episode of Queen of Oz and holy shit it's hysterical, the trailer does it nowhere near justice. It's like Veep, but with Catherine Tate as the queen of Australia.

Thank you for starting this OP. I had a question about Ridley which I found a bit uneven but I will watch. Who was the guy he visited at the prison, the one he brought the magazines to?

The final season of Endeavour also premiered. I f*ckin’ love this show but they do pull some stuff out of a hat. Sam, end of last season: missing, gone AWOL? I thought it was more likely he’d been kidnapped by the IRA, tortured, killed. Was never even mentioned as a possibility even though this is the early 70s. Nope, looks like he did go AWOL and is now out of prison. Joan engaged to slim Strange. Mrs Thursday all freaked out about moving. Don’t know why he can’t get promoted and stay where he is? The actual mystery: the best friend. I was half asleep by this time so I didn’t understand who was torturing whom. Setting up the tea lady as the perpetrator made more sense to me or leave her out entirely.

But having the overarching plot being about the boys reform school from season 2 (?), now that I’m interested to see. There were some loose strings, Strange telling Morse to back off, the Masonic stuff, someone writing mysterious notes that was never explained.

" Who was the guy he visited at the prison, the one he brought the magazines to?"

R3 - I have no idea who the "prison" dude is but undoubtedly they are friends and were colleagues. Hopefully we will find out in the conclusion episode next week.

In the UK, Ridley was broadcast as three 2-hour episodes. In the USA, I think PBS is broadcasting as six 60-minute episodes but I could be wrong.

Did anyone besides me watch Netflix's 'The Diplomat". It is not really a Brit show but the whole thing was filmed in England so it qualifies by a nose hair.

I thought Netflix's 'The Diplomat" was excellent and I eagerly await Season 2. I am sucker for Mr. Rufus Frederik Sewell.

r2 - loved Catherine Tate's sketch show. Anyone know if Queen of Oz is on any US based streaming services like Acorn or BritBox?

I'm still waiting for the second season of The Other One to come to the US. Loved the first season.

Thanks, I forgot about The Diplomat. It had good reviews.

News on Grantchester

I'm copying this from the end of the last thread where it probably won't be seen. I hope that's allowed.

[quote]Vera fans, assemble: the long-running detective show will be returning to ITV for its 13th season, it has officially been confirmed. And in exciting news, David Leon is set to rejoin the Vera cast almost a decade since he last appeared on the show. The actor played the role of DS Joe Ashworth in the first four seasons of the crime drama between 2011 and 2014, and will once again star alongside Brenda Blethyn, who is reprising her role as the titular character.Blethyn said she was "absolutely over the moon to welcome David back to the show" adding that she "can’t wait to get started".

Jac (Ibinabo Jack) is leaving, but Jon Morrison, who plays DC Kenny Lockhart, and Riley Jones, who plays DC Mark Edward are returning.

Riley Jones is also hot and hunky, but you can only add one link, so we have the gorgeous, hot, and hunky David Leon, since he appeared first...

I just discovered "Case Histories" (2011), a series starring the gorgeous Jason Isaacs. It's on Prime.

It’s also on one of the free streaming apps, Tubi or FreeVee or something. It’s pretty good.

UK viewers: How's the latest season/series of Unforgotten (now without Nicola Walker)? It premieres in the States Sunday night on PBS.

The second season of the British version of Professor T starts Sunday as well.

I find that version more watchable than the original Belgian version.

The first ep of season/series 2 of "The Chelsea Detective" is on Acorn. And I think it's available free for Prime members. (Just the first episode.)

Finally got around to watching "Luther" (up through Season 3. ) I never liked Ruth Wilson very much, but she's compelling here.

My PBS station burned through three episodes of Unforgotten last Sunday and I couldn’t watch it. How was the new detective?

I didn’t realize The Capture came out with season 2. It’s police and the government and Deep Fake technology. Episode 3 ramps up the paranoia so much I can hardly watch. But the Home Secretary’s plea, “we can’t expose it because everyone uses it” doesn’t make much sense.

I'm up to Season/Series 3 of "Above Suspicion" (starring Kelly Reilly and her overbite.) Who should pop up in episode two but the very much alive DL fave Julian Sands!

I watched "Professor T" on PBS -- I didn't realize it was the second season opener. I'd never seen it before. Unfortunately it appears the only way to watch Season 1 is to subscribe to Masterpiece or buy it.

Ridley is a joke. It’s every cop show cliche that ever existed. Melancholy cop with tragic backstory. Retired - but of course the police department still needs him and makes a special role for him, even though the police boss hates his guts and hurls sneering insults at him.

Family member of cop killed; family member of cop kidnapped.

Cop lives in rambling, quirky house, decorated by professional quirky decorators. The house is, of course, waterfront, surrounded by acres of woods. And there’s a boat needs rehabbing..

WHY does this man sing at the end of every show? He can’t sing. And why does everyone have such a mild Northern Irish accent? They sound almost English.

I really dislike this Our House but I’ve always disliked both Tuppence Middleton and Martin Compston. This show was so cringeworthy I had to give up on it and its bizarrely painted home interiors. I don’t care who bought it or how.

Ridley is awful.

I made it through only about halfway into the first episode.

Is there more Ridley in our future? I don't care if there isn't, but if there is, lose the jazz club and focus a bit more on the lesbian DI (although her wife seems a bit of a rash).

Ridley was so damn uninteresting.

So I watched season three, Happy Valley.

What was the big deal between Becky, Daniel, ex-husband and Catherine? Daniel and the ex husband seem to think Becky was a total flake, and maybe a bit of a slut. Catherine is all, “She was broken in pieces! She was so humiliated! She couldn’t go on with her life!”

And Daniel & hubs are like…..”Mmm….not really.”

Just watched the first ep of the new (Nicola/Cassie-less) "Unforgotten." Man did they try to cram a lot of story lines into one episode. It was really overkill.

Why did no one alert me to the fact that HAYLEY MILLS (!) is in "Unforgotten"?

I know! I was like, is that…?

If anyone wants to watch Queen of Oz then you could try this link. It's a fun binge series. Not sure if you will be geoblocked or not:

[quote] Just watched the first ep of the new (Nicola/Cassie-less) "Unforgotten." Man did they try to cram a lot of story lines into one episode. It was really overkill.

All I got out of it was that the elfy police detective who looks like she’s been punched in the jaw just found out her husband is cheating on her, so she’s in a bad mood. And a leg from a fireplace isn’t from a Victorian child.

What happened to the strawberry blond-ish detective on the Unforgotten team (per IMDb, DC Jake Collier)? He at least added a little eye candy, as did Cassie's boyfriend. And if memory serves, every first episode of the series throws a lot of seemingly unconnected characters up on the screen nearly at once. Of course, they're all connected... somehow.

R31, Lewis Reeves had another gig

Speaking of...

Great thread! I've got heaps of suggestions.

Has anyone watched Agatha Raisin? It's excellent and very campy. Ashley Jensen is very likeable. There's also a gay male character who is a total whore and a Sir with a MASSIVE cock. What's not to like?

I'd also like to add BBC show "Starstruck".

It's about a messy late twenties girl from New Zealand living in London who struggles her way through life and then unknowingly meets an A list movie star at a bar and then spends the night with him. She finds out who he is the next morning and hilarity ensues.

It's hilarious and heart warming. 3 seasons are available to watch. For Americans it's available on HBO Max. For Australians on ABC iView.

Did anyone try to watch Queen of Oz on my ABC iView link at R29? Did it work for anyone?

I didn't think it was that great but it was fun and had a few laugh out lough moments. Definitely worth a watch.

Ashley Jensen is the new lead on "Shetland."

Ugh, another season of Van Der Valk. Looks like they want to replace the two boring middle-aged white leads with 2 boring, young POC. Not an improvement.

Can’t stand Professor T in English or in Flemish. Enough with the autistic detectives/masterminds.

I can’t believe they remade the horrendous Before We Die into an English speaking show. Both shows were hardcore crime pron.

Can’t they do something besides crime?

I was halfway through the second episode of the new season of Unforgotten before I realized the actor playing the posh Tory politician also played the hilariously gruff grandfather on Derry Girls. Nary a trace of the Northern Ireland accent, so well done, sir! (Yes, I know he's an trained actor who can clearly do accents, but still.)

Do we like Annika? I find the murder-of-the-week mysteries a bit paint-by-numbers, but I like Nicola Walker's performance. That said, if the show was just her and her family issues it would probably just be a messy soap.

I haven't watched S2 World on Fire yet, but I gave S2 Hotel Portfino one last chance. Just as bad as the first season -- I fast-forwarded through most of the episode but did enjoy all the lovely drone shots of Portofino.

I totally agree about the beyond embarrassing singing on Ridley. Apparently, we are not alone.

Omg, could this show Annika BE any worse? Anyone who saw this week”s episode — are the writers fucking high? Talking about a dead, bloated body at a microphone in a comedy club? Then tells the audience her detective partner is the father of her teenaged daughter? Her partner btw — why is this dirty looking aged hippie in every Scottish tv show? He’s a terrible actor. Annika’s little asides to the camera sound like a pseudo intellectual high school kid wrecked on shrooms and piss-beer.

Newsflash - Edinburgh isn’t “quirky.” It’s not Fargo. Trainspotting was overpraised 30 years ago. It’s even more tired today while it tries to be gritty, unconventional, darkly comic, multiracial, compelling. It’s as dreary as a Soviet era city and that dirty haired hippie guy is every-fucking-where.

R42 must have LOVED the reveal of the murderer in the Annika series/season finale. It was... a bit much. (Dear Showrunners: Since you can't decide if you want to be a detective show or a family drama, why not have the detectives work on just one complicated case across the season? That might smooth things out.)

Lol R42. Every single thing you said is true. Yet I still watch it. While we're bashing it, let's talk about how bad her hair is in this show. Her hair is too thin and fine to pull off that hairstyle, which is ugly to begin with (I like to refer to it as "the weed-wacker"). Also, the "jeggings" she wears are horrific, and look terrible on everyone even when they were in style.

No one here in the US watched the season premiere of All Creatures G&S on PBS? I still need an insulin injection after each episode, but I enjoy the production values. Also, thanks for the longish scene with Nicholas Ralph shirtless. No doubt he's filled his quota for the season, and we won't see his lovely hairy chest again (although perhaps we will as he and Helen are making noises about having a wee bairn).

Has anyone seen "Here We Go" on Britbox? It's a comedy ... reminds me a bit of "Modern Family." The main characters are part of a family -- Mother (Katherine Parkinson from "Doc Martin"), father, his mother (Alison Steadman), lesbian daughter and her girlfriend, and the son, who's actually filming all of the action. Other characters are Mom's brother and his girlfriend (Tori Allen-Martin from "London Kills").

The gimmick is there's a lot of back-and-forth in time, so you can see how things ended up the way they are. It's pretty funny, and most of the cast is quite adept at handling the rapid talking-over-one-another dialogue well. A few guest stars (Mark Williams, "Father Brown," Katy Wix, "Agatha Raisin.")

I just watched “This Is Going To Hurt”, a mini series about a “acting registrar” (not sure what the US equivalent would be) at a British hospital. Pretty grim. Ben Whishaw stars and looks like he didn’t sleep at all during the filming.

S11 of "Father Brown" is now on Britbox. Ep. 2 is a crossover with Sister Boniface.

This week on All Creatures G&S when Helen said (twice in about 10 minutes) that she thought her child would be due in December, I immediately thought, Oh, of course, that'll be the Special Christmas Episode. So there went any tension that she might lose the wee blob due to the brucellosis plague sweeping through the Yorkshire Dales. We've seen TV before, show! I wish the showrunners didn't treat the series like a 1940s young adult novel come to life. Sure, I get that it's supposed to be Comfort TV, but it's awfully twee. (No, I don't want it to be Mad Max: Fury Road, but surely there's a happy medium.)