General Chat

I googled it --

http://www.expatshield.com/

No.1 wants to check it out, of course.

I gather stuff can be downloaded from, and not just watched at, BBC?

I'm not here now, no rush for anybody to answer!

No.1 has stocked us up on all the Rakes and all the Monroes and all the Any Human Hearts, so we have our work cut out for us. ;)

I just checked in before heading back to the Chesterfield to watch some more Rake!

No, I use No.1. ;) He uses secret places on the internet that keep getting shut down by the internet police ...

But if you want to send me that thing, I'll send you an email address if you don't have it; could come in handy.

Just tuning up my universal translator, here I go.

By the way Janey, a friend has just sent me a little program called "Expat Shield" that fools the BBC into thinking that I am a Pom, and allows me to download all the BBC programs. Do you use something like this?


xxxxx mick

Heh indeed -- probably comes with closed captioning, but our TV is too old to have that feature. ;)

My mum uses it for Coronation Street. No.1 just dozes off whenever Ashley Peacock or a person named Sophie or Rosie is talking.

Hi Janey -Glad you liked Rake - perhaps you should have downloaded the version with sub-titles?


xxxxxx mick

Mick! The first episode of Rake has been watched, and pronounced one of the best things seen lately.

Once we got past the opening scenes, anyhow. At the end of the incident of our hero being battered in a parking lot, I finally said to No.1: What did he just say?? and he said: I have no clue. I don't even know what language it was.

I think the Flying Doctors were a little easier for regular English speakers to understand. ;)

Recommended for anyone else who has access to somebody who knows how to find these things!


We're suffering from a bit of an embarrassment of riches now.

We've watched 3 of 5 episodes of Brinkburn St.

We've watched the first episode of Monroe -- somebody mentioned James Nesbitt in another thread, and I was off emailing No.1 to go get it. (No.1 was a fan of Cold Feet, rather oddly.) It has Sarah Parish too, so obviously it's being counted on to be a hit. (We slogged our way through a season of Mistresses a while back, but that was pretty much crud.)

Monroe is a bit of a paler copy of House, but not bad so far.


We're having trouble getting the latest episode of Casualty, though ... so I may have to get somebody to update me. ;)


We made it about 15 minutes into the first two episodes of the US version of The Killing and No.1 was snoring. Not because it was boring, although it's definitely slow, just because he does that. So we may try that again tonight.

BC -- so far, she's wearing a Scandinavian looking sweater.


Susan-nz -- I'm not sure whether I've ever seen any NZ teevee, but The Quiet Earth is one of my all-time favourite movies!

Hi DET,

Funnily enough I caught an episode of Coast last night. It was about Isle of Man, very interesting. I wanted to ring my Dad to watch it. He would love it. There is so much world to see, not enough time and definitly too few spondoolies,

I also enjoy your 'Escape to the Country', I love perving at the beautiful country homes and gorgeous countryside.

Dreams are free....

Susan

Sounds a bit like the UK's 'Country File', Susan-nz.

Along the documentary lines, 'Coast' (BBC) is a good one, a journey around the coast line of Britain. A good way to see the landscape, occupations and historical buildings/archeology, if you are in to that sort of thing. But perhaps not the escapism viewing that Janey is after.

Hello Janey,

Sorry - nothing of note from NZ to recommend. Our local 'soap' drives me nuts. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone. (Sorry Shorty fans)

Before NZ got into making local programmes, we were conditioned to either English or USA/Canadian accents. To hear our own accent across the waves was a big shock, took a bit of getting used to as we all think we don't have an accent !!

Sadly most of NZ tv programmes come from the UK or North America. We are currently innundated with Law and Order type programmes......

I am a devoted fan of 'Corrie', not too cerebral but fun !

We have a fantastic wildlife/nature doco maker whose name eludes me presently. My favourite local production is called Country Calendar. It showcases ordinary NZ'ers in the rural sector, be it farming, fishing whatever. Great !!


Susan

sorry, edited to correct my spelling mistake

Didn't know that the US had made a remake of The Killing. *frets...hope they didn't make a mess of it! lol Let us know what you thought of it, Janey. The heroine in the Danish version (she only wears one sweater through the whole series) is a grumpy Sarah Lund and there is a delicious politician called Troels. Can't remember the rest of the names.

Hey Mick -- No.1 advises he has found "Rake" and downloaded the first episode for us to try out tonight.

Guess what! I was browsing through the on-screen listings early this morning to see what old movies might be on, and checked Turner Classic Movies, with American Movie Channel right under it. AMC is the one that does Mad Men, for instance.

And what should be starting tonight but ... The Killing!

It's a US remake/adaptation of the Danish original, filmed in Vancouver. There's one season of 13 episodes (13 days in the story) starting tonight, the first two episodes. It's got good reviews.

I know I should watch the original. ;) But apparently this one sticks to the story and characters (they're named Linden and Larsen?) so I think I'll take the easy way out and watch it.

Wouldn't have known what it was if I hadn't asked you guys!

Don't worry LindaB - If I'm in I'll watch it, but not worried about ' catching up'. LOL.

As you say, Doctors is comfort viewing - lol It seemed from previous episodes that Simon was moving in that direction.

I saw the HG Wells one! I think that might have been the first one in the series. I love anything that has even the hint of time travel in it, even if vicariously, like just because a guy who wrote about it shows up in the plot. ;)

Actually watched The Time Machine again no more than a month ago.

Murdoch Mysteries is indeed Canadian! I've only ever watched a couple. It's hard to get No.1 to watch police procedurals at the best of times, and they are quite "mild", and period to boot, and they conflict with other things, and he was resistant. We'll see whether he might feel different come the dog days of summer.

Oh, Janey, do give this a chance. It has great humour, not least on "PC gone mad" issues ("Oh sir, I believe "imbecile is offensive - you should say moron these days") type stuff. And I believe several Canadian sideburn replicators must have made a mint from the show!

Great guests too like Buffalo Bill & HG Wells (or some such!)

Jen
x

Oh no DET I have now become a spoiler...so sorry!! You must watch it on iplayer....poor Cherry at least she still has her Jimmy lol.

Linda x

It is odd Jane, I hear you guys talking about such things being on in the afternoon and wonder -- do they have unlimited budget?? But then of course they don't have commercials anyway. ;)

DET, I missed your post there.

Murdoch Mysteries is indeed Canadian! I've only ever watched a couple. It's hard to get No.1 to watch police procedurals at the best of times, and they are quite "mild", and period to boot, and they conflict with other things, and he was resistant. We'll see whether he might feel different come the dog days of summer.

(Conflict: mine at present, you see, is that BBC Canada dropped East Enders last year. It was on at noon weekdays with a complete rerun on Sunday afternoon. I could easily tape the noon ones for my Saturday a.m. viewing. Now they're on another station -- at 9 p.m. and only 9 p.m. Smack in the middle of prime time. So I tape that and luckily we have time-shifting and there are two or three time zone choices for Canadian showings of big prime-time US dramas, so we can watch whatever was on at 9 at midnight, if I'm not home for 9. But we can't both tape and watch digital at midnight, so if there's a conflict still, something gets dropped. And Murdoch Mysteries tend to run 8 to 10 p.m.)

Poirot I've seen every one of -- my BFF and I spent several years of Friday nights cooking for each other and watching all the BBC mysteries on TVOntario or PBS from the US. Morse, Frost, the Christies ...

Wallander I tried to watch one of and it was supremely boring. I know I should give it another try.

Lewis we've caught a couple of lately. I've watched quite a few Midsomer Murders, and they're showing on TVOntario now, but the whole half this week, half the next week never works -- I always seem to remember to look for it when it's on part 2. And No.1 is not a fan.

Men, who needs them.

I'll just mention again -- if you have anybody who knows how to find things, and you like tough political crime drama, you want the CBC's Intelligence. Two seasons, then cancelled as a result of political interference by the Conservative government here. The RCMP and CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service), the FBI, CIA and DEA, Hells Angels, Vietnamese drug gangs, all on each other's heels, US designs on Canada's fresh water, traitors in the government ... and a Vancouver pot dealer just trying to make a living and keep his family together. ;)

I will look forward to 'Justice' Janey.The BBC put on these brilliant Dramas every now and then in the afternoons.Why they are on in the afternoon I just don't understand.They would have a massive audience if they were to be broadcast in the evening.Enjoy the rest of Brinkburn St.It's Goood lol

Do you know, we've had Lark Rise to Candleford twice through on different networks, at least, and I've never watched it -- it seemed like something that should be watched from the beginning, and I never managed to catch the beginning. So that reminds me, I'll nag him to find that too.

We watched the first two episodes of Brinkburn last night. Quite liked it! He was all for watching more, but I don't really like to watch an entire mini-series at once -- then there's none left, and also it does get to feel a bit much after 4 hours.

Let me know how Justice goes. Just no spoilers!

And I'll have a google for those others Karen and check 'em out.

If you like period dramas, a few which come to mind are...

Cranford.
Downton Abbey.
Lark Rise to Candleford.
A new version of Upstairs Downstairs showed in UK over Christmas 2010 ( in 3 episodes I think).

And a few years older, there were....
Lilies.
BBC mini series North & South.
BBC mini series Wives & Daughters.