Call the Midwife

I watched this whole series for you yesterday!

Call the Midwife is a BBC drama that premiered in 2012 and was overshadowed by Downton. I've known about it for as long as it's been out, but was one that was focused on Downton. Now I've got some time off of Downton, with some hard feelings, so I've given Call the Midwife a go.

Tellyspotting article here. 

It's about nuns delivering babies in London's East End in the late 1950s. I can see how it might not attract as many viewers as Downton as I feel it's a show women would like more. I'd be interested to know of any men's opinions on it versus Downton. There are many many many birth scenes that while not full on, can get pretty graphic. As would be expected many possible pregnancy complications are tackled and either overcome....or not. I cried every episode. It's a beautiful show with likable characters, touching plots and high production value.

Venessa Redgrave does the voice over for the main character Jenny, as she looks back on her life. Her commentary provides the insight and "moral" of each episode. The season starts with her saying that all babies are born out of love or lust and that she was to learn of the passions and loves that brings life into the world. The rest of the season follows this theme as different kinds of love are examined. It's a great study on love (which of course has been popping up in my life so much recently...)

Series 1 is on Netflix, six episodes of 52 minutes. I think it's also available on PBS's website. Series 2 premieres on PBS this Sunday. It's not a Masterpiece series oddly enough...It's on after Doc Martin but before Masterpiece.

Mr. Selfridge is premiering on Masterpiece this week too...and I'm not so keen on watching it. I'm not sure why, but we'll see. I never got into Upstairs Downstairs either...things I'm sure I'll amend someday like I have with Call the Midwife.

Also, the actress that plays Nurse Jenny Lee looks like my beautiful friend Elizabeth, especially with her hair short now. 

British TV Recommendation: The Big Fat Quiz

I was going to do an entry on all the wonderful British game and chat shows, but that's a lot and I don't have it in me, so I'll do one at a time as part of a "British TV Recommendations" series. I've already told you to watch QI and The Graham Norton Show, so do it!

The BBC loves to showcase funny people. I can't really think of an equivalent type of show here in the US (but now that Who's Line is coming back (which was originally British...)) . They have numerous and sundry programmes where their wittiest and driest comedians answer informative questions for hours. It's great. 

Today I recommend The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. You may guess that it's annual, and you'd be right! (The British are also big on Christmas/end of the year specials). It's been around since 2004 and has  three other specials focusing on the 80s, 90s, and 00s.

2012: These two ordered a pizza, no joke. 

Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the show is essentially a 90 minute pub quiz with three teams of two. I've watched three, or four? so far and it's just a riot. David Mitchell, Jonathan Ross, David Walliams, Noel Fielding, Jamie Oliver, Alan Carr, and Richard Ayoade among many other tried and true TV comedians participate. It's rather a boys' club (as they all are) but includes one girl a show. The whole thing is usually just mayhem. It professes to be a family show, but there can be quite a bit of language and adult subject matter discussed. Read this article if you want more info ab its content. 

Rikki Sixx has the episodes on YouTube. 

Start here:

Stephen Fry and QI

Mr. Fry and Lady Gaga

 I just got back from Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows which was fantastic. In SH Stephen Fry plays Mycroft, Sherlock's brother. I love Stephen Fry, he's great. He's so so British. I'm not really sure what you'd know him from, not knowing your specific tastes, but he's one of Hugh Laurie's best buds as they were in school together (also a good chum of Emma Thompson). Amongst his British comedic credits are A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Black Adder and Jeeves and Wooster (he's Jeeves). He's also the narrator of the British version of Harry Potter on tape and the Cheshire Cat in the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. He's had a series called Fry in America and on top of all this he was made a millionaire by his rewrite of Me and My Girl before he was 30! I'm sure if you IMDB him you'll find even more lovely things about Mr. Fry.

Mr. Laurie and Mr. Fry

I can't say I have a favorite incarnation of Fry, but I've certainly watched him the most as himself on QI or Quite Interesting a sort of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me plus. Fry hosts this quiz game of comedians and personalities that aired starting in 2003 on the BBC. The point of the game is to give the most interesting answer to questions whose answers are rather impossible and unguessable. On top of his acting credits Stephen Fry is a genius (he saved Emma Thompson's Oscar winning script of Sense and Sensibility from the bowels of her computer), making his hosting this show a no brainer. The series are organized into themes based on letters of the alphabet starting with series A and I think going through H. To Fry's right is always Alan Davies, the ridiculous foil to Fry's genius. The whole thing is just delightful (and rather saucy sometimes). Hugh Laurie has been on, Emma Thompson too and David Tennant. There are Christmas episodes and oh so much Britishness. If you're not acquainted with British humor in general, or vocab or sensibilities you might not like QI too much, but I really think it'll grow on you and if your British IQ isn't great you probably won't be nearly as offended by some jokes as you should be! For lovers of random and frankly useless information this show is the bees' knees.

To watch QI I would give you a great YouTube channel with all the series, but it's been in trouble recently so contact me and I'll get it to you, or search "QI series A" or just QI and have some fun watching short clips, decide if you like it and find a whole episode. I can't tell you how many I've seen, I started at the end, watched some in the middle and then worked through A and B...

Here are some highlights that are just great to wet your appetite.

^Brits as villains and John Sessions impersonates Alan Rickman.

^Stephen being smart, putting Alan in his place and Bill Bailey's Wonderful World of Knowing

^David Tennant looking great and the inevitable Doctor Who jokes.