That sounds promising, Phil. I'm looking forward to the Victorian episode.

Yes, what a good idea to do a few specials set in the 50s! That would be great.

Yes but I would stick my neck out here and say that it is Bryson's "otherness" that gives him an advantage when exploring the quirks of the English language as his focus is primarily its use in Britain.

Thank you, that's very kind. The earthquake has been a terrible shock as Christchurch was not the place everyone expected it to happen. The best thing of course is that no-one was killed, but it will take a long time all the same for both the city and the lives of its residents to be rebuilt. 

Molly -

Yes, the victorian episode has a very good twist to it, I won't give it away though.  There is also a great one with Ian Lavender as a guest star (Pike from Dad's Army) and Gary has to change history because of him. 

However, I found the last episode disappointing (for those who have seen it - Molly - I wont give the end away).  Although the resolution of the situation was one I expected, I thought it could have been executed better.

They could easily bring it back for occasional specials.  It would be the 50's now, that would be cool.

Well, never read that one, but Bill Bryson's American, surely... that's in fact what I don't like much in his books, his outlook on the world seems to pass through Stars & Stripes tinted lenses...

P.S. Glad to hear you live in the north, I was a bit worried when I heard of the earthquake earlier this morning.

Hello Gomez,

I miss the pubs a lot too for the same reason. For a start, in England you could always walk to the pub, and like you I enjoyed the "local" aspect of it.

When I lived in London, there was a lovely old pub over the road from us. It had seen better days but there was more or less always the same few people in it including an elderly man and his dog. It was "homely."  The barman knew the regulars and it was a great atmosphere, albeit not particularly dynamic. Perhaps that was already unusual for London. This was back in the mid 90s. Then one day a sign appeared in the window saying it was shutting down for refurbishment. Weeks later its transformation was complete and it had turned into a ghastly wine bar. Gone were the plush, if worn, big cubicle seats and the solid, wooden bar - replaced by chrome and not a lot else. It didn't even have anywhere to sit! You had to stand and drink. I never went back after the first visit. Anyway, my point is (yes, there really is one :-) that I totally sympathise with the emergence of the "wine bar." The same thing has happened in Auckland city too, a place I rarely go these days. Mind you, we never really had the "local" concept. New Zealand has a reputation for having a binge drinking culture.

As for language, I love it too and was always fascinated by the wealth of accents within such a small space in Britain. Have you, or anyone, read "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson? It's really interesting. Eh?  Relying on Australians to keep your English on track?!?  (Just kidding of course)

Caramacs - those yummy caramel bars in a bright orange wrapper.

Morse was always a bit dry for me, although very well done. I think it was as much the setting. Wasn't it set in Oxford? I lived in Oxfordshire for a while too and found it very unfriendly so that may have tainted my views on Morse :-) I like Midsomer Murders though. (And Hetty Wainthropp)

I haven't seen any episodes yet with the new Yvonne and the new Phoebe as we are still waiting for the release of the later series here in New Zealand. But I've heard from others too that they are not as good as the originals. It's often hard to adjust to new people playing established characters, isn't it?

Hmm, yes more could have been made of the time travel aspect. It's interesting Phil to hear that the last series has more time travel in it. I believe there is also an episode where Gary somehow ends up in Victorian times. That sounds good, or potentially good anyway.

I like it.  To me the early series are the best, when Marks and Gran were actually writing it.  And in the first two series I feel the actresses who played Gary's wives were either better actresses, or more suited to the parts than the two who replaced them from series 3 onward.

Gary is a very selfish character so sometimes it is hard to sympathise with him.

More on the time travel would have been nice, but the last series does this.  There is far more to do with time travel in the last few epsiodes.

All together i quite like it, watch it if it's on but won't cry myself to sleep if I miss it.

What a good question, Molly, and what a difficult one... I don't really know, a bit of everything, I guess...

One thing springs off the top of my mind, though, and that's pubs...

Don't get me wrong there, I'm not a heavy drinker, but I like a good beer, and that's something we just don't have in Italy. The average bar in these parts has ONE pump, delivering some poxy fizzy lager, while what I really enjoy is a good pint of Guinness or some nice ale, and while the former can be had here as well, more or less, if you happen in some decent sized city with some anodyne Irish theme pub, the latter is virtually unknown...

But it's not drinks, really, the British pub, your "local", is still a place for gathering, for unwinding, to play games, to just BE together... it's where the famed and largely stereotyped "coldness" of the English disappears, where class difference is mostly forgotten, where everyone is "mates", even an Eye-Tie...

We don't have that anymore, here... we used to, we had "taverns", where the only difference was people drinking wine rather than beer, and playing card games rather than pool or darts, but the "atmosphere" was the same... no more, now we have bars, where, mostly, you enter, have a coffee at the counter, and go away...

And then there's that appalling commercial menace that's wine bars, and that's a problem in Britain as well, it's a downright disaster in London already, in fact it was quite a few years ago...

Traditional pubs being torn to pieces and replaced by ugly steel and glass "continental" style wine bars for wannabee yuppies, or their modern equivalent, which aren't "continental" at all, they're just "artificial", it's the worst face of globalisation, where a model that never really existed in the first place is imposed commercially all over the world... I'm not much of a "conservative" in any respect, especially political, but I draw the line at pubs...

Well, got a bit carried away, sorry, pubs is only the tip of the iceberg of what I like of Britain, really, but they should never had done that to the Northcote, that was MY bloody local... mind you, things might have changed again, I haven't been in London for some 6 or 7 years now, but last time I noticed, with some bitter satisfaction, that while the "original" pub was always bustling with life, the bloody wine bar that took its place was empty most of the time... I hope they might have learned a lesson there... but I doubt it...

Many things more I could add, about the people, the culture, and the language, I just fell in love with English, I don't know why, I love "exploring" dialects and expressions, getting down to their roots, understanding their use, and that's another thing I obviously miss down here...

Luckily, I have a couple of Australian friends spending the summer (ours ) here, and they keep me in practice, although I'm worried about what their company might do to my own accent, I'm a bit of a sponge for that... but while they keep calling me bloody pommie I guess that's alright...


As I was saying, I haven't been there for quite some time myself, but Caramacs? Treats, you mean? I must admit food not being one of the main attractions to Britain for me, for some reason, but I'd chew upon a fruit and nuts Cadbury, on occasions...

As for Question Time,  don't think it'll ever go away, and that's another thing we certainly don't have in this country, a "candid" (more or less...) discussion with polticians, when they do appear on the telly down here it's only on "friendly" channels which will do only propaganda of the event...

Yes, I do miss British TV... too...

But from down here, with the help of the internet, what I follow is mostly my main interests, comedy, documentaries and crime stories... come to think of it, the new season of "New Tricks" is due to start in a week, very much looking forward to it, that's my current favourite in the genre, what with Morse dead and Frost and Barnaby retired...

Thats pretty much spot on really. Its not the best sitcom by a long shot but it is inoffensive and passes the time while its on.

Well, I'm glad you introduced the subject, I've been meaning to watch this for a long time, but never got down to actually doing it...

Reviews and comments I read seem to agree that the premise for the series was very good, but then they didn't actually DO much with the whole time-travel business, and it turned into a soap with just a slightly different "ambience"...

I'm curious to learn more about it, but I guess I'll have to go and check for myself, sooner or later, personal tastes can differ wildly... I'm not sure, for instance, I'd appreciate a sitcom where I felt sorry for the characters rather than have fun with them...

Well, it has to be said that Nick Lyndhurst tends to inspire that kind of sentiment, in general... how many times I felt sorry for Rodney Trotter I can hardly count, and THAT was surely hilarious and one of my favourite series, so, you just never know...