Originally posted by sh76
Anyone else seen it? (Please, no series 2 spoilers)
Caught series one on Netflix streaming. Excellent show, though I was a little disappointed in the finale.
It's also the first British series that I really have gotten into. I tried Downton Abbey but couldn't really get into it. I'm also planning to give Happy Valley a shot but after one episode, I can't ...[text shortened]... nds me a little of the first season of "Damages."
Any other good British series to recommend?
Sherlock and Dr Who seem to be big followings worldwide, although I don't watch either (I'm English). For detective series, the aforementioned Foyle's War I believe is good (although I've only seen a little bit), but also Inspector Morse and Lewis (the succeeding series after John Thaw died).
I'm assuming its drama you're after (there's plenty of other great stuff too, mostly on the BBC). Personally, I don't like New Tricks, though my parents watched it regularly. Silent Witness is a great forensics drama – very chilling and often harrowing, but I've heard it's lost its way in the new series. Waking the Dead was a police series in a similar vein, also excellent.
The Hollow Crown was an excellent series of three or four Shakespeare dramatisations (the history plays), very accessible because the dialogue was delivered naturally rather than in more or less fixed iambic pentameter. Yet another police drama, Luther, is popular in the States (I think), but I've only watched a few minutes so can neither recommend it nor warn you off.
Three other types of programmes the BBC, in particular, does brilliantly are comedies, documentaries and the wildlife/natural history subgenre of documentaries. All of these have been dumbed down quite a lot in recent years, but there's still some first-class content being made and plenty in the archives.
BBC radio is also excellent, and often more convenient than TV. I think it has the advantage of being freely available overseas (do correct me if I'm wrong). Radio 4 is broadly factual talk, ranging from hard-hitting news programming to documentaries and debates on everything under the sun. They broadcast some brilliant comedies, particular I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, The Unbelievable Truth and anything with Milton Jones; they also broadcast dramatisations of books and adaptations of plays, as well as books read in the standard way.
Radio 3 is for serious classical music, with some jazz and world music on weekends and late night GMT.
Radio 5 Live is like a less formal version of Radio 4, and accordingly more lightweight: 'journalism lite'. They broadcast a lot of sport and audience phone-ins. The main difference is that everything is live, and there's none of the artistic content that features on Radio 4. There are 4 music stations, Radio 1 and 1Xtra (both club dance music), Radio 2 (mixture of middle-of-the-road rock, golden oldies, jazz and occasionally a little classical), Radio 6 Music (trendy bands). There's also the Asian network, which plays stuff like Bollywood music and Desi. If you're looking for true Indian Classical music (or even crossover), don't look there, find a good guide to World Music and buy a few MP3s.
Whew, I went on a bit there, sorry about that. But I do like the BBC a lot! Hope you find something you like.