Hi o sung wu,

'Fawilty Towers' what a gem, I can watch the 12 episodes, over and over, that is all they made 12. You reminded me of 'Pie in the Sky' great show, and what about 'Minder' George Cole as "Afer" Daley and Dennis Waterman Arthur's minder Terry. Don't tell me as an ex cop you could arrest those pair of lovable villeins.
So many great British shows from the past, impossible to name them all.

I love British comedy in particular, 'The Two Ronnies' is a favorite of mine, the way the Brits can take the piss out of themselves and laugh at the same time, no one else can do it like the Poms.

p/s A great fan of 'Mr Bean'!

'evening to you HASBEEN & PAUL1405...

HASBEEN...

Richard Boone in 'Have Gun Will Travel' was a brilliant show I thought. With that opening line, '...wire Paladin, San Francisco...' ! He wrote most of the plots himself, I believe, he possessed a rare talent not often seen these days, with all the unnecessary swearing, and violence ?

Interestingly there wasn't all that much violence in each of the episodes either, more of a play on the actor's personalities and character's, rather than resorting to mere 'gun play', as it were ?

I must confess, too much violence or swearing will put me right off a show very quickly indeed ? Of course the only real downside to that otherwise brilliant western series, 'Deadwood' was the amount of profanities contained therein ? Surely the most vulgar and filthy language I've ever heard on any TV show in this country? I suspect the censor's must of had quite a few days off, during the production of that series ?

It was really good to hear from you too, HASBEEN !

PAUL1405...

The British surely are the doyen's of 'comedy' I reckon, with their innuendo, and their suggestive dialogue and confabulation. Illustrated expertly by the likes of Benny HILL, the two Ronnies, the 'Black Adder' crew, as well as many others ? Their drama productions are equally as good, with the old but enduringly popular crime series 'The Sweeney' together with other superb shows like, 'New Tricks' and that amazing, indefatigable detective show, 'Morse' and much later, 'Endeavour', Morse when he first became a detective. All of which were exceptionally well done I thought, without resorting to a huge capital outlay, for the gala spectacles so often attributed to the American TV productions.

Of course nobody would be so mean to 'pinch' poor ol' 'Arthur' and Co in the 'Minder' series. Two loveable old rogues, if ever they were so ?

Thank you both for your tremendous contribution, I really appreciate it !

I've been re-watching British sitcoms online, The Thin Blue Line, Bread,Man About The House and Never The Twain. Usually I can't get into drama, one show I liked was The Sopranos, Breaking Bad was OK but Deadwood and Hell On Wheels irritated me, the main characters are too conflicted to be relatable. Take Al Swearingen, Cy Tolliver or Thor Gunderson, they make sense because their world is black and white, Seth Bullock and Colin Bohannon have this dual nature that rarely exists in real life. The leads in European shows like The Bridge or Matrioshki are more realistic, they're good guys forced to remedy bad situations or take on monsters like Ray Van Mechelen the human trafficker in Matrioshki, these wholly corrupt figures who only ever swim below the surface of society.

Hi there JAY of MELBOURNE...

I too enjoyed 'Bread' enormously. The interesting characters within the house, all thoroughly controlled by 'our marm' (sorry, I can't express the 'Liverpool-Irish' accent?) the head of the house ! A really delightful comedy with a dash of pathos entwined cleverly within the plot, employing all the characters ?

I quite enjoyed 'The Sopranos' as well, with the main character, Tony SOPRANO tending to carry the show ? The notion that a Mob Boss would have a need to seek psychiatric counselling is an interesting concept altogether, and a first too I'd expect. Whereas 'Breaking Bad' wasn't so good, though not altogether bad. Though the main problem being, the plot tended to stretch it's overall plausibility, almost to the point of exhaustion I thought, with all those psychotic, drug crazed Latino's, running around shooting everyone, with so much heavy artillery ?

'The Maigret' series with Michael GAMBON was absolutely brilliant I thought ? The French detective seeking out all those bad Parisian ne'er do wells, while puffing away on his pipe ! Have you seen the series JAY, if not I can really recommend it, especially if you like a crime series, just a little different to the orthodox genre.

Actually JAY I tend to agree with you, the Europeans do make excellent television, particularly the Scandinavians, as with many of their superb novels, they now have translated into English.

I willingly admit, I'm a real sucker for the old westerns, hence my liking for 'Deadwood' and 'Hell on Wheels'. The bloke who played the 'Seth Bullock' part, went on to star in another TV series, 'Justified', where he played the part of a modern day deputy US Marshal. I don't think the series was as engaging as 'Deadwood' despite the absence of all the abhorrent invectives so evident in the former ?

O'sung,
My workmate raves about Justified, I don't have pay TV so I've not seen it. If you get a chance to watch it check out a series called "Peaky Blinders" it's set in Birmingham's underworld in the 1920's, it's quite good though I haven't watched all the episodes.
Yes the amazing thing about the "Wild West" is that it was still going on in the 20th century, some crime writers rate the Dillinger Gang as the last of the real Western outlaws and they were active until 1934.

Dear o sung wu,

I have been traditionally a great fan of British TV series but the one I have most enjoyed in the last few years was Rake on the ABC. I have literally been on the floor in tears with it. It was just superb.

The other two that have captured my attention have been Breaking Bad which I thought had been done very well and Game of Thrones. GOT is an acquired taste in some measure but it is so refreshing to have a series where the main characters are regularly topped off. Keeps you very much on your toes. I commend it to your viewing.

My brother, the ex Fed, has told me he thought The Wire was the best cop series he has ever seen and quite possibly the best in any genre. I have yet to see it.