Beepster

emeraldsoul
"The Young Ones" from the early 80's on MTV should get a little mention here. 
 
Doc Martin fans, I recommend the Google Earth walkthrough of that town - feels like you are there!
 
thanks for this thread, I've got some new ones to look up . . .
 
-Tom

I watched a bunch of eps of Young Ones a few years ago. I was having a bit of a hard time with it I think because some of the accents/language/context was a bit out of range of my understanding. It just came across as really surreal/bizarre. The music interludes were cool though. I think I'd have an easier time with it now.
 
And I LOVE taking virtual walks using Street View. I mostly have done those to check out places I might be moving to but have always been meaning to do some more global virtual sight seeing.
 
Right now I've been bouncing back and forth between Jeeves and Wooster and Rab C Nesbitt. Very interesting juxtoposition between upper class British silliness (during the time period where Victorian values were just starting to fade) and lower class Glasgow probably right around the time the push was beginning to clean up the city.
 
Rab C seems like it would be almost offensive in it's portrayal of the Glasweigian poor if it weren't for the biting, nearly poetic social commentary it seems to make about WHY a dude like Rab ends up becoming... well... a dude like Rab.
 
He reminds me of some of the people I met in my more gutter punk days. Classic street philosopher.

I would highly recommend reading the actual Jeeves and Wooster books by PG Wodehouse. He was one of the funniest writers in the English language and his humor is, in many ways, the grandfather of modern British comedy. He had a way with words which will tickle you pink. He only has to describe someone's mustache to have me rolling on the floor.

And it's also worth mentioning that the scripts of Rab C Nesbitt are available too. Reading them can really get your head wrapped around the accent and Rab's turn of phrase. By the way my second favorite character in that is Jamesy, something about him just cracks me up. He's like an overgrown teenager.

Returning to Wales, I really enjoyed 'Gavin & Stacey', Rob Brydon's 'Uncle Bryn' was a joy, as was Ruth Jones' 'Nessa' and Gavin's mum, played by the brilliant Alison Steadman. The secondary characters really made that show.

re: Jeeves and Wooster...
 
You can definitely tell that a lot of the subtext is rushed. Like they made a good effort to show those elements on screen (like the guys at Wooster's club always going apenoodles on some weird "sports" when he's there or the facial expressions/mannerisms/speech patterns of the recurring characters eg: "Gussy") but of course film cannot portray the nuances of the written word and many times words cannot fully describe what's on screen (if the reader has no imagination or the writng is poor).
 
Still enjoyable though. I really like the soundtrack too even if it does tend to get a little repetitive and thematic.
 
As far as "reading for pleasure"... I haven't done that since I was a kid. I've been wanting an eReader or at least start reading proper novels on my lappy but most of my "screen" time is studying technical stuff or on my back watching shows/films/docs because it's less strenuous on my neck, arms and eyeballs.
 
I did a bit of hunting around about Wodehouse and his incarceration by the Nazis and his subsequent panning/exile due to those radio plays he wrote while essentially at gunpoint... well that's just messed up. I might find those and see WTH was going on but it really does seem like the dude got a raw deal on that one. Yeesh.

Beepster
re: Jeeves and Wooster...
 
You can definitely tell that a lot of the subtext is rushed. Like they made a good effort to show those elements on screen (like the guys at Wooster's club always going apenoodles on some weird "sports" when he's there or the facial expressions/mannerisms/speech patterns of the recurring characters eg: "Gussy") but of course film cannot portray the nuances of the written word and many times words cannot fully describe what's on screen (if the reader has no imagination or the writng is poor).
 
Still enjoyable though. I really like the soundtrack too even if it does tend to get a little repetitive and thematic.
 
As far as "reading for pleasure"... I haven't done that since I was a kid. I've been wanting an eReader or at least start reading proper novels on my lappy but most of my "screen" time is studying technical stuff or on my back watching shows/films/docs because it's less strenuous on my neck, arms and eyeballs.
 
I did a bit of hunting around about Wodehouse and his incarceration by the Nazis and his subsequent panning/exile due to those radio plays he wrote while essentially at gunpoint... well that's just messed up. I might find those and see WTH was going on but it really does seem like the dude got a raw deal on that one. Yeesh.

Yeah he definitely didn't deserve the crap he got over that. Somewhere on YouTube there is a documentary about his life where he talks about his wartime experience and it's just clear that he was trying to be as nice and make as few waves as possible. In fact Wodehose maintains that he never suffered any hardship or trauma in his life, it was just all sunshine and rainbows. Which explains why the world he paints in his novels is so jolly and pleasant. I don't care how depressed I am, as soon as I pick up a Jeeves and Wooster or Blandings Castle book I'm just instantly happy. Nothing bad ever happens to anyone in them, it's this glorious world of pleasant English summers and perfectly topping old beans.