TV around the world

[Zelda]

That just sounds oh so complicated. Australia is quite simple. Free to air on the mainland comprises 5 channels analog, maybe 6 if the local station is broadcasting. Definately 6 channels if you have a set top box for digital TV.

Down here its 4 channels analog 6 if you get digital TV. Mind you I still miss out on half of channel 7's programming as southern cross has a cross deal with ten.

[Insipiens]

I was born in the 80s, but I seen repeats or whatever. It would be interesting to know what other cultures would make of things like Bergerac. Was he a private detective? He was a cop wasn't he. Anyway, not that I'm a fan or anything.

Midsomer Murders... is Midsomer an actual place, because wouldn't everyone either be dead or in jail by now? I'm not a fan of that either.

RL, don't you like Coronation Street?

imdb.com lists John Nettles as Det Sgt Bergerac so yes he was a policeman.

There is a place in England called Midsomer Norton (not far from Chipping Norton, not to be confused with Chipping Sodbury, which itself is not far from Old Sodbury)- I think Midsomer Murders is supposed to be set around there.

[ThatReallyHurt]

Uh, in my area of Canada, I seem to recall seeing at one time or another (at least, I think these were produced outside of North America):

- BBC World News (I often prefer it to the Canadian or US news)
- Coronation Street
- Cracker
- Round the Twist (I may have this wrong, but I think it was from Australia - I can still whistle the theme song)
- MI-5
- Oz (I may have this wrong too... prison drama?)
- Allo, Allo
- Red Dwarf
- French Fields
- Dr. Who
- Are You Being Served?
- Are You Being Served, Again?
- Keeping Up Appearances
- Sharpe's Rifles?
- A whole bunch more whose names are lost to me.

Unfortunately, it's sometimes difficult to tell where some shows are produced unless you sit through the credits - there are certain accents that seem to be "in vogue" during certain periods. Nowadays, there seem to be a lot of shows with characters with British, Australian, or Kiwi accents. 15+ years ago, the big thing seemed to be East German or Russian accents.

All of the aforementioned accents ran the spectrum from genuine from people who normally spoke with those accents, to people not doing too bad a job of imitating an accent, to absolutely horrible.

Does any show on the planet have people from other countries faking a US or Canadian accent? I mean, shows produced outside of the US and Canada - I get enough of the "aboot" from my American friends, thank you very much...

[Soldier]

Judging by what gets inflicted on me (and makes me switch off and read books), it's 500 channels with nothing on.

No kidding. Besides Family Guy, The Simpsons, maybe Futurama, and Whose Line is it Anyway? (which we stole from you guys in the first place), there's really not much worth watching.

[wildmoppet]

When we were in Germany, there was 'Domino Toppling World Record Attempt' on.

It was actually really interesting. Kind of sad that it took 3 or 4 days to set up and only an hour or so to knock down.

It was surprisingly good, domino toppling in the most proffesional sense. I for one enjoyed it. Anyone else see it?

[mrbiggs]

No kidding. Besides Family Guy, The Simpsons, maybe Futurama, and Whose Line is it Anyway? (which we stole from you guys in the first place), there's really not much worth watching.

OOoooooo. And South Park. SNL is good from time to time. Ping-pong is amusing when it's on. American football is good when it's on. And the Daily Show, definately my second favorite of all time. (Family Guy, of course, is #1.)

And Mr. Rogers. Trust me, if you're not feeling good mentally, just go home and flip on PBS; he's on reasonably often. He'll tell you you're important, and that you shouldn't be scared of things. He makes me feel good inside.

[Gav]

Sharpe's Rifles

Yeah, based on the books. They're quite good. I bought the Widow the DVD boxed set of the complete series: Rifles, Eagle, Company etc etc and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them again.

[Gav]

No kidding. Besides Family Guy, The Simpsons, maybe Futurama, and Whose Line is it Anyway? (which we stole from you guys in the first place), there's really not much worth watching.

You guys still get Whose Line is it Anyway! I was wondering where that had gotten to.

[LordTofuDog-jnr]

"The Comedy Channel" won't stop showing the "Who's Line" thingy, it's like their bread and butter.

Personally I think it should be on the "History" channel, get it? Do you get it? No really, can you fathom the extreme comedic genius that is me?!

[xcr]

There are some British TV shows here (MI-5, BBC news), but not alot. were I to switch to (more expensive) digital cable from ordinary cable to digital or sat, I could could get more, such as BBC Canada, but I ndont want to spend the extra money.
As for options, there is cable, digital cable, sat, and brodcast, which (here) provides 4 channels (I get no reception, even though Im in a city, likly because Im in a river valley) one of wich is frence. There would be more in major cities- but these 4 are the standered national networks.

[Gav]

I was going to ask what MI-5 was but after a wee search I discovered it was Spooks. Wonder why they changed it?

Completely off topic but while hunting around I found this site: http://www.mi5.gov.uk/

Anyone fancy being a spy?

[Louweasel]

I was going to ask what MI-5 was but after a wee search I discovered it was Spooks. Wonder why they changed it?

Probably because they thoy thought that theterm spook, whilst being familiar here (well, it is in my line of work anyway) as a slang term for an MI5 agent, might not be recognisable to americans and they might think it was about ghosts or something. Bit like The Madness of George III or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone...

[Soldier]

No, we use the term spook similarly for CIA agents (especially the field types).