A conversation about British TV Mysteries vs US Mysteries with Laurence Brown

This week I am joined by the very popular Laurence Brown host of the hit YouTube show Lost in the Pond. We do a deep dive into three Britbox mysteries, Line of Duty, Sister Boniface and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Each one has their own special way at solving murders and we have fun looking at the three shows from the view of an American vs that of a person who grew up in Britain.

Be sure to check the shows out on Britbox - https://www.britbox.com/us/

You can watch Laurence Brown at - https://www.youtube.com/c/LostinthePond

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Episode Transcript

(00:44):
Good afternoon, morning or wherever youare. I'm Jim Lilliams from stream On
with Jim Loims and my partnering Crime, my new best friend, Lawrence Brown.
Lawrence, it's good to have you. Let's let's talk a little bit.
Welcome, Thank you, thanks forhaving me Jim partners in Crime and
Crime Television today. That's right.Yeah, you know, there's there's so

(01:08):
many different wonderful mysteries on brick Boxand and all the streaming services. And
you know, when you and Italked, we thought we would kind of
break down three different ones, allvery different. And you know, one
of the things that I see andI'm obviously want your opinion on it,

(01:33):
is the British, specifically VBC,I TV in their productions, they do
mystery better in my mind than theUS. I'd be very interested to get.
Yeah, it'd be very interested toget your reasoning for saying that firstly,

(01:55):
And I always wonder because I tendto agree, but I think when
Americans say it, it does makeme wonder is there another element to this
when Americans have this fascination with Britishmysteries that it almost the sort of the
setting for those shows in a kindof quaint British village in the Cotswold almost

(02:16):
elevates the story in a way thatcan't really be replicated in America. But
the reason that maybe it is isthat we have such a history going back
of kind of mystery stories, rightback to Sherlock Holmes and the like,
and I think it's just a traditionthat sort of, you know, remained,

(02:37):
I think throughout British program making andstorytelling in general, and maybe because
we are a country with a veryi don't know, an old, bloody
history, one that possibly has,you know, among its stories, several

(02:59):
ghosts stories from thousands of years ago, and that's culturally. I think that
gets ingrained as in US as apeople like I used to live in the
town of Lancaster in on the westcoast of England, and they did a
lot of the witch trials there andI don't know what it is. I'm
not really a superstitious person, butI got a sense, I got a

(03:20):
real sense of ghostliness. Now.I know that what we're talking about here
is more to do with mysteries solvingactual crimes and things like that, but
it still speaks to that sense ofI don't know mystery or this kind of
this, you know, something youcouldn't quite imagine anywhere else. And I
think that something like a Quarro orsomething like any Agatha Christie story or the

(03:46):
ones we're talking about today really dolend themselves to that environment growing up in
it. I think for me,what it is is that they're normally well
written, they don't last as longwhen you go from four to six,
eight, maybe even ten tense pushingin uh episodes of a series that's about

(04:12):
they basically right. I've had manywe're gonna talk about Line of Duty in
a minute. And you know Jimand Curiou, I've interviewed him three or
four times, and you know hisconcept is when the story is finished,
why drag it out? And soyou know, the less is more category

(04:38):
means that you get the best bits, as opposed to twenty two episodes of
Law and Order, of which fourof them you can't even remember what happened.
It just doesn't. It doesn't workin in the Line of Duty,
which we'll get to in a minuteor two. Um. The beauty of
that is each episode one leaves youwanting to get to the next one because

(05:02):
there's always something that's got the hookto it that you're like, all right,
I had it, Nope, Ididn't have it. Now I have
it, Nope, he screwed meup again. So there's that. And
I think that you can do thatin a series it's eight or ten episodes.
You cannot do that in a twentytwo episode park That's right. I

(05:27):
think the less is more mentality hasBritish television very well. It's I mean
it's not just obviously in dramas.I mean you see this in comedy as
well. If you think of FaultyTowers, you think of The Office,
the original, it's often said thatyou know, they benefited from quality over
quantity, and you know, andthe other thing about that as well is

(05:48):
the is the kind of frequency withwhich they air these shows. Sometimes.
I think Line of Duty might bean example of this. You could be
waiting two years for a new seriesto come out and because of that,
that just gives you more time,I think, to flesh out a rich
story, one that is very tightand as you say, keeps you wanting

(06:09):
to watch the next to the nextepisode. Whereas if you look at something
like CSI in this country, obviouslymultiple episode. I think we're talking in
the region of about twenty two episodesa season, and we're talking on an
annual basis too, So the frequenceof the output is so much greater because
I think that demand from network televisionis probably greater. And so, yeah,

(06:34):
I mean I think that that's that'sa big part of our storytelling is
just ensuring that the story itself isgripping and really pulls you in. Let's
let's take a quick look at atrailer from series one of Blinded Duty.

(06:55):
Officer of the Year. Detective ChiefInspector Anthony DCI Gates is the best detective
in the city. Yeah. DCIGates appears off an exemplary Officers got where
he is because he had to betwice as good as the next. Well,
somebody is saying to be corrupt,he's going to be twice as bad.

(07:15):
He's a good man. Do youremember that nobody plays me. I'll
pull them from the outside, you'llpush on the inside, it'll crack.
You take a shot of the key, make sure you kill him son.
Line of Duty starts twenty sixth ofJune on BBC two. You know,

(07:38):
Line of Duty was it is sucha well written show, and it's so
you know, as I said talkingto Jed Mercuria about this, to me,
the core group you know, ofof the three folks, and we'll
talk about them in a Secum,that's the core. But the beauty of

(08:01):
this show is that, you knowthey each series, they evolve in a
different character who has a little bitof an edge to them, and you
once again are wondering, is thatthis person? Is it that person?
Who is it that's that's making thisum. You know, obviously it's based
on a you know, the theoffice where you go to uh do self,

(08:28):
you know, the their internal affairs. I'm trying to trying to speak.
It went totally out of my headfor a second. Internal affairs where
they're investigating the police, and umthat that automatic you put you at a
disadvantage. Um, And so awaywe go. And they've done such a
masterful job of weaving storylines in there, uh and basically screwing my head.

(08:50):
Uh. For for every series II go in with the concept that I've
got this nailed and never ends upthat way. Yeah. I think that's
that's generally speaking, mysteries in anutshell. For me. I almost go
through them and you know, startwatching them or detective shows or whatever how
you want to catechize these. Istart watching them, and you know,

(09:11):
a good maybe half of the waythrough, I'm almost frustrated because I think
I've got it. I haven't gotit. It's got away from me.
And then when the resolution happens,if that payoff is good, then it
really lands. And I think thatthis show in particular, which I managed
to catch over the weekend, isit's a very gripping one. And I
think that more than just about anyother ones on our list is it has

(09:39):
a sense of realism almost about it. I could almost imagine these conversations and
these dilemmas, these moral dilemmas happeningwithinside these police units. But we as
the sort of everyday citizens, wedon't see that side of it. So
when we're showing it, it suddenlybecomes kind of, oh, this is
in true eging, just just onits own, and then you delve deep

(10:03):
into the mysteries around, you know, police corruption or what have you.
And I'm really enjoying the way thisis, you know, is building that
drama in perhaps away. The othershows are perhaps more lighthearted in those areas,
right yeah. Um, Adrian Dunbarwho plays Ted Hastings, Martin Compton

(10:26):
who plays Steve Arnott, and VickyMcClure who plays Kate Fleming. That's the
core group of a Line of Duty. They're all phenomenal in their performances.
And Adrian Dunbar as the straight,laced, down the right down the middle
kind of a guy, are nota little bit of a you know,
uh, dirty Harry kind of aguy who's like, you know, uh

(10:50):
rushed first, think later. Um. And then you've got Vicky doing her
job as the kind of like themiddle ground between Hastings and or not.
It's a it's a good corecast.And um. What I thought was interesting
that Jed had told me about Lineof Duty is that after the first series

(11:11):
he was phone He's getting phone callsfrom some of the top names in um
in in uh English acting who wantedpart of the show. And you know,
how how cool is that? Imean, you gotta show that's so
hot and did so well ratings wise, that you know that people calling and
asking you, hey, can Ibe the bad guy? Yeah? And

(11:37):
oh sorry, Jim, I wasjust gonna say I think it turns out
that some of those actors in questiondid in fact join the team later on
down the road. I think,and and and you know, I was
just looking at the kind of thesuccess of this show because it started on
BBC two, I think, andyou know, did pretty well. You
know, it's I think it maskedsomething like three million viewers and then and

(12:00):
it did so well that it gotpushed to BBC one and the viewing figures
just only got better from there,right, And you know, the only
one that the only show that Ican think of that has that same kind
of cachet here in the States isThe Detectives, which was an HBO show.
We started with Matthew McConaughey and theyjust kind of rolled through different detectives.

(12:24):
But this one is beautifulful and it'sthe fact that it's well written.
But the actors are just the coregroup of AC twelve is you know,
they keep everything on point and theneverything spins off of that. And that's
not easy to do. No,it's not easy to do. And I

(12:46):
think that, you know, asit's pretty normal with these sorts of shows.
You're right, you have those kindof multiple narratives happening that also all
into weave and things like that.I'm I must say, I must confess
in fact, I'm not too farthrough this series, almost intentionally so,
because I wanted to sort of havethis discussion based on my initial thoughts and

(13:09):
then go go further with it,because out of all of them, this
one's it's kind of hooked me themost, I think, although the other
ones are quite interesting too. Thething with Line of Duty that I that
I enjoy is, you know,you want to binge it. I mean
that's part of it. You know, it's like I want to get to

(13:30):
the next one. But um,it's one of those things where you sit
there and go, okay, I'mnot going to do that because you know,
first of all, I'm gonna Iwill not get to bed at four
o'clock in the morning. A secondof all, I kind of want to,
you know, take that anticipation.I mean, we now are in
a place where prime time is whatevertime you want to be Okay, yeah,

(13:52):
unless it's a news or a sportsevent, which you know at that
point you have to it's those arethe only time sensitive ones. This one,
you know, you just want tosay, Okay, I want to
watch it, and I want tobe able to enjoy it, and I
don't want to go, you know, miss something in it, because that's
the other part to Line of Duty. There's a little there's always a little

(14:13):
core cure there that you may missthe first time around, but it comes
back to the important second time yousee it. That's right, you really
do have to listen. I thinkit's worth mentioning with Line of Duty specifically,
but just some of these other ones. You know, we made that
comparison between the length of a seasoncompared to the United States, But there
is something to keep in mind,and that's the something like Line of Duty.

(14:39):
Each episode has a run time ofwhat close to is an hour something
like that, Yes, a Netmarkparking exactly, and without advertisements in between
there as well, whereas in mostAmerican network television you're going to expect to
break that show up with ads.So it could be that even binging eight
to ten episodes of Bridge television sometimes, you know, be quite a lengthy

(15:03):
process, right, Yeah, Isee exactly what you're saying with that.
Yeah, it could you could misswork on Monday and Tuesday if you kept
going, um yeah, but uhbut yeah, I mean, that's it.
And you know, you and Italked about the costs of these things
and the cost of doing a Britishtelevision show versus cost of doing um say

(15:26):
let a law order seu. Okay, Um, if you're doing a twenty
two month, twenty two weeks showand you've got you know, an eight
to ten series show, obviously it'sgonna cost you less. It's gonna cost
you the list on what we callthe above the line, which is the
actors and that whole rotein, andthe below the line, which is the

(15:48):
producers, directors and um and uh, you know, editors who are involved
in sweetening the show whenever it's done. So budgets you can't really you can't
really compare budgets. That wouldn't befair because you're comparing it eight shows versus
twenty two shows. But the qualityof entertainment value, certainly in line of

(16:14):
duty in many others, is there. It's always there. And I think
that's what the BBC aspect is interestingnow part of the thing, and it
is something I wanted to ask youthat you know, here in the United
States, television is quote unquote free. There's linear broadcast, which is ABCNBCCBS
BOX PBS. Those are free overthe year broadcast denials, but in UK

(16:38):
you have to pay a TV tax. Is how does that work? Yeah,
TV license. I forget the actualcost of it, but it was
something over one hundred pounds per personsalong. As you had a television in
your house that was capable of showingBBC, you are by law you have
to pay a TV license in orderto do that, and then the funds

(17:00):
from that TV license help to fundthe programming on the BBC, and so
you know it's it's because of thatthey're not so beholden the BBC two things
like ratings, right that it's allin the public interest. So I mean,
you know that's that's why you getthis thing where it's it's not about

(17:21):
it's not about casting the most aestheticallypleasing people to stick on a poster in
order to sell your show. It'sit's about making realistic stories that are within
the public interest because the public ispaying for them. And you know,
I think that's a big difference fromthe United States in general, unless you're

(17:42):
talking about public television. But ofcourse that doesn't have the broad reach in
the US that it does in inthe UK right and the PBS here um
gets some government money, but theyalso rely on people to fund it via
subscription, the most popular now beingPassport, which allows you to see a

(18:07):
number of shows. Um, andso you can donate your the money you
would have gotten a toebag for fromyour local PBS station can now bring you
a passport, which is a goodservice. So uh. Any final thoughts
on Line of Duty, which weall all know is on brick Box.

(18:27):
You can see the series there andit's a fantastic series, so we check
it out please, um. Anyfinal thoughts on it? Well, i'd
stand you haven't finished yet, sothat's the thing. I think people watching
this who have finished it probably knowwhat's going to happen just in this series
alone. I'm very excited to seehow, you know, all of the

(18:49):
sort of storyline with with Gates unfoldas we go along, because it's a
it's a delicate situation there. Ithink one of the other things before we
get put a button here on Onlineof Duty that you see in UK productions
is that and you said it aboutthe esteetically pleasing people in all that,

(19:15):
but the other thing is they'll whacka main character that would never happen in
a you know, suddenly you're justsaying, they're going wait, wait what
you know that person, you knowis that was not what I was thinking
going to happen, because that personI thought was going to be around for
a long time. Yeah, inthe US, that person is a box

(19:36):
office asset. In the UK,their death could be an asset to the
storytelling. I mean, that's whyit all comes back to. And I've
always been a big fan of showsor stories, stories in general that can
make that bold decision. You know, if they have to kill off a
character because it advances the story,then do it, please do it.

(19:56):
And this is something that frequently happens. Weirdly though, it often happens because
British actors have said yes to aHollywood film and they can no longer do
this TV show in Britain, theygo off and that's how it is.
But a lot of the time itreally is to service the story. And
yeah, I'm a big fan ofthat as well. Um, what was

(20:17):
I going to say? Yeah,I mean I think that Doctor Who,
for example, that something I watch. Sure, not exactly, it's not
afraid to do that. In fact, it kind of has to do it
because doctor he or she regenerates soanything. And that's something that we accepted

(20:37):
back in the nineteen sixties, andI think in general we've accepted it because
deaths in television massive thing in soapoperas, which are a massive thing in
England, so that that idea tendsto be more accepted I think, just
in television in general in Britain.Right, all right, well we move

(20:57):
from a kind of a gritty,very interesting, well done show in Line
of Duty to our next show,and this one is a spin off from
Doctor Father Brown, Doctor Brown,No, No, Father Brown. The

(21:19):
funny thing is on this one isSister Boniface was in episode three or four
of the first season of A FatherBrown. Yeah, they decided the response
was fantastic. They decided, youknow what, if we get lucky and
have another couple of seasons, maybewe can spend Sister Boniface off. Well,

(21:44):
they forgot Sister Boniface, and allof a sudden, one of the
producers was watching, you know,staying at a hotel. Up comes Father
Brown. There's the Sister Boniface episode, and he's like, oh my god,
we forgot about this. So theycall the actress and ask her if
she's available. She says yes,and so all of a sudden pudden,

(22:10):
they're back to Sister Boniface. Soit was one of these six years in
the making to get this done.But let's take a quick look at the
Sister Boniface. Sister Boniface, atyour service, we best get started.
The victims suffered blood trum to thecranium, no other wounds thickening the boot.

(22:30):
We have a visitor here today,father Brown. Second head of ice
wouldn't hurt. Jeez, there areblood trees drum row. Please please move
yourself. Yes, how about Itell you all the boy detail. They
were a nice cup of tea.I can think of nothing more enjoyable.

(22:52):
We make the wine of the coffinthat's still after taste? Is it guilt?
Father's been arrested. You're barking upthe wrong tree, inspector. Suppose
you will ever find out who's not. We'll get to the bottom of it.
Superperulative work system. So way toonext, okay, and you know

(23:22):
that was um a look at Sisterbonifest By the way, Laura Lton is
the actress who's fantastic. Has shehas to talk to her earlier in the
year, and she just she lovesthe character. And of course, as
it's been off from Father Brown,Um, Father Brown has a tremendous following,

(23:44):
it does. Yeah, and Ithink, you know, I've read
one or two things online where peoplehave compared the show saying, oh,
which it's just like Father Brown andin some in some capacity, you can
see that. Obviously it is aCatholic person who is the main problem solved
or the mystery solver. But Ithink that the tone is quite different between

(24:04):
them. You know, this thisone's quite a sort of a fun um
almost I don't know, almost sortof almost a joyful experience watching it,
even though what we're talking about ispeople being murdered and those those cases have
to be sold. Um. Italmost it almost calls to mind something like

(24:29):
a murder. She road right downto the notion that these murders all happen
around you know system saying with FatherBrown and and and so it's such a
departure from what we were talking aboutwith Line of Duty, for sure.
Yeah, the tone is so muchmore relaxed, so much more light,
I would say than that, it'skind of like a dramedy. You know,

(24:52):
there's there's bits in it where you'relaughing because nuns, how did they
get into this? The other thingis in Father Brown, the police are
very begrudgingly, you know, takinginformation from him. He's always he's always
kind of looked at as the whycan't he shut up and leave the experts
to it? We're in the caseof Sister Boniface is different because the police

(25:17):
actually seek her out because of herabilities, as you know, for lack
of a better way of putting it, her forensic capabilities you know, are
off the charts, and she cansee she can very much help him.
So on one hand, he gotFather Brown, where he's a bit of
a you know, he kind ofdoes his own thing and works his way

(25:37):
to the police, and the otherin this particular case of Sister Boniface,
they come seeking her because of herexpertise. Yeah, that's right, And
I think that obviously that's a keydifference between the two shows. And I
would say that maybe another key differenceis that in Father Brown, his profession
as a priest, he's very muchintegral to the show. It's very important,

(26:00):
and you know, without that,he doesn't hear people at confession.
He doesn't sort of, you know, he doesn't have that kind of influence
within the community in order to dothat detective work, whereas in Sister Boniface,
it's almost like her being a nonis almost secondary to her being a
detective in a way. And yeah, I thought that was quite a bit

(26:23):
different. And how she's also accompaniedby you know, other other workers in
the field, as you say,those that assist her in that endeavor to
solve the mystery. And yeah,it's it's going to be interesting to watch
the remainder of it, I thinkas it plays out. You did bring

(26:45):
up earlier as a comparison, andI totally agree with it. In that
is Murder she wrote and Murder shewrote was a show here in the United
States that in the nineteen seventies wasone of the top rated shows. It
came on on Sunday night, everySunday night at eight o'clock after sixty minutes

(27:06):
on CBS. And Angela Lansbury,who was a supposed teacher who decided to
be then turned mystery writer in aftershe retired became a super sluth and in
some ways that was one way oranother she was going to end up solving
it within, you know, thesixty minutes that the show was on and

(27:30):
off they went. But it wasmuch lighter and much more of you know,
I hastened to use the term funbecause somebody gets murdered. But it
was fun and its light and youknow, your comparison, I think the
Tramonta Face is very fair on that. Yeah, and it's uh interestingly with
that show, especially for somebody likeme who's lived in Britain in America.

(27:53):
Of course, Angela Landisbury was bornin England but became a US citizen early
in her life, so those arealready of interest. But it's interesting that
the United States they're made a televisionseries that was, well, it was
almost British in nature when we're talkingabout you know, these kind of these
mysteries where there is a bit oflightheartedness, we're not afraid to throw in

(28:17):
a bit of comedy even though we'retalking about murder, and so it's it's
almost surprising that wasn't a British show. Sometimes I think it is in my
head just because of the existence init of Angela Lansbury. But yeah,
no, I think that it's it'sa very it's a very interesting thing with

(28:41):
those kind of shows, you know, where you've got a central character that's
just more or less situated in thesame locale every episode, right, and
they happen to have murders happening aroundthem all the time. If that happened
to me, you know, Iwould I seek how help therapy? I
think I would move from kevid CoveI think so yeah. And that's that's

(29:03):
the thing about it. You yougo into it think at all this this,
this couldn't possibly work as a series. It sounds so implausible, and
then you sit down in your hookbecause they almost find a level of credibility.
Like when you watch Father Brown.I went into that thinking it was
going to be an out and outkind of comedy actually because I just thought,
you know, a priest at thecenter of these investigations, or rather

(29:26):
on the periphery of them, butdoing his own work, it just sounds
too comical. But then there's alot of kind of reasoning as to why
he should be the key person thereand is the key person there for solving
some of these times, and youreally start to believe it as it's going
and as as you know, asunlikely as these things are in real life.

(29:48):
Television can often have that magic,and I think, you know,
Father Brown exceeded with that, rightand you know, not that there's always
I've noticed in British television there's nota lot of spinoffs, but in this
particular case, it made a lotof sense to do it that way.

(30:10):
Yeah, that's right, and Ithink, yes, spinoffs is a good
point. I think you occasionally seeit, but I think maybe more so
in the United States, I thinkof breaking bad better call soul, you
know, just because maybe I don'tknow, maybe there's a financial justification that's
more easy easy easy to find here. Um, but yeah, it's it's

(30:33):
interesting that that's occurred. And againI can't wait to see how how it
all unfolds. Well to your pointabout spinoffs. Here, if you've got
like as we said earlier about LineOrder SVUE, you've got their franchises,
You've got NIS, which is NCS. You know Los Angeles used to be

(30:57):
ncis New Orleans that's gone. Uh, so you get these Uh to be
honest, what it is, You'vegot producers who are have deals with the
networks, and the networks don't wantto lose the producer, so the producer
continues to build shows around it,and uh, and you build a franchise

(31:17):
and that's what they've they've done andum, you know successfully Dick Wolf on
the side with SVU Don Balisario,who who had NCIS and so yeah,
Quantum Leap was a big oh yeah, yeah, that was Scott Bakula.
Yeah, yeah, he had ahe had a ton of those shows.

(31:41):
And then NCIS. It was Jaggedfirst, then it was NCIS and so
he's had a he's had a run. And uh. Most of the time
you see it in sitcoms, butin the States, but in this particular
case, it does happen with crimedrama, and it does happen, you
know, with these types of series. So yeah, if exactly, I

(32:06):
think it's I like that you broughtup the word franchise there because when I
think of the word franchise, Ialways think of the United States, even
though of course the concept is verymuch existence in Britain, because it just
seems like so many things get franchised. I just you know, look at
if you look at soccer in theMLS, you talk about franchise is there

(32:27):
rather than football clubs, and youcan quite see how this you know,
extends to television in a way thatyou describe. But you know what I
think of a show like Midsummer Murders. Okay, to me, that's a
franchise, Doc Martin franchise because theyhave shown time and time again that the

(32:50):
quality is there. And you know, to me, to get the multiple
seasons that they have out of andyou call it series, I keep getting
the I was going to say terminologydown a little bit. There is some
terminology differences. Yeah, yeah,because you were right about the fact that

(33:13):
a Doc Martin which might have nineyou know, series, you might have
taken fourteen years to get to thosenine series exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
And I don't know how well thatwould play here. Um from a standpoint
of if I'm watching a show andthen it takes a year off and comes
back, maybe my short attention spanis not going to handle that. But

(33:37):
one thing we have seen is inthe streaming world is we see that.
I mean, you know, you'llsee a series pop up and and then
maybe a year later, you know, everybody's anticipating when's it gonna come back,
and you know it comes back intwenty twenty two, maybe it's gonna
come back in twenty twenty three.Um, you know, the only thing

(33:58):
you know is it's coming back whenyou don't know. So I think we're
gaining more acceptance of that format showslike that. It was quite jarring to
me actually having lived in the USnow for fourteen years, that I had
to wait two or three years forthe next season of Stranger Things on Netflix.

(34:22):
Just it didn't feel American to me. It's like, you know,
you to get that the next year. Where is it? You know?
And yeah, that was that wasreally interesting. Funny you should say about
franchises and also Doc Martin. Ihad this moment yesterday when I was watching
Line of Duty because Neil Morrissey fromMen Behaving Badly shows up in that show,

(34:44):
and I imagine, wouldn't it bewouldn't it be funny if if Doc
Martin and Line of Duty exist inthe same universe and they are in fact
the characters from Men Behaving Badly andthey meet up, a really funny thing
to do, perhaps at comic Reliefin Britain. I will say that,
Um, Neil Morrissey is one ofmy favorite actors and one of my favorite

(35:04):
people. He's a fantastic actor,and he's he's he's a very down earth
fun person to talk with, andhe it's well, he's one of those
characters you that pops up in justabout anything. You know, you you're
never surprised to see Neil Morrissey becauseyou know, I think one time when
I was talking to him, hehad three shows going at one time.

(35:28):
Yeah, it's like, okayd goodon you that you can do that.
I was gonna say that is thatis a thing about British television. There's
you often see the same actors againand again. Right, there's like a
pool of those same actors, andit's right in one way. In some
ways it's it's great because you've gotthat sort of sense of familiarity and then

(35:50):
and then in others you wonder,well does that deprive other actors of getting
in? But um, yeah,it was. It was nice because I
didn't see the opening credits or anythinglike that, so he just popped up
on my screen and it was kindof like, oh, there is it's
Neil Morrissey. And the thing isthat he's going you know that hearkens back
to the early days of TV andmovies here in the United States, where

(36:14):
you would have, um what theseare called. You know, they were
studio actors and basically the studio hadto contract and they would find you know,
vehicles for them, be it moviesor television or whatever. And I
assume that that same situation with BBCand ITV is they've got people who they

(36:34):
go, Okay, we're into contractto that person, or we've done enough
with that person. I don't haveto worry about casting. I can take
that person and put them in intothe show and not not go looking for
someone else. Yeah. I wouldassume that's the case too. I think
also the kind of the already knownfamiliarity that the audience have with that actor

(36:57):
says yes, okay, that they'dbe a row for our audience is useful
as well. And it's a trustfactor. You know that that person is
gonna gonna you know, bring theaudience and also have some fun in them
in the in the in the intromwell let's go move on. Feel mine
to our last one, And thatone is why don't they ask Evans?

(37:25):
And that was just the screenshot ofit. Let's go to the video which
my hit the wrong button? Yeahsignature that flash ington, Yes, that's
right. Forty street thing he's French? Say no, that's his name,

(37:46):
Blessington French. I mean anything.We should be going, Francis a delight
as always. You're not staying forlunch, mister Bragg. Oh well,
god, he's on the twelve o'clock. Sadly catch a three o'clock. Do
you know Eggs forever dead before youget there? If he's rather slow,
thank you all the same, Francisgood, Buchan, come on, par

(38:10):
back to work. Bassington French doyou know him? I've never seen him
before. I'm alive. No,that's Bobby Jones. Then yes, you
have two whole summers. He pactually lived here, the biggest son.
HELLI sir, so who's Bassington French? A pound buying a house? He
was in the navy Before he leftme, he gave me a salute with
the palm down. He was inthe navy. Where is my dress?

(38:34):
Who was the commodore Bassington a jutlin? Ah? There she is the dress
borrower please French. And now Harrytells me the police were involved, which
delights me no end. Can yougive me one good reason why I should
not have you arrested? Damn yourdaughter I find that increasingly hard to believe.

(38:59):
Yeah, there you go, andthat one. The interesting part is
Hugh Laurie really desperately was a fanof Agatha Christie, so he optioned that
particular piece, wrote it and directedit in his in it and it's a

(39:20):
it is it's a quirky tale.Of all three that we've talked about,
I find that one to be almostit's not a comedy, but it's pretty
darn close. Yeah, it's it'squite playful, I think, but obviously
the drama at hand is what guidesthe show. And I think you know

(39:45):
Hugh Laurie obviously. I think Americanaudiences very much know him from House,
where he portrayed a very American doctor, but I know him from many other
things, you know, the likesof Black Habber and Jeeves and Wooster fran
Laurie from years ago. So he'snever been off my radar really my whole

(40:06):
life, you know, throughout theeighties and now um and so it is
it's great to see him sort ofturn his attention to something like this.
And the cast is amazing. Imean, you've got to you know,
Emma Thompson, you've got Jim Broadbent and you know it's it's it's pretty
startfard. And the one thing thatI think it's interesting about this, but

(40:30):
I'd be interested to get your thoughtson it's it's a short series, right,
it's shorter even than most British.Yeah, And you know how common
is that kind of thing in theUS, because when I when I was
looking up limited series earlier on actuallyit brought up True Detectives, right,

(40:50):
and you look at True Detective thatshow has eight episodes per per show,
which to us that's that's a fullseason to could that could be considered a
limited series? M do you everget kind of three parts that happened here
in the US? Usually it's morealong the lines are of three or four,

(41:12):
I mean four probably. And youknow, the mini series used to
be very big in the seventies andeighties on network television because that way you
could take what in essence, franklywe should have been shot as a movie
and probably was shot that way,and then you can dice them up into

(41:32):
four segments and in that way coverthe cost one of them. You know,
there were some famous Roots being oneof them, which was a famous
mini series. There are a numberof mini series. Yeah, to have
been done over the years. It'snot as much nowadays as in the old

(41:53):
days. But I am finding that, for instance, the streaming services,
whether it's Netflix or Hulu or anyof the others, are doing that.
They're they're giving you a limited series, which, as I say, likely
as shot as a movie because it'smore cost effective to do it that way

(42:14):
and then just dolling it out infour segments. So it is it doesn't
happen, but not as much asit used to. I see. Yeah,
I think reading around this, it'sfunny that you say that they shoot
it as a movie, because thatseemed to be how these limited series,
if you want to call it thatour side in the US that often they
are straight to TV movies, butin multiple parts. I remember when I

(42:39):
think it was that the nineteen ninetyversion of Stephen King's It came out as
a two part and that was bigin Britain, and you know, I
remember that, but we referred toit, I think it was a two
part serial. We had a differentterminology for it and it but it seems
that it's something that we are stillvery much willing to do in Britain.

(43:00):
I mean, I think of Sherlockis usually what three episodes something like that
bought with lengthy running times, soyou can just find and I think almost
has that sense of I'm watching afilm, yeah, broken up well,
and and Sherlock, like UM anumber of like the Spielberg I show you're

(43:22):
talking about it, they were shotwith a single camera, and we shoot
single camera normally that has a moviefeel to it, even if it's not
a movie. And I think that. But I think in the case of
True Detective and that sort of thing, they shot them knowing that they were

(43:44):
going to shoot two or three episodesat a time, you know, one
was going to spin off on theother, and they knew it, so
they had wrapped it before the thirdepisode you know, of four actually came
out, so they knew before itwas over what was going to happen next
time around. So so they didshoot it in movie style. Lucas does

(44:07):
that a lot for the Disney stuffthat that he has on UM on Disney
Plus. But you know, Ithink with this particular show, the fact
that Hugh Laurie got a chance todo something that was purely his you know,
uh homage to Agatha Christie. Ithink that was kind of the cool

(44:30):
part of it. You know.It's like when you get to a point
where you're capable of walking into ayou know, uh, the you know,
to the BBC or whatever network inthis case the BBC and walk through
it and say, hey, lookI got an idea, and they don't,
you know, summarily kick you out. Um. You know, when
you've got Hugh Laurie wrote it.Hugh Laurium is in it. Um.

(44:54):
I wouldn't have been surprised if Hulauriedid the music in it right because of
his back background. But it's it'sas I say, it's quirky, but
quirky sometimes works, and I thinkin the case of this one, quirky
definitely work. Yeah, I thinkit does. It just adds the right
amount of lightness in those moments whenit's it's needed throughout I think, um,

(45:16):
and does a good job as wellof building up the suspense. Of
course, a lot of that isdown to the fact that the source material
is Agatha Christie. Right, sohe's that time I hit the wrong button
going the other way. Sorry youwere saying before I shall really interrupted.
You know, it's it's good Iwas actually just coming to the end of

(45:37):
the sentence. You helped me bycutting me off, so I appreciate the
problem. So let's, um,let's talk a little bit when kind of
wrapping things up here about the threewe talked about line of duty. Um,
you and I are both hooked.We've decided. You know, that

(45:58):
one's that Pine is uh, youknow, four stars and climbing. Um.
Then we've got Sister Boniface, Andthat's the kind of thing that is
nice out Selden, light hearted,nice kind of thing you could sit and
watch with your kids. It's afamily type, you know, entertainment and

(46:20):
uh, it's it's light enough thatyou could sit there and maybe if you're
it's maybe it's a dinner time andyou decide, well, what am I
gonna watch? And what can Isit down and watch and eat dinner?
Two you could certainly do that.It's not gruesome, it's it's very entertaining.
And then the last one, youknow, why didn't they ask Evans?
That one is just as I say, that's that's one of those ones

(46:43):
that you know, on a Sundayafternoon you sit down and or you know,
in near ly eve and he sitdown and say, you know,
I love Hugh Laurie. Let's takea look and see what he's what he's
got here. Yeah, And Ithink the thing to say about that,
the last one why didn't they askEvans, is it's also a very beautiful
show in terms of location, Right, I forget where it is. I

(47:04):
think maybe it's somewhere in Wales.I could be making that up, but
it's it's just absolutely gorgeous seeing thecountries and they often pan over it,
of course, right. And thatthat speaks again to what I was asking
earlier on about does that elevate aBritish show when an American watching it sees
that wondrous British countryside and hears thoseBritish accents in tandem with it, does

(47:28):
it take it to a new level? Because for me, this is I
grew up with this, this iswhere I live, so I didn't really
have that necessarily, whereas if Iwas watching American TV shows and they you
know, they're out in the GrandCanyon or somewhere in Utah. Right,
I'm taken by that. That tome is sort of epic and amazing.

(47:49):
And I'm coming at it from thepoint of view of somebody who doesn't yet
live in the United States, right, So I'd be interested to know you
know how Americans feel when they seethat kind of location. Well, I
think you know, it becomes acharacter. Okay, it's a living,
breathing character. And you you know, there's so many shows on brick box

(48:10):
that where you see that, whereyou where that English countryside is a place
we're sitting and going, Um,I really want to go there. I
want to see what this is like. No different than perhaps in your case
when like a show Sex in theCity is done in New York. Yeah,
okay, and New York is amajor character in the in the film,

(48:30):
in the show Chicago where they doChicago med and all the other you
know Chicago shows. Um, thatbecomes a show. You live in Chicago,
you know that Chicago is often usedin movies and in television shows.
And of course Los Angeles, soin San Francisco as well, and almost
there, yeah, because almost doesn'tmatter what the subject matter is. I

(48:52):
mean, you'd happily go to theplace where why didn't they ask Evans is
set? But not to find thedead Bobby Right now about the similar to
me? Right when I was growingup. I I was. I really
loved the film Jewels, and Iwanted to visit Cape Cod and all of
that. Right, No, notto not to see the shark. Yeah,

(49:13):
that one exactly. Um. Iremember. UM early in my career,
we UM were doing some events inDallas and I went out to South
Fork and to the ranch. Um, not to see Jr. Or any
of the gang out there, butto see what the ranch looked like.
And it was it was part ofa character in a film, in a

(49:34):
TV series that that you like,no different than if you were in Dallas,
I mean Denver, you'd want togo see where the Carrington has lived
in, uh, you know inthat show in Dynasty, right, So
yeah, I mean there's no questionthat, um, those of us here
on the other side of the pondwant to take a look and are taken
by, um, you know,all of these exotic and interesting and fun

(49:57):
places. Um. A lot ofstuff is done in Ireland these days because
there's there's You can have the beautyand the like my cosmopolitan feel of a
Dublin and then ten minutes later youcan be out in a place in in
the same country where it doesn't evenlook like Dublin. It looks like it's

(50:20):
got a whole different feel to it. The great thing about that is only
the locals who live in Dublin willbe able to tell you whether or not
it is in fact Dublin, wherewe're just like, well, yeah,
that looks like Chester in England,right, yeah, it's a you know,
you can you can spot check it. Um, And I find myself
um, you know, growing upin the South from a standpoint of accents,

(50:44):
where for some reason British actors andactresses can do English acts American accents
a whole lot better than then theYanks can do a British accent. I
have a theory about that. Ithink it's because we are so exposed to
American television and film in the UKand to a variety of accents by default,

(51:08):
Whereas I think in the US,if you are exposed to British accents,
it's usually the Queen's English or perhapshow they speak in London, but
the rest of them, like upin Liverpool, you know, you don't
really unless you're listening to the Beatlesfrom the nineteen sixties, that accent has
changed or become more thick. SoI don't know that that often gets you

(51:30):
know, sent over to the US, right, And I don't know it's
although there happen examples I think ofAmerican actors actually nailing the British accent.
But you're right, it does seemto happen more frequently the other way around,
the other way around. Yeah,So anyway, let's as we wrap

(51:52):
things up here, let's talk aboutwhat's coming up on your show. Oh
wow, Well, I've just beento Ireland, actually weirdly enough hand England,
and while I was there, Ifound my old course books from when
I was at school, at juniorschool. Oh okay, it's it's it
was really weird. I found awriter p I did about my visit to

(52:15):
Florida as a child in nineteen ninety. I just want to do a kind
of retrospective video that's going to becoming up this week on how my view
of America has changed since the littlechild in me wrote that at the age
of eight or nine. And yeah, that's that's coming up soon. Well,

(52:37):
that sounds like a lot of fun. Let's make sure that people go
out and see it, because I'msure it's going to be entertaining and coming
up on stream on, We've gota look at what's coming up in the
fall, because there is a fallseason and there's all kinds of fun stuff
coming up in the fall. Sowe will be snagging some guests out there

(52:57):
and bringing them in and talking aboutsome really cool stuff that's headed your way
streaming wise in the fall. SoLawrence, let's don't make this a one
off. Let's make this something thatwe do on a semi regular business because
I think it's a lot of fun. I think that we can have a
lot of fun with our guests here. Jim has been great. I mean,

(53:20):
if you can talk about the televisionshows you watch this weekend, it
can't be about Monday kind of never. All right, until next time,
everybody, have a nice day andwe'll be with you hopefully down the line
sometime. By all means, checkout Lawrence's YouTube channel and check out wherever
your podcasts stream on with Jim Williams. Take care you guys.