• BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    I still remember watching an interview with him only after watching the entire series and how mind blowing it was to me that he was English.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Nah, blackadder didn’t really reach household name status here. About the only british shows that’re at that level are dr who and Monty Python. Fawlty towers, abfab, red dwarf, blackadder and others tend to be more niche. Hell, we had versions of shameless, the office, and queer as folk, and people don’t really realize they are copies (with varying degrees of similarity to the originals).

        I can’t recall if blackadder was even on BBC America or not, but I don’t recall seeing it on there back when we had cable.

        • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I think PBS, or some channel ( Maybe TCM? Can’t remember.) would show it along with the others and Are You Being Served. My grandfather and I used to watch them together all time.

          • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, I think that’s maybe why it didn’t spread as far. Back in my younger days, PBS in specific was much bigger because it was typically one of four or five channels. So when it ran Dr Who and Python, there was a greater chance of it being watched per household. By the time some of the other shows came to the US, cable was fully ensconced as the primary access to television. More channels, less chance of a given one being on at a time.

          • poppy@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Definitely PBS, I used to love watching Are You Being Served?. :) it’s how I learned the word “ Haberdashery”!

        • BigPotato@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I’m pretty sure all the niche ones aired on my local PBS station, though we did have BBC America as well.

        • shamless

          As a proud Mancunian I refuse to watch the US version. You can’t take Manchester out of Shameless!! Pretty much all the characters in Shameless go one-for-one to members of my family.

          • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            I’ve heard that before.

            Tbh though, I was super doubtful I would like it at all, having loved the original. And the US version did lose some in translation. But it was, until the last season or so, a good show on its own, despite being not the same thing at heart. I don’t think a show line the US shameless would translate well if it had been the original, though. Both are pretty vivid snapshots of the places they’re set in, which is the way that the US version succeeded. You ever meet people from that area, you’ll hear stories like on the show.

            I’ve got family up there in middle yankee land that aren’t so far off from some of the American Frank’ kids.

            Not gonna lie though, the original did make me decide to make sure I was never, ever gong to go to Manchester lol.

    • JustUseMint@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I had heard/read that his commitment to the cain limp walk fucked up his gait in real life and caused him some issues lol. How awful

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      9 months ago

      He was quite well known in England. Fry and Laurie, Blackadder, etc.

      The one that gets me is Dominic West. I saw him in The Wire first, and every time after I’m like “that’s a decent English accent he’s doing there. Oh wait.”

      I suspect I’m going to be the same with Shiv and Tom from Succession.