90's British Cult Telly

[Simon Pieman]

I didn't work out how the room worked at all. I did wonder why there was a separate bathroom next to an attic room though.

However I could see the affair thing from a mile off, something seemed up when he didn't want to sleep with that bird on the first night. Guess they put the extra stuff in there to make it a full two  hours.

[DiV]

It did seem filler. I didnt pick up on the affair till the church bit it all made sense them even if it was completely un-needed.

My first thought about the room was the bed drops when someones on it and it falls into a bit underneath but obviously we saw people on the bed and nothing happening. Then when he leant on the bed and the bugs fell down made me think the bed was too obvious which lead my thoughts to the bathroom....although i was expecting just a dugeon rather than a water tank.

[Lumps]

I know this is a bumped thread as a result of the slightly lame JC special last night, but if you're still looking for 90's cult TV then, as a bit of a Dr Who fan, you might want to reacquaint yourself with Russell T's earlier work. Although they're nominally kids shows, both DARK SEASON and CENTURY FALLS were quite good from what I remember.

In the same ouvre (I'm assuming you're really interested in SF and fantasy stuff here) there was also a short lived and slightly shit revival of THE TOMORROW PEOPLE in the early 90's, and the Beeb did a mini series called INVASION EARTH, which I seem to remember looking quite expensive and not really hanging together too well, (I think it must have been some sort of co-production.

If you're prepared to look further afield then the 90's also saw the states producing, in addition to Next Gen, Babylon 5,and X-files and the underated Millenium, the fab DARK SKIES, and the kooky but funny EERIE INDIANA.

The last one might have slipped past you as it was basically a kids show, and only ran for one or maybe two seasons.

[adje]

90's cult telly?Northern Exposure-brilliant!

[herthab]

90's cult telly?Northern Exposure-brilliant!

Ahem. British adje?

[Lumps]

90's cult telly?Northern Exposure-brilliant!

Northern Exposure was ACE. Although critics seem to think it suffered in the later season I really liked it when David Chase got hold of it and it got a bit darker.

[herthab]

Fantasy Football was good. At least the first few series were.

[adje]

 

[chalkies_shorts]

El dorado?

[Sussex]

El dorado?

Whatever happened to the chick in the wheelchair?

[Ardiles]

And this thread is because I know I'm forgetting something...

Pre-90's you've got loads of stuff, going back through Doctor Who and Quatarmass and all that shizzle, but the 90's seems a bit of a bleak zone for random British telly.

You've got loads of brilliant American shows starting up in the later part of the decade. Brilliant stuff like the X-Files and Buffy, both of which are truly brilliant telly.

Britain seems to be lacking around that period. I suppose I'm talking more mid-late 90's. I don't really remember the early 90's as I was a bit young.

The one exception to this is Neverwhere (1996 I think), written by Neil Gaiman. Awesome, but it was only 6eps long, and they really fucked up on the filming quality. It does star Johnson from Peep Show, which adds bonus points.

But yeah, were there any good mid-late nineties good random British TV shows?

Returning to Ben's original post, I think the 1990s was the decade in which people here stopped running out the tired line that Americans couldn't do humour, lacked the capacity to understand irony etc.  The quality of comedy/drama produced in the States during that period was positively gilt-edged compared with that in the UK.

The traditional British sit-com pretty much died in the 1990s.  The only remaining example that I can think of (although there may be others) is Two Point Four Children.  but during the 1990s, the US was producing The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld to name a few.  Even Friends, which does not appeal to everyone, could be fairly sophisticated when it wanted to be.

[adje]

League of gentlemen was cult viewing in the late 90's but went downhill in the later series in my opinion

[Simon Pieman]

Yeah some British sitcoms were rubbish, but I think that's because we had a move away from them and towards the sketch show or even the panel show.

I thought programmes such as Big Train and of course The Fast Show were quality, early Harry Enfield was pretty decent, but panel/quiz shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Shooting Stars were able to provide us with equal amount of laughs. Let's not forget the Day Today or Brass Eye. These aren't sitcoms but they were good comedy shows.

There were also quite a few decent sitcoms as well - I'm Alan Partridge, Men Behaving Badly, Father Ted, I even enjoyed One Foot in the Grave when it was on. There's loads that people loved at the time which I thought were a bit naff, Vicar of Dibley and Ab Fab spring to mind.

[janaage]

Big Train 

Was Big Train the sketch show that "banned wanking in the office?"  That was a great scene.

What was the Channel 4, very close to the bone, sketch show?

[Simon Pieman]

I think you mean 'Smack The Pony'. Think that was out around the same sort of time and yes that had some very close to the bone moments.