The English seem obsessed with shows about houses and property and prices. There must have been a dozen of these shows, ok, maybe four. Most were repeats and the prices did not reflect current values. But the shows were well made and very watchable.
News presentation was quite alien to what we get. One night I recall watching the BBC news for half an hour and there were only four stories.
Up north where we were, and I think I noted it was the same in the west, you get half an hour of national news then half an hour of local news. It depends if you watch the Beeb or commercial as to what order they come in. The news seem more repetitive than ours, minor stories seemed to run for days. Our world view is much wider and certainly more Asian and American focused. While I wasn't here in Aus, I doubt Zimbabwe would have had the coverage here that it did on English tele, ad nauseam. Hey, what about Australia? We were a colony too!
The only story I saw about Australia was in a newspaper where an English tourist in Australia had been bitten by a snake/spider.
One night at the caravan when R peaked early and went early to bed, I stayed up to have a play with the cable tv. Ohhh, a soft str8 porn channel, boring, but more than we get at home. Actually, not sure about that. Another channel that incidentally showed a guy with a full on exposed erection viewed from a distance and then a sheila giving him head. I was quite drunk by this time of the night and was surprised by what I saw. But better still, a show about the youth of England binge drinking and then throwing up, in graphic detail. Can't get much better than that.
It was a bitter sweet time when I was able to see EastEnders after not having seen it for twenty odd years. It would have been better left in the memory. The show is crap. But it was nice to see a slightly older Dot Cotton still going. Lou Beale was still alive the last time I saw the show.
The locals call it Corres, Coronation Street. It is on cable tv here I think. But I was under ten years old when I last saw it and would you believe, there is still one person still left in it who was in it when I was under ten. It is in colour now, I only remember it in black and white.
Here, it was Coronation Street, followed by the US show, Peyton Place. I used to find endless reasons to get up for a glass of water or to go to the toilet.
In summary, I like our tv better, as much as I whine about it. But one outstanding point about English tv, and perhaps even the English in general, the presenters never take themselves too seriously. This is quite un American and I would say, shows some maturity and sense about the medium they work in. But truly, we do get the best of UK tv. There is a lot of dross we fortunately miss.
Pics are of some silly northern tv weather presenter, who grew on me as the days went on, and someone who is a very respected newsreader and I knew of him well before going to the UK. I have no idea how.
Wow, I did not know this until I found his pic online. Sir!!! Trevor McDonald who reads the ITV news. Of course, I must overlook the long tribal war between my family and the McDonalds.

