Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish - reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!
Last week, I reviewed the book Radio Girls. Gaele reviewed three books (an eclectic selection): The Cottage on Sunshine Beach, Blue Murder, and The Distance Between Us. Sim was reading one of PBS's Great American Reads, White Teeth by Zadie Smith set in 1970s London.
All summer, I've been a post or two ahead for British Isles Friday, but this week I have a string of things that I thought would be British Isles Friday posts, but it hasn't worked out. So, I thought I'd share that list.
The Tunnel. I liked the third and final season. I wrote about the first season. You'll definitely want to start there. My favorite part of The Tunnel is the professional relationship between the two main characters - Karl from England and Elise from France - which is built on a foundation of mutual respect. All three seasons are available with PBS Passport, a benefit of supporting your local PBS station.
A Very English Scandal. I tried to watch this. The performances by the three lead actors are delicious examples of British acting - Alex Jennings (Duke of Windsor in The Crown, Leopold I in Victoria, Alan Bennett in The Lady in the Van), Ben Whishaw (the perfume maker in Perfume, John Keats in Bright Star, the voice of Paddington Bear), and Hugh Grant (who needs no list of credits). The locations are beautiful and wonderfully evocative of England and Ireland (although the Irish bits were filmed in Wales). The plot was thin and repetitive so I gave up after a while. If anyone watches it to the end, let me know if it's worth pushing through. It's available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Kiss Me First. Sim learned recently that this Netflix series is based on a book. I enjoyed the Virtual Reality sections, but got bored in the midst of a long real-life dance party scene. I think the target audience for this show is 35-40 years younger than I am.
Hinterland. I promised myself that I'd re-watch the first two seasons when the third one was available. It's up on Netflix, now. I've started re-watching and I think I'm keeping track of things a bit better now. It helps to put the closed captions on. I want to keep up with this-I just got temporarily sidetracked into West Wing and The Tunnel.
A Dangerous Place. I'm enjoying the 11th volume of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series. I probably won't review it on the blog, though. It's increasingly impossible to talk about these books without spoiling previous ones. Plus, this one is mostly set in Gibraltar, not in the British Isles.
What British things are you encountering this week?
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books
