Hello it is Miscellaneous Monday
And today and tomorrow I am going to do something
I have not done in quite a long time on this channel
Which is Mouse recommends ten things to you
Over the course of two videos,
A title which I am shortening to Mouse Recommends.
What have I done in the past?
I have done my favourite books
I have done my favourite radio comedies
I have done ten BBC TV series you may not have seen
And should definitely, definitely watch.
In today and tomorrow’s video I am going to be
Talking about ten British TV shows on Netflix.
Yes, five today, five tomorrow
All of them have several things in common
1) They are all currently available on UK Netflix
Some of them will be on the Netflixes from other countries also
What is the plural of Netflix?
All of them are British, most of them are from the BBC
We have previously talked about my obsession with the BBC
But not all of them are from the BBC
The final thing that they have in common is that I have watched every episode of them
Now I have finished all this admin, let’s get on to the actual list.
No. 1 Merlin
I have previously mentioned Merlin as one of my favourite TV shows
So I could not leave it off this list.
It ran for 5 series between 2008 and 2012, all of which are on Netflix,
So thank you Netflix for this wonderful gift you have given me.
It starred Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Anthony Head,
Angel Coulby, a whole load of wonderful people.
I love this show so much.
Colin Morgan is a fantastic actor and I miss seeing him on TV so much.
I loved what they did with the Arthurian legend
You know, Arthur and Guinevere,
The Lady of the Lake,
The Sword in the Stone,
The Knights of the Round Table, Merlin himself.
It was a fun show and I miss it.
No. 2, Life on Mars
This is a BBC series that had two perfect series in 2006 and 2007.
It’s about Manchester policeman Sam Tyler played by John Simm
Who is hit by a car in 2006 and wakes up in 1973.
He finds himself under the command of DCI Gene Hunt
Played by Philip Glenister, who is very much of his time
And the show is about Sam’s reaction as a modern policeman
To the police force of the 1970s,
His clashes with the people around him
And his attempts to get back home and to work out why he is there.
Is he mad, In a coma, or back in time?
I think of this as a classic show even though it is less then 10 years old
Just so good.
It is full of cultural references and great music
And the story is just fantastic.
There is also a US adaptation which had one series
And I don’t believe it was as good
And there is also a sequel set in the 1980s called Ashes to Ashes
And I am a little bit ambivalent about that.
It had three series
I feel like Life on Mars was perfect and it should have been left as it was
So I wasn’t altogether a fan of Ashes to Ashes existing
Although having said that, the third series tied up some loose ends from Life on Mars
Which was interesting
So I am now slightly more inclined to accept its existence.
No. 3 is Spooks
This had a great long run, it ran for 10 series between 2002 and 2011.
It is known as MI5 in some countries, including the US.
It is a spy drama about a group of MI5 officers.
The cast has included quite a few people who have gone on to great things.
It starred Peter Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo,
Nicola Walker, Rupert Penry Jones, Raza Jaffrey,
Hermione Norris, Richard Armitage
Some really great people
And it was of a very high quality and had a consistently high quality throughout
Also, a spin off film starring Kit Harrington is about to be released,
So this isn’t a bad time to become acquainted or re-acquainted with it.
No. 4 is The IT Crowd
Our first comedy and our first non-BBC show. Yay!
This was a channel 4 sitcom set in the IT department of Reynholm Industries
And it starred Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, and Katherine Parkinson.
It ran for four series and a special between 2006 and 2013
And all of it is on Netflex.
It is very funny, it took me a while to get used to it,
I’m not sure if that’s because of the humour
Or because I was too young when I started watching it
But now I love it and Moss, played by Richard Ayoade
Is one of my favourite fictional characters.
And No. 5 and the last for today is The Trip.
This was a 2010 sitcom directed by Michael Winterbottom
And it starred Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves.
They are on a restaurant tour of northern England
And we just kind of follow them around.
There was also a second series in 2014 called The Trip to Italy,
Where they are on a restaurant tour of Italy.
It is original, it is funny, it is interesting.
For most of the series you’re just watching two funny people
Talking to each other and it’s great.
So those are my first five.
I would be interested to know what you think about them if you watched them
And I’ll see you tomorrow for the last five!