Hi I'm Joel and I'm Lia and today we're gunna talk a little bit about British TV shows that
you can watch which will help improve your English.
Personally, I think that British
TV shows and films are really good at the moment, we're really giving America a run
for their money.
Absolutely, and just in general watching TV is such a huge part of British
culture, we've got amazing shows, we just don't sort of, remember that!
It's only when
you're watching - like if I'm watching a bit of Greek television when I'm away or with
my family that I remember how grateful I am for British TV!
Coz it's so bad!
And I think
it's only fairly recent though, as well that the UK has really upped their game in terms
of production of British films and TV, coz I remember back in school, having a Canadian
teacher and she was like "I hate TV over here it's so boring, there's nothing I wanna watch",
whereas I think nowadays, especially with Netflix and Amazon Prime and like, loads of
these things, there are so many big budgets for British things.
We might be using American
money....
I just choked.
Don't choke.
We might be using American money but we're using British
actors and British scripts and British writers to create amazing things with huge budgets.
So lets crack straight on.
So in this video we've got sort of, three different types - three
different categories here of British television.
First category is 'Scripted TV'.
So, by scripted
we just mean it's written, it's planned, the actors know what they're saying, it's not
'reality'.
Some of the shows that fall into this category are Game of Thrones.
Which I'm
sure many of you already watch, Game of Thrones is a show which you can watch on Sky.
Sky
Atlantic have bought it, so it's not actually on Netflix, but because of the amount of variation
in the show, you've got regional dialects from Northern England, Southern England, you've
got RP, you've got sort of, Midlands RP, you've got everything in the show, there's just such
an amazing range of dialects.
I think it's a fantastic show to watch to really sharpen
up on your English.
And loads of episodes to do that in, there's so much to watch!
Yeah,
I think we're on Season 7 now!
So there's some other obvious ones that you can watch,
Sherlock, is really good, hugely popular!
Really good for pretty much just RP accents,
there will be some other ones in there but very good for RP accents, and isn't there
- sidenote: if you're visiting London along Baker Street, there's somewhere you can visit
which is like Sherlock Holmes' museum.
The museum of Sherlock Holmes.
But if you want
to go to the actual location, it's not on Baker Street, it's on North Gower Street,
we used to go to school on Gower Street, and just north of that, on North Gower Street,
is the actual building where 221b Baker Street is actually at.
Amazing knowledge Joel!
London
tourism!
Note that down!
So yeah, the obvious ones, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Doctor Who!
Yeah, that's another really good one.
I used to watch that all the time and perhaps watching
with subtitles is quite a good idea, if that's an option on whichever streaming service you're
using, I think it's really great to just be able to read and hear at the same time.
Definitely.
But one that you might not have heard of is Luther.
Which is on BBC.
I think it's on BBC
America as well if you're in America.
It's really good, have you seen it?
No, I know
Idris Elba's in it though.
Yeah, he's so good and it's just, it's terrifying, it's a thriller
about this police officer called Luther and he goes around solving these crimes, each
episode is pretty much an episode within it's own right.
But, yeah, again that's really
good for urban accents, London accents, coz
it's all set in London.
Amazing!
That's such a good range of stuff!
So, moving on we've got loads of comedy in
the UK.
We've also done a video on British comedy, in sort of contrast to American comedy,
you can click on that in our endcard and we'll link it below.
Some of the comedies that are
really helpful for listening to English accents are: The Inbetweeners is a really great TV
show in the UK that even got made into a feature film, yeah, two feature films!
Really, really
funny.
About a group of 4 British teenagers that go through school and they're just sort
of you're classic English lads!
Yep, they're not quite children anymore, but they're not
adults, hence the name Inbetweeners, so I think it gives you a really accurate view
to how young people in the UK speak and interact with each other.
It's great for culture and
just for English banter.
But I'd say watch it if you're - I think over 18 - they'd probably
say over 16, but yeah, it's quite rude isn't it?
It's quite rude.
So if you're a young
viewer don't watch The Inbetweeners.
No.
SImilarly to The Inbetweeners you've got shows which
are also sort of comedy and British and fresh and new: Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Phone Shop,
Fried, all made by BBC or ITV, any of these shows all really great to watch if you're
into comedy.
So within the category of 'Comedy' is the sub-category of 'Classic Comedy' which
is, I'd say shows that were made sort of, between 20-50 years ago?
Yeah.
Personal favourite
of mine, two of my favourites.
Firstly Fawlty Towers, which I know you love as well, amazing!
Really funny about a hotel in Torquay in Cornwall and how it's just managed by a complete idiot,
it's hilarious, it's so worth watching, just go and watch it if you're interested in - you
don't have to be interested in 'old stuff' it's just so funny, you'll laugh your head
off.
It's really good.
And another one that I watch all the time with my family is The
Good Life.
Did you?
I thought you were gunna say Vicar of Dibley.
No, I used to watch Vicar
of Dibley and I still do love it, I watch it at Christmas all the time, but The Good
Life is also really funny, just about two different couples living next to each other
in a suburb of London, in Surbiton, one's really posh and the other one's more down-to-earth
and they have a small-holding and they're like really country-fied!
And they're friends
and it's really funny.
That's really brilliant.
Only Fools and Horses, a really, really great
show.
It's actually my grandfather's favourite show and he's Cypriot and his English was
really broken and he loved this show, so anybody can watch this show, it's so funny.
You don't
have to be amazing at English to understand it.
And what's that good for?
Cockney!
People
always searching 'London Cockney accent' - Only Fools and Horses is the show to watch!
And
it's got a really famous opening jingle as well, it'll stick in your head for ages.
*sings
the song* Yeah, whatever!
Another show, is for RP, Ab Fab, which is like an episodic
seasonal show, but also been made into a film, very recently, although the film was not highly
regarded, it wasn't rated very highly.
I still haven't seen it.
The actresses in it are hilarious
and both RP, so worth watching!
And the last category is 'Reality TV/Soaps'.
So firstly,
soaps (to get that out the way) are kind of, seen as like, lowest of the pecking order
in entertainment in our country.
So the first one is Emmerdale which is set in Yorkshire
on a farm/village place, so it's good for Northern accents as well as Coronation Street,
that's good for, sort of, Manchester accent, rather than Yorkshire which is Emmerdale.
Eastenders is London, East End, Eastenders.
What other soaps are there?
Hollyoaks, is
that up North as well, it's North but I think they have quite a few Southerners in it as
well so I think it's
a good mix, but that's mainly for younger people, Hollyoaks,
so
if you're young, you'd probably enjoy Hollyoaks a bit more than the others.
I don't watch any soaps and I know you don't really watch any either, but what we DO watch
is reality TV, we're all guilty of watching it, so reality TV is obviously shows like
Love Island, is really popular right now, we're guilty of watching that, it's where
people are put on an island and they have to fall in love with each other - it sounds
so bad, but it's really addictive.
I don't normally watch that much reality TV, like Big Brother is another one - don't watch
it, don't like it.
Even The Only Way Is Essex, I don't really watch that, Made In Chelsea, don't watch that,
but for some reason Love Island, I'm just so addicted to it, I absolutely love it.
I dunno how the show have done it!
They've got everybody who says they don't watch these shows, watching it!
These are great for watching people talk naturally, there is no script, no.
Well... or they say there isn't!
Who knows if there is or not?
But they are natural people, normal people, yeah and supposedly there is no script, so
it's good to watch for slang terms and colloquialisms.
And like we said it's easy to identify which one you're learning which accent from.
Only Way Is Essex, you're gunna be able to learn an Essex accent.
If you're watching Made in Chelsea, you'll learn a really heightened RP accent, or necessarily
heightened, sort of contemporary RP, but a bit more posh than we are, I'd say.
Yes definitely.
So guys, we hope that this has been helpful, obviously there's a lot of shows listed there
so we'll make sure that we sort of, do a list of them in the description perhaps, if that
will help you, don't forget to go over and watch our video on British Comedy, and the
difference between British comedy and American comedy.
And let us know down in the comments if you have watched any of them, and if you have
watched any of them because of our recommendations, I'd like to know whether you've been inspired
by this video and you've become addicted to Fawlty Towers, and whether you wish you had
Bernard's Watch so you could pause time, watch all the TV shows and then switch your life
back on because it's really hard to feel like you're not wasting time, when you're watching
TV, but if you see it as research for your English learning, it's all research, if your
teachers are complaining, just be like "It's research.
I'm doing my English listening practice".
SO yeah.
Well don't forget to push the like button it really helps us out and we will see you
next week.
Take care, bye!