TVSquad

A few months ago, I ever-so-giddily wrote about the entire first season of the British comedy Green Wing being available on Hulu to American viewers. It only seemed right to spread the good word, as it happens to be one of my favorite shows (it's like Scrubs if it were a little less annoying and more demented).

Well, shame on me for being late with more news, because it wasn't until reader Erik pointed it out that I saw that the entire series of Green Wing is now on Hulu. Having both seasons and the finale special means that you get the laughs and closure. Isn't that nice?

Hey, gang! It's time to get your sketch comedy fill and kick the Saturday Night Live summer break shakes.

This week, I'm here to educate you on a little British program called Big Train. It was created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, the brains behind Father Ted, and ran two seasons/series in 1998 and 2002. Most of the sketches were surreal and played with the most beautifully serious deadpan expressions. There are people in giant cat and mouse costumes getting in fights, professional evil hypnotists lurking in hallways, as well as jockeys being preyed upon by Prince, so it's a wonder the actors could ever keep straight faces.

I recently -- and giddily -- posted about Hulu.com's inclusion of Channel 4's Green Wing, one of my favorite programs. Hulu is definitely on my good side right now, as they also have the first season of Peep Show online now. Those of you that don't have this in your list of British comedies to conquer, you should. Now. I mean, once you get over David Mitchell's extra-weird, giant, almost-black eyes, it's pretty enjoyable.

A lot of readers outside of the United States regularly express their disgust with us over our use of Hulu's videos on some of our posts.

Well, I've got some good news ... for 1/100ths of the rest of the world.

Hulu could be coming to the United Kingdom and include more programming than what's available in the States. So if you Brits have been hankering for some Facts of Life but don't feel like the necessary humiliation of having people see you buy it at the local video store, you're in luck.

You guys, you guys (Americans, specifically)! Green Wing is on Hulu! Exclamation mark!

All right, let me back up. I am a British comedy nerd. Some of you more eagle-eyed readers may already know that one of my favorite shows is something called Green Wing, which aired on Channel 4 way back in 2004. It's one of those programs that perfectly blends the quickness and quotability of sketch comedy with the engaging story arcs of more traditional sitcoms. There is no laugh track (thank goodness) but a beautifully quirky score that heightens the comedy instead of fighting with it. Plus, it's just plain snazzy.

It's easy to forget in these troubling times that America isn't the only country that's feeling the tight, constricting pinch from the claw of the economic lobster.

This is a GLOBAL economic meltdown. Everyone is feeling that pinch and looking forward to the day when they can grab that lobster by the antennae, throw it in a boiling pot of water, rip off the tail, sprinkle it with butter, pepper and herbs and serve it in a roll with a side of waffle fries. Damn I'm so broke and hungry.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, however, has an interesting way of dealing with their economic problems. Instead of trimming at the bottom, they are aiming their gardening shears squarely towards the top.

After years of reaching US audiences as only a series of forwarded video clips and teh internetz, the original Channel 4 British sitcom The IT Crowd is finally coming to American TV. The IFC Channel has picked up the series and will begin airing it September 29.

I had to make an extra point to specify that this is the UK IT Crowd and not the NBC remake starring original cast member Richard Ayoade and Joel McHale. No, no, that project is still dead. As much as I love Ayoade and McHale, I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that the show didn't take off. I'd rather get my fix from Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Soup than see them attempt to tip-toe through that dangerous territory of American remakes.

The script for the IT Crowd's third season has just been completed, and folks from the show are looking for some help to dress up the set. Calling all geeks with decent knowledge in pop culture! If you've never seen the show before, it's basically the geekiest show about IT guys in the history of British programming. "Did you turn it off and on?" is a recurring joke, so that should say enough.

Let's start with the good news, because I like ending on a downer. American fans of the British comedy Spaced, starring Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson), and Nick Frost, are in for a treat because the Spaced Region 1 DVD finally has a release date! Expect the good stuff to come out July 23 of this year. I'm tempted to buy it just because it's something new, shiny, and Spaced-related, but I already splurged on the 3-Disc Collectors' Set and a region-free player that I got just so that I could watch the series. Why, yes, I am a sad little person.

It's rather comforting, if a little scary, to see that even computerized icons can age a lot.

Britain's Channel 4 has brought back Max Headroom, the 80s TV character that everyone thought was just a computer creation but was actually actor Matt Frewer, for a series of TV commercials. The ads (or are they called adverts or something over there?) will show Max insulting Channel 4 for ignoring his idea of a digital TV world.

According to Variety, an American version of the Simon Pegg/Jessica Stevenson Channel Four Brit-com Spaced is being developed for American audiences. It is being adapted by Will and Grace alumni Adam Barr and to be exec-produced by McG and Robert Green. The BAFTA-nominated show is about a man (Simon Pegg) and a woman (Jessica Stevenson) who pretend to be a married couple in order to rent a cheap apartment in London. Simon Pegg went on to star in movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

I've seen episodes of Spaced and liked it. It has that frenzied storytelling style that is seen in Pegg's later movies. It also has a lot of pop culture references and it helps that Pegg plays a comic book artist and fan.

According to this article in the U.K.'s Telegraph, kids on the reality TV show Supernanny have been intentionally made to cry to boost ratings. The show is successful in Britain and in the United States (on ABC) and has made host Jo Frost a household name.

My question is: why is this surprising? It's somewhat common knowledge that reality TV intentionally gets its participants into awkward situations in order to get good TV out of it. Hell, right before I started with TV Squad I appeared on a cable TV game show and I was amazed at how much the producers wanted me to behave a certain way in order to make for better TV.

The UK's Channel 4 had decided not to broadcast a drama featuring British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees so as not to exacerbate the current situation surrounding fifteen Royal Navy personnel currently held captive in Iran. The debut for the movie was moved to May 17, which will most likely remain now that the soldiers have been released to the British Embassy (and assuming their return to British soil).

The drama, Mark of Cain, is somewhat based on the true-life story of three British soldiers who were convicted of abusing Iraqi civilians at Camp Bread Basket, Basra, in May 2003. The drama itself, however, is entirely fictional according to Gerard Kearns, who plays a soldier in the made-for-TV movie. Due to the tumultuous nature of the diplomatic standoff, the channel decided it was better to avoid anything that might endanger the lives of the fifteen soldiers, who were held captive in a secret location for twelve days.

Interesting article on the BBC website today; they had an independent polling company survey over 2,000 Brits on their video viewing habits, and they found that, of the people that said they regularly watch online video, 43% say they watch less television as a result. The number of total online viewers is still a minority: 9% of the people surveyed said they watch online video regularly, 13% they watched occasionally, and another 10% say they plan to watch online video within the next year. But, remember, there is not nearly as much current British programming available online as there is in the U.S., so that number might grow as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 rolls out on-demand video on the web, which the article says is due in the next few months.

If you live in the UK and have been enjoying Lost, get your TiVos ready: Channel 4, which has been airing the first two seasons of the American hit, has lost the rights to seasons three and four to Sky One, according to The Sun.

"The series has defined TV drama over the last two years. We are absolutely thrilled to bring it to Sky One," Sky One chief Richard Woolfe told the tabloid.

Of course, Lost is currently only in its third season, but even with its slipping ratings, chances of a fourth season are almost 100%. So Sky will likely get its money's worth. Unless half the country has downloaded season three's episodes already. Then Sky is toast.