Thursday, October 4, 2007

Top 5: UK Edition


Face it. The Brits are better than us when it comes to entertainment. They make the best music and television in the world and are even taking over American TV sets this year (It really weirds me out when they speak so well with American accents). So here are my top 5 UK imports:

Brits on Network TV - Damien Lewis, amazing in Band of Brothers (have I mentioned that yet?), now stars in Life on NBC as a cop who spent 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He's fabulous and a ginger. Pretty much my new favorite actor. And Anna Friel. I watched the entire Pushing Daisies pilot and had no idea she was English. Maybe the fact that she is makes her more likable then all the other new female love interests on TV this season. She also has a kid with Professor Lupin, err David Thewlis from the Harry Potter films, and anyone who gets it on with a Werewolf must be cool.

Top Gear - England's top motoring show, this is one of my favorites and it's now on BBC America. Basically, 3 middle aged white guys play with cars all day. I know it sounds incredibly boring, but it's not. My favorite segments are the races. Once, they raced a Bugatti Veyron against a plane from the south of France to London. Recently, they raced a Toyota truck against a dog sled in the North Pole. They are insane. It's awesome.

The Swell Season - They are Irish and would probably be very offended to be included on this list, but they can deal with it! The Guy and Girl from Once formed a band and this is the result. It's Damien Rice on low dose steroids (if that makes any sense). They're playing 4th and B Nov 11th. Anyone want to go with me?

The Pipettes - A 60's girl band with modern, naughty lyrics. Their album is so much fun it's practically impossible not to dance to...

Jasper Fforde - He writes the cleverest books. I call them literary sci-fi (probably because I heard someone interesting call them that first) and they kinda only work if you are a serious reader. JF takes literature and nursery rhymes and turns them on their head. His Thursday Next series follows a literary detective, who can literally jump into books, as she attempts to save the Book World from evil. He also writes a Nursery Crimes series where the murders of Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks are solved by Jack Spratt and that contrary Mary Mary, with the psychotic Gingerbread man as the prime suspect.

Man! Now I totally want to go to London...

2 comments:

Liz said...

I would totally see Swell Season! (But Irish is not British!!! (At least not anymore. (As long as they're not from the North. (And then it's still debateable)))).

Red said...

I know. That's why I said they'd probably be mad at me for including them, but I can't be too bothered about it...as I'm English and like to imagine the Irish are part of the UK...and our once expansive empire.

Anywho, we should totally go to The Swell Season.

And nice use of parentheses :)