BBC America in April / Battle of the Britcoms Second SemiFinal

Also of interest to Brit-Mystery fans this month are Diana Rigg in the 1920's set Mrs. Bradley Mysteries. Helena Bonham Carter in Ruth Rendall's (writing as Barbara Vine) A Dark Adapted Eye, and the disappointing but still relatively effective Bright Hair which features a remarkable performance by the up and coming young actress Emilia Fox.

Comedy

Along with the standard fare of such classics as Are You Being Served, Blackadder, Dad's Army and Some Mother's Do 'Ave  'Em , BBC America also airs some great comedy that's never been shown in the US before.

Harry Enfield and Chums and Brilliant (known back home as The Fast Show) are two of the best sketch comedy shows of the past decade. Both Enfield and Brilliant brain Paul Whitehouse deserve to be as well know and loved here as they are back home. (Harry Enfield and Chums / The Fast Show)

Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge features Steve Coogan as the arrogant, brainless talk show host Alan Partridge. Coogan is famous for becoming totally absorbed in his characters and the result  is a performance  that needs to be seen top be appreciated. And, unlike most American comedies, you never know what's going to happen on Knowing Me, Knowing You, especially in the last episode of a series.

Fans of Are You Being Served's Mr. Humphies (John Inman), or Carry On's Kenneth Williams know the comedic power of camp and are sure to love All Rise for Julian Clary in which the out and about Clary presides over a court room unlike any you've seen before. (Julian Clary - Lycra Free Zone)

Drama

This Life: I was fully prepared to hate this show. The promo blurbs made it sound like an unpleasant mixture of LA Law, Melrose Place and The Real World. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by the quality of this drama series chronicling the exploits of a group of lovely-to-look-at twenty-something lawyers. While it is, as one might expect, a tad on the shallow side and the camera work's a bit too obviously cutting edge, it does have a nice sense of humor and, as I mentioned, they are lovely to look at.

For more traditional British Drama tune it to a pair of classic period min-series. Glenda Jackson is the titular monarch in Elizabeth R and Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard star in the hugely popular The House of Eliot.

Battle of the Britcoms Second SemiFinal

Blackadder, Dad's Army, One Foot in the Grave,Only Fools and Horses, and The Young Ones have made it this

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