Changing Rooms, Ground Force, Coupling

Ground force / Changing Rooms Specials

A trio of BBC America premiers this past week brought expanded editions of two of our favorite home & garden style shows. I'm ashamed to admit I mis-programmed Tivo and missed the third new special Changing, Rooms Changing Places but here are my brief thoughts on the two I did manage to see.

From the inside of the house, or ship in this case, there was When Changing Rooms Met the Navy , a surprisingly enjoyable and light hearted effort. Carol Smillie, "Handy" Andy Kane and designers Linda Barker and Anna Ryder Richardson hopped on board a British naval vessel and turned one of the "boys" messes into a fifties style American diner and the "girls" mess into an Austin Powers style disco, with the help of two pairs of willing sailors of course. The special was a refreshing change from the usual suburban setting with good-natured humor and a crisp pace enlivening the whole affair.

Outside in the back garden, Ground Force Goes Air Force is not quite the same change of pace as the Changing Rooms special. The Air Force here is represented by an officer calling in the Ground Force crew to surprise his wife with a makeover of their base housing backyard. Charlie gets to fly in a fighter and the base commander stops by but other than that this is simply an extra-long outing by the tea,. Luckily we love Ground Force and while I feel for them this time, the Welsh weather gave the series the worst rain in it's entire run, it was great fun to watch.

Hopefully someday BBC America will pick up the Ground Force Goes East special shot in India or the Comic Relief send-up, featuring the casts of a number of popular series, Naked Red Nose Ground Force in Practice. (April Fools Day would be perfect for the latter - in fact any Comic Releif programming would be hugely welcome!)

Spend Valentine's Day with Coupling

BBC America offers up a Valentine's marathon of the very naughty and very, very funny sex-com Coupling. Along with ABCs The Job, Coupling is easily the best comedy to hit US airwaves in the past year or so and fans of smart, risque humor are advised to check it out pronto.

News tidbits

Awards: Despite being the center of a raging storm of controversy Chris Morris managed to pick up Broadcast magazine comedy award for the utterly tasteless, but apparently quite funny, Brass Eye special on paedophilia. There's no doubt that Morris is a talented, if slightly twisted, fellow (even his radio DJ spots are cult favorites) but it does come as some surprise to see him rewarded for a program so many found

Go To Page: 1 2