Sally Lockhart's Victorian London on PBS

American Public Television, Where The Sun Never Sets on The British Empire. I fell in love with London by watching PBS. Sally Lockhart was recently on Masterpiece Theater.

Sally Lockhart is a remarkable young woman with extraordinary strength and determination. Her upbringing was rather eccentric. Her father taught her all about book-keeping, how to fire a pistol, and how to speak Hindustani like a native. With these tools at her disposal, Sally Lockhart is ready to solve mysteries and right wrongs in the man's world of Victorian London.

The Ruby in The Smoke and The Shadow of The North were recently aired on PBS and I loved them both. Billie Piper of Dr Who fame does a wonderful job of being a strong woman in a time when women were not supposed to be strong. The supporting cast of stars is brilliant as well.

There are four books in the Phillip Pullman Sally Lockhart series and all four novels are being adapted into a TV Movie by BBC Drama for television and broadcast on BBC One-according to Wikipedia. Billie Piper is almost too pretty to be a Victorian, but I do like the way she looks in her long dresses and occasional posh hat.

One of the interesting bits of business in the Sally Lockhart stories is the issue of race. In America were all about the skin color, though not so much as we once were. So it is a bit strange to see an interracial marriage celebrated and a black man who is a Minister. The crux of the problem in the Ruby in the Smoke was an English woman having a one night stand with an Indian Maharajah-who was not a very nice fellow. There is also a Medium who is a black woman with an important part in the plot of The Shadow in the North. Were race relations really all that much sweetness and sunshine in London in the time of Queen Victoria?

Whatever the case in the real world, the world of Sally Lockhart and her adventures in Victorian London are fun to watch and I look forward to the next installment. My only real complaint was how the story seemed to jump by leaps and bounds between the two shows. There seemed to be a lot of changes and not a lot of explanations as to why. I might have to read the books one of these days and see what they have to say about it all.

The London Silly Nannies

Now that American Football is back in full swing I thought I should take a moment to reflect of that Great London Football Team-The Silly Nannies. This less than manly team showed up in Season 4 of Family Guy-a show will little love for anything British. Family Guy has been aired on BBC 3 and I wonder how the London audience feels about it. It's a silly show with a lot of American Baby Boomer references-do they have a British version of Family Guy? The guy who played Onslow on Keeping Up Appearances would be a good fit for the part.

A few of my friends are absolutely crazy about Family Guy and can quote entire episodes. It's the kind of love that should only be reserved for shows like Star Trek or Monty Python. Well, it's not that great, but then, it's not all that bad either. Except for the London Silly Nannies.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Ok, Botswana is pretty far from London-unless you happened to watch The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on BBC. Sydney Pollock died the other day, a great loss to the entertainment industry. As I was looking over his recent credits, I found that he was a Producer of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Since I am a great fan of the BBC and Sydney Pollock I decided to give it a look. No real surprise that it was great stuff.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the story of Precious Ramotswe and her quest to open the first Woman's Detective Agency in Botswana. There are not great building like you find in London, though there is a lot of traffic in the city that Precious settles into to open her business.

There are funny bits and serious bits and all kinds of silliness. I laughed, I cried, etc etc etc. This was a fun show. The accents are a bit thick at times, but the usual Detective story ploy of sometimes silly names helped me feel at home in the wild and open African landscape. One character is named Happy, our hero is named Precious and a night club is called the Hansom Man Bar. The actors are good looking and have very white teeth.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was the first book by Alexander McCall Smith to feature Precious Ramotswe-there are currently nine books in the series. I don't know if the BBC is going bring all nine books to the London airwaves, but I certainly hope that they will.

I know, London has all kinds of things to do and see, why sit around and watch the telly? Because it's some of the best telly in the world, that's why. I love the new Dr Who, I'm a huge fan of the Disc World films, and I watch a ton of BBC stuff on Masterpeice Theater on PBS.

And while I don't watch nearly as much telly as I used-it is something to do after that hard day of using the London Pass to have another great day out.