How to catch the Ashes as an expat

The Ashes began last night and cricket fans everywhere are excited. Resident Aliens out in the USA and elsewhere have a harder time in viewing / listening than those in England or Australia, so I'll share some thoughts just in case they are of use.

The easiest solution to the viewing problem is Willow TV. After our failure to get satellite TV installed at our place with all the trees surrounding us, back in 2006, I was delighted to discover that there is an internet service that is pretty good and constantly getting better. I pay about $150 a year to get Willow TV's coverage online and that gives you pretty much everything -- home and away test series, one-dayers and everything. The quality is not at all bad and constantly getting better. As of this series, they have begun a 1Mbps HQ stream and I had it on for a couple of hours last night without interruption.

There is usually a choice of streams on Willow, so that at the moment you can either get the Aussie coverage (which includes Richie Benaud and Mark Nicholas) or the Sky One coverage (with all the usual suspects). We have our TV set up for it and so we can plug the laptop into it and watch on-screen.

I like a bit of Test Match Special too, though, and this presents an additional challenge. For some reason, they block off access to TMS for international users. Actually, they forgot to do this on day one and I was hopeful that there was no block. But it is back in effect again tonight and will be for the rest of the series. Luckily, there is a solution -- Expat Shield. This is relative newcomer on the scene but I find it quite the best way to access the BBC iPlayer. It's advertisement-funded and you just download it for free and then switch it on when you want to get some UK-based material. As long as you can cope with the ads, it's a great solution, especially for listening to the radio -- it's close to an uninterrupted stream.

The other thing that adds to the expat's listening experience is the TMS Podcast, which is free for all and, of course, compulsory listening. In the build up to the Ashes, there was an excellent series of Times podcasts and I am hoping that there will be more to come. I was pleasantly surprised to see that The Times had made these podcasts available for free given their recent erection of a pay-wall for the much less desirable text content. The Guardian too had a great preview podcast and I am hoping that there will be more to come.

Watching the World Cup in America: the British Expat Experience

Good grief, it's here at last!  The World Cup starts today.  And just how excited am I, on a scale of one to ten?  Need you ask?

This is our second World Cup while living in the U.S.A.  Last time, I talked about World Cup Coverage in the USA and things look quite similar this time.  Here in the US, the coverage is not at all bad.  ESPN and ABC are sharing the coverage, as before.  You can catch every match, and everything is in HD. Quick, easy to see schedules available on the ESPN site.   All good stuff.

One key difference is that this time, England kick off with a match against, of all nations, the U.S.A.  So we had better batten down the hatches and take cover and just hope that we don't have the kind of embarrassment we managed in 1950, when we lost to the USA who at that point were still fielding amateurs.  So on Saturday, at 2.30pm our time, it will be "Come on England!", which is the way that the British say what in American would be "Go England!".

But how do you get the authentic English flavour when you are watching the World Cup in America?  It's not easy.  Being a football fan here is a bit like being a Doctor Who fan here.  It is well known enough for people to know what you are referring to, but not well known enough for anyone to have much in the way of actual conversation about the topic.  True, you might be lucky enough to meet one of the chosen few who loves football (or Doctor Who), but that is a rare treat.  It's a little bit like being a member of a cult.  Those flying the England flag in England are flying it now because they are cheering on England in the World Cup.  No question about it.  Those who are flying the American flag here at the moment are flying it because, well, because they fly it anyway.  The love flying the American flag here.

So to get a little taste of the English flavour of the World Cup in an attempt to feel at least a little connected, here is what we will be doing:

(1) BBC Radio FiveLive is the World Cup station.  I am listening live as I write this post.  I love the buzz.  No substitute. I'll be listening live as much as possible.

(2) Baddiel and Skinner's podcast.  I was delighted to discover this today.  Baddiel and Skinner have made the World Cup in the past, and the European Championships, and their Fantasy Football was a real treat.  Last time, they ran a series of podcasts for The Times which were essential listening.  This time, they are sponsored by Absolute Radio.  Already four are available.  You can guarantee that it will be poignant, insightful and most importantly, absolutely hilarious.

(3) Five Live World Cup Daily.  Clearly, FiveLive's podcast is also going to be essential listening.

(4) The Guardian World Cup Daily will certainly be worth catching.  One preview episode so far.

Of course one of the curious differences about watching the World Cup over here is that all the timings are different.  Those settling down to the England match on Saturday will just have finished watching the latest Doctor Who (The Lodger), which by remarkable planning or remarkable good luck features some football (and Matt Smith did, let us remember, actually play for my team Nottingham Forest back in the day).  They will already have had a beer or two, and it will be getting dark outside.  For us here, it will be early afternoon, with sun blazing and shining through the windows.

For American viewers, at least for those of us over on the east side, the three match times will be breakfast (7.30am), coffee time (10am) and siesta time (2.30pm).  I must admit that I would prefer to be able to settle down in an evening to watch the odd match, but I like the variety.  The breakfast time slot is going to remind me of the Korea / Japan World Cup of 2002 when we were eating our breakfast cereal out of special World Cup cereal bowls -- which we still have.

I suppose one of the big differences this time will be the first Twitter and Facebook World Cup.  No one was on Twitter or Facebook back in 2006.  It's going to be fun to have that added element this time.  And it is going to make any attempt to try to DVR matches to watch later on pretty forlorn.  So I am just going to have to try to catch as much as I can live.

Oh, and of course it will be important to be singing along to some rousing England songs over the coming weeks, with Three Lions the top of the list.  I actually love the new (2010) version:



But of course we'll be listening to snatches of the original too.

I think I might be too excited to go to bed.

Come on England.

Watching the Eurovision Song Contest in America, Doctor Who and BBC America

So how do you watch the Eurovision Song Contest in America?  Well, you don't.  Not on normal American telly channels, at least.  Previous experience suggests that the only way to get it legally is to stream it live over the internet, by going to Eurovision.tv.  In previous years, the quality has been pretty high for an internet stream.  The main downside is a kind of eery silence where the commentary should be -- it is the direct, no-frills stream with no commentary, no phone-numbers to ring.

I have talked about this in the past over on The Americanization of Emily and so won't repeat myself here except to add that I am tempted this year to hold off a bit.  Sitting indoors and watching Eurovision live, with no British commentary, at three in the afternoon, on the first day of summer, when our pool opens tomorrow, does not somehow feel like the fun it once did, all the more so as this year, for the first time since its return, Doctor Who is not going to be cancelled on BBC1 for Eurovision.  Result!

Somewhat bizarrely, BBC America, on the other hand, which does not show Eurovision, is cancelling its showing of Doctor Who tomorrow night and instead showing repeats of previous episodes, so now creating a three-week time-lag compared to the two-week one they began with.  Who is able to explain the mysteries of BBC America?

Watching the Cricket in America

America has very little interest in or knowledge about cricket and cricket lovers like me have to do a little extra work to bring the content into our homes.  This morning, the first English home test match of the summer begins. It is not exactly a thriller, England v. Bangladesh at Lords, but cricket lovers will enjoy it nevertheless, not least because of the joyous Test Match Special, which is streamed live on the website with no lock-down to international users like me, at least for the home tests like this.

But what about watching the Test Matches if you are in America?  There are two legal ways to do this.  One is to get satellite TV.  Direct TV have cornered the market here, but I think you can get hold of cricket on Dish too.  This is not an option for us after the trauma of trying to get satellite installed in order to watch the cricket four years ago, a story detailed on The Americanization of Emily.

The second legal option is the one that I go for: Willow TV.  It's pretty good and it is getting better all the time.  This year it is $150 for all international cricket for the entire year, test matches, one dayers, Twenty20, in all countries.  This is far, far cheaper than the equivalent satellite price, either here or back in England.  It streams at a reasonable quality, similar, say, to watching the BBC iPlayer live.  If you have a good internet connection and router, it will stream without interruption.  They have a choice of different feeds and the one I always go for is the feed that comes directly from Sky, which enables you to watch in wide screen when you plug the laptop into the TV, and which retains all the Sky adverts, which gives the Resident Alien a great taste of home.

One thing I like about Willow is that it is just username and password based, so you can watch on any computer you like, at home or at work (shh!), as long as you don't do anything daft like trying to watch it on two machines at once.  The only disadvantage is that the live feed has a delay of about 15-20 seconds, so you can't really watch it with the sound down while listening to TMS, unless, of course, you would like to hear the commentary first so that you know to pay special attention to the pictures when something really exciting happens.

I should add that I am not on commission here, but mention it because a lot of people do not realize that Willow TV provides such a good solution for the cricket lover out here.  I only discovered it by accident back in 2006.

BBC Election Coverage Continuing the Morning after the night before

Update (Friday, 10.47am): C-SPAN 3 coverage went right through to 10.45am, until BBC1 and BBC Election 2010 online coverage ended. 


Update (Friday, 8am): C-SPAN will resume coverage at 8.30am on C-SPAN 3. In the mean time, watch live here:



Update (Thursday, 8.21pm): C-SPAN moved the coverage over to C-SPAN 1 at 8pm.

The worry is over, at least for those with a good cable package: C-SPAN have just confirmed that they will be broadcasting the BBC Election Night Special on C-SPAN 3:

SIMULCAST OF BBC ELECTION RESULTS

Thursday

The British election is tomorrow, May 6th, and our coverage will include a simulcast of the BBC Election Results starting at 4:55pm ET on C‑SPAN3, comprehensive analysis of the returns from key constituencies, and interviews with leading politicians.

It's good to see that they are beginning coverage at 4.55pm ET, exactly as the BBC coverage begins. I realize that some will be disappointed because they don't have access to C-SPAN 3 on their cable packages, though my guess would be that most people who have BBC America will also have C-SPAN 3, and that should be most of the British expats and Anglophiles over here.   I must admit to being delighted that I will be able to watch the BBC Election coverage live on TV, really delighted.

Update (16.43): Jonathan has now blogged on this too, over at Anglotopia.net, Where to watch the British Election results in the USA on May 6, where he also provides a link to the live election news feed available on the BBC News Channel, which is not locked down to international users, BBC Election 2010, which may be a good source for those who do not have C-SPAN 3 on their cable packages.

C-SPAN show British Party Election Broadcasts

There is no official confirmation yet that C-SPAN will be broadcasting BBC's Election Night tomorrow, but the signs are good.  C-SPAN will release their schedules for tomorrow this evening.  In the mean time, they have added a feature on the British Party Election Broadcasts.  The first of them, the Labour Party one, is of interest to Doctor Who fans because it features Sean Pertwee, son of the third doctor, Jon Pertwee, mentioned at the beginning of the broadcast.  And the voiceover at the end is from tenth doctor, David Tennant.

BBC Election Night to show on C-SPAN?

In my previous post, Where to watch the UK election on Thursday?, I noted that the proper (BBC1) Election Night special would not be airing on BBC America and that the best bet was C-SPAN, who have broadcast all three of the leaders' debates live. With thanks to both David Hendrix and an anonymous commenter, there is some encouraging news in a Huffington Post article by Martin Lewis, UK Election: Conservatives Poised to give Britain a Good Flocking. The piece of interest is the following:

I just heard from a good pal at C-Span that C-Span will be presenting a feed of BBC TV's election night coverage. The reason this is not showing on the C-Span schedule pages yet is because they have not yet determined which of their three channels (C-Span 1, 2 or 3) will be used for the coverage. As soon as I hear more - I will post it here.

Lewis speculates that the coverage will begin with the British coverage, 10pm (5pm ET) and go through the night. As I mentioned previously, C-SPAN only update their schedules a day in advance so it may be a little before we have confirmation, but it is very good news that we may be able to watch the proper BBC election night coverage.

Update (23.32): confirmed by japascot on Twitter.

Where to watch the UK Election on Thursday?

Well, the third of the leaders' debates is now over and there are only a few days left of campaigning before polling day on Thursday.  I'm an election junkie and always look forward to election night.  I'm a stay-up-all-night person and have been since 1987.  (I stayed up a bit in 83, but I was doing my 'O' Levels, so couldn't pull an all-nighter.)  This one is clearly going to be a cracker, the most interesting since 1997, perhaps the closest since 1992.  One of the things that I am looking forward to this time is being five hours behind, which means that all the juicy stuff should start happening long before the middle of the night.  So I've blanked out Thursday evening and night in my diary, I have got the beers in, and soon I will have everything ready for the toasted sandwiches, the traditional food of election night, at least in my house.

But there is a concern.  Where will I be able to watch it?  It is, of course, compulsory to watch Election Night on the BBC, with David Dimbleby and all.  There is simply no competition, and Dimbers is the only choice.  I had imagined that BBC America would be carrying the BBC1 coverage all the way through.  For the American presidential election, they did take the BBC coverage.  As of now, though, their schedule for Thursday just lists all the usual rubbish, Gordon Ramsay and the rest.  I wrote to BBC America about this and received the following reply:

BBC America is committed to providing the most honest, objective and straightforward news coverage from around the world. We are pleased to let you know that on May 6th 2010, the date of the UK General Election, the channel will present a special edition of BBC World News America focusing on all of the twists and turns of the day’s events, from across the party spectrum.

Unfortunately, this does not tell us anything much, unless the "special edition" of BBC World News America is in fact the live broadcast of the election coverage from the UK.

I have also asked C-SPAN if they are planning to carry some coverage direct from the UK since they have been the best of all the channels to this point in covering the election, e.g. they have broadcast all three of the leaders' debates live on C-SPAN 3.  I have not yet heard back from them, and they only update their schedules about twenty-four hours in advance.

I hope it won't have to be a case of plugging the laptop into the telly and streaming over the internet.

More as soon as I have it.

Update (Saturday, 14.23): More from BBC America in response to my wallpost on Facebook:

On May 6 at 7pm et/pt there will be special election coverage on BBC America's program BBC World News America. As the count begins to come in Matt presents a special Election Day program from the BBC’s Television Centre in London with Katty Kay in Washington DC. There will also be online coverage, which we will post about when there are more details.

I am afraid that this is bad news, for several reasons: (1) This confirms that BBC America are not showing the main BBC1 / BBC News feed from England. (2) They are not starting coverage until 7pm.  Coverage should start at 5pm (10pm British time). (3) There is no indication how long the coverage will last for.  The schedule has not changed on the BBC America site, so it looks like the "special election coverage" is not going to be lengthy, unless there are schedule changes to come.

So it looks like we may need to hope for C-SPAN, or go online.

Update (Sunday, 14.20): David Hendrix writes:

In past UK elections (certainly 2001 & 2005), C-Span HAS presented a live stream of BBC's election night coverage. Don't know why their website shows no listings yet for Thursday. As their UK debate coverage has been good I expect them to again carry the BBC feed.

It is no good trying to watch BBC coverage on the BBC website because the BBC iplayer detects if your IP address is outside the UK - and prevents US-based computers from getting the signal

However - the SKY TV website will probably be streaming their TV feed. If you can stand Adam Boulting's smirk...

David is right about the iPlayer. It will only work over here if you've found a good VPN or some other means of accessing it. Nevertheless, I am wondering whether the BBC will stream their election coverage from the website, as they did for the third leaders' debate. But that might be hoping too much. It is good to hear about the Sky possibility, and also to hear about the C-SPAN coverage last time. They have really come up trumps on this campaign so far, the only channel to carry all three leaders' debates live over here. I have emailed them to find out if they are planning to carry the BBC coverage this time too. Well, we should know by Wednesday evening, at the latest, when they update their schedules.

Update (Monday, 22.28): More news: BBC Election Night to show on C-SPAN?

UK Election: the Third and Final Leaders' Debate

In the aftermath of bigotgate, tonight's leaders' debate is looking all the more interesting.  If you are wondering where to find the third and final leaders' debate on US TV, the good news is that once again C-SPAN have stepped up to the plate.  Their 2010 British Election Debate page has this morning been updated to announce that the debate will be aired live on C-SPAN 3, also live on their website.

On the previous two occasions, ITV and Sky also made the debates available online live for international viewers.  It is not clear at this point whether the BBC will retain the usual lock-out to international users, so online viewers will be best off following it either on the C-SPAN stream or on CNN (CNN UK Election blog).   CNN are planning to stream the third debate -- see Live UK Debate Coverage on CNN. Those with CNN International will be able to catch it on that TV channel too.

For following along live on the net, I'd also recommend The Guardian's General Election Live blog.  They have been right on top of all the developments, and it is packed with interesting comment.

The debate is all the more interesting to me since it is located at the University of Birmingham, my former employer, where I spent a happy decade.  It's been nice to see the pictures and news coverage from there.  The debate takes place in the Great Hall, where the graduation ceremonies take place every July.

UK Election: the Second Leaders' Debate

Well, who would have thought that the first of the Leaders' Debates would have been such an event, and that it would have made such an impact on the campaign? With the big surge for the Lib Dems following on from Nick Clegg's performance in the debate last week, all the more attention is focused on the second of the debates this Thursday at 8pm (British Summer Time).

Last week, I was delighted to hear from C-SPAN here on the Resident Alien blog that they were to be broadcasting the first of the leaders' debates live.  I followed the debate first online, via their live stream, and then when I got home on DVR from the C-SPAN 3 channel.  If you missed it, it is still available on ITV's Youtube Channel, and it is not locked down for international users.  But what of the second leaders' debate in the US?

There is no news yet from C-SPAN about whether they will be broadcasting it live, but we'll be keeping an eye out on their 2010 British Election page for updates and will report here as soon as there is any news.  C-SPAN are promising to show the recorded version next Sunday at 9pm ET.

The broadcasters for this second debate are Sky News and it looks like it will be possible to access their coverage live on the net via Sky News online, though it is not certain yet whether they will lock it down to international users.  Some details are available at Where to Watch the Sky News Leaders Debate, though this is aimed mainly at UK-based British users.

UK Election: Leaders' Debates' USA Coverage Update

I blogged yesterday on British Election Coverage in the USA: the leaders' debates and I am happy to add now an update from Jeremy at C-SPAN, who offered this comment in my post:

I wanted to let you know that the first of these British debates, between Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative Leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg, will be shown LIVE on C-SPAN3.

Here’s the link to our webpage on the 2010 British Elections, along with a link to our LIVE stream of C-SPAN3. Be sure to check the website in the coming weeks for information on further coverage of the debates.

I'd like to thank Jeremy for letting me know this good news, and I am delighted to hear that the first of the debates is going out live.  Let's hope that the other two will go out live too.  Since I am at work, I am setting the DVR at home for this one, and will be trying to catch some of the livestream while at work.  Down our way, C-SPAN 3 is Channel 120.  You can watch it live online here: C-SPAN Live Stream, or after the event here: C-SPAN 3. The event is also covered on the front of C-SPAN's homepage.

British Election Coverage in the USA: the leaders' debates

I asked some questions last week about British General Election Coverage in America. After digging around a bit, I have a bit more now on the question of how expats will be able to access the first ever televised leaders' debates. As I predicted, C-SPAN are planning to air all three debates, but the bad news is that they are not airing them live, nor even on the same day. They have announced the following schedule:

Sunday April 18 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET
Sunday April 25 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET
Sunday May 2 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET

So if you want to catch them live, it looks like it is going to be the internet or nothing. As it happens, I'll be at work and in meetings so I probably will only catch some of it online anyway. It's not yet completely clear to me whether international viewers will be able to watch the live stream of this one, but it looks like it is a possibility:

ITV: The First Election Debate, Thursday 15 April, 8.30pm

My guess is that the live stream will be available to international viewers, unlike content in the ITV Player. It is certainly the case that it will be available to international viewers after the event, via ITV1's Youtube Channel, since this is mentioned in their press release.

Meanwhile, on the podcasting front, the Guardian Election Daily Podcast and Radio 4's Vote Now Show are already daily essentials. What with all the Doctor Who podcasts to listen to at the moment, there are hardly enough travelling and houseworking hours in the day to keep up.

Update (Thursday): the first debate is to go out live on C-SPAN 3 -- details here.

British General Election Coverage in America?

With the General Election called this week for 6 May, I have begun to wonder what kind of coverage there will be for British expats in America.  It's my first British election since moving to America so I have no direct experience.  Of course we will continue to consume most of the election news via the internet, with the BBC Election 2010 and the Guardian Election 2010 websites the two places I will be visiting most often, all the more so this time with The Guardian promising a daily election podcast beginning next week.

But what about TV coverage here?  Election day itself will almost certainly be covered live on BBC America, though they don't have anything on their schedules yet.  Usually they will take the BBC1 feed on important occasions like this.  One of the interesting elements here is going to be the timeshift.  Since 1987, I have always been an all-nighter when it comes to General Elections, but here in North Carolina, I should be tuning in for David Dimbleby at around 5pm instead of 10.  In fact by 10pm here, we should have a good idea already about how things are shaping up.

There is one uncertainty at the moment and that is whether any of the American channels will take the leader debates, happening this year for the third time.  I've taken a look at the BBC America schedule for the first, next Thursday, but there is no sign of it there.  The best bet might be C-SPAN, which takes Prime Ministers' Questions live every Wednesday morning at 7am our time.  And this week, after the last of the PMQs for this parliament, they broadcast the previous evening's election special edition of Newsnight.  In fact, C-SPAN might be a good bet for live election coverage on May 6th too.

More notes and comments here when I have more.  And if you know more, please feel free to comment.

Why not open up the iPlayer for International Users on Red Nose Day?

Tomorrow, Friday March 13, is Red Nose Day in the UK. Here's a thought. For British expats, the inaccessibility of the BBC TV iPlayer is something of a bête noire (I have talked about it here), so much so that many have found what are known as "other means" of accessing it. The BBC could use this occasion to earn a little extra money for Comic Relief. And so, why not, just for tomorrow, relax the restrictions on internationals accessing the iPlayer? The BBC could use it as a chance to find out what the demand would be like while at the same time benefiting charity. It could be a first step towards the kind of subscription-based service for the iPlayer for internationals.

Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009)

I was sorry to hear today of the death of Patrick McGoohan. I have followed his career with interest ever since first catching The Prisoner in its 1984 re-run on Channel 4. As children, and for some years afterwards, we used to holiday in Portmeirion where The Prisoner was filmed back in 1966. On several occasions, my brother and I attended the Six of One conventions there. The Prisoner, starring McGoohan, sometimes written and directed by him too, is without question one of the greatest TV series of all time. To an extent its cult success has obscured the McGoohan's many other roles. I used to sneak off to my college room in the mid-80s to catch Channel 4's re-runs of Danger Man, the spy drama that made McGoohan famous in the 1960s, in the role of John Drake. I remember with fondness his several appearances in one of my other favourite TV series of all time, Columbo, most recently in one of the final episodes to have aired, Ashes to Ashes (1998), featuring his daughter Catherine, and which McGoohan directed.

There are already several detailed and interesting obituaries, including The Times, The Guardian (with more in their TV Blog) and The Telegraph. Portmeirion itself mourns his death and the fansites have their tributes, Six of One (with a recent photograph given to the society by the family), which includes a lengthy obituary (PDF) penned by Roger Langley, McGoohan's biographer. See also The Unmutual, which is gathering tributes, and a delightful series of reflections that parallel my memories on Stuff on TV by Cameron McEwan.

Update (22.40): Although he wouldn't remember us, we met Mitch (then Mitchell) Benn at his first and subsequent two or three Prisoner conventions in Portmeirion. We were quiet, passive participants; Mitchell and the "Liverpool group" were brash, loud, ultimately very funny participants. I remember the Liverpool group's parody of "The Two Ronnies" sketch in which Ronnie Barker's speciality is answering the next question. One of the answers in this quiz was "Mitchell bloody-know-it-all Benn" to paroxysms of laughter, and a withering look at the audience from Benn that made you think, "This bloke is pretty funny". Well, I mention these reflections from over twenty years ago because the comedian Mitch Benn looks back on those days of his "hardcore nerdment" on his blog:

So reading of Ol' Paddy McGoo's passing hits home, 'cos it kind of feels like a big chunk of my adolescence has gone with him.

RIP/BCNU...

Watching Wimbledon in America

A couple of years ago, during our first summer in America, Viola and I both talked about our experience of watching Wimbledon here (Wimbledon and How to cope without British TV and Radio: Wimbledon Supplement). On the watching front, things are greatly improved since then. In fact, the coverage is excellent. We can watch the whole of every day's play in glorious high definition, alternating between NBC and ESPN2, even if the latter has an annoying ticker-tape thing that goes across the bottom of the screen the entire time, much of the time with incomprehensible material, in some kind of code, apparently concerning things happening in American sport about which we could not be less interested. The commentary is pretty good. We get a little bit of John McEnroe, but he is being paid more by the BBC, so Patrick McEnroe does much more here. Pam Shriver is great, and provides a bit of continuity for expats used to watching Wimbledon in England -- she was always a major feature of the BBC coverage in the past.

The oddest thing about watching Wimbledon here is being five hours behind. After three years here, this still takes some getting used to. At the moment, I get up and Wimbledon is already on while I am making a pot of tea. It's like it was back in World Cup 2002 (Korea and Japan) when we were watching football with our breakfast. Through the glories of the DVR, though, I have been able to delay watching until later in the day, so that the timing feels a bit more normal, and this has the added advantage of allowing the fast-forwarding of the endless ad-breaks. (People can criticize the BBC all they like, but try watching Wimbledon for a sustained period in the USA and its endless, endless bombarding of adverts, and it leaves you longing for the Beeb).

Of course one also misses the prioritizing of the few British hopes. In the first week we got very little of any of the Brits. But all that changed yesterday, at about 3pm our time, 8pm in England, as Andy Murray began a remarkable comeback in his fourth round match, turning around a two-sets down, 5-4 deficit, to win the third set on a tie-break, and then go on to win in five sets by about 9.30pm in England, 4.30pm here. We found ourselves wondering whether all the programmes on the Beeb had been delayed because of the excitement of Murray doing so well. And I could hardly believe how bright it still was at 9 in the evening. It's pitch dark here by then.

Suddenly, ESPN were all British enthusiasts and Sue Mott in the studio was going crazy. And there was a great moment earlier when Pam Shriver, sitting on Henman hill, interviewed a Scottish fan, while another painted a Scottish flag on her right cheek, with Pam pretending not to notice.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), we watch Murray losing to Nadal in the quarter finals. But at least well be able to watch him losing in high definition.

Expat Eurovision and other Memorial weekend activities

In the UK, the schools are on half-term. You are conscious of it out here in the States; people aren't around when you phone them; the usual presenters of radio programmes are on holiday and the stand-ins take over; and there were no PMQs on Wednesday (something of a mercy, one might say). We get a little snippet of the same sort of thing in the US in that Monday, Spring Bank Holiday in the UK, was Memorial Day in the US. The kids were off school and we enjoyed our first Memorial day "cook out" just round the corner. American English "cook out" = British English "barbecue". Very much the same kind of thing except that it is much warmer here. In fact the whole weekend is "Memorial Day weekend", a bit like Spring Bank Holiday weekend in the UK -- sales everywhere, a holiday atmosphere, and the major programmes take a break, no new Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica on SciFi channel, for example.

It's odd being a British expat on weekends like this, all the more so when it's Eurovision. It's become a bit of an annual tradition in our family to watch the Eurovision Song Contest live on the Saturday afternoon and Viola and I have talked about it over the last couple of years (Eurovision Song Contest on The Americanization of Emily). It was the same this year, the weirdness of watching an evening event live at 3pm, the oddity of a great internet stream with no commentary from Terry Wogan, ploughing through all those turgid songs waiting to get to the scoring, which is, after all, the only reason one watches it. But however much of a waste of time it might seem, at least one is only wasting a Saturday afternoon -- and one can still go out on a Saturday night.

The scoring is ever more predictable, and the UK coming right at the bottom is getting a bit less funny now (we were in the bottom three, equal, this year) and I had to Youtube to find out what Tezza had been saying and was sorry to see that he seems pretty depressed about the whole thing. I mean, the whole point of watching is to smile-and-whinge along with Wogan. But here he is lamenting the way the voting has turned out and it's not funny anymore:



"You have to say that this is no longer a music contest". He is not smiling anymore. Perhaps we Brits just felt it keenly because Eurovision means no Doctor Who, which now takes a mid-series break for Eurovision Saturday, so we are all in a grump because we have an extra week to wait for Doctor Who to take everything up a notch. Actually, this is probably no bad thing. The idea of the Eurovision break began last year, just before the Paul Cornell Human Nature two parter, and they showed a kind of mid-series trailer at the end of "42", the week before Eurovision. This year, the trailer has a whole new status; Doctor Who is so big that it gets a trailer advertised as part of the BBC1 schedule. I must admit that I watched it straight away. Here's a Youtube version:



Exciting stuff. Given that the mid-series trailer withheld the most exciting (Whogasm) moment of the series last time, let's hope there is something similarly fantastic this series.

But I was supposed to be talking about how crap Eurovision was and not about how much I am enjoying Doctor Who. Here's a funny post on SFX that combines both:

TV REVIEW: Doctor Who 4.8 ***SPOILER FREE***

Since the introduction of the “Doctor-less episodes”, we’ve come to expect the unexpected from the new series, but this latest format-bending adventure was an experiment too far.

Okay, it was entertaining to see a musical episode of the series, but Buffy did this years ago! It’s just another shameless example of the production team ripping off Joss Whedon, right? . . .

But for a real commentary on the bizarre phenomenon of Eurovision, The Guardian takes some beating:

Watch with . . . Eurovision 2008

Meanwhile, we might not have half-term hilidays here, but the kids only have a few days' school left, so they are not complaining.

How good is British TV at the moment?

News of the anticipated end of the WGA (writers guild of America) strike finally came this week, and I suppose I am looking forward to the resumption of some of those series that have been off the air, especially Chuck and Desperate Housewives (I wish they'd renew Bionic Woman -- we were fans). But I don't think it's affected us as much as it has most because there is so much good stuff on British TV at the moment, especially in the second half of each week. First we get Torchwood on Wednesday nights, and this week was a double, even a triple treat. There were back to back episodes for the first time, on BBC2 and BBC3, they were probably the best two yet, and the second of the two, Reset, marked the very welcome re-introduction of Martha Jones to the Whoniverse; here's the trailer, with Martha at the end:



In the episode, did you notice Martha's theme (from Doctor Who) playing in the background? And what was Jim Robinson from Neighbours (Alan Dale) doing in this episode? First we had Kylie, and now her Dad! He gets around a bit -- he was the Vice President in one of the series of 24 (the second?).

Then on Thursdays, it is Ashes to Ashes. Two episodes in and I am already enjoying it as much as Life on Mars. It's fabulous. One of my favourite lines so far was Gene Hunt's "Sorry, come again, I don't speak Hindustani". One possible anachronism last night: Alex Drake used her remote control to find four channels, the first of which was clearly BBC1, the second BBC2, the third presumably ITV, but the fourth? Channel 4 was not launched until 1982, a year later. But perhaps anachronisms don't matter in this universe since, after all, she keeps talking about this as her own construct.

Friday's treat for us is the double-bill of Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach, already compulsive viewing, and perhaps the only way I was ever going to find myself watching a regular soap, one which only makes sense with the comedy that comes straight before it. Actually, come to think of it, I did watch one episode of another soap recently, the Alan Bennett-style episode of Eastenders featuring the brilliant monologue from Dot Cotton (June Brown). I heard a feature on it on Front Row on Radio 4, which is what made me watch this one, and it was great.

Oh, and tomorrow, it is Paul Cornell's episode of Primeval, which should be well worth watching. It's a fun series, and I'd be surprised if this episode doesn't turn out to be the best yet since Cornell's episodes of Doctor Who are among the best ever.

So we're coping fine with the limited menu of American TV at the moment. Apparently DVD sales and rentals and computer game sales and rentals have gone up during the WGA strike. But for us, it's a case of tuning into the Beeb, ITV and Channel 4, and there is plenty there to keep us happy.

More Christmas BBC One Previews

More from Youtube for those of us who don't catch these things in our daily viewing, e.g. because we don't live in England anymore. First, a teaser trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas special. Only nine seconds, but still long enough to feature a spoiler:



And this forty second trailer focuses on comedy highlights. I am looking forward to Extras and Catherine Tate, both of which make appearances here:



I have heard elsewhere that this is to be the last of the Catherine Tate sketch shows for the foreseeable future, perhaps not surprising given her new life on the TARDIS.

BBC One Christmas Preview

One of the signs that Christmas is getting near is when you happen to catch the first Christmas TV preview. It's always an exciting moment; there's something about it that recaptures your childhood memories of Christmas TV. Living in the USA, there is no chance, of course, of catching it while watching other things on telly. But due to the glories of Youtube, British expats can share the anticipation too. BBC One's first Christmas preview, a minute or so long, appeared this weekend. And of course the Doctor Who Christmas special features in there, among other things of interest: