What are your favourite BRITISH TV programmes (past and present)?  

Oh yes, Robin's Nest and Men Behaving Badly were both great. I agree, I watch the repeats on UK Gold and buy the DVDs of my favourite series too. I am watching Crown Court on DVD at the moment from 1973. The Paramount Comedy Channel has days where it shows George & Mildred, Bless This House, Man About The House, etc. back to back and I watch these a lot.

I have watched Dr Who since I was a child in the 1970s. Do you have a favourite Doctor? Mine are Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Jon Pertwee. The only one I don't like so much is William Hartnell.

Was it a recent show? Do you remember any of the actors in it? I was thinking it might be Demons, but that was on ITV I think.

Yes, Casualty is great, but you're right, it was better a few years ago. We have started buying the earliest series on DVD and those are worth getting. Your special evenings sound great. My husband and I don't have a special meal, but we set aside 1-1.5 hours a night where we sit down together and watch a film or DVD together. At the moment, we are watching Crown Court and James Bond films!

Oh yes, Mr Bean is a very clever and funny programme :-)

I didn't like that one much, though I am a fan of Joanna Lumley and have enjoyed her acting in many other roles over the years.

You have mentioned some great programmes there! Black Adder was excellent, really funny and Rowan Atkinson is a genius in this and in Mr. Bean, such a clever man. We saw him as Fagin in Oliver! on stage in the West End (London) and he was amazing in that too. Yes, Tom Baker was an excellent Doctor Who. Torchwood is excellent too, have you seen Torchwood - Children of Earth? I hope they do more series in the future too. Skins is great, it is filmed in the city I live in (Bristol) and two of my daughters have had small roles in it as extras. I love Survivors and was sad that finished. The Avengers was also excellent and The New Avengers with Joanna Lumley.

What I find interesting is hw US TV tries to copy some British shows and mostly fails terribly. This was the case with Life on Mars where they did not even have the originality to change the name of the town from Hyde to something American. I only saw a few episodes of the British show but it was much better. (They've only just started running Ashes to Ashes on BBC America.) I saw Children of Earth which BBC A ran all in one week. There was talk of making an American version of this possibly with John Barrowman at least appearing early on. This fell through when Fox pulled out, which is probably a good thing since they may a poor version of Dr. Who here. They tried coupling here but it quickly failed because US TV is too prudish and without the sexiness of the English version, there was nothing to the show. Cracker is another show I wish BBC A would rerun since I only saw a few of those episodes. Another older show that was great was Lovejoy and a newer show that ended too soon for me was Robin Hood. Im running on too much.

I have heard similar things about US TV and I think some British shows work because they are British, so don't work if they become too American. I was pleased they decided not to do Torchwood as I don't think it would work either. Did the US version of QueeX As Folk work? I enjoyed the British version of that too.

I think an American Torchwood would lack too many thngs. First, you'd need a character like Capt. Jack and right now there's only one of them. (Torchwood had the luxury of the character being introduced in Dr. Who.) Second you'd need to use the same special effects group which might not be possible. I had hoped that the SyFy channel here might replace Fox in making an American version of Torchwood which at least be better than having Fox involved. The trouble is SyFy already has Sanctuary and Warehouse 13 so an American Torchwood on there would seem a bit like another version of those shows.

Yes, I think they are better just leraving Torchwood to the UK team and hopefully there will be more series soon. I know John Barrowman has been busy filming Desperate Housewives in the US and other things, but he has said he loves being Captain Jack and will always try to make time for filming Torchwood.

I have seen both of those. Stephanie Cole was in Waiting For God and we sometimes see her at the theatre, when we go, as she lives not far from us.

Salut din Anglia! I love Romania, I am very interested in your country because I love gymnastics. I was interested to hear you see Top Gear in your country. We all enjoy that too, especially my 18 year old son, who likes the cars too. I am not interested in cars, but I like the rapport between the three presenters and the humour.

how do you know "salut din Anglia?" who teach you these roumanian words. I am really happy that someone likes Romania. unfortunally there are a lot of people who hate us as they think that we are all gipsys...and because of this I am not proud of being a Roumanian. it is good that you like gymnastic but the bad thing is that, in my country, the gymnastic is dying as there is no interest to promote this sport. politicians are only interested about making money and that's all. I think we now have the worst government ever. anyway, have a great weekend and it was a real pleasure to change some words with you. bye for now...

I have taught myself some Romanian from reading some Romanian articles online, from my online Romanian friends, etc. I love languages and as I want to visit your country one day, I try to learn some words and phrases. I went to the European Gymnastics Championships a few weeks ago and a Romanian man was handing out some postcards of the gymnastics team. I saw it was Romania so I said "Multumesc foarte mult" to him and he was very happy and surprised to find an English woman knew some words of his language! I know the Romanian gymnasts have been suffering from lack of money and some coaches moving to the USA for bigger salaries, but the senior and junior girls are very talented and the Head Coach Nicolae Forminte seems a wonderful man, so I think they will do well. In the European Championships this month, Amelia Racea won the gold medal on the beam!

Yes, Fawlty Towers is an excellent programme and so is Only Fools and Horses! Classic TV!