Saturday, January 16, 2010

All Law and Order - All The Time

In our small Edinburgh flat we have a tiny television in our bedroom with basic Scottish cable. I was feeling a little slow on Friday afternoon so David offered to go out and pick up a traditional Scottish Friday night curry for dinner while I crawled under the duvet and turned on the telly. After determining which of the three remotes controlled the channels, I propped myself up with four pillows and started surfing.

Ah, a channel guide - ouch, starting at 100 and going to 800. Fortunately we only get about 20% of the available channels and none over 300. As I scrolled through I noticed old British television favorites on the G.O.L.D channel. These are obviously targeted at old farts who enjoy Hyacinth Bucket and an overdose of a young David Jason. ( I can never remember if he played the fool or the horse. ) Unfortunately, my favorite old comedy, As Time Goes By with Judy Dench isn’t available in our package so Lionel will have to search for his custard tarts without me (After much searching here, David has been thrilled to find custard tarts at our local market to have with his tea each afternoon.)

There are several all food networks but I had missed the last episode of Ready, Steady Cook for this week. I must live without seeing handsome and charming Ainsley Harriot with his wonderful Caribbean accent until at least Monday. And no new recipe ideas for the weekend. Somewhere there is a photo of Ainsley picking me up in the air along with Nick Nairn when I went to a filming of the show in 2004 with my 50th birthday friends.

Surfing continues and Then, There it was - Law and Order. I laughed out loud. Not only was the original series available at 5, it was followed by SVU at 6, Criminal Intent at 7, the classic show again at 8 and on and on all night long. That confirms it.

I believe if you turn on any television in any country in the world at any time you can find an episode of Law and Order.

For example, in Mexico, all three series were available every day in English with Spanish subtitles and dubbed in Spanish on another channel. In France, Benson and Stabler parle(d) Francais.

After a few minutes there was a commercial for this weekend’s Law and Order marathon, the first in a series of similar weekends designed to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary. Over the next three months - THREE MONTHS - every episode will be shown as viewers vote to select the very best of the L&O detectives. (Duh, Lenny Briscoe)
Again, validation of my theory. You just gotta love the exportation of great American culture. I wonder if there are Gaelic subtitles in the north or if some network in the west of Scotland is dubbing the shows in Glaswegian.

I watched Hugh Laurie and then later, Stephen Frye. In English.

Duuhn!! Duuhn!!

2 comments:

  1. Sadly, the cable package does not allow us to get -- Are you ready? -- Law and Order UK.

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  2. Ciel - I think you've made an incredibly valid point: "I believe if you turn on any television in any country in the world at any time you can find an episode of Law and Order." No question.

    ReplyDelete