Top of the Pops…
It was 80 years ago (more specifically, 80 years ago last month) that the BBC conducted its first experimental broadcast. In grateful commemoration, Paste has created a list of its favorite BBC TV series. Like any “best of” list it begs for bickering (e.g., while Jools Holland’s wonderful series is included, the honoree of this post’s title is not); but then, that’s the fun– and there’s not a ringer in the bunch.
Check them out– and then add your own– at “The 16 Best BBC TV Shows.”
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As we acknowledge our Anglophilia, we might recall that this was not a banner date for British-American relations in 1774: in response to Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convened at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia.
Colonists had gathered before to protest the Stamp Act (1765) and the Tea Act (1773); indeed, the “Tea Party” (and related acts of violent protest)– “Intolerable Acts” as they were called by Parliament– precipitated the Coercive Acts, which closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The Continental Congress was called to consider a united American resistance to the British… and so it did.
