Winter in TV-land

Have you ever noticed that it’s always winter in TV shows set in London or Chicago or New York? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of my various favourite shows in which the characters aren’t wearing jackets and often scarves and beanies as well. By contrast I don’t remember the male characters in t-shirts or the females in sun-dresses.

I’m up to Season 23 in my current favourite binge-watching show, Silent Witness, set in the UK, and I think I’ve never seen the lead characters outside without their coats.

And shifting the focus somewhat, have you also noticed that the main characters in any show you’ve ever watched never have trouble finding a parking space when they’re on the prowl or on the hunt? This compares with the number of times I’ve ever had a parking spot fall in my lap, so to speak.

It also struck me recently that houses in London all appear to have mail slots in the front doors, good for poking things in or shouting through. We have post boxes instead.

British shows always have a relatively high proportion of Black African or Caribbean actors as well as those from the sub-continent – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – who are mysteriously called “Asian”. Yet 86% of the British and Northern Irish population is white-ish with only 7.5 Asian and 16.3 Black with an added 1.6 “mixed”. Incidentally only 1.1% of the population is Jewish – in Australia we’re 0.5 % and falling.

And the most interesting observation I’ve made over a year or more of binge-watching British shows is that there are only 43 actors in Britain. They keep turning up over and over again from one series to another prompting one to exclaim with recognition: “Oh, that’s the guy from Downton Abbey” or “She was in Bridgerton” or “I recognise her from Spooks”.

If your preferred streaming service doesn’t allow you to skip it, it’s fascinating to see the names of the various people who work on a TV show. My favourite is “Best Boy”. Then there’s Gaffer, Focus Puller, Clapper Loader (I think I’d like to be one of these) and Standby Props. Is that a second-best Props person? In which case what is a Dressing Props? Production Runner is a little mysterious especially as there’s also a Floor Runner. And then, of course, there’s the Grip; one must ask what it is that he/she grips.

Back to fancy phrases and loopy words which we’ve been accumulating this year. We should put “fall in my lap” (as above) on the list and there’s also “no rhyme nor reason” which I’ve come across recently, although this one is almost understandable. Then there’s the expression “white elephant”. It should mean something very unlikely to be seen; instead it’s used for bric-a-brac, another interesting phrase, like the White Elephant stall at a market.

Where does “dribs and drabs” come from? And why is everything “fine and dandy”?

More to come – from you, I hope!

 

Quote of the week from Chambers Dictionary of Modern Quotations:

US film director Billy Wilder on actor Cliff Osmond: “He has Van Gogh’s ear for music”.