Joe Merone wrote:
>
> Barry Fox wrote:
>
> >Fellow SOLs:
> >Hate to bomb the entire list with this, but it does have large
> >"B" content and this is a logical place.
> >My wife and I are planning a trip to England in the near future.
> >We would like very much to visit some of the sites used in
> >various Masterpiece Theater/Mystery episodes. Particularly
> >1. Brideshead Revisited estate
> >2. Duchess of Duke Street hotel (probably gone by now)
> >3. Hercule Poirot's apartment building
> >4. The village where Miss Marple is filmed
> >5. Sherlock Holmes sites (is it actually Baker St?)
> >6. Upstairs/Downstairs site
>
> >If anyone can furnish street addresses/towns for these or any
> >others we will be forever in your collective debt.
>
> >Cheers,
> >Barry W. Fox 65 TR4A CT51681L
> >W1HFN
>
> Barry,
>
> FInally a chance to combine my life's work and my life's passion. I've been
> working for a PBS affiliate for over 17 years and have been a Triumph owner
> for 12. I've got our crack staff here at Vermont ETV working on your
> questions right now. They're digging up old tapes and calling long lost
> producers who have now gone on to more lucrative assignments. I'll report
> back to you... and anyone else interested early next week unless one of our
> bretheren from across the pond checks in with the answers.
>
> Joe Merone
> Senior Producer, Vermont ETV
> CF 18928
Gosh, and I thought we Brits were quaint! Good luck with your search;
but while you're visiting the Home of Free Speech, why not take time to
take a look at some real history? It just oozes from every street
corner. London's latest attractions include a reconstruction of
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the South Bank (funded largely by the
efforts of US actor and director Sam Wanamaker, God rest his soul). Take
in the British Museum - its imposing classical proportions will knock
your architectural socks off; go inside to find the world's largest,
most valuable and worst-organised collection of Ancient Egyptian relics.
In fact, half a day in there, and you really get a handle on ancient
civilisations. On Wednesdays, you can go see Prime Minister's Question
Time in the Houses of Parliament - and hear John Major repeat his
mantra: I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the answer I gave a few
moments ago." Ommmmm...
If you're in London in summer, get to Lord's (Tube: St. John's Wood) or
the Oval (Oval) cricket grounds and watch a game - you should have time,
a Test Match lasts five days. And don't worry that you can't understand
the rules; they don't matter. Cricket is about drinking beer and falling
asleep in the sunshine. And don't moan about our beer either. Avoid the
crappy tourist pubs and go for the good brands: Young's, Fullers,
Theakston's, Greene King, Shepherd Neame, King & Barnes. Ale is for
drinking slowly and loosening the tongue progressively, not for chucking
back and belching loudly. I'll recommend Theakston's "Old Peculier", but
advise that you don't drink more than five pints in an evening. One does
tend to run rich and backfire a bit the next day.
If it's winter, get to see some soccer - Manchester United for skill,
Liverpool for passion, Arsenal for tactics and my beloved West Ham
United for crowd humour.
I'm assuming you'll be based in London and it's worth remembering that
the City isn't, and never was, intended for its inhabitants. First
esablished as a port by the Romans in 55 BC, it's always been a
commercial centre. Its mercantile exchanges are well worth a visit. Ring
LIFFE, the futures exchange, or the LME (London Metals Exchange) and try
to persuade them to let you into the visitor's gallery (be persistent) -
you'll see the cut and thrust of the cockney millionaires. Or go to
Billingsgate Fish market in Docklands (opens 5am, closed Sundays and
Mondays, you'll never hear more swearing in your life).
As for beauty, I recommend Devon & Cornwall (not populated by Englishmen
but by Celts), Gloucestershire (pronounced "glosstersher") And the
Highlands of Scotland. Take in the West Coast islands and visit the
ancient distilleries and get sozzled on the finest spirit in the world.
And never lend a Scotsman money.
For instant Englishness before you go, I'd recommend Dickens. Try David
Copperfield. For contemporary literature, I'd recommend Peter Ackroyd's
"Dan Leno and the Limehouse Gollum" (Ackroyd used to lecture Eng Lit. at
Harvard; the poor devil believes he's Dickens' reincarnation methinks).
Londoners can be rude, like any big city dwellers, but whatever you do,
don't give then the satisfaction of thinking they've hurt your feelings
(rudeness in cockneys is almost always ironic anyway). On the other
hand, you'll find country people (even the toffee-nosed ones) charming.
I hope you have a great time, but sorry, I can't guarantee rain.
Adam Turner,
With a hand of friendship to the world's strongest democracy from its
most venerable.
'74 TR6
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