Adam Turner wrote:
>
> 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
Sorry, forgot to mention, Brideshead Revisited filmed at Castle Howard
in Yorkshire (Stones' bitter, no good) art collection knockout.
Cheerio!
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