Britsploitation

     Apparently, the other day was St. Patrick’s Day. Normally, I wouldn’t even give this holiday a passing acknowledgement, since, contrary to popular belief, I’m not Irish on that day. I am exactly 0% Irish all 366 days of the year¹. It’s just an excuse to drink, after all, like any other Saturday in America.

     My wife takes particular exception to this holiday, because she’s Welsh and complains that there isn’t any special holiday for her people. This warrants a bit of explanation, though. See, she’s only one-quarter Welsh, but has taken this ancestral minority to heart thanks to Dr. Who and, by extension, Torchwood.

     Both of these shows are made in Wales. Hell, Torchwood is almost completely set in Cardiff. If you’ve ever let the show run to the end, you’d see this:

     Anyway, my wife is obsessed with Dr. Who. So when she found out that she has a bit of British blood in her, the fire was well and truly stoked. I can’t say that I blame her, exactly. I like Dr. Who quite a bit. Case in point, here is a picture of me as Rory from “Day of the Moon” at Dragon*Con last year:

     I’ve always been a bit of an Anglophile, though. I grew up watching Red Dwarf, Black Adder, and A Bit of Fry & Laurie². I remember thinking that “bloody hell” was a perfectly normal saying, and it is only by sheer luck that I never actually called somebody a twat³.

     I chalk this up to not having cable when I grew up, which meant I watched a lot more PBS. When you only have eight channels or so—depending on the weather—you learn to make do. And the PBS stations in northeast Ohio showed a lot of British television. It is only now, thanks to Netflix, that I am able to watch all those old shows again, and find new ones.

     I’ve rambled quite far in this post, but I think the moral of the story is: if your kids don’t have cable, they’re going to grow up thinking they’re British.

¹ It’s a leap year, people.

² Yes, that’s Hugh Laurie of House fame. There was a time when he did comedy and dressed in drag (quite a lot).

³ Here’s a tip: pronounce it to rhyme with “cat,” and it’s British and funny. Pronounce it to rhyme with “pot,” and you’ll likely get slapped.