My Top Five Shows Of 2023

I watch a lot of television. Broadcast, cable, streaming. I probably watch 30 hours of TV a day (just an estimate, rounding up). Of course, it might be understandable that someone who works in broadcasting might dig the telly. So which ones did I like? Quite a few. But we’ll stick strictly to PBS and to shows I watched in the calendar year 2023.

Let me begin by stating that of all the great programs we aired last year on all of our services, I watched a mere fraction. I wish I had time to catch everything that piqued my interest but I just don’t. There are still a few sitting on my DVR that I hope to get around to soon.

So you’ll see I watch a lot of British drama. It’s easy to put on an episode of MASTERPIECE when maybe the latest FRONTLINE might be a wee bit too heavy after a long day. And I may have forgotten something along the way so forgive any undue omissions.

So here it is. MY TOP FIVE SHOWS OF 2023…

5) MAKING SHAKESPEARE: THE FIRST FOLIO. This was a GREAT PERFORMANCES we aired in November. I’m a huge Shakespeare nerd and don’t know nearly as much as I want to about the Bard of Avon. Showing how his works came to be saved for future generations (us) was riveting.

4) TOM JONES. I’m such a fan of the Albert Finney classic that I wasn’t sure if this new adaptation would fly but it was loads of fun.

Sounds Familiar

“A woman can only be silenced for so long before she roars.” – Mary Parker (Kate Ashfield), after being scolded by her husband Tom (Kris Marshall), SANDITON on MASTERPIECE

Hey, It’s Photo Friday!

I’ve mentioned before that we sometimes have special in-house preview screenings for various donors and dignitaries and the like. Here’s a sign I caught sight of a while back welcoming attendees to just such a sneak peek at the MASTERPIECE series SANDITON.

No idea when this was held. Based on the characters in the poster, it appears to have been for the third series, which premiered in March 2023, so the screening was most likely presented earlier in the year.

Where Do I Know That Actor?

THE INDIAN DOCTOR is a new fish-out-water comedy drama airing Saturday nights at 6 on PBS NC (well, new to us – it debuted in 2010 on the BBC). Set in South Wales in 1963, the story follows doctor Prem Sharma as he arrives in the Welsh mining village of Trefelin to replace the late MD. Amid the villagers, miners and assorted patients, you may recognize a few familiar faces from other fare we’ve broadcast over the years. Let’s meet a few…

Sanjeev Bhaskar stars as Dr. Prem Sharma, the village’s new optimistic physician. Bhaskar will be best known for his performance as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten, a role he’s played for five series (Masterpiece has yet to air season five).

Sounds Familiar

“There are no worse bedfellows in this sorry world than good breeding and destitution.” – Lady Montrose (Emma Fielding), SANDITON

Where Do I Know That Actor?

Based on an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen and set during the Regency era, SANDITON follows a young, naive woman as she navigates a seaside resort on the cusp of dramatic change. Now that the third season is well underway, let’s take a look at who’s who on SANDITON.

The show is adapted by Andrew Davies (To Serve Them All My Days, House Of Cards, Bleak House, Mr. Selfridge) and stars Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood, a quintessential Jane Austen heroine. Unfortunately, Williams has not appeared in anything PBS NC has broadcast other than SANDITON. The rest of the cast, however, might offer a few more familiar faces.

Kris Marshall co-stars as Tom Parker, the patriarch of the Sanditon resort. He may be best known for his role as DI Humphrey Goodman in the series Death In Paradise. Prior to that, he was eldest son Nick Harper in the Britcom My Family.

Wednesday Trivia Question

What PBS series is known internally by the abbreviation AMDO?

Okay, we’re going deep into the sausage this week but it’s always been a bit of trivia I’ve personally found fascinating.

Those who work behind the scenes at PBS stations know that each item you see on your screen has to be entered into a database and from that database we produce a broadcast log which instructs technical staff what bits to air when. It’s more complicated than that, as you might imagine, but there’s the gist of it.

So each program we air is given a identifier. Each PBS series is given a four character code taken from the series name. For instance, FRONTLINE is FRON, Nova is NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is AMEX and CALL THE MIDWIFE is CMID. The rest of the code will be a number, usually the program’s episode number. This week’s MASTERPIECE with the season premiere of SANDITON was MAST 5314, 5314 being the number of that particular episode and MAST the program code. A one-off special, something without an episode, might consist of zeros, such as SECRETS OF THE TOWER OF LONDON which is SETL 000000.

With that explanation out of the way, I’m asking a specific question about a specific series, one whose code doesn’t seem to flow logically from its title. The code is AMDO. The series has been around since the 1980s and that’s quite a while. The show, like much PBS fare, has won numerous awards, including Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards and Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards, among others.

It’s a prime time series and it’s featured critically-acclaimed fare by extremely well known and talented creators. I could give more clues but I’m kind of deliberately making this vague to enhance the reveal.

So what is it? What long-running PBS series is known internally by the code AMDO?

Where Do I Know That Actor?

The second series of GUILT on MASTERPIECE kicked off in late August, picking up a few years after the first series in 2019. As the new episodes begin, we see Max emerging from his stint in prison after the events from the previous season. As he tries to pick up the pieces of his life, he discovers it’s not easy to stay away from old habits.

GUILT is a wonderful Scottish thriller featuring magnificent performances by some familiar faces. But who’s who? Where do we know them from? Here’s the skinny…

Mark Bonnar stars as Max McCall. He may be best known as Duncan Hunter from Shetland. He also played Colin Osborne on series two of Unforgotten and Reverend Adam Collingborne in Home Fires.

Sounds Familiar

“‘Lady Denham requests your attendance at a luncheon party and pineapple tasting in honor of Miss Lambe.’ That sounds very grand indeed.” – Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams), reading an invitation, SANDITON on MASTERPIECE

Where Do I Know That Actor?

Before the second season premieres on March 20, I thought we’d take a look at the first series of SANDITON on MASTERPIECE.

Based on an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen and set during the Regency era, SANDITON follows a young, naive woman as she navigates a seaside resort on the cusp of dramatic change.

The show is adapted by Andrew Davies (To Serve Them All My Days, House Of Cards, Bleak House, Mr. Selfridge) and stars Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood, a quintessential Jane Austen heroine. Unfortunately, Williams has not appeared in anything PBS NC has broadcast other than SANDITON. The rest of the cast, however, might offer a few more familiar faces.