Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island
Season 1
Following his enormously successful book "Notes From a Small Island", American travel writer Bill Bryson sets off on a new tour of Britain. Starting at Dover, where he recalls his first disembarkation in 1973 to a land of rain, sweet tea and disagreeable land-ladies, his travels take him from Poole in the South to the Western Isles of Scotland. Along the way he encounters such colourful characters as the pipe smokers of Solihull, ballroom dancers in Blackpool and the caber tossers of Glenfinnan. Bryson brings all his perspective eye, dry wit and outbursts of comic exasperation to this affectionate survey of the British way of life.
Where to Watch Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island • Season 1
6 Episodes
- Episode 1
E1Episode 1In the first episode in his affectionate survey of Britain, Bill hails a London cab driven by Stephen Fry before traveling to Liverpool to take a ferry across the Mersey and discuss Scouse humor with Alexei Sayle. Along the way his attention is caught by a proliferation of blue plaques, a forgotten tale of failed revolution, and a little-known subterranean kingdom. - Episode 2
E2Episode 2Bill salutes a uniquely British genius - the ability to fill any idle moment with a diversion, hobby or obsession. He meets the horn dancers of Abbots Bromley, caber tossers in Glenfinnan, ballroom dancers in Blackpool and a fell runner in the Lake District. Then, in a Bournemouth beach hut on a wet afternoon, he puts it all into perspective in conversation with Victoria Wood. - Episode 5
E5Episode 5"I'm not into dukes and earls - outside of jazz music", states Bill, who examines two very different views of the way in which heritage forms the backbone of Britain. From Blenheim Palace to a Glaswegian pub and on to a socialite who spends more on her clothes than a colliery band spends on their brass instruments, Bill observes Britain's heritage, north and south.
