Recommend us your favourite TV Show! (Autumn Edition)

Hi everybody!

I know I have mentioned before, but autumn is here! The clocks are going back this weekend, the leaves are turning gold, and it’s getting colder by the day. You know what that means, right? Time to snuggle up on the sofa and watch some telly! 📺

I love me some good telly when it gets cold (during summer you can’t catch me at home, I’m always out and about!). I’m a big fan of those so-called “cosy murder shows” (basically anything Agatha Christie–related has my heart) and I also adore a good period drama.
Here are some of my favourite autumnal TV series:

• Sherlock (BBC): An oldie but a goodie! Cumberbatch and Freeman’s on-screen chemistry is unmatched, and it still makes me laugh quite a bit. I recently introduced it to my husband, who now quotes it every five seconds.
• Only Murders in the Building (Disney+): One of the best series I’ve watched in ages, it has all the right ingredients: a brilliant cast, plenty of mystery, and UNEXPECTED plot twists.
• Downton Abbey (Netflix): Dame Maggie Smith was an absolute jewel to watch in this show, and there’s something wonderfully cosy and homely about it, perfect for these chilly months.

Your turn, everyone! What are your recommendations for this month?

Lily What a great topic! For me, for the last 21 years my favourite autumnal show is Strictly Come Dancing. As an ex competitive Ballroom and Latin American Dancer, I just love to watch this show and see how the celebrities improve week on week. I do watch with a critical eye, but knowing how long it takes to master some of the dances, have nothing but amazement, at the ability of some of them to do so well.
Like you, I absolutely love Downton Abbey. I’ve got all the Blu-Rays. TV series, Christmas specials and films! Maggie Smith was brilliant and some of her mannerisms as the Dowager Countess so remind me of my lovely late Mum. I’ve watched the whole collection again recently on Netflix, and am noting seeing it again on ITV 3 on weekday afternoons.
After Christmas, I hope to be indulging in two more of my guilty pleasures: Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise both on BBC1. A lovely spell in the Carribean is a real tonic!!

I have various TV shows with different members of the family at various times through the week lol.

With my youngest son I've been watching Friends, which he loves, ad also a driving challenge show on Netflix called Hyperdrive - think the Fast and the Furious film franchise.
With my eldest son I'm watching Ted Lasso on Apple TV - a truly genius comedy of an American running an English football team.
With my wife, we are watching Boots on Netflix, a really interesting, funy, touching story of a young gay man joining the US Marines in the 80/90s, at a time when it was illegal to do so!
With my wife and eldest son (i.e. when the youngest has gone to bed), we are watching Stranger Things - catching him up before the new series starts in a weeks time - this is one of my favourite shows of the last 10 years!
As a family we are watching The Great British Bake Off - the challenge is not eating whilst watching, it makes us so hungry!

CathyHeys great recommendations! 😍 Death in the Caribbean sounds really intriguing.
Very happy to have another Downtown fan in the Community!! What did you think of the last movie? The last scene had me in tears. I treated myself to the nice cinema in town to watch it.

CathyHeys Thanks for your insight into what you love to watch. I also enjoyed watching Downton Abbey. At the end of each episode I just wanted to see the next one, and the next one. It was addictive and I was sad to see the loss of Maggie Smith. She was so funny and made us both laugh at her mannerisms every time. You just knew how she was going to react before she did

Lily I went to see Downton Abbey The Grand Finale soon after it was released, going with my husband and sister. Yes, the final scene was very emotional, but I thought it ‘wrapped up’ all the various character’s stories really well. Looking forward to it coming out on Blu-Ray - one for the Christmas list (if timings are right 🤞).

BrianGotts CathyHeys I just want to be as witty and clever as her, every time I watch that scene when one of Mary's admirers tells everyone "You won't see me ever again", and she inmediately responds "Do you promise??" never fails to make me smile. Your dear mama must have been a remarkable woman Cathy.
I am also getting my own copy when it comes out! Glad you liked the Finale, a bit sad it ended! But it ended well.
NickEmmett I need to watch a recap of Stranger Things, I can't remember a thing. I am also a big fan of the Great British Bake Off. My mom and I love to bake, and she made me the first cake for my birthday a couple of years ago. Here it is:

Yes, I even bought the cake stand from them!

Lily Wow! What a gorgeous cake. Your mum has a real talent for baking.
Agree with you totally about the ‘put down lines’ that Maggie Smith used in Downtown. I also smile at the one where she asks those assembled at dinner in one of the early episodes in series 1 “what’s a Weekend?” And when her ears were assaulted by Jazz music at the party Rose arranged for the Earl of Grantham, she was told that the music was called Jazz she responded with “Oh is that what it is?”
I love Bake off too, and marvel at some of the creations!!
Yes, my mum was special. Born in Switzerland in 1920 and came to the UK in 1946 as an Au-Pair to a titled family in London. She then trained to be a nurse at a Gravesend Teaching Hospital from 1948 to 1951. She met my Dad in 1950, and they married in 1951. She spoke 3 languages fluently (4 if you included Schweizerdeutsch - her native dialect). She was a wonderful cook, a brilliant knitter and needlewoman, and was kind and generous. Sadly we lost her in 2009, but our memories of her are happy ones - and my 2 sisters, their husbands (and mine) and my 2 nieces miss her greatly.

CathyHeys she does! Cake decorating is not her forte (or so she says!) but they are always yummy. I remember you telling me about her, and your trips with the whole family to keep the Swiss connection. A titled family, that's very Downtown! I can only imagine all the anecdotes she used to tell.
"What's a weekend?" Matthew's reaction is hilarious. I wish I could say "what's a weekend?" LOL. What a terribly common invention!

I am obsessed with The Celebrity Traitors! It has been amazing from the off and the Traitors are so funny and cunning. I'd highly recommend it even if you're not a fan of the show. As for Strictly I'm not loving this year's show, not sure why but nobody has grabbed my attention and I feel the format is a little tired now. The news that Tess and Claudia are stepping down has made me feel the show needs a break too.
On Netflix I enjoyed House of Dynamite, a thriller about possible nuclear war.

We're watching Celebrity Traitors too WendyG41 - I really enjoyed the normal show and wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this celebrity version but to be fair it's been really good so far.
Who's your favourite Traitor and favourite Faithful?

Alan Carr has just been brilliant, what a star! He's played the part so we'll. I've loved Celia Imrie too, such a sweetheart but absolutely ruthless. Very funny both of them. I've found it very entertaining. X

WendyG41 Totally agree re Celebrity Traitors. Loving it!!

NickEmmett WendyG41 Reading your posts on Celebrity Traitors got me interested in seeing what it was about, not being the sort of TV we both watched before. We sat down from just after lunch to watch episode one of this current series and became hooked instantly, watching episode after episode until bed time. We are itching to see who of the two out of the first ever drawn banishment in the history of Traitors met their demise, becoming the 5th Faithful to leave the show and still no Traitor. What are they doing?

BrianGotts now you've convinced me. I need to give the first episode a try!! Last season was apparently very negative -competitors took everything way too seriously- but now I can't wait to watch this one. Thanks WendyG41 for the recommendation!
I'll watch the first episode this weekend and will report back.