Television

This next sentence is not a joke...to legally own and operate a television in the UK, you must purchase a TV license. License fees, valid for one year, change every year and are free if you are over 75 years old. A color TV license right now costs: £145.50. Do the math on the exchange rate and that is approximately $220 US dollars per year, per TV. This does not cover the cost of your TV or your cable service, that is an additional cost per month, this just allows you to own and operate a TV. Since watching television is our biggest form of entertainment when we are at home in the evenings, we of course need to buy a TV license. After two weeks, I think I have a fairly good idea of what is on British TV…..wait for it…..wait for it…..old US TV shows. At any given point of the day, you can catch old reruns of US TV shows on multiple channels. And I am not talking about a few years old –most of the time it is way beyond that. Murder She Wrote, Remington Steele, Lois and Clark, TJ Hooker, JAG….and some more recent ones like Friends and King of Queens. There are also some current shows that are still airing in the US like Bones, Two and a Half Men, NCIS, but they are seasons behind in the UK. Now as someone who liked a lot of these shows back in my high school or early college days, I don’t mind watching some of these reruns. And it is really nice to turn on a TV and hear people talking and not have to struggle to listen to what they are saying because of their accents or different words and expressions. When hubby and I see a commercial for a “new” TV show starting soon, we just look at each other and laugh –because most of the time, it has been airing in the US for several seasons. A new show called Grey’s Anatomy is going to be starting to play over here soon….and the new Melrose Place. (I also saw that the OLD Melrose Place was on the other day.) The other latest “new” shows we have seen advertisements for that will be airing soon – Castle, Lost and American Idol. The best thing about UK TV so far –they have Dora the Explorer and about 5 different versions of the Disney Channel. So the kids always have something to watch when it is time to settle down and relax. And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to watch some more "new" old favorites.