mostly david ephgrave

I was sad to hear news of the death of the actor John Mahoney last night. It goes without saying - though I’ll say it anyway - what a wonderful characterization he brought to Martin Crane in the pitch-perfect sitcom Frasier. While each script is packed with gags, it’s the relationship between the show's central characters - and their individual traits - that make it work so well, and the role of Frasier’s dad is perfectly drawn by Mahoney. He brings a gentleness to the character that may have been missed by a lesser actor; the elder Crane may be brash and cantankerous, and prefer watching a gator devour a raw chicken to going to the opera, but there’s a soft, wise kindness behind his eyes too that’s thanks wholly to Mahoney’s performance. A pleasant byproduct of Frasier being aired on UK TV almost daily is it freezes the characters (and consequently the actors) in time so they never age, so you’d be forgiven for thinking Mahoney couldn’t possib...

What’s with all the impractical tables on TV? Take the one on 'Sunday Morning Live' (BBC1's Naga Munchetty-fronted Kilroy-style debate show) for example: Who wants to settle around a three-tiered monstrosity like that? Not content with having a shadow reminiscent of the Olympic rings, its tabletops are nigh-on invisible. I’d be too intimidated to put anything on it, least of all a glass carafe. The breakage potential would be terrifyingly high; lean toward it at your peril. Then there’s the table in the ident for C4’s Sunday Brunch: Yet again, we’re faced with a piece of unserviceable furniture; imagine sitting at it with a hangover. Putting anything on it would be terrifying; n o-one needs that level of stress between breakfast and lunch. This isn’t just a problem for the weekend. Every day of the week, Alex Jones and her many-rotating co-presenters interview an array celebrities around this fibregla...

I used to think I spoke with an English accent, until I heard Daphne’s brother Simon in Frasier. Now, I question my own voice, nationality and basic knowledge of British dialects. What confuses me most is that Jane Leeves’ character is meant to be from up North, yet Simon speaks with a broad, inaccurate Cockney accent. He sounds like Dick Van Dyke’s Bert on acid. Stephen Hawking’s speech synthesiser emits a more convincing British twang than Anthony LaPaglia in Frasier, and it’s not even trying to. Even Speak & Spell did it better. LaPaglia isn’t the only brother guilty of a pronunciation-based crime. Robbie Coltrane and Richard E Grant are just as inconsistent. Everyone seems to be aiming for a different region, which suggests Daphne’s parents moved up and down the country with alarming frequency. It can’t have been good for the children’s schooling. I guess it’s just a reflection on its intended audience. A lot of Americans probably w...