Attention Fans of Doctor Who, BBC Mysteries and Hyacinth

September 20, 2012 PBS Wisconsin Leave a Comment

This fall, Wisconsin Public Television is rolling out a bunch of “new” programs. (If you’re impatient, the promos are at the end) As is the case every fall we have new episodes of Nature, NOVA, Austin City Limits and other public television staples. But there are a few other programs coming this fall that will give our Thrusday, Friday and Saturday nights a bit of a fresh look.

Throughout most of the summer, Poirot was the Thursday night detective-in-residence. He’ll take a bit of a furlough, making room for Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, which premieres 8 p.m. Oct. 18. Any fan of Keeping Up Appearances will recognize the star sleuth as Patricia Routledge, best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket (it’s pronounced bou-quet!).

Inspector George Gently enters the schedule Friday, Oct. 5. It stars the popular Martin Shaw, and the unique plot line to this detective series is that it’s set in 1960s Britain.

And Saturday nights once again belong to the Doctor. Doctor Who, that is, returns Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8:50 for the entire run of season 6. The first episode finds the Doctor, Amy and Rory, and River Song in the western U.S. desert. The weirdness only increases when an Apollo astronaut enters the picture. As a bonus catch a behind-the-scenes look at the show in the Doctor Who Confidential, following each episode.

If you’re a close reader, you noticed the word “new” above in quotes. Why? Let’s just say it’s never our intention to obscure the truth, and the truth is all these programs are new to WPT, not necessarily TV in general. Hetty Wainthropp hit the BBC in the ’90s and even had a run on Masterpiece. Gently began its run in 2007, but it’s the first time he’s been on our air. And Doctor Who is currently in its 7th season on BBC America.

But we’re happy to have all these programs on our air, because even in a world of Satellite TV, BitTorrent and Netfilx, there’s still a place for good ‘ole public television. For instance, I use Netflix, and even used it to watch the first episode of Doctor Who, Season 6. The thing is, my TV is a Samsung, and for whatever reason, the picture blinks periodically while watching Netflix. If the Doctor were only available on Netflix, I’d tolerate it. But I’ve waited to watch the second episode, knowing I can tune in to WPT over-the-air and watch it blink-free. Which just might save me from the monsters in the first episode. Watch it, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.