Watch Around the World
One bizarre aspect of the entertainment world in recent years is exactly that: how films, shows and games have become so global. 'We dream the same dream, we want the same thing' sang Belinda Carlise in 1990, but back then we got them all at different times. Now, with the rise of the streaming services in particular, the whole world gets to see the new series of Ted Lasso, or The Mandalorian, or that new thing on Netflix about the '70s band, the same day. Netflix hit Sex Education is available in more than 190 countries. It's a global conversation. Very ahead of her time, was Carlisle.
It's always interesting, the little differences in each nation's version of your favourite thing, too. You can watch the same Champions League game across Europe, but with different pundits and commercials - one betting ad featured Ray Winstone or Samuel L Jackson, depending on location. If you're watching it in India, head to luckydice.in for a distinctive spin on your favourite casino games, at half time. And while you're at it, maybe crack open your preferred fast food app for those memorable menu quirks, wherever you are. Do Holland's McDonalds still do the Royale with Cheese?
While certain shows are obviously going to be huge everywhere - all the Star Wars and Marvel shows on Disney+ for example - other shows are an unlikelier global success. As the name suggests, The Great British Bake Off was very much aimed at viewers in the UK, and you can't imagine the creators had any inkling what a cult hit it would become in the US too.
That success is apparent when you tune into spin-off The Great Celebrity Bake-Off expecting Su Pollard and someone from EastEnders, and it's Teri Hatcher and Richard Dreyfus, from Desperate Housewives and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, respectively. And on the new series, alongside the likes of Rose Matafeo and Tim Key, it's David Schwimmer, from Friends.
We wonder if that has useful knock-on effects elsewhere, too. So James Acaster can have a famously entertaining stinker with some flapjacks on The Great Celebrity Bake-Off, which is also all over YouTube, then someone in the States spots his four Netflix specials, and soon enough they're buying a ticket to see him in New York.
It's interesting in that sense that Matt Lucas has decided to give up Bake-Off to concentrate on Fantasy Football League, which definitely seems a more UK-focussed show - but then he's already in Bridesmaids and Paddington and various other global hits, so probably isn't too fussed.
Actually that lag between the UK and US releases does still happen with TV shows on rare occasions, where there's a big hit on a 'traditional' network, and the foreign networks then get interested. Take the big Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, which made a big splash across the pond - literally, there were people walking the plank every five minutes.
It seemed to take ages before the BBC were able to show it, and by that time, a lot of us knew one of the big plot twists. Which is why they usually launch everything everywhere, all at once. The original Star Wars (A New Hope) came out in May '77 in the US, then December in the UK - imagine asking all of social media to keep a secret for seven months. Not much hope of that.