UK television anyone??

[dixielandyankee]

Am starting a thread for all the shows that I'm watching here in the UK at the moment...feel free to join in and tell me what you're watching...and also if any of you out there get UK televeision on...say...BBC America...then let us know what shows they're sending you! ;D

Scrappy tells me that BBC America gets Changing Rooms, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By and Blackadder...not sure these are the UK's finest exports! ...what does anyone else reckon?

At the moment I'm watching the hilarity that is Wife Swap...and the series Musicality (where they audition ordinary people for a part in a West End musical)

I also watch Spooks avidly...mainly because Keeley Hawes is a total babe.

I've been watching the first series of The L Word which my friend has been taping off cable too...and reading all the spoilers online...shame on me!

[dixielandyankee]

I'd like to rest my case...

No one has replied to this thread...

Because TV IN THE UK SUCKS!

[Scrappy Amazon]

I'm here.......Just don't have anything to say on the subject........ ;D

[Joxcenia]

There are a lot of members who stay within a couple of the boards.... guess they don't like to venture out and see what else is going on elsewhere on this board.

[katina2nd]

I was going to reply, but i'm not watching a lot of current Brit shows at the moment.
On UKTV at the moment i'm watching Minder, Pie in the Sky and Hornblower, but they're hardly new, so I wasn't sure if you'd be interested.

Like to discuss any of those shows, or great shows of the past such as Prime Suspect, Cracker, Chandler and Co', Yes Minister, or a host of others, then i'd be more then willing.

[AresGirl]

Red Cap and MI: 5 i like which are on BBCAmer and A&E respectively. I hope A&E airs the series again. I enjoyed it.



Jenn

[xengab]

Don't watch a lot of TV,but I found "Foyles War" quite enjoyable.

[Ann Thrax]

Hi everyone

I think here in the UK we've been treated to some pretty top-notch 'homegrown' comedy shows over the past few weeks; The Green Room, Little Britain, French and Saunders, Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere....Richard and Judy...to name but a few... (ok, that last one's a joke...but it might make Dixie smile )

I'm not sure if any of those above have...or indeed will ever be shown outside the UK..but i'd be very interested to see what overseas viewers make of them.

Personally, I think 'Little Britain' stands above all others as British comedy at its very best. For me, it represents our unparalleled ability to find humour in the darkest, most grotesque characters imaginable (who, here in the UK hasn't met a Vicky Pollard type character at least once in their lives?

No one else takes the p**s out of themselves better than the British in my opinion.....it's the law....apparently ;D

[Ernie]

Well here in the UK I've recently been watching: Battlestar Gallactica, The West Wing, The Sapranos, 8 Simple Rules, The Simpsons, Letterman, and reruns of Married with Children and Futurama.

Oh did you mean British made shows? Hmmm, errrr, no can't think of any. It's all reality crap and soaps these day, and the comedies are just an embaressment compared to the US imports .

Actually I have been watching Game On again on UK Gold, but then that's 10 years old.

[Ann Thrax]

Hi Ernie,

I have to agree with you about the high number of reality shows gracing our screens at the moment.

It occurs to me that the reality show has simply become the 'new' soap opera.

Soaps have been around since tv began...their popularity stemming from our apparent penchant for all things familiar...familiar characters...familiar surroundings...familiar everyday situations etc...

But somewhere along the way (ie the ratings wars), the line between soap opera and situation comedy has been blurred...so much so that, (in the case of Coronation Street and Eastenders in particular), we've been left with shows filled with two-dimensional caricatures acting out ever more farcical situations.

-And whilst they remain popular in terms of entertainment...the initial ethos of such shows has been lost along the way.

And so...along came the reality shows to fill the void.

However...the difference here is that the attraction comes from a much darker source. The desire for the familiar is no longer based on empathy...but simply self-satisfying voyerism.
Because such shows maintain a 'warts-and-all' approach...the comfort here comes from the belief that - placed in the same situation - we would handle things SO much better.

Also, on the subject of British verses US comedy I still maintain my view that we have the upper hand.
Granted, the US has produced a countless number of first-class comedy shows...but from a personal point of view...I prefer my humour a little more subversive.
For me, US comedy tends to err on the side of caution...there's a certain 'safety' in the aimiabilty of their comedy characters.
The only exception to this rule would be The Simpsons...where the subject matter is often about as subversive as you can get.
But even here, the safety comes from the fact that they are simply cartoon characters...there's no human face to the deviance.

Ann

[chackattack81]

I concur

[Ernie]

Ann said:

Also, on the subject of British verses US comedy I still maintain my view that we have the upper hand.
Granted, the US has produced a countless number of first-class comedy shows...but from a personal point of view...I prefer my humour a little more subversive.
For me, US comedy tends to err on the side of caution...there's a certain 'safety' in the aimiabilty of their comedy characters.
The only exception to this rule would be The Simpsons...where the subject matter is often about as subversive as you can get.
But even here, the safety comes from the fact that they are simply cartoon characters...there's no human face to the deviance.

Ann

US TV does usually pander to the conservatives far too much, and certainly when you look at something like Friends where they're all clean cut positive characters living in their little bubble you kind of wonder what happened to the real world (but then this is a Xena board, so all of us must like our escapism. ;D) I like Married with Children, because they are the worst people and worst family in the world (far worse than The Simpsons), which is pretty unusual for US TV.

You also have to consider quantity. Blackadder was a classic, but there are only 24 episodes, and the first series wasn't all that good without Ben Elton, so really that's only 18 really good episodes. Whereas Friends managed 24 episodes per year and ran for 10 years, and managed to be pretty consistently funny and successful throughout. I think that's what the US does better, i.e. keeping up the quality and consistency of writing. That's what Friends, as well as things like The Sapranos and Sex and the City have over anything Britain produces.

[catcob]

i'm a brit living in the Netherlands, but we get BBC, so I guess i can contribute.
Maybe the 'problem' with the BBC is that they are committed to certain production regulations (one of which being that they cannot spend too much time/money on new shows that are too much like those that are already available). I don't know exactly how this works: maybe, for example, they are allowed to put on a friends-type-show if it is cheaper than importing it from abroad. I guess the result would be something like Coupling, which I have never found particularly funny (although some people in the Netherlands think it is much, much funnier than Friends - Dutch humour, I guess!)
As a rule, I don't think import TV on British TV is too bad - trouble is, the BBC is not the best station for it, and so I really miss out on not having Channel 4 here in the Netherlands. Five also has some good cult stuff (although when I say that I used to be an avid watcher of The Tribe, you'll probably question my use of 'good' and 'cult'!)
The best of BBC drama at the moment is Spooks, in my opinion. It holds its own against American shows such as ER, and, while not as quirky and as 'young' (if that's the word) as things like Alias, it has wonderfully complex plots, great internal character interaction and makes an attempt at modern directing...
Now I think about it, maybe the main difference between British and American TV is the physical appearance of the actors. Sure, hotties do exist in British TV, but we have more of a feel for the 'ordinary' looking people. Compare our soap operas for one thing: Pauline Fowler vs the women in Days of Our Lives? And our sitcoms are similar: all the cast of Friends vs Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder? Newer shows like My Family do come across as more polished in their looks (this, incidentally, was written by an American team), but there is still something very 'everyday life' about My Family, which few people could claim to be the case with Friends.
I realise this is all a bit generalising - just some points I thought about as I rambled on.

And, if you think British TV is bad, Dutch TV sucks worse than anything you could imagine. They did show Xena a few months back, but then in a very erratic order: Friend in Need 1 followed by Soul Possession followed by Friend in Need 2. This was the first time I had seen season 6, so you can imagine my horror (and my video tape confusion!). Then, Xena reappeared in the TV guide for the following week, so I looked forward for a re-run of all seasons 1-6, but instead got season 6 again straight away. It hasn't been on again since.

As I say, we have the BBC, but most TV is imported from America. I find it annoying because I am trying to learn the language, and I was looking for a good Dutch-language drama to get into (all imports have Dutch subtitles, so I don't even get the benefits of dubbing to hear the words). Trouble is, Dutch-language drama doesn't exist. ALmost everything Dutch-produced is reality TV (endemol is a Dutch company), talk shows, discussions and (horror of horrors) cabaret!

P.S. Any dutch people out there: sorry for my views on Dutch TV...!

[Mij]

Recently was in the UK for about 8 months. Watched about 4 shows really with any regularity.

1. Never Mind The Buzzcocks
2. University Challenge
3. Mastermind
4. The football

Classics of UK television in the past I liked was Blackadder, Yes (Prime) Minister, Hamish MacBeth & any special presentation by Tony Robinson (Baldrick from Blackadder).

the UK is loaded with soaps & reality type shows, most of which bored me stupid, though there was one that was slightly out of the ordinary called "Regency House" (if I remember the title correctly), looking at life in the Regency period that Jane Austin wrote in.

[katina2nd]

Anyone watch The Kumars at number 24?
Stumbled upon it by accident about three weeks ago, and now i'm addicted.

[louie]

I'm from the Uk, but i dislike UK Tv. I only like, Bad Girl and Hex.