Over the last several years, American audiences have suffered endlessly through remakes of Coupling, Life on Mars and Prime Suspect while being subjected to continued rumors of remakes of British greatness such as MI-5, IT Crowd and Doctor Who. As we reported with sadness recently, the most popular British situation comedy of all-time, Only Fools […]
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BBC Syndication Showcase 2011 postcript As we close the book on the third annual BBC Syndication Showcase, PBS stations across the country leave BBC West (New Orleans) armed with an incredible number of potential choices for programming of all genres to acquire for broadcast in their individual markets. Science, Natural History, Drama, Factual and Comedy. […]
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I do feel obligated to write about Leverage, which has just been renewed for a 5th season on TNT. With all my rants about poorly done American re-makes of British imports, time to eat a few of those rants and talk Leverage. While there has never been any “official” declaration that the TNT series, Leverage, […]
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Rufus Sewell stars as Aurelio Zen, a Venetian detective who possesses “an unfortunate reputation for honesty“. As you can imagine, this presents a challenge in the somewhat morally complicated world of the Italian police. A doubly hard existence especially when you are in Rome and are Venetian. Based on author Michael Dibdin’s international best-selling Italian detective […]
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You’d think they’d learn, post-Coupling. Ok, I know, they do have The Office that they can point to, but for every American Office, I can find ten American Coupling’s or Life on Mars, for that matter, just to throw gas on the fire. Further proof that there are now no new ideas and with history not […]
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Counting down the days until Doctor Who-mania kicks in with the combined U.S./UK premiere of series 6 on 23 April, I’m reminded of the comedy genius side of the Steven Moffat brain in the pre-Doctor Who, pre-Sherlock days of Coupling. Going back over some of our original interviews for PBS’ Behind the Britcom: From Script […]
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It’s the final day of the annual BBC Showcase held in Brighton (for the last time, as it turns out, with Liverpool being next year’s destination) which saw another day packed with screenings the last ‘official presentation’ from the BBC drama department. It’s been a strong year already from an output standpoint as was pointed […]
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Ok, the BBC and Channel 4 may not have “officially” established a western division of the best of their broadcast line-up, but North Texas viewers will become a bit more anglophile beginning tonight (Saturday) on KERA with an all-new line up of the best of the best from the UK. We begin the night with […]
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Seeing as though we’re only days away from another questionable American remake of a really well-done British television import, I thought I’d immediately put in the request for my first 2011 New Year’s resolution. You know the drill. Have written about this many times. Readers in the UK, I apologize for taking up space and […]
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A British couple comes to the U.S. to oversee their successful British comedy being remade by an “American network” — and ruined. Sounds more like a documentary than a comedy to me. Can you blame me? I can name all the British comedies that have had American re-makes on one hand, and have two fingers […]
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