is it me or are they all crap? i watched survivors the other night and wondered what my license fee goes towards….i cant remember the last decent thing ive seen on the beeb…

+1. There doesn't seem to be a good plot line to anything. All they concentrate on is action shots, and meaningful stares in close up. Very poor writing/acting/directing.

What about ITV? That Above Suspicion: the Red Dahlia was so insulting to the intelligence! Script was appalling. I vowed never to watch a UK Cop drama ever again after that shit.

m8's house (well window) was used for a scene in Beeb drama, for the 10 second shot they visited it 3 times (multiple producers/hanger's on) & spent the day there to get the shot (though my m8 was v. happy with the compensation).
This along with Ross et all's stupid salary (happy to hear he's off, Moyle next eh?), are just symptoms of a business with it's head up it's own arse.

I was impressed with Wallander the other night.

'Cranford', which was on over Christmas, was excellant.
Also am enjoying that other costume drama 'Lark rise to Candleford'.

some people seem to like cranford and all that period stuff and rate it quite highly (not my cup of tea though)

modern dramas like spooks, survivors, paradox, ashes to ashes seem dumbed down and when compared to american stuff like the wire, sopranos, bsg, deadwood etc etc it is painfully obvious that our intellectual superiority over the dumb yanks probably ended with the fall of the empire

the last half decent bbc drama i can think of was the first series of life on mars and even that looks a bit childish now ive seen red riding

when the the most popular programme on tv is x-factor i think the bbc aim to please the increasingly uncultured soap and reality tv junkies who consider heat magazine or the celeb section of the metro 'a good read'

On the other hand has itv produced a programme worth watching yet this century?
The best thing about the bbc isn't really the telly its the radio, which on the whole is superb.

I was impressed with Wallander the other night.

+1

…wondered what my license fee goes towards

You seem to be lost. Here you go:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

aP is bang on. Folks whine on about the BBC's output, but I honestly can't remember the last time I watched anything on ITV. Channel 4 and even Five has more content.

ITV hangs it's entire schedule on dire Northern Soaps and the X-Factor.

Also am enjoying that other costume drama 'Lark rise to Candleford'.

Surely "Drama" should be "dramatic" in some way? LRtC is all a bit.. lightweight and twee.

you are seeing the results of a severe dip in advertising revenue last year and the end of 08, as a result of this the quarterly meetings where itv sit down and say "what drama are we going to commission and what is the budget we have to play with" have been over very quickly.
basically very little has been put into production and i guess it's going to be a while before the economy gets going for that to change. no advertising means no itv drama.

yeah but when did itv last make a good drama?

as bottom showed us its the 'light channel'

Eddie: This is your favourite programme?

Richie: Ho ho ha ha, oh yeah, hysterical Eddie, heartstoppingly funny.
You really should be on Channel Four.
Eddie: Nah, ITV, that's the channel for me. Nothing to worry about
and plenty of sauce.
Richie: Really. And what particularly edifying programme have the
light channel prepared for us this evening, that I'm not going
to let us watch?
Eddie: It's "Miss World", actually.
Richie: How disgusting. [aside, mimed] Shit!
Presenter: …the precision of the measurement of aggregate change…
Richie: Ah ha ha ha, nice statistic.
Presenter: …the cross-sectional data, and the higher the correlation…

[Eddie gets up, switches over to "Miss World", and sits back down again.]

Miss Spain: My hobbies are flower arranging and meeting people…
Eddie: Gawwww! Hwor, hwoorrrgh…

[Richie gets up and switches back to the documentary.]

Presenter: Cross-sectional study can monitor change at an individual
level by asking…

[Eddie switches back. They keep changing the channel, faster and faster,
until the television gets knocked over.]

This was absolutely brilliant, and on only the other week.

I hate the growing chorus of lazy BBC-bashing being instigated by the Murdoch media. Its caters for all of us, so of course everyone is going to find significant parts of the output rubbish but that misses the point. You can't please all the people all the time.

A broadcasting world without the BBC is not a nice prospect.

"…my licence fee…" – compared to the cost of subscriptions for pay per view TV (for grown-ups, the BBC's only competitor) the licence fee represents excellent value for money IMO.

Don't recall anything good on ITV for a while. C4 has been putting out some good stuff, funded by advertising though; Cape Wrath, Red Riding, don't know if anyone caught Misfits on E4 but it was great.

Generally I think the BBC's downfall of late has been one of trying to make UK perspective versions of the kind of show that work well in the states. Spooks is perhaps a UK transcription of something like 24, but it just seems kiddy-on when you do that. Its not a budget issue its just that UK productions look foreign when you put them up against US ones. The beeb is still turning out some good stuff like the Office and Extras, which although comedies rather than strictly dramas they are still well produced pieces of TV.

The Beebs emphasis has been more on comedy than anything else in recent years as it sees comedy as a more valuable vehicle to test, discuss and represent contemporary british issues than either drama, news or current affairs.

But if they are making fewer dramas they should at least be making ones that are good. The first series of Life on Mars should have been a turning point, just in terms of Production Design even if nothing else, but it didn't even seem to leave an impression on the second series of Life on Mars let alone the other one I forget the name of.

Practical Matt – Member
I was impressed with Wallander the other night

Its good but not a patch on the Swedish version shown on BBC4, even though it was subtitled it was far Superior IMO!Quite a lot of difference as his daughter was also a police officer and it was more in depth and graphic so you could really connect with the plot. The British version is toned down a lot more than the Swedish one.

Silent Witness is quite good and George Gently is also good.

Silent Witness is quite good

Silent Witness is the template for long meaningful full face silent stares into the camera. Adds absolutely nothing to the programme, and seems designed to help pad out the episode so that they can spread it over two nights. Cut out all the time wasting, scene setting and "dramatic" scenes and it could easily fit into one night, instead of ruining two.

Actually why do the BBC insist on putting a sound effect when someone locks a car, they do it on Silent Witness and Wallander, and its that stupid one you would get if you bought a cheap DIY alarm from Hal fords to put on your Citroen Saxo. FFS really annoying. 😈

Being Human anyone?

The BBC can't hope to compete with the funds & production facilities available to the yanks
I really can't see how they can be compared – the BBC is a fine public broadcaster, & long may it stay that way

Anybody that's ever seen US tv [or most other countries for that matter] on a day to day basis soon realises how good our TV is

So let the Americans make the good, well produced dramas – we'll buy them & continue to produce what we do best & export that
I've no idea of the figures but I wouldn't be suprised if the BBC sells more abroad than it buys in.

Over in London this xmas I watched Doctor Who and The Gruffalo, both were excellent, and well worth the licence fee you lot pay for it. Thanks 🙂

There's a lot of great stuff on the Beeb, all without adverts. Referring to the OP tho', I'm not a fan of the dramas either. I've lost count of how many "gripping" and "edge of the seat" dramas I have started watching and then given up on through boredom (Survivors series 1 and Day of the Triffids are the first that spring to mind)

So let the Americans make the good, well produced dramas – we'll buy them & continue to produce what we do best & export tha

+1

I dread to think how much Eastenders costs to make. The sunk costs will reduce annual expenditure, but i bet it is still loads.

I like Wallander, but agree that BBC 'drama' isn't always that great.

It often just looks/sounds like 'BBC drama', if that make sense -Like an adults' version of 80s Grange Hill.

As above, BBC Radio is good. Some of R2, a lot of R4 and much of 6Music is great.

Anybody that's ever seen US tv [or most other countries for that matter] on a day to day basis soon realises how good our TV is

Whilst it is true that the typical American doesn't watch and then sit in the works canteen discussing the finer points of HBO's latest high-quality production, the quality of British TV is no longer that great and there is a lot of filler.

I can only assume that when there were only 4 channels the cash available/channel must have been higher.

Although I don't watch much TV, I do have the basic cable TV package and whenever I occasionally flick through the entire available (~80?)channels it is rare that there is more than one thing that I'd consider watching. I use the TV-on-demand to watch the 3-4 non-news programmes/week that I can be bothered to, when it is convenient.

To me, Soap Operas (especially that misery-fest, Eastenders. Coronation St just seems very corny) and talent shows are awful, but a lot of people watch them -for some reason.

ITV1/2….. etc. rarely get a look in our house, not for snobbish reasons, but because the things we do begin to watch on it always seem very amateurish and designed to appeal to Sun readers, which I imagine that they are.

Anyone who thinks TV would be better without the licence fee should be made to watch ITV. A lot!

I'm not sure how the fee is split up but things on the BBC I would miss include:

Anything made by David Attenburgh
Radio 4
Lots of Documentaries; The Art of Russia was probably the last one I watched.
Adam & Joe

Not many dramas on that list though.

All things considered I don't think the Beeb is that bad. It is, after all, "light entertainment". I quite enjoy Silent Witness – it's aesthetically pleasing, easy on the eye and brain and mildly entertaining. The period dramas are really not my thing at all so I don't watch them and I dislike soaps so don't watch them either. ITV does seem to hang its schedules around the mass popularity shows but there is still the odd watchable thing. Red Dahlia was ok although it was not much more sophisticated than a longer than usual episode of Midsummer Murders. And for me Kelly Reilly was rather pleasing on the eye.

You get the odd good documntary but the problem with pretty much anything in print or on the TV you are at the mercy of the angle that the producer is after or the bias that the presenter / writer has. Inevitably this means you can never be sure of the truth of what's happening so you end up taking all of it with a pinch of salt.

For those that like the US shows then yes, I am sure a number of them are very good. However, have you ever watched TV in the States? The series we see over here are the cherry picked nuggets from swathes of turgid, talentless, cringe inducing guff that saturates the broadcast waves. And you can't even play "spot the ad break coming"….

Dr Who has jumped the shark, again.

That's why they bring it back with a new face every few years. But this time, new writers too. It is basically a kids program, though. Despite what interweb nerds would have you believe.

I love the BBC – but do think their recent Drama output is very poor compared to the US

I read an interesting article by a UK TV writer (who has written for the BBC). He basically said the issue was the BBC's choices of what drama to make is too commitee/ management led

The big US dramas get driven by a powerfull writer/ producer – which means an undiluted "vision" is more likely to make it to the screen.

Its a shame – as the BBC is funded by the license fee and not advertisers it should have the freedom to take some risks but it plays it safe time and again. Compare this to HBO in the US who have no ads but are funded by viewers subscription fees.

Having said that there are some good shows

Bodies a few years ago was very good, "the Street" is good. I've not watched "BeingHuman" but I've heard that is good also

Yes, The Street was very good. For some reason I remembered it as being on Channel 4 though!

Criminal Minds wasn't that long ago that was very good tv. American tv excecs meddle by committee to dilute creativity (grieving Dollhouse fan).

Stuff like this set the standard… by which the likes of Spooks fail.

IMO, obviously.

Waking the Dead is excellent, shame they only make six episodes a season.