I think there are strong merits in Deron’s original thoughts. The standard and quality of British Television has diminished greatly over the past 10 years, thanks in no small part what i’ll call the “Simon Cowell Factor”. British networks have realised reality television, although never really scratching the cerebral itch, is cheap and populist, and as such matches the expectations of those who need ratings (the BBC) and those who needs advertising revenues.

What frustrates me is that American television is prepared to push the boundaries in the drama it creates, whereas British drama seems now to stick to tried and tested formulae. Programmes such as 6 feet under, The West Wing, Sopranos, Heroes & now Dexter all became (or have become) event television for me, all incredibly brave and utterly different in their own way. British Television executives seem happy to stick to Crime stories of one sort or another or period drama – i get quite concerned that people still have a perception of England as some sort of Dickensian timewarp – and i find them tiresome.

We do have some quality drama, but whereas American drama can be introduced to other audiences, quality British drama is almost entirely parochial. Shameless (Channel 4) is a classic example of this; a programme so British in essence it simply wouldn’t make sense to anyone outside of these shores. Other examples of this sort of programming are available, but they are becoming rarer and rarer; it’s cheaper for Britain to import American drama – it’s more expensive than we are able to produce and fulfills the needs of the mass audience. Sadly, this is inevitable at the behest of the contemporary British scriptwriter, who cannot get his vision made because the budgets for drama have been spent on buying the rights for Heroes, or something similar.

Masterpiece Theater will ocntinue to do well, because the owrk is timeless and there will always be a requirement for quality period drama in Britain, but this needs to work alongside the likes of Life on Mars, Spooks, Prime Suspect, Shameless et al, certainly not in place of it, which i rather fear is the way it’s going at present.

Out with it. I am one of those Prisoner aficionados. Not so bad as once-upon-a-time. No longer sport a button bearing the trademark image of the penny-farthing bicycle. But you could get me going with just the least little reference.

Matter of fact . . . No. No. No, Sheila. Don’t go there.

“Be seeing you.”

The Prisoner from the 1960′s is another good British series. They should re-run that instead of showing that new Dr. Who shite.

And no, I’m not talking about historically. I’m just talking about tv.