It would seem that 99.9% of UK television is utter garbage, with no real gems to speak of. But within the US market even though 99.9% of their stuff is utter garbage they manage to produce some real good stuff.

It's not about money, budgets or special effects, but about the quality of the scriptwriting. We in the UK always try to substitute our lack of money by our belief in the fact that we "write" better scripts.
But the evidence is to the contrary. We have no real "gems".

What do we have that compares with:

The West Wing
Dexter
The Sopranos
24
Lost
The Simpsons?

The Office perhaps?

We have nothing. I think our superiority complex in the area of writing can’t be backed up by the evidence.

Are we as a nation in fact rubbish at what we hold most dear?

When I saw your topic headline, Tone, I thought you were on about political scriptwriters... the UK is lacking there too.

who cares about sitcoms etc when we get stuff like,

top gear, (the las series was brillant)
planet earth, (enough said)
long way round, ( i cant wait for 'long way down'!)

i'd go on but i think those 3 are better than most of the things you listed (i like lost, even though that doesnt have a script, im pretty sure they just spin the bottle on that one)

danwahlne:

And what about quality drama like The West Wing, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, ER...?

(Someone once commented that the only way you could make Casualty like ER was to video it and watch it on Fast Forward! ER gets more plot and charcterisation into one hour than Casualty does in three.)

they did have stargate sg1 until recently, that ruled.


...


really.

Boston Legal - top non-PC humour, can't believe the American PC brigage haven't put a stop to it.

British TV has been excellent in the past when we think way back to shows like 'Callan' 'The Sandbaggers' and even more recently the docu-drama 'Hitler-The Rise of Evil' with Robert Carlyle was excellent. Unfortunately though the proliferation of reality-tv has debased British TV culture. Paricularly sad has been the decline of ITV, a far cry from the excellent programming of the Lew Grade era. The decline can definately be linked back to the birth of cable/satellite TV. More has definately become less. For the moment the American scriptwriters definately have the advantage.

INDEED DANiel jackson. The last episode sucked though! I was really disappointed.

I can't remember the last UK TV series that I watched and enjoyed.... Red Dwarf and Auf Wiedersehen Pet (not the one in the USA though!!)are the only ones and they were yonks ago!

haha :)

yeah the last episode was a bit of a let down, but the films seem to be shaping up nicely (apparently)

FILMS....WHAT FILMS???

REPLY IMMIDIATELY WITH INFORMATION!!!

:o

Because there was so much support for the continuation of SG1 (rating were still amazingly high when it was cancelled after a 10 year run)- MGM agreed to make 2 dvd movies and possibly more depending on the success.

Stargate sg1: The Ark of Truth -
http://imdb.com/title/tt0942903/

Stargate sg1: Continuum - http://imdb.com/title/tt0929629/
(Richard Dean Anderson will return for this one!)

forgive me for not remembering which order they are going to be released in, im been avoiding any information to prevent myself from reading spoilers.

www.gateworld.net for all your stargate needs!

there is also plans for a whole new show for the franchise "stargate-universe" dealing with the ninth cheveron and all.

I can't say I really spend too much time watching TV but when I do there isn't anything particularly worth watching. I quite like the superficial things though i.e. X Factor. Anything awful and almost guaranteed to lower your IQ after 5 minutes of watching it, and I'm there.

Second Top Gear as being great though. That, the 'F Word', 'Masterchef', 'The Great British Menu', 'Come Dine With Me' and 'Braniac' are all my favourite TV programs. (As well as others. More real life than script writing though.)

I love Will & Grace - and Ugly Betty!

My favourite TV programs, canvas, but they're American too. :(

What about that 'One Man and his Dog' ? Is that what it's called?

You know the one - the farmer whistles - and the dog runs?

Amazing stuff.

OK. this is very unlike me...

but I am going to be very un PC.

Here are the top TV shows in the Middle East:

Not the 9 O'Clock Curfews

It Ain't Half Hot Iman

The Rabbi of Dibley

Kurds of a Feather

Shiites Behaving Badly

Both Feet in the Grave

Baghdad's Army

Bomb and Jerry

Last of the Summer Oil

Are you Being Severed?

Only Jews and Horses

Have I Got Nukes For You

Harry Plotter

Till Death Blow Us Apart

4 Weddings and 8,691 Funerals



(sorry?)

I'm such a rebel LoL

Actually, Only Fool & Horses is a GREAT TV show! Love it!

Cheers Dan, thanks for the tip.

Very clever Canvas - liked that!

DOCTOR WHO!

No real gems to speak of, indeed...