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Foreign drama thread (BBC4, C4's Walter Pres, Sky Arts etc)

(October 2014)

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DV
dvboy
Sky Atlantic announce season 2 of The Tunnel
http://www.sky.com/tv/show/the-tunnel/article/debris
WH
whoiam989
Lots of discussions about European dramas going on here. But what about East Asian dramas?
NG
noggin Founding member
Lots of discussions about European dramas going on here. But what about East Asian dramas?


I guess they aren't being discussed because they haven't broken through on the main UK broadcast outlets, and are tricky to get via European satellite for the more adventurous?
WH
whoiam989
I see. What should the broadcasters do to start with? Should they convince BBC Four to air theirs?
LL
London Lite Founding member
There's a market in the UK for the Scandinavian dramas. French drama Spiral is co-financed between Canal+ and the BBC.
WH
whoiam989
There's a market in the UK for the Scandinavian dramas. French drama Spiral is co-financed between Canal+ and the BBC.

No market for Chinese, Korean and Japanese dramas in the UK, then?

Are there fans of Asian dramas in the UK?
:-(
A former member
The last one was monkey?

28 days later

DV
dvboy
Hostages has appeared on the BBC Four listings as a 2100/2200 double bill on Sat 21st Feb. Looks to be 10 episodes, so presumably will run for 5 weeks if they continue the usually double-billing.


Looks like they wanted to wrap it up quickly and did the last six episodes in three-episode chunks. With Hostages finished last night (I have episodes to catch up on), BBC 4 are showing a repeat of Inspector Montalbano in the Saturday 9pm slot next weekend.

Meanwhile, new Italian drama '1992' starts on Tuesday 24th on Sky Arts 1, at the same time it debuts on Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland.
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/sky-set-to-give-italo-tv-drama-1992-multi-territory-launch-following-its-berlin-bow-1201424788/
DV
dvboy
There's a market in the UK for the Scandinavian dramas. French drama Spiral is co-financed between Canal+ and the BBC.

No market for Chinese, Korean and Japanese dramas in the UK, then?

Are there fans of Asian dramas in the UK?


Far Eastern films certainly get airings, usually on Channel 4/Film4.
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
In contrast to the cinema of those countries, I'm not sure much of the TV drama would find an audience here. In Japan, broadly speaking NHK specialises in period dramas and the commercial channels tend to make light rom-coms. South Korea is well-known for its sentimental soaps, very similar to Latin America's telenovelas - they are popular across SE Asia but they're not exactly something you'd put on BBC Four.

Still, I'm sure there must be some hidden gems in there somewhere and I'd love to see something from East Asia over here - after all, a decade ago nobody would have expected Scandinavian drama to be the success it is in the UK.
NG
noggin Founding member
In contrast to the cinema of those countries, I'm not sure much of the TV drama would find an audience here. In Japan, broadly speaking NHK specialises in period dramas and the commercial channels tend to make light rom-coms. South Korea is well-known for its sentimental soaps, very similar to Latin America's telenovelas - they are popular across SE Asia but they're not exactly something you'd put on BBC Four.

Still, I'm sure there must be some hidden gems in there somewhere and I'd love to see something from East Asia over here - after all, a decade ago nobody would have expected Scandinavian drama to be the success it is in the UK.


Yep - I got into a couple of Doramas back in the day - Train Man for instance, but they are a very different beast to anything we regularly see here. Far less common ground than the Nordic Noir stuff.
JA
JAS84
In contrast to the cinema of those countries, I'm not sure much of the TV drama would find an audience here. In Japan, broadly speaking NHK specialises in period dramas and the commercial channels tend to make light rom-coms. South Korea is well-known for its sentimental soaps, very similar to Latin America's telenovelas - they are popular across SE Asia but they're not exactly something you'd put on BBC Four.

Still, I'm sure there must be some hidden gems in there somewhere and I'd love to see something from East Asia over here - after all, a decade ago nobody would have expected Scandinavian drama to be the success it is in the UK.
There also seems to be fair amount of shows relying on a singer to bring in the audience. Those singers, of course, are highly likely to be unknown here.

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