Is British Televison too 'childish'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10326761.stm

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has criticised British TV saying it is "shocking" how "infantilised" adult programmes have become.

"I'm not saying TV should be pompous and academic, but it should surprise and astonish," he said.

The QI host said BBC shows Merlin and Doctor Who, were "wonderfully written" but "not for adults".

The comedian and writer was speaking at the annual Bafta Television Lecture in London.
Chicken nugget

Fry said: "The only drama the BBC will boast about are Merlin and Doctor Who, which are fine but they're children's programmes. They're not for adults.

"And they're very good children's programmes, don't get me wrong, they're wonderfully written... but they are not for adults.

"They are like a chicken nugget. Every now and again we all like it. Every now and again."

He added: "If you are an adult you want something surprising, savoury, sharp, unusual, cosmopolitan, alien, challenging, complex, ambiguous, possibly even slightly disturbing and wrong," he said.
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"You want to try those things, because that's what being adult means.

"It's children's television, it's entirely infantilised. It's not grown up."

Fry praised US TV, which he said provided "surprise and shock and adulthood".

He also said BBC's comedy shows such as Gavin and Stacey and Little Britain were "very successful", also "unbelievably Balkanised".

"They are set into a particular demographic. This is what I mean by television not being the nation's fireplace. It's just all parcelled and I don't know that there's a solution to it," he added.

I how the pleasure to read comment about this by Steven Fry , He believe that tv in simple terms has been dumped down. It seems to have mist out some of the BBC other fine dramas like " Ashes to ashes" or even Robin hood or are these both for the kids aswell?

Doctor Who and Merlin are clearly very popular in the time slots they're given, especially with families, a viewing category a lot of people tend to forget about nowadays. It's either childrens or adults viewing. 'Family' is more common then people think, and the programmes commented on by Fry fit into it very nicely.

The BBC and ITV are still commissioners of, and producers of, a simply gigantic torrent of content. Hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of hours of television are required every year and still will be, whatever outlets and means of distribution are dreamt up by technologists and cunning corporate clever-clogses.

Now to achieve such a volume of production with any quality, variety, originality and confidence does not require good business executives. It does not require entrepreneurs. It does not require people who can say business model seventeen times in one meeting without blushing. It does not require people who can call writers and producers content-providers without wanting to shoot themselves in writing embarrassment. It does not require people who have gone on courses or people who can tick compliance boxes and fill in risk assessment forms. It doesn't require people with degrees in media studies or people who know how to multi-task or attend conferences or give lectures. It does not require people who either give a toss about what's gone before or people who are ignorant of what's gone before. It does not require people who are afraid. It requires a confident producer class, and that calls for people of real creative talent, intelligence, courage, resource and imagination, for my fear is that almost everyone I have encountered in production in the making of programmes is afraid.