Robin Hood

Cant see a thread about this but is anyone going to watch it on Saturday night? Its on for a 13 week run and is aimed at a family audience. Apparently it cost £8million to make.

I'll give it a try. Things are looking up for BBC1's Saturday schedule and this series will fill the gap until the next series of Doctor Who.

That and Strictly Come Dancing will be on Saturday nights right upto Christmas more or less. I hope it's a success purely to show that there is an audience for programmes other than 'vote them off shows' on a Saturday.

I've been watching downloaded copies of US shows recently, as their networks seem to be having a particularly good season this time.

When you look at the sheer volume of high quality programming the channels there are putting out right now, then you look at 2 or 3 half-decent programmes here, you have to despair at what has happened to British TV.

They have Heroes, Jericho, Vanished, The Nine, Six Degrees, Dexter (one of the most intriguing shows I've seen in quite a while), Runaway and many others just as first-runs this season. What do we have? The eleventy-fifth version of Robin Hood, dire Robson Green police dramas on ITV (with I'm sure a big pile of other soap-reject "thrillers" to follow) and a load of tired old formats on both sides coming back. Yes Cracker, Dr Who, Spooks et al are good shows, but where is the originality at the moment?

We used to be good at this stuff. British TV is dying, and it pains me. I never used to be bothered with much US TV but they're getting it together just as we're sinking like a stone.

What do you make of Heroes? The media in America were talking about Friday Night Lights and Studio 60 being the big shows on NBC this season and yet this show came out of nowhere for the network and became a hit.

I can't wait to see an Irishman attempt an Nottingham accent. It wasn't even filmed around Sherwood Forest I hope BBC can make a better job of it than ITV did way back when

This morning on Breakfast he was either staying in character, or he wasn't brought up in Ireland, judging by his accent.



Next you'll be telling me Doctor Who wasn't shot in the year five billion!

David

I think the key to all this is money. The American networks broadcast to a huge population and so are inevitably going to get a vast amount more income than any programme-maker in the UK where advertising revenues are falling, and the BBC is being forced to cut back on spending.

What's more surprising is that American TV seems to have only started getting its act together making big, quality programmes in the last few years.

It is fair comment Spencer For Hire, but the thing is that you don't really need lots of money to be original. The groundbreaking British programmes of the past were often made on microscopic budgets, and some of the US stuff isn't particularly expensive (Dexter being a prime example -- forensics expert who doubles as psychopathic serial killer -- morally questionable but compulsive viewing).

The British networks seem to be blowing what are quite large sums of money on safe concepts, rather than pushing out lots of cheaper but edgier material and seeing what sticks, which we used to excel at.

As for Heroes, I've only seen the pilot so far, it's a good programme, with some really interesting characters, possibly a little too much like The 4400 (another cheap US cable programme that manages to be really quite innovative at times) but it shows promise.

Well it would be impossible to film Doctor Who in the year five billion-- don't if you've noticed but time-travel hasn't been invented yet ! It is just a shame they couldn't film it around Sherwood Forest for authenticity though.

I have read in a couple of places that the actor comes from Ireland, I maybe wrong. From the trailer I've just seen, he does sound as though he is trying to emulate a Notts accent!

NBC IS CRAP!!!... I just had to vent my fustrations!!!!

No, I agree with you, NBC is crap. They don't know how to handle new shows (such as Studio 60 which is an appalling match for Heroes on Mondays). It all comes down to lack of audience/budget, although an enormously expensive show like Studio60 is getting only 2million more viewers than Spooks now. There's a new show coming to BBC One soon about the British Ambassador to the U.S. which looks really good (and with high production values), but it's a shame these shows (much like State of Play) are few and far between, and tend to have short runs. I'd love to see some 22-part series in the UK.

I'm a bit confused over something. Blue Peter has a behind the scenes on Robin hood where new presenter Andy had a bit part as an archer.

Historically speaking would the have been Afro Caribbeans in the UK at the time of Robin hood?