UK shows are held back

I have noticed that many UK Tv shows are made weeks, months in advance
and even programmers produced last years are just getting around to being shown on tv, like mike reids last tv show before he died.

Unlike here, when the US writers strike happened the USA had Problem in filling the timeslots, as it seem that over in the US there make the show and then ship it out to be broadcast within 7 days

So thanks to that way of doing stuff there had nothing to fall back on, If UK ever had one there be alot of programmers spare I dare say for at least 6 months.

I don;t understand why in the UK there are held back so much, even the soaps are what 2 months worth in the vaults?

Editing? Finding scheduling slots? Maybe I'm misreading you but are you seriously telling me you don't understand that?

In the case of Mike Reid's The Baron, obviously they had to have 'all clear' from friends and family first on whether to air it.

I'm unsure about the USA but I don't know if we should take example of their scheduling methods in that case.

Even then there could still speed the processes up, to get editing done,

Finding a slot?
there only done two - three weeks in advance, with pushing daisy There could have show two episodes last night instead of that film,

Can't say I agree with you there, I'm pleased they showed American Pie 2, which I would have enjoyed more if the ITV News, Weather and Regional Weather didn't cut it up half way through.

Generally, yes shows are kept for while before they are broadcast, but in a way I guess it is better to be organised in advance. That way should problems arise such as news events requiring storyline changes, or a writers strike, the networks have enough time to resolve the problems without causing any major disruption to the schedules.

American networks on the whole, with a few exceptions here and there, tend to have much longer season runs that are spread over a series of about eight months. An average season last about 22 episodes in America, whereas a UK production usually lasts 6-13 episodes for a regular series, if that.

American productions use big teams of writers in order to cope with a 22 episode run, whereas a British commission is usually handled by two or three writers (often the creators of said show themselves) as opposed to being farmed out to members of a writing union.

If the UK was ever to see a strike similar to the Writer's Guide of America strike then we'd have such a big backlog of ready-made programmes we'd probably never notice it on screen, though I suppose the BBC and ITV would pull out the stops to keep EastEnders and Coronation Street going.

Because the UK has much shorter runs of episodes, we naturally end up building up a surplus - American programming is often recorded a week or two in advance of its airdate, sometimes longer. We tend to record the lot in one block a good few months ahead of transmission date. If planned well a six episode run could probably be done in three weeks depending on complexity and logistics, freeing up the actors to go and do something else.

Well from that BBC inside show we did found out that Catchphrase made about 26 epsoide in about two weeks.

Also I take it this all goes back to studio space? STV made Wheel of fortune and Fun house and both used studio 1 in Glasgow. which mean block fliming speeds things up,

I propose filming all soaps 3 days before they are shown on air.

Cast members who are ill can be covered for by members of the production team. Nobody will notice if they wear the same clothes.

Editors who take longer than an hour to put the episode together will be whipped.

Christmas episodes will be different however. To keep things topical and to bring the Christmas spirit to life, they will be done live. Who cares about the unions?

now you just being Pardantic,

Other countries coupe will when people are of sick.

I can only think of 'pedantic'. How? And were absent cast members the only reason I cited?

It's usual to have a whole series of say a sit-com in the can before showing the first episode. That way publicity stills for the whole series can be released, and if a cast member suddenly becomes unavailable through illness or worse it doesn't cause big problems, it just delays the series.

This doesn't make any sense.
If the entire show has been recorded and publicity stills done, what does it matter whether somebody falls ill or not? The show's coming off tape anyway so the well-being of the performers is irrelevant.

I could never understand why Neighbours films so far in advance. It's shot months before its Australian broadcast, while most UK soaps are filmed a matter of weeks before transmission.