So, the Aussie soaps are as estabhlished here as any UK equivalent, while alot of our channels rely on American imports to boost their schedule, but what about UK shows abroad?
We all know that formats such as The Weakest Link, Millionaire and Pop Idol have been sold around the world, but I want to talk more about shows produced for UK television being screened around the world.
So why do American's insist on remaking British programming rather than screening the originals?
And how does UK television travel - are our soaps as estabhlished in Australia as Neighbours and Home and Away is here?
And no, we're not just talking about BBC America - have any of the big US networks ever screen a British series?
A US network shows Eastenders and has a huge fan-base over there, and Coronation Street is also shown in America and Canada.
Night and Day is still being aired in Australia AFAIK so at least one of our soaps made it over there. Emmerdale is shown in Sweden too. I'm A Celebrity was sold to America too and there's an American network that shows the ITV Evening News.
With things like "Millionaire" you have to remake it, obviously, with American contestants. Other things need to be dumbed down a hell of a lot for them to understand it, and not forgetting the slight problem - the American people can't understand our "strange accents" ... grr.
Take tonight on ABC. They're showing "The League of Gentlemen", "At Home with the Braithwaites" and "My Family". "The Bill" is on Saturday night. A Robbie Williams concert is on Sunday afternoon on Nine.
Well from what I heard Coronation Street and The Bill are rather popular in Austraila. I don't believe since The Avengers, a proper British show has been on Prime Time, Mainstream American TV. I am pretty certain that PBS still shows a fair amount of British TV, including the Teletubbies. But I'd say BBC America has helped a bit in bringing more British shows to the states, such as Father Ted, Inspector Morse, Ground Force, Changing Rooms, Eastenders. From what I know Coronation Street is no longer shown in the US, but it is very popular in Canada and so are some other British shows, Bob and Margaret for one, even though that was made for Channel 4 and Channel 4 no longer want it, Global (In Canada) still make episodes of it. (Which are currently being shown on FTN)
Faking it!
was shown in The Netherlands this summer. Just like some programmes for children (like Fireman Sam). But also
Keeping up the appearances
is shown over here.
Banzai was shown on Fox over the summer, with some American segments inserted.
It was also screened in Canada on CityTV, but they gave us the Channel 4 version, without the American segments inserted in. Also, ours was in 14:9 letterbox while the Fox one was 4:3
All 4 series' of the BBC sitcom "My Family" have been screened on a Canadian cable network called YTV. The also air re-runs of "Are You Being Served?" and "Keeping Up Appearances"
Angelmouse is a kids TV series made by Silver Fox Films and BBC Worldwide. First shown in the UK in 1999, it frequently pops up here on the CBeebies channel and on the BBC's overseas networks, as well as being licenced to other TV companies in (as far as I know) Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Poland (where it's called Mysz-Aniołek), Portugal, Singapore and Taiwan.
Don't forget that Spatz was a co-production by Thames Television and a Canadian Cable network. I guess alot of kids shows are produced with stations in other countries. I know there's a show on 4 Learning, which is co-produced by 20 other channels around the world and Channel 4. It has a strange endcap BTW.
I was also told sometime ago that Trigger Happy TV was shown on German TV, but dubbed into German obviously.
On the TVNZ channel at 1pm weekdays. Now somewhere in Mark III. Dunno what they're gonna do when those run out, apparently it's popular down there, I fancy a repeat for the hell of it. TVNZ also shows a hell of a lot of British programming from their schedule.
