Years and years

Torchwood (although probably coming under the same category as Doctor Who) did pretty well - especially Series 3...

Then they Americanised it for series 4. Bull Pullman's creepyness was probably the only good thing about that series. He put in a stunning performance, pretty much everything else was awful.

Interestingly it is due to air on HBO from the 24th June (shouldn't really be surprised, most dramas are co-productions nowadays). With it's poor ratings in the UK you wonder if they may pull it from it originally planned slot.

I think the reason it's flopped is quite simple really - the news does it better.

I’m enjoying it too, but I can see why it’s got poor ratings. It’s just a bit too ‘technical’ if you get my drift. I’d forgotten A Very English Scandal was an RTD series too. That was excellent, but I find the rest of his stuff a bit too ‘agenda pushing’ rather like some of Richard Curtis’s more recent stuff. Years and Years is the same, but the originality of the idea outweighs that for me.

For real off the wall stuff, try Summer of Rockets BBC2 on Wednesdays

Years and Years is brilliant and I’m really surprised it’s rated so poorly. Understand the “box-ticking” aspect may put some off but it’s all pretty central to the plot (ie the rise of fascism linked to marginalisation / oppression of minorities etc). Suspect it’s leading up to something big once Viv Rook is elected PM.

BBC One are damned if the do and damned if they don't when it come to drama. They're criticised for being either too crowdpleasing and not taking risks or too niche and not pulling in enough viewers!

Watching Years and Years reminds me: why is it that "newsreader"/"TV journalist" seem to be roles that no-one - actors or writers - ever seems to get right on TV?

I notice that too. It always seems somewhat off. The actors either try too hard or not hard enough, while the writers seem to put rather atypical words into their lines, that of which seem significantly inaccurate and unnatural.

Must admit I'm not a fan of using real presenters and real graphics in dramas - and it is a relative new thing too.

It's not that new. Bob Friend played himself in the original Mission: Impossible film 23 years ago and Bergerac (38 years ago, good grief - I was in it when I was 6) occasionally used real Channel TV newsreaders, and those are just off the top of my head so I'm sure there are earlier examples.

Used to be the exception rather than the rule. Now seems to be the norm.

It used to be the fact that having real presenters would make the drama more realistic and relatable (which is fair enough in and of itself) but recently, it has become more of a gimmick and has become rather expected of in drama these days.