Five Reasons Why I Love To Watch BBC America On The Telly
I’ll admit that I’ve been fascinated by British culture for a long time. I’ve loved The Beatles as long as I can remember, and I’ll argue any day that much of the best music ever made has come from the UK. When other kids wanted to be superheroes, I wanted to be James Bond. But for too many years I thought British television consisted of stuffy period pieces about old people with old money. That’s what Masterpiece Theatre taught me until I discovered BBC America.
I first watched BBC America a few years back when they premiered Gordon Ramsay’s excellent food series The F-Word. I also discovered Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares long before the U.S. version premiered. As I watched those programs, I saw promos for other BBC America shows, and I began to explore. Soon I was hooked and now BBC America is one of my regular TV destinations.
And here are the five reasons why I love to watch BBC America on “the telly.”
5. Terrific Personalities
BBC America’s slogan boasts “The Best Names In British Television,” and I’ve been pleased to get to know many of them through their shows. There are plenty of amazing actors and actresses playing compelling characters on the network’s series.
The cast of The Hour – a series, which recently ended but is now available on DVD, set at a BBC News program in 1956
Dominic West, Ben Whishaw, and Romola Garai of "The Hour"
– is a prime example of the great talents that BBC America has to offer. I’ve fallen in love with Romola Garai, who stars as the good natured yet determined news producer Bel Rowley. I appreciate Dominic West’s honest performance as news host Hector Madden, and I feel every bit of the nervousness in Ben Whishaw’s portrayal of reporter Freddie Lyon.
I’m also head over heels for Law & Order: UK’s Freema Agyeman, who plays Crown Prosecutor Alesha Philips, and Bradley Walsh is as good as the late Jerry Orbach at portraying the grizzled, jaded veteran detective on that show. The guys from Top Gear — Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May — are fun and informative, and they’re more entertaining than the hosts of the U.S. version. And then there’s Gordon Ramsay. I truly think that even viewers who are turned off by his loud antics on Hell’s Kitchen would be impressed by his passion for cooking and great cuisine on The F-Word.
4. A Really Cool Website
I’m aware that it may be a bit strange to go on about a network’s website as part of the reason why I like to watch them, but let me explain. The more I watch BBC America, the more I’m driven to their website, which in turns makes me want to watch BBC America even more.
The logo to BBC America's "Anglophenia" blog
BBC America’s website is a comprehensive, well done source of information. In addition to the UK news and British celebrity gossip, the site has extensive pages devoted to each BBC America show, along with pages about shows that are no longer on the network and previews of coming attractions. Each page contains episode summaries, video clips, and information about the series’ characters and the actors and actresses who play them. Some of the pages even offer handy explanations of UK slang.
What really sets BBCAmerica.com apart are the blogs, which are must-reads for Anglophiles like me. The bloggers share tons of tidbits about British culture, and they often good-naturedly “out” celebrities that most people didn’t know were British. The blogs feature list posts (so near and dear to my heart) about British culture and its differences from and similarities to American culture. I’ve had fun learning about the UK from the BBC America website.
Next: Do TV seasons really need to be 22 episodes? Why not six?
I’ve seen a few episodes of “MI5″ from England, but was not sure it was a BBC production or an independent TV show. But it is interesting and has a lot of good twists that you do not expect. You may want to give it a try if you’re looking for something different now that “24″ is over. I think all the shows can be found on DVD.
British TV is worth checking out. I like iTV as well and enjoy “Doc Martin”, “Foyle’s War”, “Blue Murder”, “Life on Mars”, “Lewis, and “Inspector Lynley”. And Robbie Coltrane in “Cracker”? A force of nature. At my local B&N there is a young man who is extremely bright, remembers every customer, what they have bought and makes great recommendations.
“Law & Order:UK” is quite good…the Crown prosecutors know their stuff..also like “Downton Abbey” I am usually able to stream both of them from online websites the next day after they appear on BBC America
It was all I could do to sit through the entire 7 episode run of “Britain’s Worst Driver” on BBC Canada a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the program (though it didn’t compare to the much better ‘Canada’s Worst Driver’ spinoff that’s now in its 7th season). It was all the commercials for other British shows that came at every commercial break. Besides “Doctor Gay” – oops, I mean “Doctor Who” – it seemed to be nothing but men in drag and over the top, lisping homosexuals. The overall impression was of permanent, irreversible degeneracy. I haven’t watched the channel since, and have no interest in doing so again.
In the UK “MI5″ is known as “Sp00ks” but for obvious reasons the name had to be changed for the American market.
Top Gear is one of my favorite TV shows. I’m amazed Jeremy Clarkson hasn’t been fired from the BBC, considering the shots he’s taken at Labour politicians, the EU, and an assortment of left-wing causes!
On the other hand, British series generally run six episodes a season. This phenomenon can be attributed to the smaller creative teams working on programs in the UK, as well as the longer length of shows, since British television series are not sponsored.
I’m not sure what the author means when he (or is Chris short for Christine?) says British TV series are “not sponsored”. It looks like he may mean that hourlong shows actually run an hour, not 40 minutes plus 20 minutes of commercials like American shows. If he’s trying to imply that there are no commercials on British TV, that is only partly right. The BBC channels have no commercials but the others, like ITV and Channel 4, do have commercials.
I should explain that I’m only talking about what people in Britain experience. I haven’t seen BBC America and I don’t know if THEY show commercials or if they run everything commercial-free in exchange for whatever fee you pay your cable company for that channel.
British TV runs on American channels in 2 forms. On the one hand, for many years the only way to see British TV here in the states was on PBS, our “Public Broadcasting System”, a moribund network sponsored by the government, and run without commercials. Its audience famously skews left and wealthy, which of course means the poor ignore it, and conservatives are angry it’s subsidized. Recently, we’ve had BBC America, which seems to be a private entity over here. As I understand it, BBC in the UK is a government entity at some level, paid for by taxpayers somehow. Here in the States it’s a profit-making enterprise, with commercial breaks like any other network on cable.
Fans of Dominic West, who is mentioned favourably in the article, should also check out an American series that, in my considered opinion, is the best TV series that has ever aired, namely The Wire. IMDB (The Internet Movie Data Base) rates it at 9.6 (based on over 40,000 ratings from viewers), which is the highest I’ve ever seen for anything listed on IMDB. West was the first-billed star of that series.
The BBC continues to a source of the very best. Look up their vintage production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream and watch young Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren play it to the hilt. Many novels are edited down to a short story for a two hour feature. Often Hollywood just can’t pull it off. BBC was smart enough to realize Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was already ruthlessly edited by the author. They used five hours to do the classic justice with smart casting and a production that is unlikely to ever be matched. Most Americans have never seen the Richard Sharpe series about a British rifleman in Wellington’s army. Check it out. Let’s hope they keep doing stuff Hollywood could never do. And often on very tight budgets.
I don’t do the TV thing anymore but I do remember some very good BBC sitcoms and series, beside the obvious Monty Python. Short list: Are You Being Served, I, Claudius, Danger UXB, Reilly, Ace of Spys and the earlier Dr. Who series, especially the Tom Baker years.
Watching “Law & Order: UK” is sort of surreal, in that they’ve lifted the scripts (or at least stories) from the first couple of seasons of the NY-based show. The result is a rather strange “echo” effect, where the settings and characters are very different, but at times (if you were a devoted fan of the old “L&O”) you can guess what’s going to happen next. An example would be in a recent episode, where the new guy detective told a black suspect–sarcastically–that he would get a vacation to someplace for every black suspect he got sent to prison. There was a similar incident in an early “Law & Order” episode.
“Sherlock” a modern taken on Sherlock Holmes is fantastic. They made three episodes, and they are in the middle of making 3 more. Just brilliant stuff
BBC America can be watch by people with intelligence. American TV has been dumbed down to match the products coming from the gov’t school systems.
I also like that they are not so obvious on protecting minorities. On BBC America shows the bad guys can be ‘asian’, something that you will never see on a US show [that is one of my main problems with the NCIS shows -- every terrorist is a WASP, every islamic is a misunderstood victim of prejudice]
BBC America can be watch by people with intelligence. American TV has been dumbed down to match the products coming from the gov’t school systems.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the “Big Four” network shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox have been dumbed down. The smaller cable networks, like HBO, USA, FX, etc. are a vastly different story.
Personally, I find that there is very little I watch on the Big Four any more and even then, it is just because the shows I really like from the cable networks are on hiatus. So I watch some Big Four sitcoms and dramas but I’m mostly just marking time until the Good Stuff, like Sons of Anarchy, Damages, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter, Justified, Treme, etc. have produced new episodes.
Utter drivel and tommyrot. If it has a British accent, I flush it.
Two slightly older British comedy series are “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister”. Some of the funniest and absolutely dead-on satire of UK government (and government in general) with continuous pokes at the Civil Service. See all the excerpts on YouTube. Here’s one of their best bits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M
Also look for clips of “Beyond the Fringe” and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (yes, Moore had a successful career before “10″ and “Arthur”). Also see Cook and Moore’s version of “Bedazzled” (the ORIGINAL).
wo slightly older British comedy series are “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister”. Some of the funniest and absolutely dead-on satire of UK government (and government in general) with continuous pokes at the Civil Service. See all the excerpts on YouTube. Here’s one of their best bits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M
Spot on! as the Brits would say
I have both sets on DVD and consider them the absolute best comedies ever to have aired (just as I consider The Wire the best drama ever aired).
The bonus features are particularly illuminating because the writers explain that some of the most outrageous-looking scenes from the series are actually based on real-life incidents that were reported confidentially to them by retired civil servants. Therefore, anyone thinking that they are seeing farce should reconsider and recognize that they are seeing something that is actually far closer to factual than they would first imagine.
The Brits do mysteries better than anyone. Currently “Whitechapel” is running each week on BBC-America and every episode has been thrilling. Kudos to them.
Where BBC-A falls flat on its face is with news. Copying their home market style, they offer 2% facts and 98% opinion, the same as is readily available with CBS, CNN, ABC and NBC. If they would reverse that ratio they might gain a niche in the market, but then that wouldn’t support their ultimate goal.
Aside from Top Gear, which can be terribly anti-American (even aside from the unending japery) I can’t watch any BBC at all.
I have been a British TV fan for years, starting of course with Monty Python, then MI-5 (SpOOks), which to me was a more intelligent ’24′, but has gotten a bit long in the tooth. I agree that the six-episode season contributes to a higher quality show with consistent intensity through each episode. “The Hour” was amazing, as was “Downton Abbey” (which showed on PBS). “The IT Crowd” is my favorite sitcom ever, mostly because of the genius of Richard Ayoade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIFzBGUmiso&feature=related
You’re not the only BBC America fan. My cybersweetie Janet in Texas loves the crazy comedy was waithing for a liver transplant and feeling realy down thinking she might not make it, I called one night and after a bit of chatter spent an hour reciting the sketches from the original verspon of Little Britain. We also used to talk about Dr. Who, The Fast Show which I think was broadcast as “Brilliant”, Father Ted and others shows.
She and her new liver are doing well now.
British movies, made-for-tv films and tv one-off mini-series are wonderful: Poldark, from the 70s, is still state of the art in casting and writing. Made-for-tv films are especially good. Saw “Page Eight” a few months ago, a tv spy movie that should be coming to America about now; really liked it – smart cast and dialogue.
The TV shows are horrible.
Yeah, the put out some good stuff, but they’re incredibly lazy. A full season for a half-hour comedy runs for only 6 episodes.
Love the BBC shows! Currently enjoying “Downton Abbey” – really great tv; the difference lies in the intelligent writing. Almost nothing like that here.
I’m afraid ‘The Hour’ is crap, just like ‘Mad Men’ is crap. These are two of the worst TV shows masquerading as something ‘worthy’ I’ve ever seen. Both look beautiful, but that’s it.
two words:
TOP GEAR
simply the most entertaining ‘guy show’ ever made. no nudity, rare low grade foul language. ANY guy would LOVE to trade place with these blokes. It is a never ending paean to the world of men that we create for ourselves in our mind. it could be any stupid dopey guyventure that i have participated in. it is the distilled essence of innumerable barstool tales.
sadly the american versions are but a firecracker compared to hotel mike
BBCA = CRAP.
Appeals to adolescents via Top Gear and culture wannabees via everything else. Can’t stand thirty seconds of it. Just the sound of a British accent has become to me what kryptonite is to Superman.
I have always loved British comedies, from Monty Python to Last of the Summer Wine. I sometimes come across a show that is new to me, but has been on for years or even decades. If I am lucky, the local library has it on DVD and I can obsess about it. Sami-comedic shows such as Hustle also keep me amused.
I can’t say that I care as much for their other programming. Gordon whatsit the food nazi just annoys me; I don’t get what is enjoyable about watching someone be abusive because they have a position of power over others. The BBC news is just as pathetic as US mainstream news, with the added fillip of a strong anti-Semitic streak and what feels like an anti-American blame-America-first tendency even stronger than MSNBC.
Wow…where to start…BBC drama is …so good
Start with collision …the enemy within …rebus….messiah…five daughters….downton abbey…
Intelligence (Canadian ) the stuff is amazing …prime suspect …cracker…just amazing
He kills coppers…the killing…yes it’s BBC…pillars of the earth…five days…spooks …zen
You can find lots of this on you tube and Netflix
BBC America News has replaced the American entertainment/media in our home. Top Gear remains more entertaining than anything from America, their comedy is more intellectually satisfying and their dramas are cerebral while ours are visceral.