Yet another remake of an English programme

It makes me wonder why they didn't do the same with Heartbeat and The Royal.

I meant what is the sudden craze with americans wanting to remake British shows.

It's probably because lots of Americans have trouble understanding any accent that is not ARMERIKAAN. Notice how even the Africans on "Life is Wild" all have American accents! Remember Mad Max (Australian movie from 1979) starring Mel Gibson? When it was released in America the voices were dubbed by US performers because the distributors felt that American audiences would not be able to identify with the characters. Considering that Australians regularly watch shows from the UK and America and have no problems with the accents, I'm never sure why the American ear should be so fickle. Afterall, the US comprises many different ethnic and geographical accent groups herself. There is really no single "stock standard" American accent.

An objective look at UK vs. US television programming could perhaps be distilled into very simple observations:
* quality vs. quantity
* Paying for script development values rather than putting the budget into attacting mediocre actors for their "star/celebity" status.
* With that same budget, a focus on production values. I think U.K. producers work best when they are making period pieces and are able to carry off sucessfully the look and feel of the time they are set in.
* The BBC & ITV at least finish their series/seasons because they have commissioned 6 or so episodes and then decide upon the success of such when considering the commisioning of a new series/season. How many times have you found yourself sitting down to tune into a US season, even if it takes a few episodes to get into it, only to find the show has been cancelled mid way through.
* A theory and an opinion of mine was that during the recent Screen Writer's strike, many US networks re-ran previously cancelled series to discover that there was actually a life in them, particularly if they hadn't killed them off prematurely.
* During the same US Writer's strike, producer's scrambled to the UK to sign up for licencing rights to whatever UK programmes they could get their hands on to ameliorate the effects the strike was having on their industry.
* The most successful UK tv series are the ones which have been produced with their audiences in mind, and consequently haven't been dumbed down. There are however, a couple of exceptions which both the BBC and ITV have produced with a US market in mind, and in my mind have been diabolical.

I deliberately haven't cited any examples, however I could have and it would have make this post far longer than intended.

In summary, why bother with remakes of UK programmes, dare to be original and efficient while you are doing it. My favourite US programmes are usually the ones doing just that and are not dumbed down remakes.

ciao et cheers

et tu Brute!

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)