I've knew an Italian guy a few years back and his favourite programme was their version of "Don't Forget Your Toothbrush," or "Non Dimenticare la Vostra Spazzola del Dente" as it's probably known.
>Is it? Has it ever been? When did it cease to be?
>
>I only have a few cream-of-the-crop imports to go by - can anyone who has spent a decent amount of time in a foreign country give us a considered comparison?
Well Ewar, here's my 2 cents.
I have always considered British television, particularly that made by the BBC to be superior to anything the rest of the world can muster. I'm talking about an overall level of quality BTW, because believe me us Australians have made some class TV, just not as much as you British.
The problem is it's very hard to tell when you don't see the full picture. When I arrived in Britain last year I fully expected TV to be brilliant. It wasn't. We only get the better British stuff in Australia. Not necessarily the best, we never got any of Chris Morris' series for example. The same can be said for American programmes.
However, I still think you British can be rightly proud to have had the best television in the past, if not the present. Why? Well Australian TV has always tried to replicate the best of British and American TV. Very rarely have we been able to create a unique product because as a "young nation" we've felt as we've needed to learn from the rest of the world. A nice theory, but not one that leads to original and exciting television most of the time.
In conclusion I think British TV if compared to the TV of other nations over the past 40 years is still number 1. But it's got a bit shit lately. In the past 5 years especially.
I'd say Australia does have some very good quality broadcasting, but overall none of the British TV networks can be matched.
I would say that the most similar TV network to the BBC would be ABC Australia or perhaps RTE in Eire.
The French do have very good TV services and DW from Germany is a very high quality service, as is N24 (the German 24 hour news network).
But overall I would say that in like for like comparisons we are closer to the Australians than any other country, in terms of broadcasting.
Brazil have a very good national TV service too.
The Americans have ability, CNN especially, when it comes to breaking news, but at all other times I wouldn't touch an American news service, regardless of the fact that I worked for one.
CNN, at most times, remains the Chicken Noodle Network it was at launch.
>But overall I would say that in like for like comparisons we are closer to the Australians than any other country, in terms of broadcasting.
That's because the ABC buys all the good stuff from British television, not just BBC, but ITV and C4 stuff too. The ABC shows everything from The Bill to Keeping Up Apperances to KMKYWAP to worthy documentary series and cooking shows.
But when was the last time the BBC or any British network showed The Games, The Micallef Programme or SeaChange? These are three of the better Aussie programmes of recent years which could easily find a place on a mainstream British network.
I'm not saying they should air these programmes but think about the imports currently on British TV. It's all American isn't it? Except for crap Aussie soaps. I'd love to know whether British TV executives get offered the best of broadcasting from other countries. And why, when they are clearly better than a lot of American programmes, they turn them down.
Any thoughts?
someone sent me a script book of The Games and it WAS fucking funny.
>someone sent me a script book of The Games and it WAS fucking funny.
Go and get the videos, they're even better - http://shop.abc.net.au/
>But when was the last time the BBC or any British network showed The
> Games, The Micallef Programme or SeaChange? These are three of the better
> Aussie programmes of recent years which could easily find a place on a
> mainstream British network.
The Micallef Programme is on most nights on Paramoutn Comedy. Not really a
mainstream channel, but popular.
> can anyone who has spent a decent amount of time in a foreign country give us a considered comparison?
I can do a (brief) comparison to Hong Kong's TV networks, which show a sparse littering of British and American imported shows amongst their own news and current affairs.
The shows recorded in HK look as though they were made in someone's livingroom.
Ally Mcbeal and Friends were the real high points in the week. I usually had in excess of 12 people gathered to watch it in my flat, moaning about how much they missed TV in the UK.
We all got tapes of one thing or another sent over to us - Eastenders was a popular choice, as were british comedy shows, which did the rounds of everyone I knew. It helped us to cope.
>I can do a (brief) comparison to Hong Kong's TV networks, which show a sparse littering of British and American imported shows amongst their own news and current affairs.
>The shows recorded in HK look as though they were made in someone's livingroom.
I once toured some TV studios in Hong Kong and visited the set of their most popular soap opera. When I say set I mean "bits of cardboard and some props". And people thought the sets in Prisoner Cell Block H were bad!
Not exactly representative of the entire output of the nation, admittedly, but in the late 1980s Channel 4 showed - with subtitles - a Swedish comedy-drama named "Xerxes", which was without doubt one of the most well-made, imaginatively scripted and thoroughly enjoyable series I have ever seen.
If anyone has it on video, _please_ let me know...