Yeah, generally 10:30 when there would be a programme intended to be worthy or uplifting. Originally this meant Christian, and it was often just a vicar saying some prayers. Later they favoured discussion things, in a studio or supposedly set in somebody's house. I got into one or two of these, mainly because it was a rare opportunity to watch people just talking. there was one I liked on ITV which went out around 10:45 and I switched over one evening and gosh! Something was wrong! One of the main attendees had a pint of beer and they were all mid conversation. Turned out that he'd had some sort of breakdown. He didn't turn up after that.
If you removed the repeated dialogue from a modern TV documentary, especially from the USA, there would probably only be 5 minutes of speech. Every new scene opens with a summary of what was said before, or a simple repeat in a different tone of voice. Also, I know what you mean about trying to make it "seem" interesting. So many bloody documentaries about pyramids where the hidden chamber is sort of "held back" like the pay off in a cheap melodrama. Or else they start speculating about how Nefertiti may have felt that day in Thebes, as though that's on a level with showing the actual stuff and saying what we know about it.
One thing that US television drama of all kinds both benefits from and also suffers from, is the lack of a long theatrical tradition. In the UK both rich and poor went to the theatre since forever. In the last 70 years of so that's changed, and it's become far more of a middle-class thing. In the US, where theatre was always white collar, the actors generally act as though they are where they are supposed to be: in a kitchen or a garden or in the street, or a bar or whatever. This has been true since the very earliest TV productions. In the UK, sourcing its directors and actors from the stage, they didn't. They behaved as though they were on a stage set in a studio, or on a stage set in the garden, street, bar etc. Most, if not all UK productions have realised this now, but that brings me to the second big difference which is money.
UK productions are all too often cheap. I know that the story goes that money rules in the US. If you don't make it, you're done. But when it's there to be spent on a production, then it's spent. In the UK, there was, and still is, too much of the scrimp and save Blue Peter attitude. If the ray-gun can be made out of an old toilet roll and that saves half a crown, then do it. Don't bother matching the furniture in this scene, just use the chairs that were in the pub scene earlier. And when that's done across the whole production, it looks cheap.
British comedy shows. Well, they're a mixed bag. I loved Steptoe & Son. The writing is amazing and the actors were perfectly matched. I suppose that's another instance of everybody knowing right from the start exactly what was wanted. More recently Shameless held my attention for a bit. Good ensemble cast. Especially David Threlfall. Enjoyed Fleabag. Once again a great cast, especially Andrew Scott. I really like watching him (Yeah, I know he's Irish). He was fabulous in Ripley recently and he simply acted the pants off Cumberbatch and Freeman in Sherlock. Oh yeah, a blast from the past, Turtles Progress. Also Spaced, A Very Peculiar Practice. Loads of stuff I kind of enjoyed even if I wouldn't say it was great TV. The Young Ones, Peepshow.
Straight British dramas? Well, we can do them. I loved Brideshead Revisited for all its faults. I Claudius - one of the few shows which deliberately chose theatrical and it worked The Singing Detective is probably close to my all-time favourite. Then there was Edge of Darkness, the much underrated Paradise Postponed. The Camomile Lawn was good. Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes were fun. Gormenghast was a very flawed but quite enjoyable adaptation. Smiley's People and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the Alec Guinnes versions) were excellent viewing. Some of the Pratchett adaptations (should have put in comedy). This is England - another series that was simply wonderful. Powerful, nuanced and fearless. There are plenty more. These days I usually stick something I've enjoyed onto Plex.
Hah! Films that only ever got shown at least a year after their cinema release. Usually longer. And it would always be like the the school holidays. Then there was Disney Time although fuck knows why we wanted to see that. Almost never during the week. The BBC would cover a whole Saturday evening with some shit like a display from the Household Cavalry and ITV would have Lawrence of Arabia (again). But, sex and drugs and rock and roll started in 1972. Then as I got an art school place on the strenth of my ""O" levels so I didn't have to worry about my "A" levels, I didn't watch much telly until about 1975.
But yes, on one Monday in October 1969 the big debate at my school was who had been able to see that new Monty Python programme. Years before we had debated the merits of the Zarbis and the Daleks as we chewed our American Civil War bubblegum. That was just us kids. Ken and Deidre's wedding on Coronation Street attracted more UK viewers than that of Charles and Diana 2 days earlier.
He May Be Your Dog But He's Wearing My Collar
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