For most Americans, Britain is something experienced through those nice "Masterpiece Theatre"-type shows we export. British TV still dines out on the glory days of "Brideshead Revisited" and "The Jewel in the Crown," which are often cited as the type of quality for which we are famous -- yet they were made a generation ago.
Here in Britain, TV pundits frequently cite "The Wire" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as brilliant and innovative rather than anything home-grown. Rather than presenting taste and refinement, British TV excels in the art of barrel scraping.
Despite having only 60 million people, Britain has five main networks (BBC 1 & BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five, as well as a multitude of satellite and digital viewers. The BBC is funded by a compulsory license fee and the rest battle for advertising, or subscriptions in the case of satellite. The other day it was revealed that TV advertising had been overtaken by online in the British market, so the commercial prospects are even bleaker than was supposed. It's probably true that British TV's artistic quality thrived in the old days of only three terrestrial networks.
The main difference between British and U.S. viewing habits is that the type of programming Americans call daytime TV is what we call primetime TV. Rather than wordy and brilliant dramas or perfectly timed comedies, the peak schedule of Britain is soap-opera overload, complemented by a smattering of real crime and cops on the beat.
In the last week of August, an episode of "Motorway Cops," a-camera-in-the-patrol-car trip down Britain’s freeways, was the third-rated program for the week on BBC 1, the flagship channel. This was a special episode of "Traffic Cops!" We prefer watching drivers being scolded about a child safety seat over Shakespeare.
The soaps that dominate British broadcasting are the BBC's "EastEnders," set in a fictional part of London, and "Coronation Street" -- fictional Manchester -- from the principal commercial network, ITV. The ratings are well down from their peak these days, as the British audience is splintered like any other. Still, they're amazing. During the summer months they attract about 10 million viewers, rising to about 12 million in winter. Britain’s population is about a fifth of the U.S. count, so you can imagine what an American network executive would give to have "All My Children" being guaranteed 60 million viewers four nights a week!
The ITV network has retreated from a plan to go upmarket and now swamps its nightly schedule with "Emmerdale" and "The Bill" (often well acted) to keep "Corrie" viewers.
