TV drama clear outs

In this week's Radio Times columnist Alison Graham argues that it is time for Silent Witness to be axed, arguing that the some what atrocious scenes of pathologists taking part in police interrogations and other aspects of investigations. She says that it has had a good run for 20 years but it is now time for it to go.  Silent Witness started in 1996 as an Amanda Burton starring vehicle (she left in 2004) and has been going ever since, to put this in prospective BBC1 that launched 2 other succesful dramas in the form of Ballykissangel and Dalziel & Pascoe. Ballykissangel finished in 2001 and Dalziel and Pascoe came to an end in 2007. Graham points out that the BBC has enough shows to do with out Silent Witness and this brings us to an interesting point. In the early 1990's an number of long running BBC drama hits came to an end including Bergerac, Howard's Way, All Creatures Great and Small and the highly debatable axing of Doctor Who. On the DVD release of the last Doctor Who story broadcast Survival Peter Creegan the head Drama at the BBC at the time argues that these needed to go to freshen up the schedules though by the argument he gives Casualty should have ended in 1993. However the shows that were supposed to have replaced the hits turned to be complete flops, who can remember Moon & Son or Trainer to name just 2 examples. Graham does argue that the BBC does have enough shows to axe Silent Witness though given the example of the early 1990's full blown clear outs tend to have the opposite effect.

The end of Bernie

The end of an era of Formula One has come. With the sale of F1 to Liberty Media the reign of Bernie Ecclestone has come to an end. During his time F1  grew to become one of the most watched sports in the World today though not without putting some noises out of joint. He took away the power of the teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams and gave it to himself. What happens to F1 now remains an intriguing prospect.

When UK TV shows go aboard

Next week Silent Witness has a storyline that sees main character Niki going to Mexico. This is not the first time that a British TV show has taken it's characters out of their usual haunts.


Doctor Who (1963-1989)

Granted this is a show about a character who can go anywhere in time and space but his earthbound adventures tended to be stuck in the UK with the overseas locations done in the studio. In 1979's City of Death Doctor Who had it's first overseas location filming. This was was followed with trips to Amsterdam, Lanzarote and Seville. In addition to being itself Lanzarote also took on the role of an alien planet.


Only Fools and Horses

In 1991 in a 2 part special Del and Rodney went on holiday to Miami Del mainly to get away from the heat of an another business deal gone wrong. The second part features the brothers getting mixed up with the Mafia. The second part is perhaps the closest we got to an Only Fools and Horses movie with many cinematic touches and a cameo from Barry Gibb.


Inspector Morse

Not even a character so identified with one location is safe from having the odd trip abroad. More regularly going through the tangled webs of emotions in Oxford, Morse and his loyal deputy Lewis in 2 episodes found themselves going Australia and Italy to follow up on case leads.

When Lex Luthor was US President

In 2000 arch villain Lex Luthor became President of the United States of America in the fictional DC Comics universe. At this point Lex was depicted as a publicly trusted tycoon while in away from the public eye he was in cahoots with other villians like the Joker. In the first year of his presidency Luthor faced down an alien invasion with the help of the World's superheroes. However he still had his vendetta against Superman and plotted to get rid of both him and Batman through the use of brainwashed superheroes, super steroid and alien warsuits, though  as always his plans ended in failure and his Presidency ended in disgrace. Richard Donner director of the original Christopher Reeve Superman film said he wished the character existed in real life and named a certain person who has been in the news lately. Can you guess who?

Muted TV farewells

Some shows have a grand exit others just fade away

Grandstand

The programme that brought the world's sporting events to British TV audiences was announced in 2006 to be stopped then suddenly in 2007 it broadcast the last edition. The event shown? The World Indoor Bowls Championship.

Heartbeat

From it's debut in 1992 the show became a ratings titan to ITV despite critic sneers. Yet by 2008 the show was under pressure as ITV look to make savings in the face of falling advertising revenue. Heartbeat ended in 2010.

Top of the Pops

After spending it's last year as a regular weekly show in a BBC2 early Sunday evening graveyard slot, Top of the Pops came to an end in 2006, the last unfortunate image being Jimmy Savile switching off the studio lights. BBC4 show with certain exceptions (as I have explained before) and the annual Xmas special.

Rory Bremner: A man ahead of his time?

In his early 1990s BBC2 show had a recurring sketch which feature renowned Margaret Thathcer Impersonator Steve Nallon and John Bird. The Sketch featured Thatcher and 2 other world leaders making statements with the last one being either weird, wacky or barbed. There were 2 variations to this, one had Helmut Kohl played by Bremner and Bird playing Francois MItterand while the other had George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev being played by Bremner and Bird respectively, Here is a sample take from the first line up

Kohl: We the Germans sank The Hood

Thacher:: We the British sank The Bismarck

Mitterand: We the French sank the Rainbow Warrior (Mitterand realises he said something he should not have said)

Now here is one from the another line up which is interesting given today's events in Washington D. C.

Thatcher: In the UK any ordinary person can become a millionaire

Gorbachev: In the Soviet Union any ordinary person can become President

Bush: In the USA any ordinary millionaire can become President

I doubt a certain someone may disagree with that view

Why Father Brown  should be in the spotlight

Today saw the end of the current series of Father Brown, The show sees Mark Williams of The Fast Show fame play G. K. Chesterton crime solving priest. The drama has been running for 4 years now, yet it remains in a weekday daytime slot, although viewers of both Drama and Alibi digital channels can see reruns of it on both channels, for me it is one of the best crime fiction shows on UK TV right now and I think the programmes should get a slot that would give it a much wider audience. BBC2 could put it in the 6pm slot as Eggheads is clearly is on it last legs or when there is no sport (which is quite frequent these days) on a Saturday afternoon instead of the dredge of property porn. Father Brown deserves his time to shine