Television Industry England

Down a quiet street along the Thames River, just outside of London, television history is being made. Here, in Teddington Studios, the Carsey-Werner Co. is taping a British version of Fox's "That '70s Show." Same six small-town teenagers. Different accents. What's so groundbreaking about this event is that it marks the first time an American company has produced both American and British versions of the same show.

Rupert Giles, who has mentored the young demon fighters on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for five years, might be staking his own claim to television in another spinoff to the popular series. Anthony Stewart Head, who has played Watcher to Buffy's Slayer since the program began airing on the WB in 1997, could become the star of an hourlong show for the U.K.

For seven years now, it has been a ritual religiously observed by millions of British males, young and old. It starts at 4:45 on Saturday afternoons, when they nestle in front of their TV screens to catch the nation's soccer scores. And immediately afterward, they segue into a little light lechery--ogling the babes from "Baywatch." But no more.

British television viewers have recently been captivated by "The Royle Family," but the spelling indicates, it's not the one in Buckingham Palace. Creator, co-writer, star and third-season director Caroline Aherne's fictional sitcom family, which has mesmerized U.K. audiences through a scant 20 episodes dribbled out over the past three years, couldn't be further from British nobility.

Those waxing euphoric about all British television haven't seen much British television. What the Brits do well, however, they do very well. And what they do well (most of the time) are mysteries. Just why U.S. television comes up short in this sphere (anyone voting for that CBS second-rater "Murder, She Wrote" should lay off the New Year's punch) is itself a puzzle. Perhaps at fault is mainstream U.S.

Dennis Potter, Britain's best-known and most controversial screenwriter, has disclosed that he is suffering from terminal cancer of the liver and pancreas and has only months to live. Potter, 58, whose widely acclaimed successes include the television series "The Singing Detective" and "Pennies From Heaven" (both seen in America on PBS), has known of his condition since February. A heavy smoker and drinker, Potter has suffered from ill health for much of his life.

Accompanied by a bouncy theme song, the opening credits roll past a photograph of an old Berlin apartment building. Action. Apartment interior: Adolf Hitler walks in the front door to a burst of applause from the studio audience. He gives the Nazi salute and shouts the show's title. "Heil Honey, I'm Home!" So goes the opening of a British sitcom about the domestic life of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and a couple of happy-go-lucky Jews next door.

It was, critics said, symbolic of the current drift and uncertainty that characterize what was once an almost universally revered British institution. The top brass of the British Broadcasting Corp. retreated to a luxurious country hotel near the resort spa of Bath and spent tens of thousands of taxpayers' dollars, supposedly in order to map the BBC's future. But when they emerged three days later, nothing had been decided.

The ad is a beguilingly soft sell. A tall, beautiful Englishwoman knocks on a door to borrow some instant coffee from the dishy man next door. It looks like the beginning of a sexy dramatic encounter, but it ends after just 45 seconds. Several months later, Episode 2 appears. The upscale lady is returning the coffee she borrowed. Electricity again surges across the doorstep. Sadly, the man can't invite her in. He's already enjoying coffee with Another Woman.

Those snobby Brits kept calling this the TV show that would never be seen in America. Too outrageous for all those politically correct Yanks. Well, here it comes anyway--so there. True, "Absolutely Fabulous" is not exactly the kind of sitcom the U.S. networks are churning out these days. When was the last time a hit comedy centered on two 40ish women who chain-smoke and guzzle booze for breakfast?

The studio is set up to tape an interview show, "Pass the Mic," as in microphone. The familiar tools of television production are in place. Thin metal beams overhead support spotlights, and dark, sound-muffling curtains encircle an audience of 40 or so people seated on wooden bleachers. Two cameras are pointed at cushy chairs on the tiny stage for the host and interviewee.

Ben Black, predatory host of a popular live reality series reveling in voyeurism and perversity, orders an assistant to find a dead body to display on camera. "I want a dead human being," he barks. "Start making calls." Is this where television is heading? Bank on it.

Marooned on an island so harsh that human life was driven away long ago, 36 hardy souls are acting out a dubious fantasy: to be Robinson Crusoe for a year, battling the elements far from the comforts of the real world. But not far from the glare of the cameras. This, after all, is nearly the 21st century, and it just wouldn't be right if their every move wasn't caught for what producers have dubbed the ultimate fly-on-the-wall television documentary.

With "Queer as Folk," the Brits have something to lord over their prudish American neighbors: A popular television series that really deals with gay themes. So far, "Queer as Folk" has arrived overseas via the underground--screened at gay film festivals, auctioned online as bootlegged boxed sets, and discussed over upscale lunches by members of the entertainment industry. Lately, the word from the SUV crowd is that an American version of "Queer as Folk" will land at Showtime, sometime next year.

From the first moments of "Queer as Folk," it was clear this was not going to be an ordinary television drama series--even for British audiences used to lots of dicey language and sex on their network airwaves. It's 2 a.m., the last-chance hour on Canal Street, the gay district of Manchester, England, and the boys are out hunting for last-minute prey. The ruthlessly sexy, 29-year-old Stuart (Aidan Gillen) spots Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) under a street light.

If you settle down to watch the punchy BBC drama "This Life" tonight on BBC America, leave your preconceptions about British television behind. No frocks, no nicely spoken young men and women in grand country houses. This is a story of London today, and though the plot centers on five young professionals sharing a house, it is also a million miles from any American series set in the same milieu.

Marooned on an island so harsh that human life was driven away long ago, 36 hardy souls are acting out a dubious fantasy: to be Robinson Crusoe for a year, battling the elements far from the comforts of the real world. But not far from the glare of the cameras. This, after all, is nearly the 21st century, and it just wouldn't be right if their every move wasn't caught for what producers have dubbed the ultimate fly-on-the-wall television documentary.

The new fall season is under way on British television and, as usual, the standard fare of cop dramas, sitcoms, silly game shows and mind-numbing hours of snooker are competing with equal doses of quirky and alternative programming. "Tights Camera Action!," a prime-time series exploring the relationship between dance and film, may not appeal to the masses, but there it is, nonetheless.

Down a quiet street along the Thames River, just outside of London, television history is being made. Here, in Teddington Studios, the Carsey-Werner Co. is taping a British version of Fox's "That '70s Show." Same six small-town teenagers. Different accents. What's so groundbreaking about this event is that it marks the first time an American company has produced both American and British versions of the same show.

They're definitely commercials, because they pitch everything from perfume and automobiles to cat food and noodles. But the British television ads to be screened Friday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art aren't what Americans are used to seeing. For the second year in a row, the museum's film department will show winners of the British Advertising Broadcast Awards, with screenings at 7 and 9:15 p.m. in the museum's Bing Theater.