If you are over 40, you will remember the phrase, "British television is the best in the world." If you are under 40, you will look at it in disbelief. There were two key developments. First British comedy, and then British television drama, were overtaken and left for dead by their American counterparts.
The return of The West Wing to Channel 4 in September and, now, the arrival of Deadwood (Sky) confirm the general pattern. American television drama is on a roll, just at the time when British television drama is on the skids. In 1994, ER appeared. Since then, we have had Murder One, The Sopranos, The West Wing, 24, Alan Ball's Six Feet Under, Band of Brothers, Angels in America, Deadwood and a group of outstanding single dramas (Conspiracy and The Gathering Storm). It is an extraordinary achievement which shows no signs of slowing down.
Something else is new. Most of these programmes, especially the more recent ones, have been made by one company, Home Box Office. Until recently, few people here had heard of HBO. Now it is not only the best-known name in cable, it is perhaps the greatest single producer of quality television drama and comedy in the English-speaking world. In 2003, it received over 100 Emmy nominations. This year, its programmes received 124, nearly double the number of its closest competitor, NBC, and more than CBS, ABC and Fox combined. A New York Times headline tells the story: "The Emmys: HBO Batters Broadcasters." Angels in America led the charge with 21 nominations, followed by The Sopranos (20) and the new series Deadwood (11). Not bad for a cable station that, unlike the networks, is seen only in a third of American homes.
HBO began as a local pay-television station in Pennsylvania and went national in 1975. Its first cult hit was The Larry Sanders Show, Garry Shandling's 1990s sitcom. Then came Sex and the City (1998) and The Sopranos (1999) and the rest is history. Indeed, much of their best drama has been historical. Band of Brothers, Conspiracy and The Gathering Storm were all set in the run-up to or during the second world war, Deadwood is set in the wild west and next year's new drama series, Rome, is set, as it says on the tin, in ancient Rome.
There are a number of reasons to be excited by HBO's huge critical success. First, the sheer quality of the product, the acting above all. Think of Kenneth Branagh as Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Eichmann in Conspiracy, Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave as the Churchills in The Gathering Storm, and Al Pacino and Meryl Streep in Angels in America. Think of the best ten acting performances in a television drama in the last ten years and most of them will be in an HBO production.
Of course, the writing helps. Hugh Whitemore, one of Britain's best television writers (Concealed Enemies, Nixon: The Final Days, Elizabeth R) wrote The Gathering Storm and has just written My House in Umbria with Maggie Smith for HBO Films. Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, won an Oscar for the screenplay for American Beauty, and David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, cut his teeth on The Rockford Files (1976-80) and two seasons of Northern Exposure (as a runner). David Milch, creator and head writer of Deadwood started out on Hill Street Blues (five seasons) and co-created NYPD Blue.
The directors on Deadwood include Walter Hill; The Gathering Storm was directed by Richard Loncraine (Richard III with Ian McKellen and part two of Band of Brothers), and Angels in America was directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Catch-22). This is a lot of pedigree. On screen and behind the screen, there is an extraordinary constellation of film and television talent.
While most television in Britain and America is dumbing down, HBO is swimming against the tide. It may seem as if it is playing safe, going for all these big names. Think again. Meticulous docudramas about the Wannsee conference or Churchill's career before the war are not surefire box office hits. Angels in America was hugely ambitious, with or without big star names. No network in Britain would have undertaken it. In feelgood America, Six Feet Under and Deadwood are dark and morbid. One is about a family firm of undertakers, the other a bleak look at the wild west, with more prostitutes, killing and swearing than any other television western. This is not dumb television. The scripts are smart: funny-smart in Curb Your Enthusiasm (created by Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld) and Da Ali G Show; or just clever-smart, as in The Sopranos and the history dramas.
The trouble is that having bought many of these programmes, Channel 4 then buries them. The only reason we don't know there's a television revolution going on out there is because we can't get to see it. The Sopranos is on Channel 4 at 11.30pm on Mondays, Six Feet Under at 11.40pm on Tuesdays and Curb Your Enthusiasm is buried in E4 (11.40pm on Thursdays, repeated at 12.15am on Sundays). It is a familiar story to anyone who has spent the best years of his life trying to find Seinfeld on BBC2 or The West Wing on Channel 4. Someone at Channel 4 obviously has shares in video recorders.
