Alright, let’s crack this open. So, you’d think with bangers like Happy Valley, Top Boy, Doctor Who, and Fleabag flying around, Brit TV’s doing just fine, right? But hold up, according to some big shots in the biz, there’s trouble brewing.
So, Adolescence drops and boom, everyone’s jaws hit the floor. Not just because it dives into the wild world of kids navigating toxic online chaos but because it kinda highlights how British telly is getting gobbled up by the big fish – streaming services. Picture this: Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham put their noggins together to spit out this piece of art filmed up north, with homegrown talent. And who bankrolls it? Good ol’ Netflix, not the BBC or ITV. Crazy, huh?
Peter Kosminsky, the guy behind the epic Wolf Hall, has a bone to pick. It’s like an episode of Black Mirror where British networks can’t pony up the cash for meatier dramas. His solution? Tax the streamers, shove it back into UK shows. Betcha Netflix wouldn’t okay some software glitch drama at the Post Office, eh? But somehow, Mr Bates vs the Post Office hooked four million pairs of eyeballs and rewrote the dang law!
Apparently, streaming messed with the telly time-space continuum. Folks aren’t vibing with scheduled TV anymore, production costs have shot through the stratosphere, and freelancers? A whopping 70% are chillin’ without gigs. Execs want flashy global hits, throwing down dough for stuff that’ll ring bells anywhere, forgetting those raw, quirky, British stories.
But old-school TV’s still got some juice. Like when 7 million peeps locked into The Traitors finale like it was the dang Queen’s speech. Not everything is about racking up views, though. It’s also about giving voices to those “skint little people” everyone else ignores. The ongoing rumble between classic networks and streamers could bury those tales alive if we’re not careful.
This whole love letter to Brit TV? It’s a messy, chaotic scribble, much like our world. We need more space for homegrown stories, more shout-outs to underdogs, and, yeah, maybe even a cheeky Netflix tax. 😉
