G'day. I'm a relatively new reader of this board. I've always wondered why so few British comedy episodes are made (only 6 or so episodes each year compared with 25-35 epsiodes each year over in the States). Can you clarify? Also, I read on this board that the lady who portrays Hyacinth Bucket passed away a year ago--is this true? I'll be quite sad if it's true--"Keeping Up Appearances" is so funnnnnnny!! Thanks.

I think the British system just works entirely different than the American one. In the States, new shows start in the fall, a full season is usually 22 episodes and then the show is renewed on a year-to-year basis. In Britain, they usually only make six shows at a time and they're renewed on a much more flexible basis. So the downside is that a lot fewer episodes are made, but the quality of each episode is much higher. But now some American shows like "The Sopranos" or "The Shield" are picking up on the British system. They make fewer episodes (13 or so), but the overall quality of the shows are very high.

But I'm just a Yankee, so what do I really know about it? patriot:

There's also another factor - money.
The budgets for most shows are a fraction of those in the US.

Okay, but if only 6 episodes are made of each television series, how do the British have enough shows to fill all the time slots? Do they have a LOT of repeats all the time, do they only broadcast television shows for just a few hours each day (and then go straight to the test pattern), or.....?

Yes, we have a hell of a lot of repeats! :lol: Too damned many!
No Test Card anymore...most channels broadcast 24/7.

And on the subject of Hyacinth....the excellent Patricia Routledge is, as far as I know, alive and well.

JMO I think that they have to air shows WITHOUT commercial breaks so I guess that extra ten minutes cuts the number of episodes:

6 episodes aired fully 30 minutes on the BBC

30 = 10
30 = 20 > 3 Episodes could equal four if they had commercial breaks.
30 = 30

No BBC networks have any commercials, althouh they are now full of BBC advertising their own programmes.

And JJJJ, there are a lot more British shows than you would think other than comedies to run for the time. The test card went a long time ago and all the main stations operate 24/7.

There are other factors - usually all episodes of a sitcom will be written by the same person (or same 2 persons, but rarely more than that). It's very unusual for a series to involve large numbers of writers contributing episodes.

There isn't as big a tv audience in the UK, and no real set schedule for tv timeslots. There are channels BBC1,BBC 2, ITV, CHANNEL 4 AND CHANNEL 5 IN ENGLAND, in Ireland there are all those Channels plus TV3, RTE1 and Network 2. Ireland has an even less audience, there isn't a big tv demand, and when so many shows are made there are only a few made to suit timeslots. There are few continuous shows, and most of the times there's the odd movie, documentary, political show or something else on. :wave:

Why do British shows have such short seasons? (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=747768)