Emmerdale!

Image via WikipediaI remember being home from school one day in the seventies and watching the very first episode of Emmerdale, the photograph shows a scene from the first episode, at one thirty in the afternoon on ITV. It was part of ITV`s first venture into daytime television and it was very good.In those days it was called Emmerdale Farm and was well acted with good writing and some excellent characters like Annie and Joe Sugden, his brother Jack and Henry Wilks.It was a gritty realistic portrayal of rural life and as much a drama as a soap.Very different from today`s Emmerdale.In those days it was distinctive from a city or town drama, it was about the countryside and the distinctive problems that people have there.
Today`s Emmerdale could be set in any big city. The characters and the storylines are more Eastenders than the Emmerdale Farm of old.Seeing a sheep or a cow in Emmerdale is now about as likely as seeing one in Walford Square.I also think the writing and story lines are that much poorer. In the old days the stories came out of the location and the characters now they seem just to be put together for the greatest shock value to attract the ratings.
I think the change has been a great shame. We now have no drama or soap on television telling the story of country people and we have the nations two most prominent soaps having more in common than differences.It has devalued television drama and given the viewer less choice.
In Britain unlike America we sometimes let series run on after they have lost there shine and  run there time I think Emmerdale is now one such series. It has run aground and is now just a pale imitation of Eastenders. I think if ITV really want to make a new start with there channel as they say they do they should cut out the deadwood and send Emmerdale to that great soap opera grave yard in the sky to join the likes of Brookside, Crossroads and Eldorado!

Daytime Television on the BBC.

Image via WikipediaFirstly it has to be said that BBC daytime television is far better than ITV who provide their viewers with no variety and seem to think that all their viewers want is to watch chat shows all day.
The quality of the BBC programmes are excellent and I do think that in Doctors it produces a soap that has acting and writing as good if not better than the more popular soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Street.I also think shows like Heir Hunters, Animal 24/7 and Bargain Hunt are excellent and very well made. I think where the BBC do fall down sometimes is that it shows ancient American shows like Murder She Wrote far too often and for too long and it often doesn`t vary shows enough and goes through periods where the only subjects covered are homes and antiques.That said I do think the BBC do well and provide a valuable service to those at home in the daytime.

The Weakest Link.

Image via WikipediaWhen the Weakest Link started ten years ago it was a pleasant way of sitting down and wasting half hour being entertained by a strange middle aged woman being rude to people but now that woman as changed into a younger version of herself and the series is on every weekday throughout the year this once entertaining series as become irratating and Anne Robinson as become like a robot going through the motions.
I think its one of those series that goes on for far to long and the BBC One should now put us out of our misery and axe it and find something fresher and more entertaining for its teatime slot.

John Thaw.

Image via WikipediaLast night I was watching a repeat of Kavanagh QC on ITViplayer and I couldn`t help but feel sad at the fact that we lost such a fine actor as John Thaw at such a relatively young age as we did. He had so much more to give.
He was a remarkable actor who was really under rated I think.His work had such a range from popular drama like The Sweeney and Kavanagh QC to more thoughtful drama like Morse and Uncle Silas to even comedy like Home to Roost.I think the man`s decency and idealism showed through in his worked and that is why people didn`t just like his worked they loved him as a person.
He as a fine legacy in his work that people will contine to enjoy but I think he is still missed and will continue to be missed for many years to come.

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Crossroads!

One of my earliest childhood memories was coming home from school and sitting down to watch the teatime serial Crossroads on ITV.Crossroads was the Eastenders of its day with massive ratings in its heyday.It was known for its poor acting and even poorer sets but everyone loved it and the characters and the actors and actresses who played them were household names.
The series started in 1964 as a five time a week show and was produced by Reg Watson who went onto create and produce Neighbours which was looked on in its early days as the Australian Crossroads.I think its appeal was that it had characters people could identify with and like and tackled stories that were about everyday life.Its standards of production were not the best but it did break new ground in trying to tackle issues that were not usually tackled on mainstream television in them days.It was the first soap to tackle racial abuse, rape and single parents. It was also the first to have black and Asian characters and to feature a gay character.Disablity was featured heavily with a regular disabled charcter and a storyline was featured about a Downs Syndrome character that actually lead to the formation of The Crossroads Caring for Carers Scheme now one of the world`s largest voluntary organisations.
I think the series was greatly under rated and really only ended in the end because ITV thought it knew the sort of programmes viewers should watch better than the viewers themselves. It was tragic really when the original series was axed in the eighties because it had under gone a revamp that had really made it one of the best dramas on television that had better writing and acting than any of the soaps we see today.
I still miss it as I don`t think anyone as really produced a better soap since.

Holby City.

Image via WikipediaOne of the most under rated drama`s on British televison must be Holby City.Its writing and acting rivals any seen in other drama`s on televison at present.
The cast is excellent with the superb Amanda Melling as Connie Beauchamp shown in the photograph, Hugh Quarshie as Ric Griffith and ex Eastender Paul Bradley as Elliot Hope who shows great skill at combining comedy and heart breaking drama.I also like Robert Powell who plays Mark Williams the character most viewers I suspect admire for his ideals and heart of gold.Two other members of cast I think deserve a mention is Emma Catherwood who plays FI Penny Valentine who as made the character true of any put upon junior doctor in any NHS hospital in the land and Rosie Marcel who plays hard nosed surgeon Jac Naylor who hides her caring side behind a wall of thick ice!
The cast as changed a lot over the years but the new characters who come into the series on a regular basis quickly make you forget about those that have departed and that is quite an achievement and although the number of episodes produced have increased greatly over the years the quality of the acting and writing as never faltered and that cannot be said of some series that have gone through a similar experience.
Personally I think the series is now the best medical drama on television and outstrips its sister series Casualty by a mile.

Eastenders!

Image via WikipediaI remember the very first episode of Eastenders twenty five years ago as if it was shown yesterday.It was the BBC`s first real effort to rival ITV`s Coronation Street and it was a revelation.It was as different to Coronation Street as you could possibly get and like nothing people had seen in a soap before.It was realistic with characters you could recognise in your own streets and neighbourhoods and with stories about situations you yourself, your friends or relatives had gone through in their everyday lives.This was a drama about real life with acting and writing as good as any you would see in a Shakespear play or an Oscar winning film.
Sadly times have changed. In the days of Julia Smith and Tony Holland who created the series and produced it in its early years ratings were not what the show was primarly about it was about telling stories about characters the audience could believe in.When the BBC decided to increase production to four episodes a week from the original two the programmes increased costs meant it had to follow the ratings and also the standard of acting and writing  declined because of the constraints of time and money.Now we see stories written not to tell a story but to create drama that attracts audiences.It is now ratings lead where it was character and story lead.Stories are now about as realistic as Bambi and characters stereotypes dreamed up to have the maximum impact on ratings.
The show now is not what it was and that is sad.The BBC should be producing quality realistic drama not trying to chase ratings with second class acting and writing.I think the series should be scaled back to its original two episodes a week and the BBC should employ producers and writers with the same ideals and aims that the original producers Julia Smith and Tony Holland shown in the photograph had when the programme was first created.

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