Dead Weight

A few years back, after fierce competition, Sky secured the UK broadcast rights to five new American dramas. Unfortunately three of the five were Tarzan, Skin and Fearless.

The updated Tarzan ran for eight episodes on the WB before it was abruptly cancelled. Skin was yanked off the air by FOX after only three of the eight episodes were shown. Fearless, meanwhile, never got beyond the pilot stage. Which left Sky frantically rescheduling their primetime winter schedule.

In their place, the company acquired The Handler from CBS and UPN’s Jake 2.0. Neither went to a full season. Obviously it’s a crap shoot buying the new dramas from the US. If a show is generating advance heat the buyers have to get in and snatch it from the grasp of their rivals. Even then the fate of the show, beyond the pilot, is left in the hands of.... oh, shit, the American viewing public.

The BBC haven’t shown much American drama of late, other that miniseries like Band of Brothers and Rome which they put money into and, just recently, Into the West. In fact, the only series I can think of are Murder One, which is going back a bit, and 24. Even then, after two years on BBC2, Jack Bauer was poached by Sky.

Obviously the BBC has better things to spend their money on. Okay, bad example.

In the BBC One Winter/Spring 2007 press pack, along with the welcome return of Waking the Dead and new dramas from Stephen Poliakoff, the Corporation have announced they will also be screening 3lbs from CBS.

3lbs

Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) and Mark Feuerstein (The West Wing) star in this drama about a team of top New York City neurosurgeons who explore the brain – the core of intelligence, the centre of emotion and spirit and the last great medical frontier.

Doug Hanson (Tucci) is a brilliant neurosurgeon with a sharp wit, who compares the workings of the brain to wires in a box. His thoughtful, highly skilled protégé, Dr Jonathan Seger (Feuerstein), honours the mysteries of the mind.

While Hanson prefers to focus on the intricacies inside people's craniums instead of the people themselves, Seger uses his charm, instinct and intuition to balance the emotional and psychological needs of his patients.

3lbs also stars Indira Varma (Rome) and Armando Riesco (Garden State) and features Cynthia Nixon (Sex And The City).

I’ve always liked Tucci. He was superb in the first series of Murder One and outstanding as Eichmann in Conspiracy.

Maybe audiences in American decided they already had House and didn’t need 3lbs trying to weigh in on the action. Either way, only three of the eight episodes were produced over there. Way to go BBC!

Anyway, the first draft of the pharma report was emailed yesterday evening. All fourteen pages went off to be okayed (fingers crossed).

While my brain is finally firing on all cylinders when it comes to work, there have been a couple of lapses in other departments.

Sunday afternoon I stuck some garlic bread in the oven for lunch. Over an hour later I went into the kitchen to make a coffee and wondered why the room was so warm. The baguette had become a briquette.

This morning the saucepan of porridge left on the stove had turned to the consistency of school dinners’ blancmange. Whether I ever see the bottom of that pan again looks doubtful.