Best Of The Best
Channel 4 just screened The 50 Greatest TV Dramas, as voted for by a number of the UK’s television professionals.
In case you missed it, here’s the list.
01. The Sopranos
02. Boys From The Blackstuff
03. Edge of Darkness
04. The Singing Detective
05. Cathy Come Home
06. The West Wing
07. Cracker
08. Our Friends in the North
09. Twin Peaks
10. Heimat
11. Prime Suspect
12. Pennies From Heaven
13. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
14. I, Claudius
15. Das Boot
16. A Very British Coup
17. This Life
18. Abigail’s Party
19. Hill Street Blues
20. Queer As Folk
21. Sex Traffic
22. Bleak House
23. House of Cards
24. Shameless
25. Talking to a Stranger
26. Doctor Who
27. 24
28. Scum
29. Brideshead Revisited
30. Traffik
31. Blue Remembered Hills
32. Warriors
33. The Naked Civil Servant
34. Bloody Sunday
35. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
36. Talking Heads
37. Hillsborough
38. The Prisoner
39. Shooting The Past
40. Pride and Prejudice
41. GBH
42. Made in Britain
43. The Jewel in the Crown
44. Threads
45. Z Cars
46. Caught on a Train
47. Upstairs, Downstairs
48. State of Play
49. Roots
50. Band of Brothers
Do you agree with the results? Which shows omitted should have made the list?
posted by Good Dog @ 12:30 am
12 mouthy comebacks
12 Comments:
The only real surprise (or maybe not) is the list's parochialism. The BFI did a better, and more honest job, compiling their UK TV 100, which, although seven years old, is pretty much identical.
Some good drama in there, but it seems pretty pathetic that so few American series have been included. So we get "24" but not "Murder One", "The Sopranos" but not "Oz"??! And although I've never seen them shouldn't "E.R." or "M.A.S.H." have appeared in there somewhere?
And where was The Wire?! Or the Peter Watkins dramas?
Which was the one about Bosnia? My girlfriends butt got in the way at the crucial moment last night so I missed the title and have been searching the internet for an hour now.
As to the result, I haven't seen the Soprano's but Deadwood is the best of this sort of thing which has ever been near TV in my opinion. You almost cant believe its the same Ian McShane as was Lovejoy all that time ago.
I notice neither Lovejoy or Deadwood are here but then Deadwoods never been shown here has it?
Lee, you're spot on there. Of the 40 dramas on the BFI's TV 100, 23 made this list. And Doctor Who? Oh, please no.
Ian, M.A.S.H. wouldn't have made it because it's a half-hour comedy, but er certainly. Important because it had a cast speaking medical jargon without bothering to explain it to the audience. Surely that paved the way for The West Wing and its political speak.
Rod, The War Game should have made an appearance. Where were the dramas by Jack Rosenthal for that matter.
Dave, the soldiers in Bosnia was Warriors. Oh, and Deadwood has been shown in the UK on Sky.
I was surprised the Forsythe Saga wasn't on there, and I'd have liked to have seen a bit of a David Mercer mention too. Gobbed Lost didn't make it either.
Thanks I've got Warriors on order now. So if Deadwood was on here how come it didn't feature I wonder? I thought it was like Shakespeare with swearing.
I was expecting just another trashy count down program but as I watched I was amazed at how important some of this stuff was to the history of my country. Stuff I had never even heard of sometimes.
No 'Forsythe Saga', asks POTDOLL...
Well, it's not easy nowadays to get anything in black and white on a list of film or TV 'Bests' or 'Greatests'.
Friends who teach film studies say that they can scarcely get their students to WATCH anything in b&w (with the possible, hallowed exception of 'Citizen Kane'), let alone discuss it!
'Upstairs' started out in b&w too but, luckily for this list, went on into colour!
I'd have added 'The Pallisers', 'Barchester Towers', 'Edna, The Inebriate Woman' and a couple of stunning (b&w) dramas directed by Jonathan Miller...
And what about 'The X-Files' (I know it became terribly trashy, but was innovative and led to a lot of other things) and 'The Twilight Zone' - yeah, I know b&w again! - but groundbreaking and trend-setting.
And were I to whisper 'The Waltons'...? Ooops, sorry that was going too far!! ;-)
Brian, well the thing about B&W is it's just not very colourful is it?
Maybe it's me but I think The X-Files failed massively to live up to its potential, which is a downer.
I strongly believe that Secret Army shown during late 70's was one of the all time great war dramas, and some how should slipped into the top 50 or at least the UK TV 100.
The Sopranos should be #1 or #2. Band of Brothers should fill the other slot at 1 or 2.
Secret Army is one of the best tv dramas ever. I first watched it on cable last year and was totally transfixed. It is such a tense and edgy drama. Im going to log off to watch the final episode, but before I do I challenge any one who's reading this to watch it - all three series to disagree with me that this is one fine dramatic drama
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