I started my blog page as a kind of journal, to record things about the UK that I'll miss most once we return to India for good. While I've indeed meandered from that path often, I decided that this blog will be on anoher aspect I will miss terribly about this place - the TV programmes!
I've just finished watching one fabulous drama on TV and am onto another one now, and thought that asscripts go these are dramas that will probably not be attempted in India for a while now. Sad, as I remember some of the Hindi tv serials of the late '80s. 'Fauji', which gave Shah Rukh Khan his first major role and thus a big break; 'ados-pados' - that wonderful comedy with Ashok Kumar in the lead (I maybe wrong about the cast here!) , and who could forget the wonderful 'Malgudi Days', based on R K Lakshman's book? But now-a-days the serials appear to be more melo drama than essence or solid scripts, more focus on make-up than expressions...I know what you will say, that I hardly watch any of these, but the glimpses I catch on my annual visits to India is what I'm going by.
Anyway - here's why I will miss the television programmes of the UK:
Factual documentaries:
Sir David Attenborough is famous all over the world for his coverage of the anumal and plant kingdom. His latest - the BBC production of the 'Frozen Planet' (covering Alaska, Antartica, Iceland, the North Pole - to name but a few regions covered) has somehow surpassed all his previous ones. Technological advances ofcourse are the main reason - watching the snow crystals in high definition makes you gasp, but the coverage of the penguins, Walruses, Sharks, Seals....absolutely breath taking, not only because the intelligence of these animals is amazing, but also for the trouble, effort that the production team go through to enable us view this stunning production. And there are so many such wonderful factual documentaries, riveting in its content, sometimes controversila, sometimes provoking, but almost always amazing...
Life style based entertainment:
One of the tv programmes that has been a great help in encouraging and cultivating my gardening skills and interest in the 'Gardeners' World', produced by the BBC. Each half hour episode has 3 or 4 presenters, each covering a totally different aspect of gardening : while one would show you how to propogate a Daahlia, another will take you on a visit to some stunning garden....yet another will show you step-by-step how to erect a garden fence! And so on and so forth. This programme has been around for decades now, still going strong. And its not the only one of its genre, but the one I never fail to watch.
Cookery shows are a-plenty, in fact one is beginning to get tired of these now! But having said that, the creativity of 'Master Chef' - a contest for the ultimate show winning chef - is quite a challenge worth watching. The participants move on to tougher tasks, sometimes cooking a whole 3 course meal for the army barracks and at other times having to prepare a school lunch, which involves one main dish and a dessert, but in time and cooked well and served hot - to more than 100 students, in a given period of time!
Panel/Quiz shows
The whole family watches the University Challenge - which originated as a radio show in 1953, but moved on to the television in 1959, and except for a short break in between has been going strong ever since! The concept is simple, various Universities participate in the quiz, 2 Universities go head to head in each show, with 4 participants in each team, and is finally whittled down to the 2 contesting teams from who the winner emerges. Nail biting drama at its best!
Sports quiz - a programme that has been televised since its conception in 1968! Wow...I was just 7 years old then...! But once again, 2 teams with the captains remaining the same, but are joined by 2 different sports personalities each, and the questions range from their own chosen field to anything that comes under the sporting umbrella! And they're so funny too, one of the most entertaining programmes that we watch as a family.
News round-up quiz - Famously referred to as 'HIGNFY', 'Have I got news for you'
has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show. The team captains have remained the same over the years, the compere changing with each episode, and they round up the most important news stories, and take the Mickey out of everyone, from the Prime Minister to the Queen, from Simon Cowell to Russel Crowe...and it is not only uproariosly funny but also very informative, and as a family I guess this is the one we would all vote for!
There are plenty of such 'panel shows' aired, Never mind the buzzcocks is a music-based quiz show, but once again funny, 'Would I lie to you' has same captains but different celebrities joining them and each one reads out and justifies something written on a card and given to them, the something not revealed to them until the moment they read it out, and yet they have to build up a story on the spot to make their explanation convincing, and the opposite team has to guess if this is a 'truth' or a 'lie'. Never before has such decisions been so funny!
The Dramas:
These have to be my all time favourites, and what I will personally miss the most. The fabulous dramas, be it the genre of murder mysteries or thrillers or just pure fiction. I'm not referring to the soaps that have gone on for decades, I don't have the patience to watch these. I'm talking of dramas - either one offs or series - where the script and acting is so fabulous that it grips you from start to finish, and you never want it to end...I began this blog as I was affected/moved by 2 dramas that I watched recently, one in fact is yet to conclude. The first one follows the lives of a few of the jurors in a murder re-trial, while following the trial unravel side by side. A very unusual story line, some a tad controversial too (one of the juror is a teacher who has just ended an affair with a 17yr old student). The 2nd drama is aptly titled 'The Slap'. It all begins with a slap - which occurs at the 40th birthday party of a man. His close friends and immediate family attend, he is of Greek origin, married to a black woman. His mother is a stero-typical Greek, father tries to keep the family together. One of the frinds' son behaves like a brat, annoying everyone, and finally the cousin of the man whose birthday it is gives this boy a slap. A huge hullaballo erupts, each one taking a different angle, while the mother of said child reports the incident to the police - thus forcing all those who attended to take sides, and deal with family pressure while doing so. Each episode follows the story of one main character, and there are so many controversial ideas involved (the Greek mother curses the 'black' daughter-in-law in her language, while hugging her...there's a lot of racism, a bit of violence...also the mother of said child is still breast-feeding him, despite him being almost 3 yrs old..and so on. And there's no hysteria or melo drama while tackling (or just acting) the various ideas. Simply fabulous.
The Foreign dramas/series
Another aspect of all this telecast is that besides the various programmes produced here in Britain, quite a few are 'imported' from other countries. These are mostly from the US, needless to say. The fabulous series of 'The Wire', which had the viewer hooked to the extent that when the whole series concluded one was left bereft, mourning the death of a wonderful programme. Then there is the stylish multi-award winning 'Mad Men', murder mystery solvers like 'Castle', 'The Mentalist' to name but two...cop drama 'Chicago Code' is a recent entry, as is 'Rizzoli & Issles'. But the best recent forein import has to be the Dutch 'The Killing', currently running its second series. The whol programme is telecast in the original - ie dialogues are in Dutch - with English sub-titles. Despite this small annoying factor, this drama has affected me so much in terms of its production and impact that I plan to pen a blog just on 'The Killing'!
So, here's a toast to the wonderful television programmes telecast in this country - I'm sure going to miss you all....
