BBC America announces new shows

from the hollywood reporter

BBC America slate adds 4 U.K. series

BBC America on Tuesday unveiled three new comedies and an original
dramedy as part of the network's latest U.K. program acquisitions. The

Patty Winter (patty1...

Drat, no actual dramas.

comedy "Saxondale," starring Steve Coogan ("I'm Alan Partridge"), from
Baby Cow Prods. and distributed by BBC Worldwide Americas, premieres
at 11 p.m. ET Oct. 13; the all-new dramedy "Fat Friends," from Rollem
Prods. in association with Tiger Aspect & Yorkshire TV and distributed
by Target, premieres at 10 p.m. ET Nov. 2; the comedy "The Worst Week
of My Life," made and distributed by Hat Trick Entertainment,
premieres at 9:40 p.m. ET Dec. 1; and the sci-fi comedy "Hyperdrive,"
from BBC Production and distributed by BBC Worldwide Americas,
premieres early next year. (Staff report)

SoHillsGuy...

This is actually the second series of "The Worst Week of My Life,"
Series 1 already ran on BBCAmerica a couple of years ago. The first
series was merely a longer version of "Meet the Parents," with each of
the seven episodes serving as one day leading up to a wedding between a
guy who couldn't do anything right and a bride whose family was
incredibly uptight. Series 2 continues the theme, with each of the
seven episodes now playing as one day leading up to the birth of their
child, still with disasters arriving at every day. Frankly, I found
Series 2 far less funny than Series 1 (which, again, was essentially
the same as "Meet the Parents").

By the way, Series 1 was just released on DVD in America yesterday
(8/22), so anyone who's interested can check that out.

An American remake of "The Worst Week of My Life" was made as a pilot
this spring (by FOX, I think), but was rejected for the fall schedule.

GarondoMarondo...

Isn't ABC's show The Wedding or whatever its called basically the same
plot except its all set during the same day.

SoHillsGuy...

True. I suspect that FOX probably decided it was too similar in
format. TWWoML is all about one week (well, at least the BBC version
was), while the new series on ABC is closer to "24," with the entire
wedding day seen over the course of the season.

Bill Steele...

The day an American network puts on a show only seven episodes long will
be the day Satan walks into a clothing store to buy a parka.

Barry Margolin...

It would be a mini-series, but network TV doesn't do that any more. But
it could be done on cable -- Sci-Fi has done several of them.

SoHillsGuy...

I never meant to imply that the proposed American version was only
going to be seven episodes. They surely would have attempted to
stretch the whole 'week' over 22 episodes, if they were lucky to go
that long.

..
Garondo Marondo!

Patty Winter (patty1...

Anybody here familiar with any of those and got any comments on them?

Electric Frog...

I've seen Saxondale it not an outright Comedy show, very much in the same
style of Alan Partridge (more season 2 than 1). If you enjoyed that then you
should enjoy Saxondale