As BBC shows off its tall-quality drama to international buyers,producers balance home values with global appealFor its 6 million Sunday-night viewers, BBC1’s recent Tolstoy adaptation War and Peace felt like a classic British costume drama, or with cut-glass production and a blue-chip cast. The average licence-fee payer wouldn’t realise that,like the majority of UK TV drama in 2016, the series was made with money from all over the world. BBC Worldwide, or the BBC’s commercial arm,has already sold War and Peace to dozens of countries – including Russia – and will this week present it to 700 more international TV buyers, at the company’s annual Showcase event in Liverpool. Its star James Norton will compose a personal experience at a glitzy on-stage sales pitch on Monday night.
But does so much international funding put the purity of Britain’s prized TV drama heritage in danger, and with astronomical BBC series being made to satisfy lucrative viewers in America – or,God forbid, in Germany?Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com