Have you watched more television during the Covid-19 pandemic?  I’d have to guess that most of us do.  Stuck at home during a cold,  dark winter,  the long evenings were difficult to fill.  No concerts to attend, friends to visit, places to go, or things to see and do.  They say Netflix has seen an astronomical rise in revenue, and it’s no wonder. However,  after watching so much TV, you become a bit more discerning.  And many of us have found that we prefer watching British shows.  Here are 6 good things about British TV.

1. The writing is better on the shows.  It’s geared to a higher intellectual level.   Not PHD’s but  not aimed at the sixth grade mentality, either. The BBC produces  30% of all British TV .  BBC mission statement is “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.”  Since BBC isn’t dependent on commercial advertising, they don’t have to worry about pleasing sponsors like Procter and Gamble or Astra Zeneca.

2. Older people are more often major characters.  And they aren’t cast as stereotypical seniors  (crabby, saintly,  sickly, frail). They’re strong  men and women who have talents, abilities, enjoy sex, and are  flawed in some way.

3. The characters aren’t as good looking as in America. They’re apt to be overweight, wrinkled, or sort of plain.  Actors are cast for their talent, not their looks.

4. The females  don’t wear as much makeup. They don’t all look like fashion models.  They seem more like the women we see every day.

5. .The characters are more restrained. They behave in a rather  formal, dignified manner.

6. British accents. Having lived in a small Indiana town, I had never heard a real English accent until I moved to Chicago after college.  The best companies hired women with English accents . There are hundreds of different English accents, but all of them are easier on the ears that the flat American way of speaking   Even if they use poor grammar, the British  accent  still sounds  posher than an American of a similar social class.

As the pandemic hung on, we found Masterpiece Theatre and other British shows  more entertaining  than the typical American TV shows, thrown together with predictable plots, and cardboard characters.  By this time next year, we’ll surely be watching less television than we do now.  But we’ll appreciate the 6 good things we’ve learned about British TV.