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Why only upper-crust British TV dramas like The Crown and Downtown Abbey become hits in America

Claire Foy scooped a Golden Globe for her starring role as Queen Elizabeth 11 in 'The Crown'
Claire Foy scooped a Golden Globe for her starring role as Queen Elizabeth 11 in 'The Crown'

Back in 1982 at the 54th Academy Awards, Chariots of Fire screenwriter, the late Colin Welland, proclaimed that, ‘The British are coming’.

As we know, it didn’t quite work out the way Welland hoped, as the following nine years saw a dearth of global box office hits for the UK film industry, compounded by David Puttnam’s short-lived 14 month stint as Head of Columbia Pictures, which seemed to increase the perception of hubris on the part of the British.

35 years later we are hearing a similar refrain, this time about the UK’s television drama.

The success of both The Night Manager (BBC1, amc in the USA) and The Crown (Netflix) at the recent Golden Globes, together with a purple patch in home-grown UK drama and the growth of high-end funding for TV series, has led some to build up hopes of a British breakthrough in the US.

Although 'The Night Manager' picked up three Golden Globes for acting, the mini-series didn’t set any ratings records for the US basic cable broadcaster amc
Although 'The Night Manager' picked up three Golden Globes for acting, the mini-series didn’t set any ratings records for the US basic cable broadcaster amc

At this point, there should be a collective reality check, for despite the incredible success of British acting talent in the States, there has yet to be any major UK-produced hit outside the relatively narrow confines of upper-class period drama.

After six seasons, Downton Abbey was the top PBS drama of all time - the most-viewed drama in PBS's 45 years, which at the peak of its popularity, Downton Abbey attracted a weekly average audience of 13.3 million viewers across season 4.

But when we examine the most recent crop of UK dramas playing in the USA, a different picture emerges.

Despite the three Golden Globes achieved by The Night Manager, the mini-series didn’t set any ratings records for the US basic cable broadcaster amc.

'Downton Abbey' was the top PBS drama of all time and attracted a weekly average audience of 13.3 million viewers in the US across season 4
'Downton Abbey' was the top PBS drama of all time and attracted a weekly average audience of 13.3 million viewers in the US across season 4

In terms of audiences, only 0.8m viewers tuned into the show, a figure dwarfed by the 11.9m viewers who watched the first 9 episodes of the current series of The Walking Dead, amc’s biggest hit – a ‘ratings machine’, to quote President Donald Trump.

HBO’s artsy The Young Pope (transmitted by Sky Atlantic in the UK) has garnered some vocal supporters in the US and the UK, but with linear audiences of 0.6m (and far less than that in the UK), it’s no Game of Thrones.

Even when viewing across all platforms is included, The Young Pope’s 4.7m audience fell far short of season one of Westworld, which pulled in around 11.7m.

As HBO apparently picked up The Young Pope for comparative chickenfeed, the theory is that it may well return; audiences for the series were high for co-producer Sky Italia. This leaves Sky Atlantic in the unfortunate position of possibly having to fork out for a ratings dud if they are committed to a second season by their partners.

British shows such as ITV’s 'Beowulf' (Esquire Network) failed to make an impression both in the UK and North America
British shows such as ITV’s 'Beowulf' (Esquire Network) failed to make an impression both in the UK and North America

Sky also came a cropper with You, Me & The Apocalypse (2015, UK, 2016 US), a comedy-drama from Beaver Falls (E4) writer Iain Hollands that played to underwhelming audiences for NBC (2.9m) in the US and for Sky themselves here (0.7m), despite the presence of a cast that included familiar faces such as Rob Lowe, Diana Rigg, Megan Mullally, Pauline Quirke and Jenna Fischer.

Added to these relative misfires has been the failure of season two of Sky Atlantic’s Nordic Noir-style original Fortitude to find a US broadcaster - probably not aided by a wilting UK performance currently tracking below 90,000 ‘live’ viewers over episodes 2-4. At around £3m an episode, that’s a serious lack of bang for Sky’s buck.

Season one was transmitted by the now defunct Pivot channel in the States, but since they didn’t publish ratings, we have no idea whether the show performed well for them, or not.

Other British shows such as ITV’s Beowulf (Esquire Network), Jekyll & Hyde (CBC) and Houdini & Doyle (Fox) all failed to make an impression both in the UK and North America, each series folding after one solitary season.

Period dramas like BBC1's 'Poldark' (above) appeal to the US as does ITV's 'Mr Selfridge'
Period dramas like BBC1's 'Poldark' (above) appeal to the US as does ITV's 'Mr Selfridge'

In the light of these failures, it’s probably fair to say that any talk of a British Invasion is premature and that the UK’s real appeal to the US appears to be in class-conscious period drama, as evidenced by the success of the aforementioned Downton Abbey, together with Mr Selfridge (ITV) Poldark (BBC1), Victoria (ITV) on PBS and budget-busting newcomer The Crown (Netflix).

As Netflix don't release figures, it’s not known how many viewers watched The Crown, but awards (Best Drama and Best Actress for Claire Foy’s portrayal of a young Elizabeth II at The Golden Globes) and presumed high viewing levels recorded internally have now guaranteed the royal drama at least two more seasons.

A casualty of the success of The Crown appears to have been Amazon's expensive Parisian period fashion drama The Collection, which was released two months before its competitor but failed to generate much buzz, with no word yet on a second season.

Sky also came a cropper with 'You, Me & The Apocalypse' which underwhelmed US audiences for NBC, despite a cast that included Rob Lowe and Diana Rigg
Sky also came a cropper with 'You, Me & The Apocalypse' which underwhelmed US audiences for NBC, despite a cast that included Rob Lowe and Diana Rigg

Reviews were generally appreciative of the acting and period detail, but the scripting was felt to be lacklustre, and, as the show was set in France and included elements of a crime drama, it doesn’t really hue to the ‘posh’ drama model.

If Crown producer Left Bank’s current upper crust ITV series The Halycon succeeds in the US (broadcaster as yet tbc) it will appear that UK has rather depressingly pigeon-holed itself as a kind of televisual version of Merchant Ivory, doling out these finely crafted snobbish truffles to an always-appreciative audience.

Possibly with that in mind, NBC have cut out the middle man and hired Downton creator Julian Fellowes for his new drama series The Gilded Age, a New York high society fest set in the 1880s, which may feature possible crossovers from younger versions of Downton characters, presumably in the city looking for marriage prospects to shore up their ancestral estates.

NBC have hired 'Downtown Abbey' creator Julian Fellowes for his new drama series 'The Gilded Age', a New York high society drama set in the 1880s (Getty Images)
NBC have hired 'Downtown Abbey' creator Julian Fellowes for his new drama series 'The Gilded Age', a New York high society drama set in the 1880s (Getty Images)

So why does Fellowes think British period drama appeals to US audiences? A few years ago he commented that:

‘Americans are wonderful film actors - the best in the world - but they are a very contemporary race and they look forward all the time. There is something about period drama where they tend to go into a strange place called ‘Period’ where people wear funny clothes’

“I think our actors have a kind of understanding of period. For Europeans, the past is in them as well as the present and I think they are at ease in that genre in a way that the Americans find harder,”

Viewers of recent US period dramas such as the re-booted Roots (History), Mercy Street (PBS), The Knick (Cinemax), The Book of Negroes (BET), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Manhatten (WGN America) and further back 2008’s multi-award winning John Adams and 2004-06’s Deadwood may beg to differ.