Has Terrestrial Television Lost Out To Digital Channels?

This week it was revealed, in an article on the BBC's very own news site, that "BBC 'missed out' on Yes, Prime Minister comeback" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20908049) with the creators saying that they refused to film a pilot of their new version of the classic BBC sitcom thus taking the show to UKTV's 'Gold' instead, a trend happening more and more with digital stations getting big hitters appearing on their channels.

Now whilst I think the writer's refusal to film a pilot smacks a little of 'do you not know who I am' syndrome and the BBC needs to see if the show, in its new format, will actually be funny, they do have a point in that the show was very successful on the BBC and in the recent stage show, which this new version is based on, and if UKTV, with a vastly smaller budget than the Beeb can take the risk, why can't they?

Comedy on the BBC is in a strange place. My favourite sitcom on television at the moment 'Not Going Out' - soon coming back for a sixth series - was cancelled and saved not so long ago in a frankly ridiculous decision, and comedy shows I'd expect, if not on the BBC, at least on "terrestrial" television, have appeared on digital channels, in particular on Sky channels who seem to be showcasing lots of great new shows, one being the hilarious 'A Touch of Cloth' two-parter, co-written by Charlie Brooker, a regular contributor to shows on the BBC and Channel 4. I'm not privvy to the negotiations - and the money offered - that got the show onto Sky, but it would have been a perfect addition to either of those mentioned channel's line-ups.

This isn't to say the BBC isn't still doing great comedy shows. Their 'Bleak Old Shop of Stuff' from 2011 was a great commission, as was Brooker's series of 'Wipe' shows including the most recent one this week, and they are still mostly unrivaled when it comes to comedy panel shows, but there seems to be a lack of risk taking in comedy. Only last year Channel 4 showed a pilot of Milton Jones' 'House of Rooms', an absolutely hilarious thirty-minutes, that has still not been commissioned.

And even when they do have some great comedy they don't capitalise on it. 'John Bishop's Britain', a brilliant show, good enough to get a second series, is still not available on DVD. I, for one, want to own that. The BBC has a large gold mine of old comedies that should see the light of day again or at least get a DVD release. Who remembers Al Murray's great but short lived sketch show from a few years back, still not available to take home?

In short, the BBC and its terrestrial cousins are doing some great things with comedy but needs to do more. If these relatively small-fry digital television stations can commission whole series that stand up to  their originals (Gold and 'Yes, Prime Minster', Watch and its major contributions to Primeval Series' four and five, and showing off its new Canadian spin-off, Dave and 'Red Dwarf) then why cannot the big hitters? If they're not careful they will drive more and more viewers over to these small channels.

Shows like 'A Touch of Cloth', 'Red Dwarf', 'Primeval', 'Yes! Prime Minister' and more should have been jumped on by the big four traditional networks to show. They need to take more risks and make bigger comedy shows or instead of making jokes about 'Dave' in their shows, they'll be losing out to them.