Canadian telly's lack of impact in Britain

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm now on series two of a "Slings and Arrows" binge, initiated by a love of Mark McKinney.
My God, it's good. No idea why it never made it onto UK screens.

I've only just seen this thread but was really surprised there was no mention of Slings and Arrows on the first page, it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title and I was sure I discovered it thanks to CaB, but I couldn't find anything when doing a quick search. Either way it's an absolute gem, and something which I think is pretty perfect, three amazing seasons that ended in a very satisfying way, and that's that.

A decade ago the AV Club reviewed every episode of the show as part of there "Classic Tv" series and the first one can be found here: https://www.avclub.com/slings-and-arrows-oliver-s-dream-1798175581, while there's a great article about the show from the same writer that I really hope encourages others to check it out: https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/8/20953377/slings-and-arrows-streaming-acorn-tv

There's lots of other shows I've enjoyed that have already been mentioned, but the one other series that I was surprised wasn't mentioned was the 2008 adaptation of Douglas Coupland's J-Pod which The Guardian described as "the best show of 2008 that no one saw" - https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2009/jun/02/douglas-coupland-jpod-series - the only downside is that it didn't get a second series and the first series ended on a number of cliffhangers.

[George White]

BBC aired Oscar Peterson's Grand Piano (1973), the Globe Theatre A Bird in the Hand (1973), Grey owl (1973), World About US - Voyage to the Sea of Ice (1969), Annanacks, the 1978 tvm the Dawson Patrol (1978) and the doc Just Another Missing Kid (1984)

[George White]

More Canadian showings of UK shows
CBC the Royal Heritage, The Onedin Line, All Creatures, A horseman riding by
CTV the Snow Queen
TVO The Voyage of Charles Darwin, the Devil's Crown, Boys from the black stuff, Anna Karenina, the Aphrodite Inheritance,  Doctor Who, the Ascent of man, Blackadder, The Thin Blue Line,         Two Fat Ladies,    Full circle, Monarch of the Glen, Omega Factor, I, Claudius   
ITV shows on TVO -   Runaway Bay, the Prisoner, the Darling Buds of May, Full Circle, Golden Pennies, Midsomer Murders, Tom Grattan's War

[KennyMonster]

Sorry, what/who is Canadia?

I think its the scientific name for Thrush.

[KennyMonster]

Anyone remember these guys on C4 in the 80s?

It was the Kids In The Hall of its day.

[George White]

ITV showed the 1993 CBC TVM the Diviners.

[purlieu]

God, I hated The Raccoons. What kid wants to watch some boring environmental tosh about a married couple and their dipshit roommate? What kid even knows about roommates? It's such a weirdly grown up context for a children's cartoon.

I doubt kids really cared, the draw was always Cyril Sneer and the pigs.

I always associate Canadian TV with sci-fi, especially stuff shown on SyFy, probably because there are so many of those 'filmed in Vancouver for tax reasons' American shows - The X Files, the various Stargate series, Earth: Final Conflict, Andromeda, Dark Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Fringe, Warehouse 13, The 100, Dark Matter, The Expanse, even the Doctor Who movie. Some of them were proper Canadian co-productions, I suppose. There are a few fully Canadian ones, though, like Killjoys, Sanctuary, ReGenesis and the PSI Factor, and then there was the utterly weird Canada/UK/Germany co-production Lexx.

[George White]

Lexx was from a Nova Scotian base rather than a Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal base. I remember Frank Kelly in his autobiography telling us of him flying over there to do a guest shot, finally getting his lifelong wish of doing SF (proper SF, not Wanderly Wagon), and going up to Newfoundland and meeting people with Dun Laoghaire accents (in his words, not quite Wicklow and not quite Dublin, but halfway)5.

[QDRPHNC]

I find the Maritime accents really weird. My brain keeps trying to settle on whether it's Irish, Northern Irish or Scottish, but they seem to flit between all three in a single sentence.

[Swift]

When I first moved here, I caught a bit of This Hour has 22 Minutes where they had a skit with two old biddies and I genuinely thought they were taking the piss out of Irish people but I couldn't quite understand the joke.

Now on the phone I occasionally get confused for an East Coaster because my accent is probably somewhere in between now.

[George White]

Codco, aforementioned Newfie sketch show had a similar problem.
Same with the Yonge St sketch in SCTV. Cos John Candy's Maritime accent and Leprechaun accent are the same.

[George White]

The CBC kids TVM 'The Challengers' (1990), featuring Jon and Vangelis, was shown on BBC.
CBC showed both SuperGran and Barriers, from Tyne-Tees. Though only the first series and christmas specials, it seems, though Barriers got a complete run on TVO and YTV.
The CBC also showed the last 2 seasons of Yorkshire TV's kids drama the Flaxton Boys.
A rare Eighventies networked BBC show on CBC - Australian-British-German thriller Golden Soak (1979).
Channel 4 showed CBC TVM Drying in the Streets.

CBC showed ABC Australia'sWomen of the Sun (1983) and Lucinda Brayford (1980, shown by RTE but not in the UK).

Sky showed 1980 CBC/STV/German copro Ritter's Cove in the late 80s.

[George White]

Radisson, known in Britain as Tomahawk (1959) - devised as Canada's answer to Davy Crockett by the CBC and made in French and English simultaneously, was a coproduction with Associated British, though outside of the ABC stations for North and Midlands and Tyne Tees, doesn't seem to have gotten much play.
Ditto the CBC/ITV Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans of the 50s.
Tugboat Annie got play on CBC stations.


Emergency Ward 10 was surprisingly aired on the CBC in the 60s.


The Associated Rediffusion series Playdate was made up of CBC dramas notably a version of Great Expectations with Douglas "HAL" Rain  (the writer Sir Michael Morpurgo has talked of this drama as it was where he discovered his real father, actor Tony van Bridge)

They also showed a comedy play set in England with Ivor Barry, Rain and Earle 'Panthro' Hyman - Alias Jones.
Ditto Interplay - a series of CBC plays including Encounter - Depth 300 with Barry Morse, Pat Macnee and James Doohan as Briitsh submariners and Here Today with 'Bob' Goulet.

[George White]

I was reading about CHSJ, the New Brunswick station, which though CBC-licenced was not owned,and was very much the Channel Television or Scottish TV of the CBC, often throwing out vast quantities of the schedule, usually the late night stuff. 
                                     Networked on CHSJ shows that did get shown in the UK -  Flaxton Boys (in a morning slot compared to CBIT's afternoon), Onedin Line (in daytime), the Lost Islands, Degrassi, Forest Rangers, Rainbow Country, Beachcombers, Return to Eden, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Smiley's People was at least repeated in Sunday slots in both CBIT and CHSJ), Edward and Mrs Simpson, nfb,Tales of the Klondike, Muppet Musicians of Bremen, World at War, Zoo Gang,  Bless this House, Saigon Year of the Cat, Supergran and the Magic Ray, the Forsyte Saga, Boy Dominic, Romie-0 and Julie 8, Sidestreet, Space 1999, Scene - Songs of a Sourdough, Elizabeth R/Six Wives of Henry VIII, Vision On, Black Beauty, Amateur Naturalist, Brideshead (albeit delayed several months), Jewel in the Crown, Julie Andrews Hour, the 1982 BBC Swallows and Amazons, A Town Like Alice and at least some of Barriers and Fawlty Towers.

However, they did not show unlike the Nova Scotia stations, Coronation St (until the 90s bar a brief run in 1981),  Two's Company, Many Wives of Patrick, Return of the saint. Fawlty Towers, Bless Me Father, Life at Stake (late night slot), Shades of Greene (late night slot), Tales of the Unexpected (late night slot), Bonkers, Just William, Secret Army (late night slot),  Doomwatch (10pm - CHSJ replaced it with Man in a Suitcase), the Main Chance (CHSJ replaced with the Baron)
CHSJ did however weirdly Far Pavilions, Shelley, Never the Twain, Benny Hill, Kopykats, reruns of Tugboat Annie and New Adventures of Pinocchio (an ITV copro), and the Flame Trees of Thika.

CKCD, the CTV affiliate was originally CBc until 1969 but due to the remoteness, continued showing CBC programmes like Jalna, the Beachcombers, the Lost Islands and Wayne and Shuster and weirdly the ITV series Shabby Tiger (networked on CBC) and Black Beauty until 1976.

[George White]

Some of British-Canadian Gerry Potterton's cartoon films for CTV  got UK showings.
Christmas Messenger was on C4 and on Picture box. The Remarkable Rocket was on ITV.
The Happy Prince, the Little Mermaid and the Selfish Giant all got BBC showings.

[George White]

CBC/CHSJ aired the following US/Can TVMS -  Illusions 1983, American Christmas Carol, Lakewood Manor, Tell Me My Name, Who'll Save Our Children, Lovey - A Circle of Children,the Babysitter, Sins of Dorian Gray, Into Thin Air


CTV aired the following which are all made in Canada unless stated - The Winds of war (ABC - 1983 - set in Newfoundland), Hey I'm Alive (ABC - 1975), Eleanor and Franklin (ABC - 1976 - set in Newfoundland), In Like Flynn (CTV/ABC - 1985), Mazes and Monsters (CBS - 1982), When Michael Calls (ABC  - 1972), Sunshine Christmas (1973), The Execution of Private Slovik (NBC  - 1973), The Great Niagara (ABC  - 1975), Home to Stay (CBS - 1979) and Stephen King's It (1990 - ABC/CTV).
CTV also aired the 1980 Australian Broadcasting Commission/Paramount drama the Timeless Land (1980), shown on ITV in the UK. Other Aussie Paramount shows like Patrol Boat and Special Squad got shown, as did ITV staple Zoom the White Dolphin


CTV aired Jack the Ripper (1988) and Jekyll and Hyde (1990)
CTV's Untamed World aired on ITV in the 70s.
Westward and Channel showed CTV's Target The Impossible
CTV made TekWar, which played MovieChannel/went to video in Britain.  CTV also made La Femme Nikita, Earth Final Conflict and Once A Thief, which also variously played satellite.

Global TV made Inspector Gadget and the 80s version of Hitchcock Presents, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Ray Bradbury Theatre, Smoggies, the Beetlejuice cartoon, and the revived Airwolf (1987).

[Icehaven]

Surprised there's only one fleeting mention of Kids in the Hall in this thread, but I suppose it hasn't had a huge impact in the UK in general even if it had a huge impact on some of us who saw it during our formative years in the early 90s when it was on Channel Four.

[George White]

C5 showed the 1996 Canadian CBS/CBC/Hallmark Titanic  miniseries. It was aired by CBC ACROSS Canada, but seems to have been some kind of unofficial copro.

CTV showed the ABC miniseries Amerika which went straight to video in Britain.
CTV also had participation in CBS TVM The Secret Life of Doris Duke and ABC's The Audrey Hepburn Story, both satellite regulars in Britain.
CTV showed the Vancouver-shot Stephen King's It, shown on BBC in the UK.
CTV showed the BC-made CBS Katharine Hepburn vehicle Mrs Delafield Wants to Marry, WHICH also got a BBC showing. 
CTV aired the 1985 Montreal-shot Cook and Peary - Race to the Pole, shown on ITV.
CTV (at least in BC) showed the Vancouver shot NBC show JJ Starbuck, shown on Sky here
Sky showed ABC's the Commish, aired on CTV, made in BC but set in New York.


Global aired BC-shot 21 Jump St and the X Files in Canada in the 90s (CKVU in BC, CFAC in Alberta).
Global aired in parts of Canada the 1989 TVM Day One, made for CBS in Canada, and shown on Sky.
C4 showed the 1987 Global/Allarcom/Hanna-Barbera/NBC copro Stone Fox starring Buddy Ebsen.
BBC showed the 1987 Global-aired Vancouver CBS/ITC tvm Christmas comes to Willow Creek


CTV showed Black Forest Clinic.

[George White]

Global showed Highlander, a Sky/ITV series here.


In a reverse, CTV showed the Persuaders.
It seems historicaly, ITV shows have sold better to Canada. Father, Dear, Father seems to have had success on CBC

[Mr Trumpet]

Adventures of Tintin (shown on C4) was made for Global TV.

Loved that, say what you like about the weird little fella but that was one of my favourite TV shows as a kid.

[George White]

The partly Canada shot Top of the Hill (1980) was shown on CBC and ITV.
The CTV stations-aired Toronto-made ABC TVM Hearst and Davies Affair was shown on ITV regions.
CTV's CHEK showed the Vancouver CBS TVM I Heard the Owl call My Name (1973), shown on ITV
The 1981 CTV/ABC Canadian Alien knockoff The Intruder Within aired on ITV.

CTV aired the BBC-coproduced Australian ABC drama the Paper Man.

[George White]

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (a PBS/CBC American Playhouse), The Lawrenceville stories (a PBS/Global copro for American Playhouse) and Anne of Green Gables (also CBC/PBS) all seem to have been passed off as Channel 4 coproductions (given the A ____ Production prefix in TVTimes, listing the production company, done for either only ITV productions or independent C4 productions, also given to European shows, but always seeming with the intention 'a production for C4', hence why almost no US shows got such billing bar weirdly Oprah and Letterman).
 Tales from the Klondike was a genuine CBC/C4 coproduction.
The CBC copro Vietnam the Ten Thousand Day War (narrated by Richard Basehart, an American, incidentally) was shown on C4, billed only as a Cineworld production, suggesting either coproduction or trying to pass it off as C4. Not aired on NBC as wiki states but shown in US syndication on the likes of KTLA.

[mippy]

They keep talking about making various international remakes of Being Erica, but it never seems to come to anything.

[mippy]

Canadian producer Sydney Newman came over to the UK from Canada to work at ABC (later Thames) and the BBC, and had a big impact.

Lloyd Shirley at Thames was Canadian as well.

[George White]

Lloyd Shirley at Thames was Canadian as well.

There was a ton of transatlantic Canadian/British behind the scenes talent. Peter Wildeblood moved there in the 70s, and was head of CBC drama for yonks, supervising the aforementioned Tales of the Klondike but also flimsy VT-taped shows like A Gift to Last, Home Fires (Shakin' A Family at War) and the Great Detective, none of which got shown in Britain.

Shirley was involved in the CBC/Thames copro Glory Enough for All (alongside Wildeblood), and also was one of the reasons why the Whiteoaks of Jalna got aired on Thames and nowhere else.

[George White]

CBC's the First Circle (1992) aired on Sky
CTV aired the BBC doc the British Empire.

[purlieu]

Lexx was from a Nova Scotian base rather than a Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal base. I remember Frank Kelly in his autobiography telling us of him flying over there to do a guest shot, finally getting his lifelong wish of doing SF (proper SF, not Wanderly Wagon)

I wonder what his reaction was to getting his lifelong wish of doing proper SF only to find out that he was in a series that's part earnest good vs evil space opera, part gross out sketch comedy and part softcore porn.

[Mr Banlon]

Wasn't the early noughties Nero Wolfe series a Canadian production? That was ace.

[George White]

I wonder what his reaction was to getting his lifelong wish of doing proper SF only to find out that he was in a series that's part earnest good vs evil space opera, part gross out sketch comedy and part softcore porn.

Yes, tbh, there wasn't much difference between that and Wanderly Wagon, bar the sex.

[Glebe]

Yes, tbh, there wasn't much difference between that and Wanderly Wagon, bar the sex.