BRITISH TELLY, ANYONE?

The quality of British television can be extremely high, but they have their fair share of dogs. For example:

During the day and often at night, they show a number of real estate shows, especially for second homes. One or two I understand --but four daily?

Antique shows are interesting---but four or more daily?

They love cooking shows and contests. they can be great---but, again, four or five?

Believe me, I don't watch all these, but I see them in the program (spelled "programme") listing.

British "telly" also is a vast repository of old American sitcoms. For years they've been running "Murder, She Wrote". "Jag", "Dynasty", "Friends", "Falconcrest" as daily or multi-weekly fare. American producers must rub their hands with glee---not to mention the actors---at the residuals they receive for these old chestnuts.

No holds are barred in smut or four-letter words. You never hear a bleep on British TV. My daughter is visiting, and the other night an old American police movie was showing, and she was astounded by mother---- issuing from the screen. I told her that's standard fare. The talk shows are pretty free and loose, as well.

I was having terrible reception problems as our house is near hills and lots of trees which block digital signals--as well as French signals from across ther channel. I solved this problem with a satellite box and dish. Now I can even get CNN, Bloomberg, European and Asian news services, even El Jazeera, the Arab network (in English). I miss ESPN which is only shown on Sky, a satellite network owned by that old charmer, Rupert Murdoch, for which I would have to sign up for a year. Since we're here only three months, it's not worth it. I get most of my American sports news from the web.

Several of the BBC channels are commercial-free, which is a real blessing, but the independent channels, like ours, bury you with ads.

All in all, I would call it a dead heat between the Brits and our TV. They do more interesting specials, but they have more dogs.