Killed off all over again...
Blake, did he die, did he not die? Avon..was he bonkers, or a barstard. What would happen to Orac if he got upgraded? More flashing lights, coloured plastic (was he once really the future of computing?)
Do you have any idea what I am talking about? Any idea who these people in the picture here? Brilliant, you must be under 40, and like anybody not too old, you have never heard of Blakes 7. (Even gimmers like me who have heard of it can’t actually remember anything much that happened…and nobody cared a hoot about the radio revival).
Well, relax, you can carry on not being any the wiser this morning, because apparently a Sky backed plan to revive Blakes 7 is once again on ice. The relaunch has been frozen out, the rumour mill has it, because the satellite broadcaster has decided to stop spending its drama dollars on Brit productions so that it can spend about £14 million on the Yankee HBO catalogue (The Wire, Band of Brothers and all that). All of which seems a bit mean.
There’s also talk a big budget Gillian Anderson spy show, which was in development on a promised budget of £1 million an episode — big money in TV terms — is in similar jeopardy. Sky got the commission for the show because it was prepared to invest big, but now all that’s in doubt, which is terrible for lonely Anderson fans who have scratched their X-Files DVDs to death.
What is true is that Sky has decided to put some cash down in new comedy, with four new projects including Ruth Jones’s show Stella, a couple of new shows, and a lot of autobiographical shorts from the likes of Catherine Tate, Stephen Fry and Bill Bailey. You can’t knock that, but the £10 million or so Sky has put down is still small compared to other broadcasters (well the BBC and Channel 4) and with the UK drama spending seemingly on hold, Sky’s spending on British content outside sport remains modest for all its size and success.
No doubt that will change, perhaps when Blakes 7 makes it to air.
Perhaps if they offered the show to Gillian Anderson AND David Duchovny and brought Chris Carter in as a producer The X-Files could be revived on this side of the pond. Why not ? London and the surrounding towns,cities,hamlets,
villages and countryside could provide more than enough new stories to keep it going for at least a few seasons. With all of the haunted houses,crop circles,Loch Ness Monsters (so they take a weekend in Scotland), the series would be freshened and provide job opportunities for famous and unknown British actors alike. I would tune in. Wouldn’t you ?
Gillian Anderson hates TV? Maybe she should think a little harder and come down off of her pedestal. She might actually be back in the public eye if she did so. I can’t believe some of you Anderson fans put TV down the way you do. Her preference might be films but what she is offered is quite small. I don’t think she can carry a film but she might be able to carry a series. Of course she would not have Mulder to help her along:)
I think Lily has it. It is on record in so many of her interviews, GA hates television work (X-files bought her fame and wealth but 9 years of it turned her off TV), she was even reluctant to appear in the BBC drama Bleak House to begin with. Her preference is film and theatre work.
A TV show starring GA?? BULL$HIT. They might have offered it to her but she won’t do any more series.
They have Gillian Anderson on board and they hesitate? Is this a joke?
8-( Why are insane people running tv these days? And what are they paid for?
I love Gillian. I’m straight but have a total girl crush on her.
I want a Gillian Anderson Show
I’m not sure that Sky’s doing enough in original production. Yes, they have tentpole names attached to shorts that go out at Christmas, and there are the annual Terry Pratchett mini-series which are decently put together.
But they burnt off their SAS/Iraq Kudos series over three weeks, running the six episodes in pairs.
Sky needs to commission some 13 episode runs of series to be a serious player. And it needs to make enough that it can run original programming on at least one night a week most of the year.