As the channels publish their Christmas schedules, it looks like 2011 is going to be yet another disappointing year for TV. There is a reason why US television is so much better than British TV and it as nothing to do with the significantly larger budgets. Even if we had £750,000 per episode to spend on a drama, we still couldn't make a 24, a Lost or even a series like The Wire. Why? Because the kinds of people capable of writing these shows are not the writers who get hired in England.
If there's one thing I've noticed in the years I've spent travelling between the US and the UK, is how much more egalitarian the American TV industry appears to be. Writers, producers, directors come from all walks of life - they are housewives and dentists, former marines and actors. Yes, there are still too few women working in the industry - but at 25%, that's still twice the number working in the UK TV industry. In the US, Prime Suspect, the series created by Lynda La Plante, has been cancelled - but that doesn't detract from the fact that in 25 years, La Plante is still the most successful woman British TV has seen. We do not have a female Russell T Davies or Paul Abbott and I can't see that changing any time soon.
Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker's three-part satirical series Black Mirror starts on Channel 4. Despite a full-page write-up in the Radio Times and a number of plugs in The Guardian, I can safely predict that viewing figures for this will be small. Brooker appears to have been commissioned off the back of his notoriety, not the concept or execution. I'm sure the Channel 4 executive who gave him the gig would have enjoyed his "pitch" meeting immensely. But given the channel's original remit, is this a good use of its limited resources? I would have to say no.
As someone who has studied screenwriting in the US and the UK, I have observed that British writers simply do not take the business of screenwriting seriously. I've heard British writers of long-running series brag about "knocking up" scripts in the pub the night before filming. You simply wouldn't find an American writer making such a boast.
It's interesting to note that Brooker wrote the first two parts of Black Mirror but the final part is written by Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show fame. Did Mr Brooker run out of steam? And that's another uniquely British phenomenom - we are good at coming up with concepts (The Office, Fawlty Towers, Lost In Austen), but we lack the stamina to maintain any show beyond its first series. There were only six episodes of Fawlty Towers and Lost In Austen pretty much ran out of ideas after the first episode.
I cannot see this situation changing - unless all the channels make a concerted effort to ensure their workforces are as diverse as possible. Diversity fosters creativity; it really is that simple.
When everyone is white, male and middle-class and from Gloucester, you are just not going to get the best ideas.
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