What would you like to see on TV?

Money’s obviously the big issue here: it’s presumably far cheaper to buy a readymade product than it is to produce from scratch an Australian series.

What’s the answer?

Personally, I’m unimpressed by the last couple of Australian dramas on the ABC—East of Everything and Bed of Roses. Nice, well produced and all, but… I don’t know. Surely there’s life outside the city-dweller-uproots-to-quirky-country-town formula. Most of the rest of our drama falls into the “profession” shows category: Sea Patrol, All Saints, etc., which is hardly must-see viewing. I cringed through an entire episode of Sea Patrol a few weeks back because the dialogue was just that bad. On the surface it seemed like the kind of show I might enjoy: Australian, full of action, nice uniforms. The execution leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a sign of how desperate for Australian-made content we are that this stuff passes for good drama.

In an ideal world I’d like to see more of our own historical novels filmed: Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume, a detective novel from 1886 which was the first Australian bestseller (it even outsold Wilkie Collins), for instance, would adapt wonderfully.

Even better would be an urban fantasy or sci fi show of our own; something for families rather than kids. Think Primeval, Doctor Who, or a toned down Supernatural. Something to create our own multicultural national mythology from. I believe a big part of overcoming the cultural cringe is producing Arts content about Australia, for Australians, and not just going with what we already know works. We need to move outside our narrow little view of who we are.

Since money’s such an issue, maybe we should think about introducing a TV license fee like the UK has.

Thoughts?