Law and Order: London in the works
 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080103/tv_nm/law_dc_2

"Law & Order" is getting a British accent. Series creator Dick Wolf and producer NBC Universal are in negotiations to allow a British firm to develop a series tentatively titled "Law & Order: London" for the ITV network.

The project, to be produced by London-based Kudos Film & Television, would mark the first locally produced version of "Law & Order," and the first English-speaking version of any series in the venerable crime franchise outside of the United States.

Russia already has local versions of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and France also has its own version of "Law & Order: CI."

"Law & Order," which made its 18th-season premiere on NBC on Wednesday night, is TV's longest-running crime series and its second-longest-running drama series behind "Gunsmoke."

So theyve never heard of Taggart?

That's an interesting find, Raph's Girl. For my Masters Degree I wrote an article on how British crime shows could learn from the US, and the 'Law & Order' franchise was one of the examples I focused on.

Kudos have been behind some of the best British dramas of recent years so I hope they can do a good job. 'HolbyBlue' tried to capture some of the American style of things but was just absolute dross and nowhere near as daring or interesting.

A current programme by Kudos, 'Spooks', has (or, going by recent series of the show, had) a good stable of writers behind it, which could perhaps bring some interesting approaches.

I could go on about how and why British crime shows are mostly balls, but I won't. I will just say that I am looking forward to what Kudos do with the format and hope for the best.

ps. Taggart is nothing like Law & Order ie. the format is completely different, and it's rubbish.

So is Law and Order.

I would argue different. Law & Order is intelligent and provoking at the best of times, and entertaining at the worst of them.

It deals with 'ripped from the headlines' stories quite a bit, has a very well-paced script and even allows the 'bad guys' to win on occasion. At other times, it at least allows identification or sympathy with the accused and the creation of actual drama within moral conflicts. That's not something you get with a simple 'find the murderer' detective programme. It's just a much more mature show.

Given the nature of American team-writing, the consistency may be a bit off; but the fact that there's a group of people behind it highlights why American television is generally so much better.