The British Invasion of Television

Most of the time, when we hear the phrase "British Invasion," we think of The Beatles. That was not, however, the only British invasion that America has experienced. (Best not to even think about the War of 1812.) In fact, even before the Brits took over pop culture, there was a British invasion of television. That's the subject of my latest appearance on Dan Schneider's Video Interview. 

When did this British Invasion begin? Some people will think of classic mysteries like Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, and Inspector Morse. Others will go further back to Masterpiece Theatre, and the lavish miniseries such as Upstairs, Downstairs, I, Claudius, and Poldark. The older ones among us will recall The Avengers, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, and The Saint. But in fact, it actually begins in 1952, with the appearance of Alistair Cooke as host on the arts and culture program Omnibus. Although Cooke wasn't a performer himself, his suave urbanity and wit prepared Americans for the concept of British quality on American TV. This era is what I think of as the First British Invasion.

The first British series to be imported for an American television network was 1955's The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for three seasons on CBS. After that, there were similar adventure programs—The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, The Buccaneers, and more. The early 1960s saw the influence of James Bond spread to the small screen, with imports like Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), The Avengers, The Saint, and The Prisoner. Those were followed by series looking to specifically target the American market by casting American actors in the lead roles: The Baron, starring Steve Forrest, Court-Martial, with Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves, Man in a Suitcase, starring Richard Bradford, and The Champions, starring Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo, and William Gaunt. 

By the end of the decade, a fortuituous combination of circumstances let to public broadcasting's import of the British series The Forsyte Saga. Its singular success would, in turn, lead to what I call the Second British Invasion, the one most of us are probably more familiar with, the centerpiece being Masterpiece Theatre, hosted by none other than—Alistair Cooke.

It's at this point, for the most part, that our program ends; Dan and I get into some of the programs that follow Masterpiece Theatre, but in this episode I really wanted to concentrate on the initial British incursion into American television. It's a big topic, and there were areas we didn't have time to explore in the kind of detail I'd prefer, but that's why we have follow-up podcasts.  

I think you'll enjoy it—it's a topic I look forward to expanding on at some point in the future! TV