Something to get my teeth into?

BBC tried to soften the blow with the announcement of forthcoming projects including a six part adaptation of Jennifer Worth’s 1950s memoir Call the Midwife and a Christmas production of Great Expectations – now that requires a great deal of expection. I can’t hang on for this, nor the return of Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs in the Autumn.

I think TV producers are missing a trick here. With us baby boomers in the majority we are the viewers who will boost their ratings.

We are selective viewers, not wall to wall watchers, but we know what we like. Teenagers spend their life on social networking sites and at parties, in my experience, so there’s no point in pandering to them. Sport fans lurch between Skysports and the pub, so that’s them catered for. And with a million satellite stations there are enough game shows and chat shows to satisfy everyone else.

But where are the quality costume dramas? I know Judi Dench doesn’t come cheaply, but think of the sales opportunities, the DVD’s, the books – the lunch boxes – I’d buy a Cranford lunch box, seriously. And the Americans snap up all our costume dramas – they can’t get enough of them, even if they have to have certain peculiarities explained, like the Downton entail. Oh come on, everyone knows what an entail is.

With The King's Speech set to dominate the Oscars, small screen players should take heed. But meanwhile, what am I supposed to tune in to? Now this Being Human series, could that be up my street, I wonder?

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