French Fancies

Alain Carraze explains how cult British shows are perceived as the best on television in France

Friendly Yours, Bowler Hat and Leather Boots, Alert in Space, and Iron Grip and Seduction... You don't know any of these television series? Never heard of them? They are famous in France, cult TV shows regularly repeated on cable TV stations. Well, you must know them with their original titles: The Persuaders!, The Avengers, UFO, and The Protectors respectively.

For decades, British TV shows fought a battle to capture the love of French viewers. Their most powerful opponents were American TV shows (western and cop dramas), the challengers being local French fare, ie historical programmes. But they won the battle, with some casualties.

They won because they were creative, quirky, uncanny and unexpected.

For years, British TV shows were, in France, the epitome of quality television: innovative and creative. The highest accolade goes to The Prisoner, the symbol of TV as an art form.

The first wave of successful British shows that got a rousing success in France were the medieval action-adventure half-hours: Ivanhoe made Sir Roger Moore a star as early as 1959, followed by The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Adventures of William Tell. Many of them, such as Sir Francis Drake, Richard the Lionheart or Richard Greene's The Adventures of Robin Hood, were moderate hits but all these titles were so numerous that they ignited a protective reaction from the French government, asking RTF (RadiodiffusionTélévision Française, French public television) to create some programmes of its own: Thierry La Fronde, a Robin Hood clone, and Bayard, the French knight, an unsuccessful answer to Ivanhoe.