Patience - fake news
Jan. 12th, 2025 03:55 pmSome months ago I was browsing the channels on my TV and I came across a programme on one of the Channel 4 stable. It was in French, part of their Walter Presents stream of foreign language programmes, and it was a police procedural. What's more, it involved classical music.
It turned out it was an episode of a Franco-Belgian series called Astrid et Raphaƫlle - Astrid: Murder in Paris in the UK. It involves a young archivist working for the Paris police who is autistic, which gives her skills in solving crime, as a police woman discovers. I found the whole series so far was available for streaming. Only the first three seasons have been shown in the UK so far.
I was therefore intrigued to discover a UK remake was in the works. Patience, set in York, started this week on Channel 4. It was intriguing. They've basically transplanted the whole plot of the first episode. Not sure yet if it is as good.
But then, a couple of days later, I noticed an item in a news feed saying how viewers were switching off in disgust because it was plagiarising the original. This amused me. That it was a UK copy was well publicised in advance. Furthermore, copying shows from other countries is fairly common these days. Professor T and Humans come immediately to mind. And American TV are always copying British shows - The Office, Being Human, Life on Mars. I don't know how often subtitled shows are shown on American TV.
And it's been going of for some time. Way back in 1980, on my first trip to the US, I switched on the TV in an hotel room and realised they were showing a US remake of the British sitcom My Wife Next door. The IMDb tells me that the British show was made in 1972. It also lists the US remake, but gives no episodes. Obviously not a success.
It turned out it was an episode of a Franco-Belgian series called Astrid et Raphaƫlle - Astrid: Murder in Paris in the UK. It involves a young archivist working for the Paris police who is autistic, which gives her skills in solving crime, as a police woman discovers. I found the whole series so far was available for streaming. Only the first three seasons have been shown in the UK so far.
I was therefore intrigued to discover a UK remake was in the works. Patience, set in York, started this week on Channel 4. It was intriguing. They've basically transplanted the whole plot of the first episode. Not sure yet if it is as good.
But then, a couple of days later, I noticed an item in a news feed saying how viewers were switching off in disgust because it was plagiarising the original. This amused me. That it was a UK copy was well publicised in advance. Furthermore, copying shows from other countries is fairly common these days. Professor T and Humans come immediately to mind. And American TV are always copying British shows - The Office, Being Human, Life on Mars. I don't know how often subtitled shows are shown on American TV.
And it's been going of for some time. Way back in 1980, on my first trip to the US, I switched on the TV in an hotel room and realised they were showing a US remake of the British sitcom My Wife Next door. The IMDb tells me that the British show was made in 1972. It also lists the US remake, but gives no episodes. Obviously not a success.