Just caught the last part of the final Prime Suspect last night. Has there ever been a better dramatic series than the seven Prime Suspects? Has there ever been a more compelling character on TV than Helen Mirren's Jane Tennyson, however you spell it?
Mirren is an English national treasure. Talk about a courageous, compelling, complicated character portrayal that never rings false once. But they are all terrific. All the actors, the script writing, the direction. Amazing. Television that people will be gripped by 30 or 40 years from now.
As great as the Sopranos is, you will never find dramatic television better than the best from England. That's what a system designed to produce great actors, not stars, can produce.
I believe that in the Civil War and Eyes on the Prize, the story of the U.S. civil rights movement, American public television has produced the best two television documentaries ever, but the dramatic crown definitely goes to England.
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I havn't watched any of the Prime Suspect stories, but my wife thinks they're brilliant. I'm not a fan of crime fiction.

I have to agree that Ken Burns Civil War documentary is probably the best I've ever seen as well though. Relaying as it does purely on commentary, photographs and anecdotes, he still managed to produce a gripping series, and the music was superb all the way through. Still find myself whistling Dixie occasionally.

I agree Britain leads the way, HBO do some decent stuff and the Soprano's is top drawer, but one of the best thing HBO have done to date was Rome, and that was full of British actors.

NFG - rent the first Prime Suspect and watch it. More than anything it's a killer portrayal of the internal politics of policing. The case it revolves around is brilliantly presented but it is the powerful presentation of the internal battle within the police and Mirren's unforgettable performance that will glue you to the telly. I dare you to watch it and not run out and rent Prime Suspect 2. It's THAT good.

I think Prime Suspect has been a fantastic series of dramas... Unfortunately Lynda La Plante wasn't too happy with the way her character was portrayed in the last one...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1773

It worked for me Dixie, but I think the three best PSs were the first three, the ones penned by La Plante. I think the last one was the next best. I would like to acquire all 7 on DVD.

One of the best jobs I ever had was as a props buyer for Prime Suspect II. Every day I was handed a wad of cash and a shopping list and let loose on Manchester, buying anything from a garden shed to sado-masachistic hardware - a whip from the Corn-Exchange; handcuffs from the Arndale Centre Market; a dragon mask from Affleck's Palace ..... I had to kit out the murderer's caravan/torture room.
Got some really funny looks as I shopped around. "Do you have any whips or canes? No? Oh. How about handcuffs? Any heavy chains? How about a cattle prod?"

I must say, though, that I've found the plot line weak at the end of two episodes that I can think of - in P.S. II where the baddie is surrounded on the beach and he runs ...... into the sea! Duh! Where did he think he was going? France? Ireland? Risable.

And I thought the scene of the young girl with Tennyson's sister at T's late father's house and her subsequent arrest, in P.S. VII, was very poorly handled. I suspect they were over-running terribly so cut it to ribbons. All the info we needed was there, shown in a series of brief scenes, but it ran against the grain of the rest of the show stylistically.

Nevertheless, the series has, on the whole, been a triumph both for the cast and the crew, many of whom had worked on previous Granada triumphs like Sam, Family at War, The Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead Revistited, to name but a few.

We tend to think first of the BBC when reflecting on the excellence of British TV, but the output of Granada TV, when it was an independant company, should not be forgotten.