Why are non-English language programmes still foreign to British TV ?

BBC4's Germany Season kicks off this week - but without any German-language programmes. So which brilliant international gems are missing from British television?

Anglo-German relations took something of a dip on The Apprentice last week when eight of "Britain's brightest business prospects" travelled to Hamburg and attempted to poison its residents with stilton and paprika flavour crisps. We did, however, learn a couple of important things: Germans like sausages and British people speaking to them very slowly in what Lord Sugar terms "export English". Slimy Christopher's opinion was best summed up by his comment "euuuugh, I hate the Germans". A remark that caused his colleagues to crack up in merriment. Auf Wiedersehen Herr Cliché.

Thankfully this imbalance is being realigned by BBC4 this week with the start of its Germany Season. Good. I love Germany and I'm happy to see a few stereotypes knocked down - the object no doubt of Al Murray's German Adventure (Wednesday 9pm) in which the man who brought us the Pub Landlord travels across the country unearthing the nation's sardonic wit. Elsewhere The Art Of Germany (Monday 9pm) sees Andrew Graham-Dixon marvel at Cologne's gothic cathedral, Caspar David Friedrich and Tilman Riemenschneider; Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany (Friday, 10.30pm) examines the influence of Neu!, Can and Kraftwerk, and there's another chance to see Alan Cumming meets Liza Minnelli in The Real Cabaret (tonight 11pm).

All welcome stuff - but what's missing is some actual German-language TV programmes. I would love to see Stromberg - the German version of The Office - and Schillerstrasse, a brilliantly unique-looking improvised comedy show. But it is perhaps no surprise that such German-language shows are missing from the schedules, given there is virtually no foreign-language programming on British TV at all. The excellent and addictive original Swedish version of Wallander is one of the very few subtitled series allowed on UK TV. But why? Do broadcasters think we can't read? Or that we're so xenophobic we'd boycott them if they started showing programmes from the Netherlands? Is subtitling so very expensive? Is there nothing going on in the rest of Europe that would be worth showing a UK audience?

Europe would only be the first step. I'd love to see a broadcaster take a chance with some Chinese TV both past (2004's War and Beauty was a historical epic that looks both sumptuous and a bit bonkers) and present (classic novel The Water Margin is about to get a big budget reboot). Even less logical, given the rise in interest in Japanese anime online, is that no mainstream British broadcaster has been prepared to take a chance on a hit series such as Death Note.

But it's not only foreign-language TV that British audiences miss out on. There are plenty of US imports on screen, but apart from the continuing dramas of Ramsey Street and Summer Bay there are surprisingly few shows from other English-speaking countries? Surely the combined efforts of Australia, New Zealand and Canada must be producing something that could find a home on British TV? The acclaimed Australian crime drama Underbelly, for instance, was recently bought by ITV but was only screened by one region - STV. Crazy.

There must be more shows like these out there. So what else are we missing? What's the best foreign TV show you've seen that hasn't made it to Britain? And while we're at it, what's your favourite non-American/non-British TV show that has already made it on to UK telly?

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/nov/29/non-english-tv-germany-bbc4/print