# Brit cop shows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701 "2005-07-22T20:28:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701/21 "2005-07-24T01:58:39Z")
_MI-5_ was known as _Spooks_ over here … frankly, I didn’t think much of it. But, yes, it’s a British show. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701/22 "2005-07-24T02:21:03Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > John Hannah was in another cop show I liked called “Rebus”, set in Edinburgh. You mean the show that I mentioned in post #11? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701/23 "2005-07-24T03:04:56Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > What about other stuff like The Professionals? Callan? Special Branch? Or were they too parochial for Yank audiences? I’ve read (in a book on syndicated television programs) that _Callan_ was syndicated in the US in the early 1970’s. No clue about either of the other series. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701/24 "2005-07-24T07:05:25Z")
Haven’t seen any British cop shows since i moved to the US, but back in Australia i regularly or sporadically watched: _The Sweeney_ _The Bill_ _Cracker_ _Prime Suspect_ _McCallum_ I’ve seen a few episodes of _MI-5 / Spooks_ on DVD and thought it was a pretty good show. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701/25 "2005-07-24T10:24:17Z")
Let me try to answer the general question here: No British TV show has been a mainstream hit since the mid-1960’s. During the early and mid-1960’s, several British TV programs were shown on the commercial broadcast networks (which were ABC, NBC, and CBS back then). Among them were _The Avengers_ and _The Prisoners_. The commercial networks then quit showing British TV shows. There was no market for them till the mid-1970’s, when PBS, the noncommercial broadcast network began showing lots of British programs. Still, nothing shown on PBS could be considered a mainstream hit program. A cult hit, perhaps, but even the top-rated programs on PBS don’t get enough viewers to be considered mainstream hits. (Perhaps the most popular British TV program in the U.S. between the 1960’s and the 1990’s was _Benny Hill_, which was shown as a syndicated program on many local American TV channels without ever having a national network market.) There are now three more commercial broadcast networks (Fox, UPN, and WB), but the rule still holds that the commercial broadcast networks don’t show any foreign-made TV programs. (Does anybody know of any exceptions?) There are now a number of cable channels that do a lot of British programs, including BBC America and A&E, and of course PBS shows a lot of them, but again these are at best cult hits, not mainstream hits. Anybody who has watched a lot of PBS has almost certainly seen a fair amount of some British TV police shows, like _Prime Suspect_ or _Inspector Morse_. In general, the harder edged the British police TV show, the less likely it was to be shown. PBS loves showing British-made cosy mysteries. I don’t know if _The Sweeney_, _The Professionals_, _Callan_, or _Special Branch_ have ever been shown. It’s hard to know anymore, since there are so many cable channels that it’s hard to keep track of what’s being shown on them all. The clear majority of American households have cable TV these days, and it’s not uncommon to have access to a couple hundred cable channels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-cop-shows/313701.md?page=1)