ABSTRACT
The focus ofDeniseMann’s previous chapter on contemporary television authorship in connection with the Lost (2004-) franchise identifies and questions an emerging model of production and marketing that applies to a number of recent big-budget US drama series. At a time when “must see” television has become crucial to the branding strategies of TV channels in the US and beyond, together with the competitive struggles to both retain and acquire audiences in a multichannel and multiplatform era, I am prompted to offer comparative comment from a UK perspective.While buying in a big-budget, US-produced drama series/serial has certainly operated to shore up the corporate identity of UK channels,1 high-end, home or co-produced dramas are increasingly adopting and adapting the kind of US model outlined in Mann’s chapter. Perhaps the most obvious example of this trend in British television can be witnessed in the BBC, BBC Wales, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s big-budget relaunch and end of DoctorWho (2005-2008), currently at the finish of the first run of its fourth season.2
