They Make TV Everywhere, You Know...

An old friend of the blog popped up on the comments of the last post, to raise a most excellent point.

I met Dennis Venter in my time in Cape Town, South Africa, when I was writing for Charlie Jade. Besides working on that show, he's written over 120 episodes of comedies and dramas for South Africa's (arguably) healthier TV industry. (Healthier than ours in some ways, but then again, the writers aren't unionized and don't make anywhere near the dosh we whining Canadians do. And guess what, kids? The job's just as hard.)

Anyway, Dennis writes:

When at Banff, look out for "Home Affairs", a finalist in the serial drama category. One of the shows I've worked on recently and a pretty good one overall.

One of the great things about the Banff TV Festival, if I remember correctly from the only other time I went (in 2001) is that the awards they give out are truly international. Onsite, there's a library where you can see some of the nominated shows - in many cases, shows that have not, and may not ever show up on North American Television.

When I was in South Africa, I got kind of hooked on a youth drama show they had there called Yizo Yizo. (They also got I'm Alan Partridge long before we did.) Yizo Yizo was crazy. A show in about eight languages every episode, set in an apartment block in Joburg, with all sorts of great and odd South African music on the soundtrack. I'd never seen anything even vaguely like it. Now, I have to look up Home Affairs. Supposedly there's a South African kind of West Wing show that's pretty good, too. Maybe Dennis can tell us the name of that. I'm looking forward to Green Wing and I've seen a bit o' The Street, but forgive us, world, the U.S. next door is just so bloody loud that we often can't hear some of the quieter siren calls from foreign program makers.

I know this blog gets a good international tradewind, so how 'bout it? Go to the Banff site and look at the nominated shows. Any of those shows that we North Americans haven't seen? Are they worth tearing yourself away from the pretty pretty Rockies to take a look? Let me know in the comments.