So. BBC TV’s ROBIN HOOD gets cancelled. ITV’s PRIMEVAL and DEMONS get cancelled. ITV also declares that it will not run drama series, aside of course from soaps, before 9pm. BBC’s response? A teenage-themed prequel to the thirty-year-old ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES comedy workhorse, and, for the fourth time, the loathesome and archaic children’s book JUST WILLIAM will be adapted for television. Why not put up a sign outside Broadcasting House saying YES TAKE THE LICENSE FEE AWAY FROM US WE’RE NOT GOING TO PUT UP A FIGHT IT’S A FAIR COP GUV and then have the cast of TORCHWOOD sit around it crying? (They’ve had enough fucking practise.)(John Barrowman on TORCHWOOD’s reduction from 13 episodes to 5 as it moves from BBC2 to BBC1: "I felt like we were being punished. Other shows move from BBC3 and 2 to 1, and they don’t get cut. So why are we? It felt like every time we moved we had to prove ourselves.")I don’t even like TORCHWOOD and ROBIN HOOD and PRIMEVAL and I’ve never sat through DEMONS. But this is so clearly a full-on retreat from the 21st Century and any storyform that doesn’t look like it was originated in The Days When Beige Rocked that I can only assume the hatches are being battened down and everyone in British television is preparing to not actually be here in five years. ITV’s already made it clear it intends to become a delivery system for game shows and reality shows. James Nesbitt, possibly the most popular actor on British tv today, is saying he’s probably going to have to move to the States because there’s not enough work left for him in Britain.YES I’M A BIT RANTY TODAY WHY DO YOU ASK LITTLE FUCKFACE BOY