British Telly

[DanaC]

They usually go out weekly, and they usually have a year between series.

Most of our television shows are comparatively short runs next to US tv. There are some long running staples (soaps and long running hospital and police dramas) but most are short.

Doctor Who, Merlin and a few others are considered here to be 'long' series, because they go to 12 or 13 episodes.

Often they mess around with the number of episodes as well. So, whereas Being Human got a first series of 6 episodes, then two subsequent series (in subsequent years :P) of 8 episodes each, Luther began with a first series of 6 and then returned for a second series of 4 episodes.

Most of the really great British dramas and dramedies are short. State of Play, Life on Mars, Holding On, The Thick of It, Being Human, all i think had 6 or 8 episode series.