The third series of Downton Abbey recently came to an end here. It is just the sort of thing a displaced Englishman needs on a Sunday evening - a big country estate, a host of Maggie Smith one-liners and even, in this series, a cricket match. Excellent stuff - even if the life expectancy of the main characters hasn't seemed to improve in the post-war period.
The show was proudly brought to us by PBS, which is the one television network here funded by the public. It tries to compete with the likes of CNN and Fox, but is hopelessly under-resourced and, well, a bit rubbish. Its programming is punctuated not by commercial breaks, but with desperate pleas for donations. Its news output is amateurish, and its sets so dated and rickety that they must have been contrived that way for viewers to feel guilty and more inclined to reach into their pockets.
The contrast with the BBC could not be greater. With its original, well-made programs and high quality global news coverage, the BBC manages to be both paid for and loved by the general public.
I observed a similar contrast watching the opening ceremony for London's Olympic Games. The commentators here in the US were utterly baffled by the celebration of the National Health Service. Like the BBC, the NHS has its detractors but there is a general consensus in the UK, across the political spectrum, that we have built something to be proud of. Healthcare in the US is almost exclusively the domain of the private sector, and any government intervention, as shown in recent years, can be undertaken only in the face of ferocious opposition.
There is such suspicion of government here that I cannot imagine any public service, whether TV, healthcare or anything else, stirring up feelings of pride in Americans. Setting aside the military, since defense is seen as a legitimate activity of the state, it appears that there really is only one thing the government will be congratulated for here: keeping its nose out from where it doesn't belong.
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