2008 In Television: Gems
We continue our review of television in 2008 with a look at some of the highlights/gems of 2008. Not everything the television channels threw at us failed and 2008 produced some fine drama, some of which went practically un-noticed by the wider press.
While it may have seen to be a year of flops for some channels, especially ITV, despite the axe falling on numerous shows there was some good dramas out there in 2008. We’ve covered those that flopped and those that were dropped and now we celebrate those that were dam good.
Torchwood: BBC Two [Season Two]
The first season of Torchwood was decidedly hit and miss and left fans divided but the BBC had confidence in the show promoting it from BBC Three to BBC One. If fans were worried that Season 
Two would be more of the same they were wrong because Torchwood returned with a few found confidence and a more settled season. There were far less dodgy episodes and the stories were better structured with less plot holes and better dialogue. Freema Agyeman crossed over for a three-episode stint as Martha Jones and the relationship between Jack and Ianto was allowed to continue, much to the joy of fans. Wisely Ianto was given a bigger role in the second season having been criminally underused throughout the show’s first season. The show’s finale had you reaching for the hankies as two of the regulars were killed off in a shocking and saddening finish.
Skins: E4 [Season Two]
The second season of E4’s hit teen-drama was darker than the first and featured bolder storylines but that didn’t make it any less good. Cassie discovered that Sid and Michelle were having an affair 
while Tony struggled to recover after his collision with a bus, Jal and Chris got together and Maxxie got stalked by a crazy welsh girl. The teenagers were more screwed up than ever with a heartbroken Cassie lashing out at Sid and Chris dying in the penultimate episode. The finale left some questions unanswered but we’re unlikely to get the answers as producers have dumped the cast opting for a new batch of characters instead with only Tony’s sister, Effy, returning. It’s a bold move on behalf of the producers but could seriously backfire as fans loved the antics of Tony, Chris, Jal, Michelle and especially Maxxie.
Moving Wallpaper: ITV
A comedy/drama series about the production team of new ITV soap Echo Beach, which aired as a 
companion show. ITV hire Jonathan Pope to take over the producers role of its new soap but Pope completely changes the soap, renaming it Echo Beach, and pisses off most of his staff. The controller of drama at ITV, Nancy, is just waiting for him to fail and his production team can’t stand him. While Echo Beach flopped with viewers and critics Moving Wallpaper was something of a success for ITV and more than that it was well written, well observed and funny. Thankfully ITV ditched Echo Beach but gave Moving Wallpaper a second season.
Merlin: BBC One
Saturday-night tea-time drama series along the lines of Robin Hood in which a popular British 
myth/legend is reborn for a modern audience. However, unlike Robin Hood this series is actually well written and acted and isn’t a bunch of clichés loosely strung together by waver-thing plots and panto villains. While the first season of Merlin was slightly formulaic, in parts, it was well written and acted and showed signs of future potential. The ground work for future story arcs were clearly being laid and the slow build up of 
the series premise meant producers could work on character development before starting with the big storylines. Recurring villain Nimueh, a scheming sources, also allowed for some lovely little moments as Michelle Ryan’s asides to the camera routinely broke the fourth wall. The show was well cast and Katie McGrath as Morgana was criminally in the first part of the season but was thankfully given some of the lime-light towards the show’s first season closure. A second season will follow and fans are looking forward to its mythology developing.
Doctor Who: BBC One [Season Four]
When it was announced that Catherine Tate would return to Doctor Who to reprise her role of Donna 
Noble some fans were quick to criticise the move and declared they’d never watch the series again. Well those doubters of Tate’s acting skills were left with egg well and truly on their faces as Donna Noble came into her own in the show’s 4th season. Ms Tate’s finest hour has to be the “what if” episode, Turn Left, in which Donna never meets the Doctor and the world falls apart around her. Turn Left was some of the finest drama the series had produced so-far but the two-part series finale has to come a close second as the 
Daleks and Davros steal Earth in a dastardly plan to destroy all of reality. The fourth season of Doctor Who had more hit episodes than misses although the two-part Sontaran story was a particular low point. The opening episode while different, opting for more comedy than normal, the shock cameo appearance of Billie Piper made you yearn for the days when tabloids hadn’t given away the plot months before.
Lost In Austen: ITV
Simply superb is how we’d describe this ITV drama series. Jemima Rooper stars as Jane Austin fan Amanda Price who somehow manages to find herself into the world of Pride and Prejudice and 
agrees to swap places with the novels heroine, Elizabeth Bennett. As Amanda tries to make sure the plot of the novel runs to course her actions actually make things go very, very wrong as characters end up in the wrong relationships and the more Amanda tries the more things go wrong. Refreshingly good and a new take on the period drama genre the show boosted an all-star cast with Hugh Bonneville, Alex Kingston, Guy Henry, Lindsay Duncan and Christina Cole making up the cast without an ex-soap star in sight. The DVD release of the series prompted anger from fans as certain scenes had been removed because ITV was too mean to pay royalty fees.
Battlestar Galactica: Sky One [Season Four]
The season three finale shocked fans by revealing four of the five final Cylons and they weren’t who fans expected. Colonel Tigh, Chief Tyrol, Sam Anders and Troy Foster were all revealed by be Cylons 
while Starbuck returned from the dead and claimed she’d been to Earth. The fourth season picked up immediately where the third ended with the Colonial Fleet in recovering from a massive power loss and a Cylon fleet in bound. The fourth season dealt with the continuing search to find Earth, the four revealed Cylons struggling to deal with their true identities and a Cylon Civil War. The fourth season was darker than more brutal than before with several characters being killed off. The mid-season finale saw the return of Cylon D’Anna and the fleet finding a devastated Earth. The series returns in just a few weeks with its final batch of episodes and will reveal just who is the Final Cylon.
Sarah Jane Adventures: BBC One [Season Two]
Elisabeth Sladen returned for another series as investigative journalist, and former companion to the Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith. Yasmin Paige, Maria Jackson, bowed out in the first story but did appear, 
briefly, in a later episode. The second season of the CBBC series, spun-off from Doctor Who, introduced Rani as Sarah’s new side-kick and saw Sarah and her gang battle a lone Sontaran Warrior, The Bane again and the Trickster. The Temptation of Sarah Jane, in which the Trickster returns, was a definite high point of the season. However, for Who fans the return of The Brigadier [Nicholas Courtney] in the season finale was probably the biggest highlight of the season. The series proved that children’s drama could still be good, well written and well acted and still had a place on main-stream television.
Gossip Girl: ITV2
The latest teen-drama from America to hit our shores and from the makers of The O.C, which was hugely popular both sides of the pond, and based on a series of novels of the same name. Gossip Girl takes advantage of the fact that most young people are now social-network sites whores and are 
slaves to the internet. Set in Manhattan Gossip Girl follows the lives of Upper East Sides social elite, well the youngsters anyway – the trust fund brats who are sleeping, drinking and scheming their way through college. But to let everyone know of their misdeeds and bad fortunes is mysterious blogger Gossip Girl, who also narrates the series, who spills all on her website which everyone checks out. Everything you could want from a teen-drama series and more and wonderfully intouch with the modern generation of youngsters who might scheme, bitch, shag and drink but are also slaves to their internet, facebook and blogging sites. A second season will follow.
Survivors: BBC One
A “reimaging” of the classic 1970s series, of the same name, by Terry Nation but rather confusingly based on the novelisation, also by Terry Nation, that the series itself. In 2007 the BBC acquired the rights to Nation’s novelisation of the first season of Survivors, there were three seasons all together. 
Survivors is a post-apocalyptic drama set in the aftermath of a deadly virus that wipes of 98% of the world’s population. In the modern-day version it’s a flu-like virus that sweeps across the country, and then the world, that causes society to collapse in its wake as millions die. The government try to cover up the situation but it soon becomes clear that the situation is far from under control as the mobile phone-network collapses, power goes and millions lie dead in their homes. Abby Grant gets the virus and survivors but her husband dies and so Abby sets out to find her missing son – a theme from the original series – and along the way meets other survivors and realises to survive in the new world they need to join together. Surprisingly good, well written, tense, well cast with the only disappointment being a badly constructed plot involving scientists covering up the fact they were responsible for the outbreak. A second season has been commissioned.
Little Dorrit: BBC One
The latest BBC period drama, adapted by the book by Charles Dickens, that followed in the style of 
Bleak House in that it was presented more as “soap” than a drama and was stripped across 14 parts. It boosted the biggest array of high-profile names ever in all likelihood, a cast dripping with stars, familiar faces and veteran actors. There were so many familiar faces that we won’t even name one as it wouldn’t be far on the others. While the adaptation wasn’t a huge ratings it the viewers that did tune in loved it and it won critical acclaim.
