IT'S ONLY A MOVIE, INGRID (EPISODE 3)

Ingrid is asking herself if the expression « Bear Market » means that at the end we have the right to eat the bear if it doesn't eat us first.

LADY JANE GOES WEST

The Guardian has confirmed what the always excellent British newspaper calls « the worst kept secret in broadcasting »: Jane Tranter, the BBC controller of fiction, leaves her post to become Executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's North American production branch (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/22/janetranter.bbc). Jane Tranter has more than contributed to make fictions from the Beeb the main export product of the Corporation, with shows such as the new Doctor Who, Life on Mars or Spooks/MI-5 (http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/08/its-only-movie-ingrid-episode-2.html). Now Ben Dowell asks the £ 100 000 question: How will Jane Tranter's departure affect BBC Drama, particularly with a lower-than-expected licence fee settlement? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/sep/22/bbc.television)

Jane Tranter will be replaced by head of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson. There have been rumors that the BBC tried to tempt Jane Featherstone, co-founder of the Kudos production company (Spooks, Hustle...), to take the job. But we learn from Tara Conlan, one of our favourite signatures, that Featherstone has been appointed creative director of Kudos, while Stephen Garrett, co-founder of the company, becomes executive chairman - focusing on strategic and international development (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/08/independentproductioncompanies.television).

ABSOLUTELY... NOT?

We will see within two or three weeks what the US remake of Life on Mars will become, but now Fox Network is working on a remake of the mythical British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2005) by the team behind the enjoyable Two and a Half men. This is the third attempt to remake Ab Fab, with the French movie of 2001 and a failed ABC project helmed by comedienne Roseanne Barr with Carrie Fisher involved.

Your humble French Nestle milk addict being too young for senility (40 next week), please see http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/08/young-barnaby-jones-chronicles.html to get his unasked opinion about remakes. Amusingly, I see that this Fox version has catched the attention of multi-talented Lee Goldberg (http://www.leegoldberg.com/about.html), author, writer, producer, TV Historian and expert, teacher, etc - a man often mentioned here (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2008/10/absolutely-scary.html). We recommend you A Writer's Life (http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/), his blog, and his official site (http://www.leegoldberg.com/index.html).

15 MINUTES OF FAME...

Well, er, how to put it... the very nice folks of Beans on Toast, the French Doctor Who website, have published last month an interview of your servant - consultant for the French dubbing of season 3 of Nu-Who: http://www.doctor-who.fr/d_itw_attard.php. This interview is in French.