[mr dragon]

....Apparently.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8479639.stm

I thought we'd 'start' to emerge out of negative growth after the US- we crashed later and suddenly very hard given where the UK economy was before the middle of the summer in 2008. Whether it's sustainable and carries on, I guess, remains to be seen. I'm going to stick my neck out here, take a guess, and say I think it will be a long, protracted, and slowish upward recovery for the UK with a few blips on the way. I don't think it will be a double dip- at least I hope not! I could could be completely wrong of course....So, we'll have to see...

[eddie2003]

I'm told by people who live there that the UK economy has taken a beating.

[mr dragon]

Not quite as bad as the US, but not far from it. Unemployment went from 2-3 per cent to a peak of just under 8 per cent in six months. Six quarters of negative growth. Worst recession I've seen in my lifetime...Hope it's over.

[eddie2003]

I haven't followed the Jonathan Ross thing for a while...but the beating the British entertainment industry has taken is shocking. Ross offered to take a 50% pay cut to stay, and even that was too much. I'm told they signed Graham Norton for 25% of what they paid Ross...and it should be pointed out Ross was the highest paid on-air personality in England.

[Vintage Girl]

It is over.......until after the general election, then they will announce that they were mistaken and we're not out of it after all.

[mr dragon]

I haven't followed the Jonathan Ross thing for a while...but the beating the British entertainment industry has taken is shocking. Ross offered to take a 50% pay cut to stay, and even that was too much. I'm told they signed Graham Norton for 25% of what they paid Ross...and it should be pointed out Ross was the highest paid on-air personality in England.

Ross was over paid in the first place (his contract was always controversial), though I 'understand' the arguments as to why the BBC offered him a contract like that. I don't think the reason for him deciding to leave has as much to do with the current pay cuts though. It was more likely the 'Sachsgate' thing. When he came back on air he had to be very careful to sensor himself more- his shows were being monitored. For a personality like Ross that's quite hard because (whether you like him or not) he partly thrives on being spontaneous and sometimes 'edgy'. I think he felt like he'd run his course with what he was doing at the BBC at the time, thus time to move on now that his contract is coming to an end. I read some speculation (probably wrong) that he might be going to the US- even if it's true I doubt that would work. I'm guessing he might pick up some east and west coast audiences if he did, but I don't think his 'style' would work in the US broadly. Mind you, I didn't think The Office would work in the US, and I was as wrong about that as you can get!

I hope Norton isn't taking over Ross's Friday late night chat show slot. I can't stand Graham Norton.

[eddie2003]

My understanding is that Ross asked David Cameron what it was like to jack off to Margaret Thatcher...

Everyone from the UK seems to want to come to the US...Some work (Simon Cowell, Cat Deeley)...Some don't (Ant and Dec lasted 4 episodes...Mylenne Klaas was on something over the summer that tanked).

[SilverMiniCooperS]

Sometimes my friend's sister includes Ant and Dec on the EE discs and frankly I cannot see what's so funny about them.

[wakeyboy]

I dont think there's many in Britain who would expect to find Ant and Dec "funny" Jen, but many people find them acceptable TV hosts. They're light hearted and suited to shows watched by families. Good at what they do, but they'll never make great tv personalities,

I dont particularly mind them.

[mr dragon]

Lol. It's not true that ALL Brit's in the entertainment industry (or any other industry for that matter) want to work in the US! Otherwise there'd be a seventies style 'brain drain' from the UK right now. (But you know that anyway, Eddie ) In fact many of them have turned it down when even given the opportunity. Example- just look at Danny Boyle after winning all those Oscars after Slumdog Millionaire last year- he had so many Hollywood offers he didn't know what to do with them. He's turning it all down to do the London stage instead- because that's what he wants to do next in his career. It's not always about the money.

I've often thought about working in the US in the past ('coz I do love the US in so many ways), and I'd probably make a fair bit more money there as a photographer in my position and experience. However- you want to know just one thing (amongst one or two others on a more personal level) that's ALWAYS held me back from deciding to do that. I know, sure as shit, that I wont have the same creative license commercially that I get in London, at my level, in my business. In the US, you have to be frigging Annie Leibovitz to have that much creative influence on what you do on a commercial level as a photographer. Not so here. Not in my business at least.

There's good and bad to both sides.

[eddie2003]

Well, to be fair Mr D...There was an article recently in the Daily Mirror or one of the British papers with the headline, "America, can we have our actors back." I'm sure if I googled it I could find it.

As I understand the current situation in the UK...British television has been squeezed by reality TV and the weak economy...and the British film industry is almost non-existent. No one is saying that people in the entertainment industry are coming to the US because the US is somehow better...Its just that that is where the work is. That isn't to say the US is better, its just how it is.

A great many actors and other creative people do stay in England...at least to live.

[waterbeetle]

you guys can have Madonna back!

[mr dragon]

To Ed. Yeah, I kinda took it as in 'all' Brits, as you weren't specific, but fair do's. I went a little over the top there Re the entertainment industry, many British actors in particular do also try and get work in the US as a further stepping stone from here. That's absolutely true, and with good reason. While your assessment of the UK entertainment industry isn't quite as bleak as you suggest, it's also not great by the same standard to the US. There is much more potential for actors in the US (if they can actually make it for themselves there). The whole HBO producing quality drama's thing has made the US a very attractive place to work for jobbing British actors. I was also reading a while back that a lot of the Brit actors get hired in the US because they're prepared to work for less money- probably because they're used to the acting industry in the UK! To be honest, I think if the Mail is complaining about Brit actors going to America, they might want to point out why- ie more interesting opportunities there than in the UK for ambitious or talented actors. That's Britain's fault.

Re the British film industry. We actually have a reasonable sized film industry- from Ealing Studios (down the road from me) to Pinewood (James Bond and also other major international blockbuster sized films- mostly from Hollywood), to Leavesden Studios (where they film Harry Potter), Elstree etc. However, more often than not, it's American film companies coming over using them to shoot major features that keep them alive, rather than a homegrown UK cottage industry mostly funding and producing it's own films to sell worldwide- as in Hollywood. The British Film industry as a major producer of movies mostly collapsed after the war during the 1950/60's. It was a terrible shame, and I hope it comes back one day. For the moment it's mostly Hollywood that's bank rolling our film industry. Interestingly, I read the other day that Warner Bros are looking to buy Leavesden Studios, after the last Harry Potter film is finished there, so they can also have a permanent base in the UK to make films over here. I actually hope they do that.

[mr dragon]

you guys can have Madonna back!

Is that because you still have the Beckham clan? You Americans should have been smart about that one! When we sent Madonna back, you should have demanded you also send the Beckham's back as a fair exchange. We could have done it on a bridge a la the cold war in the movies- y'know, we send your one back, and you send our ones back at the same time....

[waterbeetle]

...they start walking, slowly at first, wondering when the shot will ring out, then at a full sprint hoping they'll make the border. Eyes wide with terror, they get ever closer to safety, then with only a few feet to go.....

Something like that?

[mr dragon]

Yep. A bit like that WB. Add some mist (for atmosphere), do it early morning or late at night, have 'our' intelligence services and 'your' intelligence services make some special prior covert deals in the shadows amongst the back drop of a war torn Vienna or Berlin (in Black and White), add some special undercover 'signals' (the lighting of a cigarette by a special agent with a trilby and an attache case) to say 'we're ready to make the 'exchange'', and preferably have the whole thing go horribly wrong with both exchange 'packages' getting shot in the ensuing milieu...

Job done. Everyone's happy!

[SilverMiniCooperS]

This reminds me - must go and watch last night's Corrie episodes.....