Twenty years ago, we could look down on American television as a repository of low-quality trash. Now, it seems all the best programmes are coming out of the States. North-East Arts Writer of the Year Steve Pratt looks at what went wrong for British TV.

IF anyone could make a decent drama out of the crisis in British TV, it should be the Americans. These days imported programmes are considered the best - at least by industry experts and critics, if not most viewers themselves. British drama, once considered the cornerstone of the broadcasting system, is even coming under fire from actors.

Outspoken At Home With The Braithwaites star Amanda Redman used the launch of her ITV1 psychological thriller Suspicion to brand UK television as rubbish. "American television is where it's at these days," she said.

"You only have to look at Band Of Brothers, Sopranos and shows like that to see where the originality is.

"Here in Britain they're looking for a new police drama or a new medical show, with a forensic scientist and a garden makeover thrown in."

To some, the actress might have been biting the hand that feeds her. To others, she was merely echoing an opinion expressed in various forms by industry figures over the past few months.

Her voice isn't an isolated one. Many are saying the same, from a Broadcasting Standards Commission report stating the public feels there's a severe lack of quality drama on TV to writers claiming ITV is obsessed with audience figures.

The view is that programme-makers, be they BBC or ITV, are more concerned with ratings and budgets than creativity and challenge.

The recent list of the best 40 TV shows, compiled by Radio Times, did much to remind us of British past glories - Boys From The Blackstuff, Cathy Come Home, Edge Of Darkness, Our Friends In The North, The Singing Detective. To those we might add others, including Jewel In The Crown, Brideshead Revisited and many a BBC classic drama.

And what do we get now? This past week has provided two prime examples of the lack of imagination being shown - series offering no more than variations on tired old themes.

Rosemary and Thyme mixes two of TV most popular genres, sleuthing and gardening, in a series about two unattached women (played by Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris) who solve murders while pruning roses. Unfortunately the ten million viewers the first episode attracted may fool ITV into thinking they've produced something that needs to be recommissioned. The test will be how many switch on to the second instalment.

Sometimes the startling lack of imagination in ITV Towers is breathtaking. After axing Peak Practice, a series about a medical practice in Derbyshire, last year they commissioned Sweet Medicine, a series about a medical practice in Derbyshire. Its debut this week showed that only the names had been changed, otherwise it's doctoring business as usual.

You can't help but agree with Redman when she says: "A lot of UK television has lost the plot at the moment. We used to be so good at making good dramas but now they are very few and far between."

British television has lost its reputation for producing the best drama in the world in the scramble to make money and achieve high ratings or have their charter renewed.

The Broadcasting Standards Commission report, Dramatic Licence - Fact Or Fiction?, came up with the term "overworked television" to describe a feeling among viewers that interest in drama has become "somewhat dulled and blunted" because of too much of the same thing. They're fed up with tired and monotonous detective and hospital series.

Expensive, quality drama productions are no longer a regular feature. They are presented as special events, such as last year's Doctor Zhivago, Daniel Deronda and The Fosyte Saga.

Part of the problem is there's nothing left to surprise viewers in dramatic terms. Soaps have exhausted all the sensational storylines. New dramas are variations on the same old themes.

The rise in the status of US TV series is down to the cable companies rather than the big networks. HBO, in particular, has built a reputation with series such as Six Feet Under, Sex And The City, The Sopranos and Band Of Brothers. To that we must add ER and The West Wing from the networks..

American comedy too has prospered with Friends and Frasier, while British channels have tried, and mostly failed, to find worthy successors to Only Fools And Horses and other hits of yesteryear.

HBO chief executive Chris Albrecht has said that British programme makers are no longer the inspiration for foreign TV executives. He told the recent Edinburgh International TV Festival that our writers and producers needed a free rein to lift them out of their creative slump.

"We looked for years at the BBC and Channel 4 as an example of some of the kind of work that we wanted to do. The British TV landscape has a long period of high quality, almost protected programming.

'NOW it is going through some of the growing pains that come with more of a free competition environment. It is important to try to associate yourself with some of the best and most talented people and, instead of telling them what they should do, let them tell you."

HBO's winning formula, he said, was "to do whatever struck us as original and fresh, irrespective of the genre".

This has stood them in good stead come awards time. Nowadays they dominate the nominations. In this country too, US series attract devoted followers and routinely receive praise from the critics.

But most are not big ratings winners. BSC research found that, although American dramas were referred to and were popular, few routinely watched them. ER, NYPD Blue, The Shield, The Sopranos and 24 were those participants mentioned by name

Landmark series such as Brideshead Revisited, together with acclaimed TV writers Dennis Potter and Alan Potter, were never spontaneously mentioned in the survey.

Drama still occupies vast chunks of peaktime viewing and is one of the most expensive forms of TV to make. All too often it is dull, repetitive and safe. The days when drama was used to explore sensitive or controversial issues have gone. Drama-documentaries, an often uneasy mix of fact and interpretation, have filled the role of hard-hitting social documentaries once occupied by Cathy Come Home and The Wednesday Play.

The BSC report found that most viewers prefer to watch made-in-Britain shows. While some viewers felt American drama and programme-making was generally better than British productions, others found it easier to relate to homegrown drama because of the familiarity of people, places and situations.

The very familiarity is what they like. Top British drama series, such as Casualty and Heartbeat, regularly pull in more than ten million viewers. American imports attract only a small fraction of that audience when shown over here, mostly on C4. The respect and plaudits given to US drama would seem to be out of proportion to their influence and importance to British viewers.