Here in Seattle, and anywhere within reach of KCTS Channel 9, a PBS affiliate, by broadcast or by cable—and that would be a good chunk of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia—one can see programs such as Masterpiece Theatre, which has offered excellent British productions and mini-series over a number of decades now. My wife and I watch it fairly regularly. We started with "Upstairs, Downstairs" in the 70s, and since then, we've seen three different productions of "Jane Eyre," two of "Pride and Prejudice," "The Six Wives of Henry VIII," "Elizabeth R," "I, Claudius," "The Duchess of Duke Street,"and—well, far too many to list, really. My wife and I watch it regularly and consider it to be some of the finest programming offered on television. Makes having a TV set worthwhile. We also regularly watch Mystery, where we've followed the adventures of "Brother Cadfael," "The Inspector Linley Mysteries," "Inspector Morse," "Foyle's War," "Sherlock Holmes" portrayed by a couple of different actors, two incarnations of "Miss Marple," and many others. And fairly recently, "Monarch of the Glen" (a Scottish soap opera? But good.).

Science fiction has included "Doctor Who" and "Red Dwarf," of course, "Blake's 7," and others, not to mention "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

And then, a fine run of comedy shows, from "As Time Goes By" with the marvelous Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer (more than just a comedy show, actually), and "Good Neighbors" (or "The Good Life," depending on where it's shown), through my favorite telecourse on the nature of politics anywhere in the world, "Yes, Minister" and it's sequel. "Yes, Prime Minister." Then a whole string of fairly zany comedies like "Are You Being Served," ""Allo "Allo," "My Hero," and many others.

And a fair number of non-fiction shows from the BBC.

We also have another PBS affiliate in Tacoma (30 miles south of Seattle) that we get on cable, that offers many of the same shows mentioned above, usually at different times, so if we miss a show we're following on one channel, we can usually get it on the other.

U. S. television has a few good shows and maybe one or two comedies that aren't abysmally stupid, but if we couldn't get our local PBS affiliates, it would hardly be worth owning a television set. I don't know how many times I've taken a look at the TV listings on evenings when there were no British productions on and thought, "Over seventy channels and not a damned thing worth watching!"

Don Firth