We LOVE British reality TV. After all, they invented American Idol nee Pop Idol, The 1900 House nee Frontier House, Supernanny, Wife Swap, Celebrity Fit Club, Hell's Kitchen, and What Not To Wear. No "celebrity" is too D-list! No nudity is too nude! They cuss and swear and convince Johnny Rotten to compete. They even love the banality that is Big Brother. Really, there doesn't seem to be a reality concept that we've HAVEN'T stolen from our tea-and-scone-loving neighbors across the Atlantic. So we hope and pray this one makes its way over here:
BBC One has commissioned The Planners, a fiery, funny and touching new fly-on-the-wall documentary series that will give viewers a unique glimpse inside some of Britain's local planning authorities from Scottish independent IWC Media. Each of the eight 30-minute early evening shows, commissioned by Richard Klein, BBC Commissioning Editor for Documentaries, will follow the trials and tribulations of the councils' officers in planning, building control and planning enforcement.Every day brings new challenges from cheeky extension plans which would deprive a neighbour of their natural light which the planning officers have to make a decision on, to the illegally-built granny annexe at the end of someone's garden which the planning enforcement officers are going to have demolished.
We already know what we'd put in the pilot: The GarageMahal. Treehouses that cost more than our car and incite the neighbor's rage. And picture it: Gail Goldberg, the Simon Cowell of urban planners.
·BBC One commissions The Planners [BBC]