You might have seen the original BBC version of "The Office," but have you seen the sketch show "A Bit of Fry & Laurie" with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry?
What about Steve Coogan's talk-show parody, "Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge"? Or how about the 2003 political thriller "State of Play"?
Catching these British shows in the United States used to mean hunting down sometimes hard-to-find DVDs. But in digital realms, divisions between American and British TV worlds are fast dissolving.
Netflix and Hulu have made international television more accessible than ever. Now, one's favorite "new" show is often phrased as a "discovery." And often, viewers' interests lead beyond borders.
Broadcast television, of course, offers many cable stations from abroad. But in the vast digital repositories of Hulu and Netflix, shows aren't segregated by country of origin. Instead, programs are discovered and rediscovered through word of mouth and recommendations from friends, often through social media or the sites' recommendation engines.
U.S. networks have long looked across the Atlantic for programming to copy -- for example, franchised hits such as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and attempted remakes such as "Coupling." Many shows also end up on BBC America or PBS, such as the recent, acclaimed upstairs-downstairs drama "Downton Abbey."
But often, such hits as "Downton Abbey" send viewers back to Netflix, where they scour for more top-notch British costume drama. Viewers need not wait for what often turns out to be dumbed-down, Americanized remakes, but can instead seek out the original series.
Hulu is attempting to make a splash this summer by streaming three British series not before seen in the United States.
