Footballers Wives score big abroad
Their outrageous plots, sizzling sex scenes and ropey acting are infamous, but trash TV hits Footballers Wives and Bad Girls were two of Britain's most successful exports last year.
The shows helped boost sales of British television programmes abroad to a record £533million in 2003, up 22 per cent on the previous year.
But there is still a place in the top 20 for traditional crime dramas such as Prime Suspect and ATouch Of Frost.
The biggest hit of all was journalist Martin Bashir's documentary Living With Michael Jackson, which sold to 120 countries.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell welcomed the increase yesterday. She said: 'At its best, our TV is the envy of the world. These figures bear that out.
'They show the industry going from strength to strength, producing programmes that are not only of exceptional-quality but also overwhelming popularity both here and across the globe. They are a testament to the power of British creative talent.'
The surge in revenue from programme exports is the largest since the British Television Distributors' Association began to collect figures six years ago.
They include the sale of formats such as quiz show The Weakest Link as well as licences for other countries to make their own versions of series such as The Office.
America remains the biggest market for British programmes, with a 41 per cent leap in transatlantic exports in 2003, while sales to Western Europe rose by 38 per cent.
Inspector Morse, for instance, remains the best selling British-made TV show of the last five years, selling to more than 200 countries.
