Why are non-English language programmes still foreign to British TV ?

BBC4’s Germany Season kicks off this week – but without any German-language programmes. So which brilliant international gems are missing from British television?

Anglo-German relations took something of a dip on The Apprentice last week when eight of "Britain’s brightest business prospects" travelled to Hamburg and attempted to poison its residents with stilton and paprika flavour crisps. We did, however, learn a couple of important things: Germans like sausages and British people speaking to them very slowly in what Lord Sugar terms "export English". Slimy Christopher’s opinion was best summed up by his comment "euuuugh, I hate the Germans". A remark that caused his colleagues to crack up in merriment. Auf Wiedersehen Herr Cliché.

Read more about how UK television viewers miss out interculturally