We Americans love remaking British TV. Must the UK remake our odious politicians? | Dave Schilling

A recent trip to Britain from my native California presented some worrying truths about our shared political future

I've always wanted to visit the UK. This might sound absurd to you, considering I'm from California - home of sunshine, half-naked bodies and the studio where they film Jeopardy. What could possibly pull me to the cold, damp, gray shores of England? The oppressively brown food? The dodgy colonialist history? Tesco? No, it was the glowing box that vibrated with whatever passed for culture in my small town: television.

British TV was an obsession in my house, via those purveyors of affordable, exotic entertainment at PBS. We'd get classy fare through the Masterpiece Theatre series, but also more downmarket comedies like Are You Being Served? (a variety of sexually obsessed retail clerks trip over each other) or Keeping Up Appearances (lower-middle-class oafs desperately wish they were posh). I had no concept of what people were saying in their thick accents or most of the jokes meant, especially the double entendres.