Rob Lowe Crosses the Atlantic

by Pa Rock
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After re-reading yesterday's post on the Irish television program from the late 1990's, "Ballykissangel," I realized that there was still a bit more I wanted to say about British television.  I noted in that piece that a couple of actors in that show, Colin Farrell and Robert Taylor, had gone on to wider acclaim after the series ended, and I wanted to further stress the fact that some very talented actors have their roots in British television.

Dame Judi Dench and Dame Helen Mirren both gained fame through their work with the BBC, and both went on to stellar international acting careers, as did David Tennant who spent a couple of seasons portraying "Dr. Who" for the BBC.  All three of those fine actors, as well as numerous others, are almost as familiar to American audiences as they are to the Brits.  It is understood and accepted that a good portion of America's cultural roots are British.

What isn't as well known, however, is that sometimes that cultural movement across the Atlantic works in reverse.  A British police drama that was filmed in 2019 recently began airing on Britbox.   The show has a well known American actor in the lead role.  Rob Lowe, whose American film career goes back thirty-seven years to the role of "Sodapop Curtis" in 1983's "The Outsiders," plays an American police chief who has gotten into trouble at home for some aggressive behaviors, and takes a job in England where he hopes to get his life and career back on track.  He is accompanied to England by his adolescent daughter who has her own set of issues.

In the show, "Wild Bill," Lowe's character, Chief Bill Hixon, presents as a police administrator focused on bringing down crime rates and solving cold cases through statistical analysis and related means.  His methods initially clash with the more in-your-face tactics of the British police, but eventually the two extremes begin to meld and positive results start to accrue.

So far the Brits have only made one season (six episodes) of "Wild Bill," but the show is entertaining and compelling, so at some point they might decide to do more.  And if they do, and if Rob Lowe is no longer available, there are many more under-employed American actors who would rush across the Atlantic for a chance to star in a good television series.

In this world of instantaneous global communication, the notion of "international" stars is likely to become more commonplace as actors develop worldwide fanbases and are able to scurry quickly across borders and oceans and get to where the work is - and increasingly the work is no longer anchored in Hollywood.