This was on Nick. every afternoon in the U.S.

Yeah. DM, Count Duckula, Bananaman, those were all staples on Nickelodeon's early days. They still import a lot of Brit TV shows on Nick, Jr., don't they?

The Thames Animation line was a foundational point in my life. They were my first introduction to animation as subversive, a world outside of America and a giddy eccentricity.

I later met up with the son of one of the animators on Count Duckula, he explained the sordid little tale of how he painstakingly interjected a cathedral chandelier made of erect penises into one of the backgrounds, and how only the S&P people at Nickelodeon caught it, a half dozen years later.

Yes, I know it WAS on. It used to be French-Canadian-British a-go-go on Nick. But it's hardly League of Nations anymore, if at all.

How much animation does the UK produce nowadays? If there was some equivalent of "BritAnime," you could bet Cartoon Network, Nick, or Fox Kids would be airing it, possibly dubbed. If it's ready for air and the price is right, US networks will show just about anything.