The latest and most desperate entry yet is The Wheel of Time, Amazon’s new cash-bin fantasy extravaganza, an $80m adaptation of Robert Jordan’s series of novels.
The money does not feel like a luxury but a necessity, fundamental to telling the story on its own terms.
The early episodes of Doctor Who, a series that would probably be Britain’s entry in an all-time TV Olympics, were made for £2,000 an episode.
The differences between Game of Thrones, Highlander and Xena: Warrior Princess are vanishingly small and the cash is no guarantee.