Television January 2016

January 2016

Darren Childs:

The reinvention of UKTV

Apply now for the 2016 Shiers Trust Award

d £2,000 e e n oury of television project? y Dor a histo

o £2,000 towards ant of up t e a gr k a f o ct the history of television an m on any aspe c t s k Tru wor The lishing b pu

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Objectives

The promotion of public education through the study and research of the history of ­television in all its aspects and without regard to country of origin, including the d ­ evelopment and encouragement of publications and associated projects such as ­bibliographies and monographs on particular aspects, provided that the results of such study and research shall be published and that the contribution made by the Trust shall be suitably acknowledged in any publication.

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Criteria

Grants will be given to assist in the ­completion of new or unfinished projects, work or literature specific to the objectives of the Trust. ‘Literature’ is defined as including audio-visual media such as DVDs and websites.

The Trustees must be satisfied that the work they are supporting either could not be finished or ­published without the grant and that, with it, the work will be ­completed, or, the grant will provide the ­initial phase of a project that will be c­ ontinued and completed with other i­dentified funding.

Applications will be considered broadly in support of research, development, writing, editing or publication.

Grants for research will require that the results of the work will be made known and accessible through appropriate means. In the case of literature, projects must have a real prospect of publication. Applicants must demonstrate that their work will have a clear e ­ xpectation of making a ­significant contribution to the objectives of the Trust.

Applicants will be required to satisfy the Trustees of the soundness of their projects, and identify any grants from other sources. The Trustees will not make commitments to support re­curring funding, nor make grants to cover fees or maintenance of students undertaking courses.

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George Shiers

George Shiers, a distinguished US television historian, was a long-­standing member of the RTS. Before his death in 1983, he and his wife, May, ­provided for a bequest in their wills. The Shiers Trust grant, now in its 16th year, is normally worth £2,000.

Grants will be consid­ered and approved by the Trustees who may, at their ­discretion, consult appropriate experts to assist their decisions. In assessing priorities, the Trustees will take into account the sums of money available.

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Application procedure

Applications are now invited and should be submitted to the Trustees by 31 March 2016 on an official ­application form (available from the RTS, address below). Applications should set out the nature of the project in not more than 500 words.

Supporting ­documentation may also be included. Details of your experience or qualifications should be provided. Applicants should ensure that their project conforms to all the criteria. Applications should be accompanied by a budget that clearly identifies the sum being requested for a grant and the ­purposes for which it will be used. Application forms are available from the RTS and should be returned to the same address: lare Colvin, Archivist C Royal Television Society 3 Dorset Rise London EC4Y 8EN clare@rts.org.uk

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Previous recipients

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1 2 015: Oral history project by former Granada staffers Stephen Kelly and Judith Jones, with interviews published at: www.granadaland.org 2 2014: Shared between Dr Sheldon Hall, whose Armchair Cinema is a study of feature films on British television, and Marc Scott, whose research focuses on the unofficial development of TV in Australia 3 2013: Barry Fox has built a website (www.tekkiepix.com) to present his collection of historical consumer electronics imagery and documents.

The picture shows a publicity still for Philips’s optical videodisc 4 2012: Paul Marshall researched a biography of Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton, the early visionary of all-electronic television 5 2012: Simon Vaughan digitised the 300-page ‘Black Book’, the first manual of the Marconi-EMI electronic television system, installed in 1936 6 2011: David Rose presented an illustrated retrospective of his exceptional career as a ground-breaking television and film producer to a large number of live audiences 7 2008/2010: Steve Arnold digitised back issues of Radio Times to make a searchable online archive of articles and schedules 8 2001: Simon Vaughan, archivist of the Alexandra Palace Television Society, printed a collection of 1,200 photos by the father of television lighting, Desmond Robert Campbell 9 2004: Don McLean compiled an authentically accurate audio two-CD presentation of the beginnings of television in Britain.

10 2005: John Grist wrote a biography of Grace Wyndham Goldie, the first Head of BBC Television News and Current Affairs 11 2009: Ronald Sandell, a key planner of the analogue terrestrial transmitter network, conducted research for a book, Seventy Years Before the Masts 12 2010: John Wyver conducted interviews on the presentation of theatre plays on British television

Journal of The Royal Television Society January 2016 l Volume 53/1

From the CEO We ended 2015 on a high, with some fantastic events.

“The secret of soaps: the story behind the stories” was a mustattend evening for Coronation Street addicts. The panellists and chair Paul Jackson were brilliant.

The RTS Craft & Design Awards was also a night to remember and showed our sector at its best. Congratulations to all the nominees and, of course, to all the winners. And a huge thank you to Susan Calman for being such a hilarious host.

The Manchester conference, “Who benefits? TV and poverty”, was a big success. A lot of this was due to the tireless work of the BBC’s Head of

Outreach and Corporate Responsibility, Diane Reid. Programme-makers, commissioners and broadcasters debated some thorny issues with the charity sector.

The final RTS Futures event of 2015, the Christmas Party, was more than a chance to let our hair down. With a panel of Broadcast magazine’s BAME Hot Shots, this was an opportunity to take stock of the industry’s frustratingly slow progress towards a more diverse workforce.

It was also Camilla Lewis’s swansong as Chair of the RTS Futures Committee. A massive thank you, Camilla, for all your efforts. Her successor will be announced in due course.

Lorraine Heggessey’s RTS London Christmas Lecture was a typically

Contents

pithy talk from one of the TV community’s most successful women.

We have an exciting line-up of events to look forward to as we return from the holidays. For comedy fans, on 27 January, the London Centre hosts “W1A – the story behind the series”.

The first early-evening event of the year sees Sky’s Managing Director of Content, Gary Davey, in conversation with Steve Hewlett on 4 February.

Book early to avoid disappointment.

I wish you all a stellar 2016.

Theresa Wise

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Jonathan Brackley’s TV Diary

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Fair play at UKTV

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Expert advice for novices

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How US shows drive UK schedules

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TV’s poverty dividend

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Streets ahead

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Our Friend in Northern Ireland

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The battle for news viewers

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RTS Craft & Design Awards 2014-2015

Screenwriter Jonathan Brackley struggles with a scene from the second season of Humans but knows help is at hand

Tara Conlan catches up with UKTV Chief Executive Darren Childs, who thinks TV companies should ban ‘sweatshop economics’

The role of US imports on British schedules has changed beyond recognition since Dallas ruled the roost, says Stephen Price

Coronation Street is almost 9,000 episodes old and still going strong. An RTS panel reveals the secrets of the ITV flagship. Matthew Bell takes notes

Can broadcasters’ attempts to future-proof their flagship news bulletins work in an online age, asks Raymond Snoddy

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Diversity: no more important issue in TV

A pre-Christmas event discussed the challenges that TV still faces in embracing a BAME workforce. Matthew Bell listened in

Two recent RTS Masterclass days gave students the chance to hear from leading TV practitioners.

Matthew Bell, Steve Clarke and Stuart Kemp report

A one-day conference assessed the impact on participants of shows such as Benefits Street.

Steve Clarke sifts the evidence

Michael Wilson hails Northern Ireland’s revival as a force in TV production – and a charitable initiative that reflects this progress

The winners and nominees over seven pages, from the ceremony hosted by Susan Calman at the London Hilton Park Lane on 30 November Cover picture: Philip Bannister

Editor Steve Clarke smclarke_333@hotmail.com Writer Matthew Bell bell127@btinternet.com

Production, design, advertising Gordon Jamieson gordon.jamieson.01@gmail.com Sub-editor Sarah Bancroft smbancroft@me.com

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Royal Television Society 3 Dorset Rise, London EC4Y 8EN T: 020 7822 2810 E: info@rts.org.uk W: www.rts.org.uk

Subscription rates UK £115 Overseas (surface) £146.11 Overseas (airmail) £172.22 Enquiries: publication@rts.org.uk

Printing ISSN 0308-454X Printer: FE Burman, 20 Crimscott St, London, SE1 5TP

Legal notice © Royal Television Society 2016.

The views expressed in Television are not necessarily those of the RTS. Registered Charity 313 728

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RTS NEWS Local events

RTS FUTURES Monday 25 January

BRISTOL Friday 4 March

4:00pm-8:00pm Venue: Hallam Conference Centre, 44 Hallam St, London W1W 6JJ ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk

Venue: Old Vic, King St, Bristol BS1 4ED ■ Belinda Biggam ■ belindabiggam@hotmail.com

RTS EARLY EVENING EVENT Thursday 4 February 2016

DEVON & CORNWALL ■ Kingsley Marshall ■ Kingsley.Marshall@falmouth. co.uk

Entry-level training fair

In conversation with… Gary Davey Steve Hewlett interviews Gary Davey, Managing Director, Content, Sky UK. 6:15pm for 6:45pm Venue: The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk RTS AWARDS Wednesday 17 February 2016

RTS Television Journalism Awards 2014-2015 The London Hilton, Park Lane, London W1K 1BE ■ Booking opening soon RTS AWARDS Thursday 3 March

RTS Programme Awards 2015 nominations breakfast Venue: The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ RTS AWARDS Tuesday 22 March

RTS Programme Awards 2015 Venue: Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London W1K 7TN JOINT PUBLIC LECTURE Wednesday 11 May 2016

RTS/IET Joint Public Lecture with Sir Paul Nurse Director of the Francis Crick Institute. 6:30pm for 7:00pm Venue: British Museum, London WC1B 3DG RTS AWARDS Friday 3 June 2016

RTS Student Television Awards 2015 Venue: BFI Southbank, London SE1 8XT

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Annual Awards

EAST ANGLIA ■ Contact TBC LONDON Wednesday 27 January

W1A – the story behind the series With Executive Producer Jon Plowman and Writer/Director John Morton, the team that previously produced the Olympics comedy Twenty Twelve. 6:30pm for 7:00pm Venue: ITV London Studios, Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Wednesday 10 February

Is it a revolution?

An update on the disruptive effects of 3D, 360°, interactive video, other new consumer products and the digital future.

Panel review of the Consumer Electronics Show, chaired by contextual technologies guru Ken Blakeslee. 6:30pm for 7:00pm Venue: ITV London Studios, Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT ■ Daniel Cherowbrier ■ daniel@cherowbrier.co.uk

W1A: London, 27 January Future dates: ■ 24 February ■ 30 March Venue: Tyneside Bar Café, Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QG Saturday 27 February

Annual Awards/Student Awards Venue: Newcastle Gateshead Hilton NE8 2AR ■ Jill Graham ■ jill.graham@blueyonder.co.uk NORTH WEST Thursday 11 February

Student Awards conference and presentation Venue: Salford University/Compass Rooms, Lowry Theatre, Pier 8, Salford Quays M50 3AZ ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 ■ rachelpinkney@yahoo.co.uk NORTHERN IRELAND ■ John Mitchell ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@btinternet.com

MIDLANDS ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 ■ jayne@ijmmedia.co.uk

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 ■ byrnecd@iol.ie

NORTH EAST & THE BORDER Wednesday 27 January

SCOTLAND Wednesday 27 January

The last Wednesday of the month, for anyone working in TV, film, computer games or digital ­production. 6:00pm onwards.

Venue: TBC ■ James Wilson 07899 761167 ■ james.wilson@cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk

Networking evenings

Student Awards

BBC

National events

Your guide to upcoming national and regional events

SOUTHERN Friday 4 March

Annual Awards/Student Awards Venue: Guildhall, The Broadway, Winchester SO23 9GH ■ Gordon Cooper ■ gordonjcooper@gmail.com THAMES VALLEY Thursday 17 March

Ultra-HDTV backwards compatibility – place your bets, please A joint event with SMPTE, introduced by Mark Horton, who is responsible for Ericsson’s encoding portfolio. 6:15 pm Venue: Pincents Manor, Calcot, Reading RG31 4UQ ■ Penny Westlake ■ info@rtstvc.org.uk WALES ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 ■ hywel@aim.uk.com YORKSHIRE Monday 25 January

AGM

Venue: Leeds Trinity University, Leeds LS18 5HD ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. co.uk

January 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television

TV diary Screenwriter Jonathan Brackley struggles with a scene from the second season of Humans but knows help is at hand

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upposed to be writing an episode of season 2 of Humans at the moment, but worrying instead about writing a diary for Television. I feel I should be giving some sort of insight into my process – only I’m not sure that I have one.

Does just sitting down and having a go count?

Now worried about sounding glib.

But that’s really what it feels like most of the time. Think a lot, write a bit, worry a lot, think a bit, rewrite a lot, worry a bit more.

Starting to think worrying might be my process. Which would fit, because I’m concerned a scene in the script isn’t working.

That makes it sound like the scene exists independently of me and it isn’t my fault.

■ Still can’t work out what’s wrong with the scene. I’m making too many teas. Because I know how to make tea. Can you drink too much tea? Worth a Google.

I am also a very proficient Googler.

Whatever happened to AltaVista?

Also worth a Google. Cruel irony.

Idea for a TV show. The plucky young web-Turks of AltaVista, their ascendancy and sudden decline. Exciting, funny, tragic.

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Probably need to find out if any of that is true first. Sounds like it needs research. I prefer to make things up.

Still, I’m sure Aaron Sorkin will knock it out of the park. Scorsese to direct the first episode.

Tea and Googling may be part of my process.

Still no idea. Screenwriting’s too hard.

■ Remembered I have the best job in the world. Coal-mining is hard.

Nursing is hard. Writing is fun. And I am lucky. So back to it.

I know when I’ve written something half-decent. And I know when I’ve written pure dross. I think that’s part craft, which you learn, and part instinct, which you don’t.

It’s all the stuff in between that’s problematic. Is that scene actually quite good or actually quite bad? Or worse – fails to elicit any emotional response whatsoever.

This is where having a writing ­partner is invaluable. Writing-partner tips: 1) Get Sam Vincent or similar; 2) Make sure they don’t have an ego; 3) Don’t have an ego.

■ Sam and I have been friends since we were 11, which means there’s nothing we can’t say to each other – vital for weeding out darlings for the slaughter.

Sam tells me something about the scene which, now that he says it, is glaringly obvious. Bastard.

■ Rewriting the scene. Sam pointed out that I was trying to make our characters do something that I really wanted to happen. It was cool and it was clever and it was thematically resonant (I’m talking Bafta-level thematic resonance), but it had absolutely no place in that scene, at that time, with those people.

The characters needed to be doing something else entirely. But I was forcing it because I loved the idea so much. And it was ruining the scene.

A great idea in the wrong context is just stuff. There’s a lot talked about ideas in TV and film. As though they’re the golden eggs from which hits are hatched.

But anyone can have a good idea.

Good ideas are 10 a penny. How you deploy, form and articulate that idea is what’s important.

So we figured it out in the end. Don’t know if collaboration is admissible as process – if it isn’t, it should be. It’s certainly the best part of what I do.

And I can always save my beloved idea for the right time and place in another script. Possibly for my new show Lycos: Search for Glory. Mark Rylance to play Chris Lycos*. *Research TBC

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Multichannel TV

Tara Conlan catches up with UKTV Chief Executive Darren Childs, who thinks TV companies should ban ‘sweatshop economics’

Fair play at UKTV

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ive years ago, UKTV was seen as the home of the BBC’s archive shows and the owner of a channel called Dave. Everyone in the industry thought Dave was named after the company’s former CEO, David Abraham.

Fast forward to today. The 300-strong company that began life as a multichannel archive business 20 years ago has grown. It now runs 11 channels, ranging from natural-history channel Eden to Good Food, and has a commercial television market share of 9.3%.

UKTV is also commissioning original shows that other broadcasters envy, such as Crackanory, and attracting established names such as Maxine Peake, Maureen Lipman and John Hannah.

CEO Darren Childs modestly says it was all part of the company’s five-year transformation plan. In late 2010, soon

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after he arrived at UKTV, Childs began having conversations about strategy.

At that time, joint-owner Virgin had decided to sell up.

US company Scripps bought Virgin’s stake in the joint venture with BBC Worldwide for a reported £339m. Childs recalls: “Once it had stable ownership and shareholders with a long-term focus on the overall success of the business, UKTV then set itself milestones to reach, including [a] move away from being a purely archive business to one that commissioned content that differentiated it from other broadcasters.”

Although, he says, UKTV has been “very lucky – we’ve got the BBC’s archive output” – it was easy to see that “on-demand could be a better way to access archive. So what, therefore, was UKTV’s role as a linear channels business, if technology was going to make archive access much easier?”

Childs was previously Managing Director of BBC Worldwide’s channels and has been a UKTV board member since 2006. He realised, then, that the TV market was changing and that UKTV had to invest in original content.

To do that, it “had to stop doing a lot of the stuff we were doing” and it “needed to become bigger in order to fund that content investment. What’s happened is that, over the past five years, we’ve had record viewership growth for each one of those years.”

The enthusiastic Childs continues: “The great thing is... as we’re making selective bets on content that we’re all passionate [about]... we’re being rewarded by ever-increasing viewership figures, so it feels like we’re being rewarded for doing something right.”

Yet Childs says UKTV does not feel like “we’re at the middle or the end of this journey, we’re just at the

All pictures: UKTV

beginning. It’s been five years of hard work by the team.”

By his reckoning, “Our portfolio [is] in the same market as Channel 5’s portfolio [and] equal to, if not slightly bigger than, Sky’s portfolio of channels.”

With record profits of £74m this year, UKTV’s shareholders are pleased.

There are reports that Scripps offered to buy BBC Worldwide’s stake but was rebuffed.

Aside from how it might affect the long-running contract UKTV has with the BBC for its archive content (like his predecessor Abraham, Childs will not say how long it is, apart from “very”), would it matter if Scripps owned the company outright?

He says that it is easy in television to get “distracted” by talk about ownership or regulatory issues: “We’re a small business... we try to spend time focusing on the content and technology

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

side of our business rather than the politics.

“What will end up happening will be a decision for them as owners of the company... did I successfully dodge that question?” he asks with a laugh.

He also chuckles when asked about how cuts at the corporation might affect his programming pipeline: “Another difficult political BBC question. It looks like the PSBs are pulling back in some genres, [including] comedy… but those are decisions they have to make within their own businesses. When people cut back, it creates an opportunity.”

Arguably, Dave is benefiting from the decision to take BBC Three online only. While Top Gear repeats continue to do well in daytime, comedy rules in primetime.

Original shows, such as Taskmaster, in which Greg Davies gets comedians such as Frank Skinner to do absurd

things, the semi-improvised David Hasselhoff comedy Hoff the Record and Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish have all done well and are returning.

They are credited with helping Dave increase its viewership by 6% in 2015, according to UKTV’s figures.

Childs declines to say how much Dave’s budget for original shows is, but claims it is up 70% year on year. He has made the point before that “great IP often gets abandoned” and has, therefore, built on the popularity of the BBC archive on Gold by bringing some of the shows back to life.

UKTV has ordered two new series of the sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, which originally aired on BBC Two. The series are currently being filmed back to back and will be transmitted this year and next. It is also premiering the The Comic Strip Presents… The Red Top – the latest episode in the series concerns phone hacking and stars Maxine Peake as a flame-haired newspaper editor.

UKTV is “full of people who really love television”, says its boss, and if there is “something that people think has got life left in it, then our editorial decisions are very much driven by consumers. If we can afford to make it, why not?”

Childs says he wanted to “nail” comedy first before moving on to other scripted shows. There, “rather than make one big bet”, it made three. Two of the shows were made by Matt Lucas’s production company John Stanley Productions: Marley’s Ghosts, starring John Hannah and Sarah Alexander, and Bull, starring Robert Lindsay and Maureen Lipman.

Both got recognition and coverage for the channel. Childs says: “Marley’s was a big success, so I would be surprised if we don’t see another run of that.”

He adds: “We’ve got to take our shots really well; [our] commissioning strategy is not about volume, it’s about quality.” He points out that HBO (he sat on HBO’s European board when he worked at Sony Pictures) commissions only some 100 shows a year.

Now that comedy has been given the UKTV treatment, drama may be next.

Childs and his wife (when their nineand 13-year-old children allow it) are currently watching The Affair.

He agrees that “storytelling” is big at the moment but insists that his channels will not do drama for its own sake: “Next for us is a move into crime procedural drama. Alibi has been having �

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� a phenomenal run. We think that it’s ripe for original development.

“Will we invest in drama? It’s inevitable that, at some stage in this company’s future, it will take place. As to when and how, it’s probably too early to say. As long as consumers like it, then we’ll be looking at ways to give it to them.”

UKTV has not just been investing heavily in content – its programme budget has approximately doubled since Childs took over, to “somewhere north” of £125m – but also in “people and video-on-demand”.

With 8,800 hours of programming available, he says UKTV has “enough on our plate” but does not rule out opening more services or closing some of the existing ones.

Childs is particularly proud of the on-demand service UKTV Play. Four years ago, the company lacked a single non-linear component. “We weren’t ready to be part of TV’s future... so we needed to invest in that. Our VoD business is growing at hundreds of per cent, year on year.”

A keen cyclist (but not a fanatical middle-aged man in Lycra, he asserts), Childs has seen the challenge of growing UKTV less as a sprint and more like a road race.

A long-term plan is to use continuity and navigation to “knit together the power of the network”, make more use of the UKTV brand and encourage viewers of one channel to try others under the UKTV umbrella.

Before Childs arrived, the company had “removed all of that glue that held the network together....

The previous management set all the channels free right at a time when the whole market was fragmenting and [becoming] even more complicated.

“We’re trying to bring that back together because [not everyone] wants to sit and watch Dave all night, although a lot of people do. They may want to go and watch David Attenborough on Eden.”

“We think part of our job is [getting viewers] to trust our recommendations for content because we think it’s getting to the point now where people don’t know what to watch any more unless there’s some kind of navigation and recommendation... people are being barraged by content and that’s where the brand is critical.”

Although contagiously upbeat about UKTV and its future, the UKTV CEO nevertheless volunteers the idea

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that his company has been helped recently by a resurgence in the value of TV advertising.

Regarding ratings, he says: “If you look at the data, some of those metrics are starting to tail off. I think it is much more about measurement needing to catch up, rather than there being any disinterest from any age group in quality, long-form content.”

As UKTV’s content has grown, its relationship with BBC Worldwide has become more of a “creative partnership”. So much so, that the BBC has bought UKTV content, such as shows featuring the magician Dynamo and David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities; both will appear on a BBC channel at some stage in the future.

But after five years running UKTV, is Childs planning to move on? “I live in the day.... I’ve got the best job in tele­ vision, I don’t have the stock­market to deal with. I don’t have public-service obligations to deal with.

“I don’t have terms of trade and I’ve got really supportive shareholders, so I’m very happy where I am.”

One thing he is keen to do is broaden the range of people who work in television, something he discusses regularly at UKTV. “We need to change the way TV feels, it doesn’t have to feel large and corporate and ugly. It’s got an access problem,” he believes. “If you come from a working-class family from Yorkshire, as I did, it’s an impenetrable business.

“Not because it’s a class issue – it’s a talent issue. As an industry, we need to be getting talent in; it doesn’t matter where it comes from.... We need to build meritocracies and creative places for people to come and work.

Television has not got a great reputation for that.”

UKTV has introduced apprenticeships. All those working on shows made for its channels are paid, rather than employed as unpaid interns.

“Most entry-level TV jobs are unpaid.

It’s just not right. We make sure everyone on our shows gets not the minimum wage but the living wage.

“We can’t, as an industry, slag off sweatshops when we’re basically doing the same,” says Childs emphatically. “I’m not interested in sweatshop economics to get television made. I’d rather not have it.

“And there’s enough money in this business for people to get paid a decent salary for their contribution.”

IT’S GETTING TO THE POINT NOW WHERE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WATCH ANY MORE UNLESS THERE’S SOME KIND OF NAVIGATION AND RECOMMENDATION

MOST ENTRYLEVEL TV JOBS ARE UNPAID.…

WE CAN’T, AS AN INDUSTRY, SLAG OFF SWEATSHOPS WHEN WE’RE BASICALLY DOING THE SAME January 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television

Homeland

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hirty-five years ago, one of the biggest events in UK TV occurred when BBC One revealed the identity of JR’s assassin in Dallas. A massive 22 million viewers watched the episode on 21 November 1980.

In those faraway days, big American series such as Starsky and Hutch were popular constituents of the BBC One schedule.

In the 1990s, hit comedies Friends and Frasier helped define Channel 4.

Today, BBC One has no acquired series, while ITV only periodically re-enters the genre – and with scant success. Meanwhile, Channel 4’s acquired comedy tradition has given way to drama.

It’s not that there are fewer imports – indeed, there have probably never been so many. Rather, it is where we find them: now, they tend to play out on the smaller digital networks.

Imports are cost-effective for networks with smaller budgets: each episode will be transmitted

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Content

The role of US imports on British schedules has changed beyond recognition since Dallas ruled the roost, says Stephen Price numerous times. And for those channels that can afford exclusive rights to the latest, talked-about property, series such as Sky Atlantic’s Game of Thrones can help boost subscriptions.

Free-to-air ITV2 saw an opportunity to bolster audience share (and thus ad revenue) with the purchase of hit US animation Family Guy, which has performed so well for BBC Three.

One downside to acquired programming is, of course, a lack of control. The fate of a series is decided by its success or failure on its home US

Channel 4

How US shows drive UK schedules network. A loyal following in the UK for the first season is no guarantee that a US-made drama will reach its denouement: Channel 5 viewers were left hanging in 2010 when FlashForward was cancelled after one series by ABC – with critical plot developments still unresolved.

The last time ITV1 dipped its toe in the market for imported shows was with two series of The Americans, from US cable network FX. When ITV launched the second series (at 9:20pm on Saturday, 15 March 2014), Broadcast noted that it had scraped together an audience of just 1.3 million (a 7% share): nowhere near enough for primetime on ITV’s flagship channel.

Given this lack of success on the main channel, the third series was moved this summer to pay-channel ITV Encore.

Channel 4’s fifth series of Homeland (from US cable network Showtime) has just finished its 12-episode, Sunday-­night run, as has the channel’s 10-episode second season of Fargo. �

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WE NO LONGER WAIT WEEKS OR MONTHS FOR THE LATEST US SERIES TO APPEAR IN UK SCHEDULES � More family-friendly series include ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. The show played at 8:00pm on Fridays from autumn 2014 on Channel 4.

BBC Two’s only acquired series last year was Odyssey, starring British actor Anna Friel. It aired in the summer after its spring debut on NBC. Of Britain’s PSB networks, Channel 5 remains the most acquisitions heavy: last year it played Gotham, The Mentalist, NCIS: New Orleans and Under the Dome, as well as the Australian series Wentworth Prison, among others.

Channel 5 made great use of the CBS drama franchise CSI to establish its presence and personality. Gradually, the many CSI variants have been cancelled in the US. The main UK networks’ digital offspring make more use of acquired programming than the parent channels.

CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory has been hugely successful for Channel 4’s youth channel, E4: in its premiere transmission slot (Thursday at 8:30pm) the show can even outdo Channel 4.

To maximise its value, E4 uses the many Big Bang Theory episodes available to populate its schedule. In the week beginning 26 October, for example, the channel transmitted 55 episodes across daytime, peak and late night.

E4 also found success with the ­science-fiction dramas The 100 and The Tomorrow People, both from The CW network. Despite achieving E4’s highest launch audience for a US series (1.4 million, or a 6% share, on 8 January, according to Broadcast), The Tomorrow People was cancelled by CW after just one series.

ITV’s youth-skewing channel ITV2 has been much more reliant on homegrown commissions, such as Celebrity Juice and The Only Way Is Essex and the brand extension The Xtra Factor. The acquisition slate mostly comprises films.

In March, however, ITV2 secured the rights to the latest series of US Fox

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Game of Thrones network’s Family Guy. Arguably, this signalled a change of strategy for the channel, as the deal also included American Dad!, The Cleveland Show and Bordertown.

In pay-TV, the network’s primary aim, of course, is to grow subscriptions; US acquisitions are now playing a greater part in meeting that objective.

For example, Sky announced this spring that it would stop commissioning original shows for its female-oriented channel Sky Living: henceforth, the schedule would rely on acquisitions.

Since the channel relaunched in September 2013, only about 10% of Sky Living’s top 250 shows had been original commissions, according to Broadcast.

One of the few was The Face, fronted

by Naomi Campbell, which averaged 217,000 viewers (a 0.8% share) – well behind the slot average of 488,000

viewers and a 1.8% share. Acquired shows such as The Blacklist, Elementary and Criminal Minds regularly attract 1 million-plus audiences.

Stuart Murphy, then Director of Sky Entertainment Channels, explained at the time that this shift would mean a dramatic increase in investment in home-grown shows for Sky 1.

It is interesting that Lucky Man, a new 10-part original series commissioned

by Sky 1 for this year, is the brainchild of Marvel comics creator Stan Lee. Perhaps it is an attempt to sprinkle some of the acquired magic over UK-­made content.

In the meantime, the heart of Sky 1’s evening schedule has moved away from original commissions. Back in the autumn of 2013, Sky 1’s weekday schedule at 8:00pm was a mix of original programming and acquired.

Sky

Family Guy Originals included the documentary series All Aboard: East Coast Trains and Inside RAF Brize Norton. Imports included Fox Network’s Glee, superhero series Arrow from The CW and ABC sitcom Modern Family.

By autumn 2015, the landscape of Sky 1 at 8:00pm was very different, with US shows on four nights a week: ABC’s The Muppets and Modern Family on Monday, CW’s The Flash on Tuesday, Arrow on Wednesday and CBS’s Supergirl on Thursday.

The move has helped Sky 1’s performance in the slot. For example, on 21 November 2013, Inside RAF Brize Norton achieved 462,000 viewers (including time-shifting), while Supergirl on 5 November 2015 achieved 1.3 million (also including time-shifting).

Sky Atlantic has an output deal with US cable network HBO. Unsurprisingly,

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

the channel offers a diet of predominantly American programmes with some home-grown shows, such as Fortitude and The Last Panthers.

On 13 April 2015, HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones drew an audience of 1.6 million (a 7% share) in the overnight ratings, the best performance ever for Sky Atlantic. In the process, it beat BBC Two, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The consolidated audience was 2.6 million.

Talked-about programmes such as this help to put a channel on the map but do not always translate into ratings successes. Mad Men, for example, was never watched by more than 500,000 viewers in the UK, even when it was on the more widely available BBC Four.

But the show was a key part of Sky Atlantic’s original marketing campaign: it helped get the channel noticed and set the tone for classy content.

BBC

IN THE WEEK BEGINNING 26 OCTOBER, E4 TRANSMITTED 55 EPISODES OF THE BIG BANG THEORY With a further commitment to not just buy, but to co-produce, original dramas with HBO, Sky is expanding on the traditional acquisition deal. The network finds itself competing in a race to own as many rights as possible as the international programme sales market heats up, especially in drama – the value of a good script has never been higher.

The UK incarnation of US channel Fox has recently scored a significant success with The Walking Dead from the US cable network AMC. It has rated extremely well: the episode on Monday 2 November achieved an audience of 1.8 million, including time-shifting – more than Sky 1’s Supergirl that week.

The Walking Dead repeats proliferated through the schedule: in the week commencing 26 October, the third episode of the sixth series was shown eight times in all.

In August, BT launched the US cable channel AMC exclusively to its UK customers. Its best show is Fear the Walking Dead, which attracted 254,000 viewers on 31 August, including time-shifting.

It would be surprising if BT did not want to add The Walking Dead to its roster – so it is entirely possible that Fox’s lawyers in the UK are checking the fine print of its deal with AMC. Gone are the days when we had to wait weeks or months for the latest US series to appear in UK schedules – largely because the fear of piracy has driven down the value of shows that are withheld for too long. Series typically launch soon after – and sometimes simultaneously with – the US premiere.

With its 300-plus channels all chasing content to drive subscriptions or advertising income, the UK’s appetite for the next big thing from across the pond is as voracious as it was back when Kristen shot JR. But don’t expect to see these shows on the big free-to-air channels.

11

Streets ahead

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12

Drama

Coronation Street is almost 9,000 episodes old and still going strong. An RTS panel reveals the secrets of the ITV flagship. Matthew Bell takes notes a portrayal of slow-paced rural life to one that depicts “an aspirational countryside with pop festivals and that sort of thing”.

Stuart Blackburn, who has produced Corrie since early 2013, recalled that he was dubbed the “grim reaper” after axing a number of characters.

He explained: “Every time a new producer comes in, the entire cast are terrified – the producer’s got an agenda and is going to axe a lot of people.”

In fact, said Blackburn, he held back from radical change when he took over producing duties from Phil Collinson: “I made the decision, regardless of my subjective judgement on stories that were currently playing, that we would play them out. Evolution, not revolution, was the right thing to do.”

Blackburn – who has been accused by the tabloid press of clashing with the cast but also widely praised for September’s live episode – leaves the

Philip Bannister

ritish TV institution Coronation Street celebrated its 55th birthday in December. After some 8,800 episodes, you might expect the old girl to be a bit doddery on her pins, but the ITV soap is in rude health.

Over the past couple of years, Corrie has fed its viewers a rich diet of murder, death and suicide.

The fictional town of Weatherfield proves that life can be a little grim up north as residents perish in fireballs, explosions and car crashes, or at the hands of maniacs.

Sensational plot lines, though, are leavened by the humour and warmth that has always been a huge part of the soap.

Audiences are lapping up the drama.

It still regularly attracts more than 7 million viewers – a huge drop from the 20 million-plus audiences of the terrestrial era – but Corrie remains the nation’s favourite soap, holding off ITV stablemate Emmerdale and BBC One’s EastEnders.

At an RTS early-evening event in late November, a panel of Coronation Street heavyweights, chaired by longtime fan and former ITV Director of Entertainment and Comedy Paul Jackson, discussed the secrets of the programme’s success.

“Don’t be snobby about soaps,” Jackson told the large audience gathered for the event, as he praised the high-quality “writing and performances turned in, week in, week out”.

The soap’s strength is that it still follows the blueprint of the very first show aired in December 1960, argued ITV Creative Director, Serial Dramas, John Whiston.

Creator Tony Warren assembled a group of “strong women and feckless men”, said Whiston, who is responsible for both Coronation Street and Emmerdale, a role that has earned him the nickname “the pope of soap”.

“The women are just as strong now and the men just as feckless as they ever used to be,” he added. “Corrie has stayed completely true to that DNA.” Emmerdale, by contrast, had changed radically, said Whiston, moving from

QUESTION & ANSWER A

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Q A

Do you look at what’s going on in the other soaps?

Stuart Blackburn: John Whiston is across both Emmerdale and Corrie, so the three words we hate at [writers’] conferences are…

“Emmerdale’s doing it”.

John Whiston: There is a zeitgeist and the two shows tend to come up with the same things.

Stuart Blackburn: I don’t want to be inhibited or affected by what [the other soaps] are doing.

We could both be doing murder stories but ours would be very different. It’s not a qualitative judgement, but there would be a difference in the style and the way the stories are told.

A A

Q A

Do you have to suspend disbelief?

Debbie Oates: It’s a very heightened world.… If you picked any house and looked at what had happened there, no one would want to live on that bloody street… look at the number of deaths we’ve had.

Q A

Q A

What qualities do you need to produce Coronation Street?

Stuart Blackburn: The producers over the years have come from many backgrounds; mine is much more creative.

I started in the theatre as a writer/ director/producer and moved on to television and worked with the story ­lines, as opposed to being on the floor.

I think you’ve got to be a politician and a great listener. You’ve got to have humility when you’re sat in the writers’ room to say, “I’m wrong, you’re right.”

You also have to have the decisiveness to go with your instincts and to push stories through when a lot of people have been saying no.

Q

Q A

John Whiston Is it hard to get rid of characters?

Debbie Oates: You don’t want closure on great characters, but, when they are going, it’s great to get [to write] that episode.

Given the longevity of the show, how do you avoid repetition and errors in the story­lines?

John Whiston: We have an archivist who keeps us right and we get research notes, but I think the keepers of the holy flame are the writers of Corrie.…

There’s a wealth of history in that writers’ room and an ability to play with that history.

A

Q A

Do people think soap characters are real?

Tina O’Brien: [My character] Sarah-Louise Platt got pregnant when she was 13 and I did

Paul Hampartsoumian

soap this year to work on other drama projects for ITV Studios.

“What’s special about Corrie?” asked Blackburn. “It’s the mix of high drama, romance and comedy.”

“With every respect to all the other soaps, they don’t have the humour that Corrie has always had,” suggested Jackson.

But the comedy, argued Blackburn, had to be “believable – I’m always wary of broad comedy that turns into farce or pantomime”.

Coronation Street currently uses 18 writers, who write anything up to 20 episodes a year. “If there’s a story that’s been pitched by a team of writers or a writer and we’re playing that out, I may choose to give the key episodes to the people who pitched it,” explained Blackburn, a former story editor on both Corrie and Emmerdale.

“The great thing about Corrie is that it’s a writers’ show,” he continued. “It’s a pseudo-­democracy where writers pitch all the stories and argue about them.

“It’s a real privilege to be in one of those [story] conferences. They take no prisoners and attack each others’ stories ferociously. Out of that process comes the perfect story that’s got little bits of everything.”

The soap is a well-oiled TV machine, with storylines worked out and episodes plotted months in advance.

“We have a board with all the stories posted and intricately colour coded, depending on the families,” said Whiston. “Similarly, in the scheduling office, we [plot] where all the characters are and the availability of actors. The biggest risk to Corrie is a sharp gust of wind blowing all that away.”

Writer Debbie Oates – the “queen of grief”, according to Whiston – joined Corrie in 2002. She has written more than 140 episodes. Discussing the writing team, Oates said: “We’ve all got very different voices and we learn from each other.

“Looking from the outside, people say, ‘It’s really formulaic or pappy.’ Yes, it’s got a framework and a structure but, within that, you can play around and put your own voice in.”

Oates advised writers to “find their �

have young girls writing to me and telling me that they were in the same situation.

John Whiston: We had a lot of letters when we were doing the Hayley Cropper pancreatic cancer storyline, and they were very heartfelt and difficult to read.… That means we’ve got to tell the story properly, research it and make it feel right.

Has there ever been a subject that you wouldn’t touch?

Debbie Oates: With an audience the size of ours comes responsibility. There are occasions when a story doesn’t feel right.

Stuart Blackburn: An obvious one would be paedophilia. It’s not because it’s untouchable, but where are the surprises or grey areas?

John Whiston: [Stories need] to come from character.

We’ve discussed radicalisation… but we don’t feel that we’ve got the right characters for that.

I don’t think there’s an untouchable story, but I do think that we have to do it in a particular way for an evening on ITV.

A A

13

Under Producer Stuart Blackburn’s watch, a Muslim family moved into the street. Sair Khan, who plays Alya Nazir, was in the audience at the RTS event.

‘The reaction has been very positive,’ she said. ‘People see a true reflection of their communities.’

‘The question I always ask myself is, “What would [Corrie creator] Tony Warren do on the creative side of the show now?” Manchester is [now] an incredibly diverse city,’ said Blackburn.

‘It’s a conscious decision not to tick boxes or to become the saint of the politically correct but to tell the real stories of the lives and loves of working-class Manchester – and that’s all shades of colour, ethnicities and religions.’

Currently, Khan’s character is unfaithful to her fiancé, which, said RTS event chair Paul Jackson, is a storyline that ‘wouldn’t work with a western family’.

‘Absolutely,’ replied Blackburn.

‘That story is probably one of the only times where sex between two young, unattached people has really mattered.’

� own voice”, adding: “You won’t get a job on a show unless you’ve got a writing voice.”

Jackson asked whether soaps were a route into television for aspiring writers.

“EastEnders and Corrie, in particular, do not take any writers without credits,” revealed Oates. She said that there were two basic routes to TV writing.

The first passed through the story office or script editing; the second came from other disciplines, such as writing for theatre (Oates’s way in) or radio.

Writers would find it harder to join the Emmerdale writing team directly, than they would to get in via the show’s story office, said Whiston: “Three or four writers have come from the story office – it’s an incredible training in what the soap requires.”

“When I get a CV from an aspiring writer, the first thing I look at is the credits,” said Blackburn. He insisted that the idea of soaps representing “a breeding ground for future talent” was

14

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT ‘CORRIE’?

IT’S THE MIX OF HIGH DRAMA, ROMANCE AND COMEDY

Stuart Blackburn “cobblers”. Soaps, rather, were “where the great talent comes to”.

Tina O’Brien, who completed the RTS Corrie panel, joined Coronation Street in 1999 to play Sarah-Louise Platt, leaving the soap in 2007 and returning in 2015.

In September’s gripping live episode, which was penned by Oates, O’Brien’s character was brutally attacked by drug dealer Callum Logan.

“The episode,” said Blackburn, “sums up everything that’s great about Corrie.”

“With a show like Coronation Street, you never feel that you’re coasting,” said O’Brien. “I constantly feel like I’ve got to try and up my game.”

When she returned to the soap, O’Brien knew that she was going to appear in the live show (clips from which were shown throughout the evening), but not that she would have such a central role.

“When Stuart told me where the story was going, I was shocked,” she recalled. “At that point, there were still

YOU NEVER FEEL THAT YOU’RE COASTING. I CONSTANTLY FEEL LIKE I’VE GOT TO UP MY GAME

Tina O’Brien moments where you thought Callum had a warm side to him.”

In the live show, Logan (played by Sean Ward), was bludgeoned to death by his ex-girlfriend Kylie Platt after attacking O’Brien’s character.

In rehearsal, the two actors had been holding back but, driven by the adrenaline of live performance, the fight was ferocious.

The live show also contained tender moments, none more so than the scene with Carla Connor and Roy Cropper, which was also showed to the RTS audience.

“It’s a brilliant piece of writing and [boasts] two extraordinary performances,” said Jackson.

“We’ve got an extraordinary cast,” said Oates. “You just know that they will find what’s underneath the writing.”

John Anderson – described by O’Brien as the “calmest, most lovely director in the world” – helmed the live show. “That was why he was picked,”

All pictures: Paul Hampartsoumian

Adding Muslim lives and loves

Soap villains live on borrowed time

said Blackburn. “He’s a very good director, but he’s also someone who will never raise his voice. Whatever’s going on behind the scenes, the cast have got to believe that everything’s fine.”

A live show is an enormous undertaking. Whiston revealed that some 600 people were involved in making the September episode.

“It’s the best bonding exercise you could do,” he said. “At the end, sound guys were hugging lighting guys – something that has never happened before in the history of television.”

“Do we need our hankies for Christmas?” asked Jackson. There would be no more deaths, promised Blackburn, adding: “We’re going to have a happy Christmas – I think we deserve it.”

‘The secret of soaps: the story behind the stories’ was an RTS early-evening event held at One Great George Street, London, on 24 November. It was produced by Sally Doganis and Brigitte Trafford.

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Villain David Platt (right), played by Jack P Shepherd Soap fans love a villain and, over the years, UK shows have had some real baddies – EastEnders’ Nick Cotton and Janine Butcher and Corrie’s own double-­murderer, Richard Hillman, are three of the most infamous.

Villains, though, such as drug dealer Callum Logan, who was killed in the recent live episode, tend to receive their just deserts. Over the episodes leading up to his death, Logan’s behaviour was ‘vile’, said Blackburn. ‘We knew it had to be a death that was absolutely justified.’

‘One of the biggest problems we have is with villains,’ explained Whiston.

‘You’ve been searching for a strong male character and then [when you find one] they turn villainous – and you know the clock is ticking.

‘The soap gods have to punish you in some way. So, how long can you keep them in the show doing what they’re doing? [Characters] have become

ITV

Debbie Oates

Paul Hampartsoumian

YOU WON’T GET A [WRITING] JOB ON A SHOW UNLESS YOU’VE GOT A WRITING VOICE

completely brilliant as they’ve become more villainous. It’s happened to a lot of our men.’

The character of David Platt (played

by Jack P Shepherd), though, is still alive and kicking in the show, despite his deeply troubled life.

‘You thought: the guy can’t stay in the show,’ said Whiston, ‘But the writers backed off a little, gave him some more depth and now, curiously, in the live [episode], he’s the reasonable one.’

‘Who saw that coming, after all that he’s been through? He’s been driven into a canal in a people carrier, he’s found out that his mum tried to abort him. It got to the point where his next stop was prison or death, and we didn’t want either for him,’ said writer Debbie Oates.

She added: ‘Once a character’s in prison, you can play a bit with prison stuff but, really, you have to move them out of the show.’

15

Rivals: BBC newsreader Huw Edwards and (inset) ITV News’s Tom Bradby

The battle for news viewers

T

his month, the BBC will unveil a longer version of The BBC Ten O’Clock News. The flagship bulletin will also come with enhanced production values. Even though the changes to the programme, fronted by Huw Edwards, have been under consideration for months, it will be seen as the latest round in the “battle of the bongs”, following the October relaunch of ITV’s News at Ten, with the user-friendly Tom Bradby.

The 26-minute Ten is the shortest of the BBC’s main bulletins and is produced in its newsroom with robotic cameras. Apart from being longer, the rebooted programme is likely to occupy a bespoke Studio B, at present home to Newsnight, with its integral camera crews and specialist graphics.

While the loss of its studio would be a blow to Newsnight, its audience of around 570,000 viewers is dwarfed by that of the Ten. BBC Director of News and Current Affairs James Harding has been reviewing the shape and feel of television news services beset by ageing audiences, the young moving online and the arrival of new competitors, such as Vice and BuzzFeed.

16

TV news

Can broadcasters’ attempts to futureproof their flagship news bulletins work in an online age, asks Raymond Snoddy Yet, as a former Media Editor of The Financial Times, Harding is very aware of the danger of overemphasising the latest new thing.

He will almost certainly rule out the idea of taking the BBC News channel online only any time soon. The pursuit of young audiences means, however, that a lot of work is being done on how best to produce television news for mobile phones.

Developments will have to come out of declining budgets. The latest tranche of cuts came in November, with a £5m cut for BBC News and a sharper £12m reduction for online services.

Starting on 11 January, The BBC Ten O’Clock News will be 10 minutes longer from Monday to Thursday. The

revam­ped programme will run to a total of 45 minutes, including local news and weather.

It is understood that the BBC considered a more radical plan to run an hour-long bulletin for at least one night a week. The idea involved beefing up arts and science coverage.

The relaunch of ITV’s News at Ten, and the associated hiring of the BBC’s Robert Peston as ITV’s Political Editor with a Sunday political show thrown in, has led to the latest outbreak of news wars.

The spats have been reported under such headlines as the “Ding-dong at ten” and “Rows at ten! Huw and Tom at war over viewing figures.”

Edwards was triumphal on Twitter, highlighting the fact that ITV had attracted around 2 million viewers for the much-hyped relaunch after “[conspiring] to lose 4.2 million in a few minutes after the excellent Doc Martin. We were watched by 4.4 million.

So it’s business as usual, whatever the papers say.”

In The Sunday Times, Tom Bradby denounced BBC News as a “swaggering behemoth”, before explaining his ITV brief had been simple. “Don’t worry about the ratings, because we want a prestige product that is distinctive,

ITV/BBC Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

innovative and at the top of its field in terms of world agenda. And please provide news with personality,” said Bradby.

According to ITV, News at Ten averaged 1.6 million viewers in September and, since the re-launch on 12 October, the average for weekday programmes broadcast at 10:00pm has been 1.9 million.

The ratings for its BBC rival have slipped only slightly to 4.0 million since 12 October, from a year-to-date average of 4.1 million.

For Stewart Purvis, former ITN Chief Executive and, until recently, Professor of Television Journalism at London’s City University, the hype surrounding the spat between Edwards and Bradby “is just nonsense, really”.

Purvis, who turned round Channel 4 News in its early days, does, however, welcome ITV’s News at Ten doing fewer stories better and adding value.

“Above all, I think the idea that ITV, having messed around with News at Ten in its schedule in the past – and, frankly, continuing to mess around – actually cares enough about the programme to have a view on what it should be like is progress,” says Purvis.

Head of Sky News John Ryley also takes a wider view: “I was on News at Ten in 1992, when we launched with Trevor McDonald as a single presenter.

There was a lot of huffing and puffing from both sides on the merits of what we were doing and the numbers. Then it all settled down. Nothing changes and competition is good.

“I congratulate ITN in a way and admire what they are trying to do. The BBC, for all its money, should arguably be delivering a better product than it does,” the Sky executive added.

Richard Sambrook, a former head of BBC News, believes that the evening bulletins have a strong future, despite their slowly declining audiences. They will continue to attract the single biggest audience and act “as the Harrods shop window for the digital services that lie behind”.

Sambrook is a journalism professor at Cardiff University. He thinks that Edwards and Bradby have both been “a little ungracious and unseemly”.

He is convinced that the biggest problem for the future of news is the way news channels have been outflanked by the web.

“They cost roughly £50m to £60m a year and get 2% of the available audience and they fail to break news. This

can’t be a proposition for the longer term,” Sambrook insists.

Unsurprisingly, Ryley disagrees: “Non-stop television news is very much part of the action. Social media and mobile have given it additional impetus. We are moving newsrooms into a new, digitally focused newsroom in April 2017 and will shift more towards a multimedia service – but it will be led by television.”

From across the Irish Sea, Kevin Bakhurst, former Deputy Head of BBC Newsroom and now Deputy Director-­ General of RTÉ, emphasises that, in the “battle of the bongs”, it was ITV that took the initial, disastrous decision to vacate the 10:00pm slot and allow the BBC in.

In such circumstances, he believes, it is none of culture secretary John Whittingdale’s business to try to suggest, as he did at the RTS Cambridge Convention in September, the hours at which the BBC should schedule its news programmes.

“Competition is good for the audience,” says Bakhurst. He notes that the death of television news has been predicted for at least 20 years and hasn’t happened yet, despite declining audiences.

“The main bulletins have a very substantial audience and are incredibly influential and matter to audiences and opinion formers,” he argues.

To Kevin Sutcliffe, Vice’s European Head of News, the Edwards-Bradby row was little more than an entertaining village spat. “Do people care about presenters taking lumps out of each other?” he wonders.

He also observes that, apart from recognising the problem of attracting younger viewers, the format of studio-­ based bulletins has barely changed since the launch of television.

Vice News is trying to create a more immersive television journalism that appeals to younger audiences. The mixture of news, current affairs and documentary techniques can, for example, show the realities of war in a way that is impossible for regulated television news.

Sutcliffe believes that his audiences can sniff out a “corporateness” and “amazing control of tone” across all BBC coverage. “I think we are offering an alternative for this generation, which is looking for things they believe are authentic.

“The big challenge for television news is how it engages that generation.

It’s going to be key for the future.”

17

‘

DIVERSITY

There is no issue more important in television

From left: Micky Down, Sabrina Scollan, Femi Oyeniran, Fatima Shafiq, Kascion Franklin and Jasmine Dotiwala

A

Daily Mirror headline, – “A black man is more likely to score for England than to host a primetime TV show” – set the scene for the final RTS Futures event of last year.

The spotlight was again on diversity in television – or the lack of it.

The sell-out pre-Christmas event was chaired by Jasmine Dotiwala, Executive News Editor of the Media Trust’s London360. The youth magazine show, which trains young Londoners in television skills, airs on London Live and the Community Channel.

Dotiwala pointed to yet more damning criticism of TV’s lack of diversity.

In its recent submission to the House of Lords, the Campaign for Broadcas­ting

18

RTS Futures

A pre-Christmas event discussed the challenges that TV still faces in embracing a BAME workforce.

Matthew Bell listened in Equality produced evidence of the BBC’s poor record in employing ­off-screen BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) talent.

The Directors UK report “UK television: adjusting the colour balance”

Paul Hampartsoumian

’

revealed that only 1.5% of UK television is made by BAME directors, yet 14% of the population are from BAME backgrounds.

Turning to the panel, which was drawn from Broadcast magazine’s 26 BAME Hot Shots of 2015, Dotiwala asked actor and producer Femi Oyeniran whether he had been typecast by his roles in the gritty, urban film Kidulthood and its sequel, Adulthood.

Oyeniran argued that, as an actor, he should not be limited to “hood” films, although he was grateful for his break.

“I don’t know if I’ve persuaded anyone that I’m more than those roles, which is really strange, given that I’m married with kids and studied law at one of the best universities in the world,” he said.

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

be an opportunity to do it,” he said.

Following a brief detour into investment banking – “the worst year and a half of my life” – Down received help from Creative Access, which provides internships in the media industry for BAME graduates.

This led to work on a Sacha Baron Cohen project and, subsequently, the opportunity to write episodes of Sky 1’s sci-fi comedy drama You, Me and the Apocalypse.

“Don’t give someone an excuse to say no to you. Always work as hard as you possibly can,” advised Down.

Dotiwala asked Down whether it was easier for white writers to find work. “It’s hard to say. Personally, I hardly know anyone who does this job apart from my writing partner [Konrad Kay], who is white,” he replied. “With writing, the work speaks for you, so [producers] may not know what you look like when you submit something,” Freelance development and documentary producer Fatima Shafiq has an impressive number of credits, including ITV’s The Cruise Ship and Channel 4’s Jamie’s Dream School.

Shafiq studied journalism and then found work in newsrooms, before landing work as a researcher at Fresh One. That post, she said, was initially funded by Creative Skillset, adding: “These schemes really do work.”

She argued that there was “a huge appetite out there for [online] content at the moment – there’s lots of opportunities. You don’t necessarily have to go to traditional TV companies. Content and TV are two different worlds but they live side by side. There’s no reason why you can’t move between both.”

Following the panel discussion, the 100-plus guests at the central London venue had the opportunity to talk telly with the BAME Hot Shots and industry executives.

This was the final event run by RTS Futures Chair Camilla Lewis, who is standing down from the committee she has chaired for the past six years.

“There is no issue more important in television – we are not a diverse industry,” she said.

Lewis was warmly thanked for her huge contribution to RTS Futures by RTS Chief Executive Theresa Wise.

The RTS Futures Christmas Party was held at The Hospital Club in central London on 8 December. It was produced by Jasmine Dotiwala.

DON’T GIVE SOMEONE AN EXCUSE TO SAY NO TO YOU

Question from the audience

Paul Hampartsoumian

Oyeniran, who recently produced Sky Living comedy drama Venus vs Mars, is Creative Director of Purple Geko. He said that the London indie is working with acclaimed film-maker Penny Woolcock on a new project, The Rapper and the Soprano. This fusion of hip hop and opera would help push the indie in a new direction.

Kascion Franklin made a splash this summer, taking the lead role in BBC One’s fictionalised account of Lenny Henry’s teenage years, Danny and the Human Zoo. While studying drama at university, he planned to become a teacher, before realising that “I didn’t like kids that much. I’m sure I’d like my own, but I didn’t fancy working for 40 years looking after other people’s kids.”

Franklin finished university, spent a year at Identity School of Acting. He was determined to make it as an actor, which had always been his “big dream”. Theatre work and corporate acting jobs followed. “I learned I had to follow [my acting] with conviction,” he said. “I started to walk into auditions going for the role, not just attending them to read a few lines.”

Despite his promising debut in Danny and the Human Zoo, Franklin is aware of the limited number of roles for black actors, beyond the stereotypes, in television.

“Growing up, I didn’t see me on TV. There were only three versions of young black males: either you were an urbanised gangster, an urbanised rapper or grime artist, or an urbanised athlete,” he said. “TV is changing, so, hopefully, we’ll see something different in terms of young black male [roles].”

Sabrina Scollan’s first job in TV was as a day runner on a BBC Learning film. “My job was to make sure the director didn’t stand in dog shit,” she recalled. “I put up with that. And I got a week-long job out of it. You have to keep with it.”

From running came a role as a researcher. “Once [a company] sees you can do the work and are passionate about it, they’ll trust you, give you more jobs and promote you,” said Scollan, who is currently a development researcher at Renegade Pictures.

“When you’re starting out, it’s really easy to give up, but you have to keep on trying,” she added. “Know your limits and when to say no.”

Mickey Down had long been a frustrated writer. “I had always wanted to be a writer but there never seemed to

How to boost diversity in TV Femi Oyeniran: ‘The people making the decisions need to be more diverse. Until the big indies hire more black people, we’re not going to see a transformation.’

Kascion Franklin: ‘[Quotas] don’t necessarily get the best people for the job. We need to cultivate and develop talent, instead of ticking a box and saying, “You’ll do.”’

Mickey Down: ‘[US sitcom] The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air [with an all-black principal cast] was one of the best TV programmes ever. It’s a fallacy that you have to relate to the person on screen to enjoy a TV programme. A lot of commissioners think that way – that it will get a smaller audience if it’s about a black family. But if it’s funny and it’s good, people will watch it.’

Sabrina Scollan: ‘In terms of factual, it’s about pushing new talent, which is what we try to do at Renegade.

A commissioner doesn’t know what he or she wants until they see [the talent] in front of them.’

19

RTS Masterclasses

Paul Hampartsoumian

Expert advice for TV novices

Two recent RTS Masterclass days gave students the chance to hear from leading TV practitioners.

Matthew Bell, Steve Clarke and Stuart Kemp report

RTS Student Programme Masterclasses DRAMA Few makers of factual drama have been as consistently successful as producer and screenwriter Jeff Pope.

His hits include shows based on the dark deeds of serial killer Fred West, Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and Britain’s most prolific hangman, Albert Pierrepoint.

Pope suggested that there were two main reasons why his programmes make such an impact – his ability to identify and tell a good story and meticulous research.

“All my life, I’ve been taking raw material, stories, giving them a beginning, middle and an end, and then

20

presenting them either as a newspaper article, factual programme or a screenplay for a drama,” said Pope.

He added: “Thorough research gives you confidence… everything needs to be built from strong foundations.… If the research is in place, the screenwriting process tends to become easier, even if it’s a fictional piece.”

Pope, who is ITV Studios Head of Factual Drama, told the students that every budding writer or producer needed to generate ideas.

He recommended having “a family of ideas” so that your risks are spread.

When the inevitable happens and your best idea is rejected, there are then others to fall back on.

Steve Clarke

The RTS Student Programme Masterclasses and RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses were held at London’s BFI Southbank, on 10 and 11 November, respectively. The producer was Helen Scott. Full reports at: www.rts.org.uk/masterclasses

DOCUMENTARY Morgan Matthews’ films embrace big subjects such as mental illness and death, and the quirkier side of life – often simultaneously.

“I’ve made films about grief, death, all sorts, and they are rarely incessantly bleak,” he said.

Every film throws up ethical issues.

“I always show [the subjects] my films before they go out,” Matthews explained. “I don’t want to make a film that upsets people.”

His docs can be draining to watch and to participate in. “If you’re not affected, there’s probably something wrong,” said Matthews. “But if people

RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses Students were left in no doubt that editing is the bedrock on which great television is built. Ben Stark, a multi-award-winning documentary film editor, and Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, who has also collected many plaudits for her TV drama work, provided the inside track on their chosen craft.

Dublin-born Dhonghaíle detailed her years of expertise in editing acclaimed dramas, such as BBC One’s The Missing, while Stark gave an insight into the field of feature-­length documentary.

Dhonghaíle, noting that she came from an Irish tradition of brilliant verbal storytellers, explained how a key scene in The Missing was edited.

She also talked about her work on the first season of Ripper Street, which started on the BBC before being given a lifeline by Amazon, and editing Abi Morgan’s TV film White Girl.

Stark discovered his passion for the cutting room after forays into directing left him feeling flat. He told how he had edited footage from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, Rolling Stones rockumentary Stones in Exile and the harrowing The Falling Man. Stuart Kemp

CAMERA The audience was taken on an entertaining and insightful journey of discovery into why ‘lights, camera, action’ remains the traditional mantra shouted by

want you to be there, which they do, and tell their story… then it feels like a positive thing to do.

“That process of talking to people, although emotional, can be cathartic for them.”

Matthews’ early career was spent at indies Century and Blast! and in 2006 he founded Minnow Films. One of its first productions was The Fallen for BBC Two, which documented all the British deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and won an RTS award.

Advising would-be film-makers, Matthews said: “Commissioners want to see a taster tape… if you have that and it’s good, you have a much better chance of getting a commission.”

Matthew Bell

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

directors to film crews at the beginning of a take. Director of Photography Tim Palmer joined Bafta-winning documentary cameraman Steve Robinson to deliver anecdotes and advice. Lighting, framing and visual grammar techniques were among the topics discussed by the pair.

Úna Ní Dhonghaíle

a Knife Edge, a documentary portrait of a Native American tribe in South Dakota.

Stuart Kemp

SOUND

Paul Hampartsoumian

EDITING

Palmer is a hugely experienced cinematographer specialising in drama, while Robinson brought more than 25 years of documentary-making to the table.

The duo each selected footage from three of their shows.

Palmer began as an editorial fashion and portrait stills photographer.

He described his work on Doctor Who, Sky’s Critical and ITV costume drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.

Robinson said his interest in camerawork was inspired by gritty photojournalism.

His first clip was from the challenging Mum, Heroin and Me. This was followed by a BBC-commissioned observational documentary, Amish: A Secret Life, and On

COMEDY Over almost two decades at the BBC and Sky, Lucy Lumsden commissioned some of the country’s best-loved comedies. They include the BBC’s Outnumbered and Sky’s Moone Boy. Her first TV work was in 1992 on The Comic Strip Presents…, where producer Nira Park taught her the ropes.

“My God, was she a hard taskmaster.

It was like a military operation making TV,” Lumsden recalled.

She then worked in a variety of production roles until 1998, when she took up a commissioning job at the BBC. A comedy, she said, is a “delicious combination of characters, setting

Students considering a career in sound must be prepared to forgo being the centre of attention on the shows they work on, suggested two sound veterans, Production Sound Mixer Chris Ashworth and Sound Designer Mike Felton.

‘You only get shouted at when things go wrong,’ said Felton. ‘Sound is a maso­ chist’s job. Basically, you do it for your own satisfaction.’

What were their tips for getting ahead in this most exacting of crafts?

‘You work to your own standards and not necessarily the standards people expect of you,’ stressed Ashworth.

Felton said: ‘Only do it if you’re passionate about sound.… It might be worth joining one of the professional organisations. They usually have student rates.

You can then tap into the knowledge of all the people in that organisation.

‘In the old days, when people worked in very big, collegiate organisations, knowledge was shared. Nowadays, you might feel alienated as a freelance.’

Ashworth recommended getting to know a network of TV folk and to work with as many of them as possible: ‘Learn from as many people as you can. There is a huge amount of knowledge out there, which is not always easy to access in a disparate, freelance world.’

Steve Clarke

[and] something that’s fresh, with jokes that build over time to a sitcom that rewards you by the end, [and] resets itself so you can’t wait to see it next week”.

Comedy is also the place to tackle taboos, albeit sensitively, she argued, making the “unsayable sayable”.

Lumsden advised new writers to approach the independent production companies that are winning commissions – as long as they like their shows: “Align yourself with people who share your taste.”

She recently left Sky and commissioning; having made a short film last year, Lumsden is now in the business of creating comedy.

Matthew Bell

21

Factual

A one-day conference assessed the impact on participants of shows such as Benefits Street. Steve Clarke sifts the evidence

TV’s poverty dividend

W

ho benefits from TV’s glut of poverty programmes?

Is it the TV companies or the films’ protagonists? And what of the charities that are frequently involved in the making of this tele­ vision sub-genre, which has been dubbed “poverty porn”?

These were some of the questions discussed at a conference held at the end of November and organised by the RTS, BBC, Joseph Rowntree Founda­ tion and National Council for Volun­ tary Organisations.

The setting for this wide-ranging, well-attended and timely debate was the Victorian gothic splendour of Man­ chester Town Hall. The building is no stranger to vigorous debate and “Who benefits? TV and poverty” did not disappoint.

Many of these programmes attract good ratings, although no single show has proved as popular as Benefits Street, which is seen as the genre’s pioneer.

With an audience of up to 5.9 million, it became Channel 4’s most successful series of 2014.

At the conference, broadcasters and production companies were repeatedly advised by charities to avoid stereo­ typing those whose lives are blighted by poverty. They were urged to use responsible language and to treat con­ tributors with respect and integrity.

The very word “benefits”, it was noted, is widely associated with blatantly emotive terms such as “scroungers”.

However, sceptics were advised not to judge a programme solely by their lurid titles (two Channel 5 shows were called The Great Big Benefits Wedding and Benefits: Got Talent) or the opening 10 minutes. The message was: watch the show in its entirety before coming to a conclusion was.

22

There were attacks on shows in the vein of Benefits Street, not least from anti-poverty campaigner Steve Chalke.

His charity, Oasis, now runs a school adjacent to Birmingham’s James Turner Street, where Benefits Street was filmed.

Chalke said that he regularly saw the impact that “shallow” TV shows and media coverage in general had on individuals struggling to make ends meet: “There is lots of great TV coverage, but, when things go wrong, they go really wrong,” he said.

He drew parallels between what he said were the worst of today’s TV pov­ erty programmes and how, in previous centuries, people paid to watch “the freak show” at Bedlam.

Chalke suggested that more positive outcomes were likelier when people were given cameras and allowed to film themselves.

Ian Rumsey, Head of Topical at ITN, stressed the importance of allowing people depicted in programmes such as Channel 5’s Benefits (produced by ITN) to “speak for themselves”.

“We have a very strict set of proto­ cols and we reject more people than those who end up in the programmes,” said Rumsey. “We look at how vulner­ able they are, their mental health and other health issues [and] the impact on their children. We offer support before and after transmission.”

The founder of Oasis thought there was a fundamental problem: “When we speak for people who are poor, instead of allowing them to speak for them­ selves, we always patronise them.”

He added: “TV people have to main­ tain the right to edit their shows, but these people are disenfranchised. They are used to being spoken about and not being spoken to.…

“Producers should give these people their own voices.”

There was, however, praise from other charities for how TV covers

The first series of Benefits Street was made on James Turner Street, Birmingham

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Ross Parry/South West News Service Christopher Thomond

Filming during the second series of Benefits Street, which was made on Kingston Road, Stockton-on-Tees

poverty and related issues, including homelessness.

Daniel Flynn, who runs YMCA North Staffs, gave permission for BBC’s Panorama to film inside Stoke YMCA. The resulting documentary, Young, Homeless and Fighting Back, gained nothing but positive feedback locally and nation­ ally, Flynn told delegates.

This was despite the hostility that Panorama encountered when its crew arrived at the YMCA. “This level of mistrust was not something I was expecting,” said Duncan Staff, who produced and directed the documen­ tary. “There was enormous suspicion from everyone I came across.”

Chalke suggested that participants in certain shows examining the lives of poor people were often treated badly from the outset by programme teams.

They were not always asked to sign consent forms, he claimed.

This was not the experience of Dan­ iela Neumann, Creative Director at Spun Gold TV. She described to delegates how one of her series, Through a Child’s Eyes, treated its contributors.

She highlighted an episode of the series, commissioned by Channel 5, that featured families living on low incomes. The children received high levels of psychological support during the production, she claimed.

“Before filming began, a psychologist visited the child and had a one-to-one session to ensure the child could cope,” Neumann said. “It was a very rigorous process.”

However, she conceded that, once the film was broadcast, it was impossi­ ble to prevent sensational coverage of the programme’s subjects.

She said: “We can control what we do in the edit but we can’t control what the tabloid press does. There is a whole machine that takes off.”

Tabloid sensationalism and socialmedia storms often go hand in hand with a certain type of poverty documentary.

But, as the Manchester conference made clear, these programmes are not one-size-fits-all. Behind the some­ times lurid titles, many different styles of TV are evident. The range encom­ passes reality soaps, empathetic human stories and considered, observational films that treat poverty seriously.

While it was agreed that society must avoid stereotyping those on ­benefits as scroungers, so, too, it was pointed out, critics of TV’s portrayal of

poor people need to remember that most programme-makers are well intentioned. “No TV company sets out to damage people’s lives.… It is a good thing that we are talking about the issues surrounding poverty and bene­ fits,” suggested ITN’s Rumsey.

“Broadcasters and producers have a responsibility to be truthful and to tell a story,” stressed Guy Davies, Chan­ nel 5’s Commissioning Editor, Factual.

“But this is not the same as always wanting to tell a story in positive terms…” he added. “I think we ought to be careful not to romanticise these issues and present films that are ceaselessly positive.”

One thing was clear. As David Bun­ ker, Head of Projects at BBC Audiences, emphasised, programmes about ­poverty are “well watched”. They are particu­ larly popular with young, less-well-off women, according to the corporation’s research.

A crucial question was how TV audi­ ences respond to poverty shows.

Almost a quarter of viewers (24%) said that watching them made no difference to their attitude to poor people.

Worryingly, there are indications that viewers’ empathy decreases.

While less than a fifth of the sample (18%) said they felt more sympathetic after watching a programme depicting poverty, 23% said they became less sympathetic.

However, Bunker said it was wrong to say that audiences were unmoved by shows such as Benefits Street.

“The response varies across different titles,” he said. “It was clear from the responses we looked at to individual programmes. They do trigger a range of emotional responses on a regular basis – pity, anger, sympathy, contempt, understanding.”

Perhaps the last word should go to The Times TV critic, and Television con­ tributor, Andrew Billen. During one of the conference panel discussions, Billen said that broadcasters “must never, ever give away their editorial control to charities”.

He added: “Much as I admire the work done in this room, I never want programmes to be made by the chari­ ties about the charities.”

‘Who benefits? TV and poverty’ was held at Manchester Town Hall on 30 November.

The event was chaired by Louise Minchin.

To watch video highlights, go to www.bbc. co.uk/responsibility/tvpoverty-conference

23

OUR FRIEND IN

NORTHERN

IRELAND

24

Michael Wilson hails Northern Ireland’s revival as a force in TV production – and a charitable initiative that reflects this progress

UTV

E

ven in the dark forest of media land, at this time of year we wish goodwill to all (while still hoping to thrash the opposition in the New Year overnights).

But, here in Northern Ireland, a true festive peace has broken out and, for once, I am not talking politics.

UTV and the BBC in Northern Ireland have worked together with local young people’s charity Cinemagic to help produce and broadcast Northern Ireland’s first ever Christmas film.

Entitled A Christmas Star, it features Pierce Brosnan, Rob James-Collier, Bronagh Waugh, Suranne Jones and Julian Fellowes. It is narrated by Liam Neeson. There are cameos from Dermot O’Leary and Kylie Minogue.

A stellar cast for a regional film made on a shoestring.

What is so special about this children’s charity based in Northern Ireland and why so much big-name support? Well, with assistance from the Northern Ireland Assembly, the two regional broadcasters (UTV is Cinemagic’s media partner), Northern Ireland Screen and commercial partners, the charity holds yearly festivals in Belfast, Dublin, New York and Los Angeles.

Cinemagic launched a festival in London, too, in 2014. It works with children from disadvantaged backgrounds, building confidence through TV and film-making skills.

The charity aims to entertain, motivate and inspire young people. Every year, it works with more than 40,000 young people aged from four to 25. It devises accessible ways to learn and stimulate creative works that provoke discussion and understanding of issues that are important to these young people. And, away from the

household names, the real effort in producing A Christmas Star was made by a trainee cast and crew of 40, aged 18 to 25. They were mentored by industry professionals with biographies to die for.

And, in the spirit of the end-of-year festivities, the team here at UTV and our colleagues at BBC NI agreed to show the film on the same day as a television premiere, a few weeks after its cinema release.

Why this seasonal tale from Northern Ireland? This page is normally used to bang the drum for the various

nations and regions represented by our broadcasters and producers.

Well, I guess that’s what I’m doing now and showing how perceptions can change as progress is made, because 2015 has been a great year for Northern Ireland’s producers and creative industries at all levels. There’s been Game of Thrones, The Fall, The Frankenstein Chronicles, Lily’s Driftwood Bay, Oscar-nominated short films, ITV’s peak-time hit Wild Ireland and the BBC Saturday-night über-hope Can’t Touch This, made by Sony spinoff Stellify Media.

Investment in drama, top-end entertainment and animation is at an all-time high. The skills and capacity that were for so long in short supply, combined with the creative talent, have made the region competitive on a world stage.

But 2016 will be a year of change.

UTV will become part of ITV, and corporation-tax rates for firms based in Northern Ireland will soon be ­standardised with the lower rates in Ireland.

Meanwhile, BBC Charter renewal, where the representation of regions and nations will be hotly contested, will continue to occupy centre stage.

The centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising will be commemorated and celebrated, bringing the eyes of the world to “our wee island”.

I started with a Christmas story of goodwill, but end with hard facts: this small nation now has a real edge in television production.

The skills, capacity and funding from various sources makes the tale of Northern Ireland’s creative industries a good news story that will last long after the festive break is over.

Michael Wilson is Managing Director of UTV’s Television Division.

January 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television

The awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Susan Calman, took place on 30 November at the London Hilton Park Lane

RTS Craft & Design Awards 2014-2015

Host: Jennifer Saunders

Judges’ Award Wolf Hall Production Team This drama mesmerised viewers with a potent combination of powerful on-screen performances, masterful direction, finely rendered photography, music, digital effects and exquisite sound, make-up, costume and production design.

‘The attention to detail in every aspect of production was immaculate.’

‘The sophisticated soundscape moved seamlessly between objective and subjective states to enhance the sense of Thomas Cromwell’s very personal response to well-documented historical events. Finely researched make-up and costume design added authentic period detail to every frame of the series.’

The winners and nominees of all 30 awards are listed over the following six pages � BBC

Wolf Hall

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

25

Costume Design – Drama

Amy Roberts, Cilla ITV Studios/Group M Entertainment for ITV ‘Rather than create a narrow representation of a particular year, the imaginative approach to the costumes created a vibrant and engaging portrayal of an entire post-war period and very effectively supported the growth and development of the central character.’

Nominees: Daiva Petrulytė, The Eichmann Show, Feelgood Fiction for BBC Two Marianne Agertoft, Poldark, Mammoth Screen for BBC One

Costume Design – Entertainment & Non Drama

Vicky Gill, Strictly Come Dancing BBC Productions for BBC One ‘Costume design is crucial in helping the various celebrities develop as both dancers and performers… and is [important] in creating the essence of the show itself.’

Nominees: Heather MacVean, The Keith Lemon Sketch Show, Talkback, part of FremantleMedia UK, for ITV2 Sarah Ryan, Raised by Wolves – Series 1, Big Talk Productions for Channel 4

Production Design – Drama

David Roger, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Cuba Pictures/Feel Films for BBC One ‘One of the most extraordinary design achievements in recent years, creating doorways and portals into a parallel world of strange and terrible beauty.’

Nominees: Lisa Hall, Cilla, ITV Studios/Group M Entertainment for ITV Helen Scott, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, Carnival Film & Television for ITV

Production Design – Entertainment & Non Drama

Lucy Fyfe, The Keith Lemon Sketch Show Talkback, part of FremantleMedia UK, for ITV2 ‘The design triumphantly achieved a very large number of varied, and often uncannily accurate, looks that helped the comedy create its sparky and offbeat parodies.’

Nominees: Dom Clasby and Stephen Bryce, Back in Time for Dinner, Wall to Wall for BBC Two Brian Sykes, Nurse, BBC Comedy/Down The Line Productions for BBC Two

26

Effects – Special

Pauline Fowler, Nik Williams, Samantha Ives and Mary Hanrahan (Animated Extras International), Fortitude Fifty Fathoms/Tiger Aspect Productions for Sky Atlantic ‘The jury loved this show, not only for the quality of its special effects, but also for their execution, skill and variety.

The show relied, at key moments, on its technicians to deliver a believable and impactful story.’

Nominees: Millennium FX, Critical – Series 1, Hat Trick Productions for Sky 1 Steve Griffin, Dave Arrowsmith and Marek Ruth, The Musketeers (ravine tunnel sequence), BBC Drama North for BBC One

Effects – Digital

Screen Scene VFX, Ed Bruce, Alan Collins and Nicholas Murphy, Ripper Street – Whitechapel Terminus Tiger Aspect Films for Amazon Prime for BBC One ‘The detailed, intricate and complex digital recreation successfully complemented the action and drama of the show’s sequences.’

Nominees: Tanvir Hanif and Paul Senior, Cilla, ITV Studios/Group M Entertainment for ITV Milk VFX, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Feel Films for BBC One

Costume Design – Drama: Cilla

Effects – Picture Enhancement

Dan Coles, The Eichmann Show Feelgood Fiction for BBC Two ‘The picture enhancement was outstanding, implemented with great skill and sensitivity to complement the mood and atmos­phere of this powerful docudrama.’

Nominees: Aidan Farrell, Indian Summers, New Productions for Channel 4 Aidan Farrell, Remember Me, Mammoth Screen for BBC One

Make-Up Design – Drama: Poldark

Make-Up Design – Drama

Jacqueline Fowler, Poldark Mammoth Screen for BBC One ‘Rugged, real and capturing the energy and vibrancy of the piece, the extraordinary attention to detail contributed hugely to the success of the production.’

Nominees: Natalie Pateman, Tina Brown, Jessica Wenden and Liz Philips, Critical – Series 1, Hat Trick Productions for Sky 1 Lesley Brennan, The C-Word, BBC Drama Production London for BBC One

Music – Original Score: Home Fires Music – Original Title: Home Fires

Production Design – Drama: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Make-Up Design – Entertainment & Non Drama

Vanessa White & Neill Gorton, Nurse BBC Comedy/Down The Line Productions for BBC Two ‘Balancing the comedy elements against the poignancy of the characterisation, the jury was impressed by the high level of creativity and technical achievement.’

Nominees: Emma Leon, Reza Karim and Rob Mayor, The Keith Lemon Sketch Show, Talkback, part of FremantleMedia UK for ITV2 Lisa Armstrong and Neale Pirie, Strictly Come Dancing, BBC Productions for BBC One

Costume Design – Entertainment & Non Drama: Strictly Come Dancing

Music – Original Score

Samuel Sim, Home Fires ITV Studios/Masterpiece for ITV ‘The composer integrated the voices at the heart of the Second World War series’ theme into an evocative and always-human underscore.’

Nominees: Will Gregory, Pets – Wild at Heart, John Downer Productions for BBC One Kevin Sargent, Mapp and Lucia, BBC Productions for BBC One

Effects – Digital: Ripper Street – Whitechapel Terminus

Music – Original Title

Effects – Special: Fortitude

Samuel Sim, Home Fires ITV Studios/Masterpiece for ITV ‘The winner found a fresh and supremely effective perspective on familiar territory by literally giving voice to the women in this Second World War drama.’

Nominees: Vince Pope, No Offence, AbbottVision for Channel 4 Tim Phillips, Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime, Endor Productions/Agatha Christie Productions for BBC One

Production Design – Entertainment & Non Drama

Make-Up Design – Entertainment & Non Drama: Nurse

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Effects – Picture Enhancement: The Eichmann Show

Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/ITV

Sound – Drama

Sound Team, Fortitude Fifty Fathoms/Tiger Aspect Productions for Sky Atlantic ‘Quite simply, this drama achieved “movie sound” on television. The soundscape created a world that the viewer utterly believed in. It was well judged to enhance the scale and impact of the drama itself.’

Nominees: Sound Team, Wolf Hall, Company Pictures/Playground Entertainment for BBC Two Jim Goddard, Stuart Hilliker, Dan Green and Alastair Widgery, Black Mirror: White Christmas, Zeppotron for Channel 4 �

27

Sound – Entertainment & Non Drama

Kate Hopkins, Tim Owens, Will Slater and Graham Wild, Shark BBC Natural History Unit for BBC One ‘This piece was stunning, with a level of detail that was awe-inspiring. What was also brilliant was that the resulting soundscape was never relentless: even when it was slightly heightened, it was perfectly judged.’

Nominees: Mike Hatch, Matt Skilton and Tony Burke, LA Traviata: Love, Death and Divas, Reef TV for BBC Two Nick Fry, David Runciman and Oscar Bloomfield-Crowe, The 7/7 Bombing Survivors’ Stories, STV Productions for ITV

Multicamera Work – Sport: Indian Premier League

Design – Programme Content Sequences

Richard Gort, Julian Gibbs, Jon Gout and Craig Herd, Sports Personality of the Year 2014 – Lewis Hamilton Contender Film BBC Sport/Intro/Karma Crew for BBC One ‘For sheer attention to detail and beauty, this sequence stood out. It was amazing.’

Nominees: John Durrant, Paul Greer, Steve Burrell and Hugh Cowling, War of Words, Burrell Durrant Hifle for BBC Two Grant Hewett, Howard Jones, Ste Dalton and Joe Thornley-Heard, Doctor Who – Series 8 ‘Flatline’, BBC Wales for BBC One

Design – Programme Content Sequences: Sports Personality of the Year 2014 – Lewis Hamilton Contender Film

Sound – Entertainment & Non Drama: Shark

Design – Trails & Packaging

4Creative and ManvsMachine, Film4 Idents 4Creative/ManvsMachine for Film4 ‘These were very creative trails, which captured and provoked the imagination.’

Nominees: 4Creative, Humans, 4Creative for Channel 4 4Creative, Grand National 2015, 4Creative/Nexus for Channel 4

Sound – Drama: Fortitude

Design – Titles

Momoco, Humans Kudos for Channel 4/AMC ‘The storytelling set up the proposition in a creative and compelling manner, using genuine cultural references to take us seamlessly into the near future.’

Nominees: Momoco, Nic Benns, Miki Kato, Andrea Braga and Peter Tomaszewicz, Fortitude, Fifty Fathoms/Tiger Aspect Productions for Sky Atlantic Peter Anderson Studios, Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime, Endor Productions/Agatha Christie Productions for BBC One

28

Lighting for Multicamera: Later… with Jools Holland

Multicamera Work: Release the Hounds

Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/Channel 4/BSkyB

Lighting for Multicamera

Chris Rigby, Later… with Jools Holland – Series 45, Episode 6 BBC Productions for BBC Two ‘Outstanding work that skilfully produced a stimulating viewer experience.’

Nominees: Lighting Team, Coronation Street: Victoria Court Fire, Coronation Street Productions for ITV Bernie Davis, VE Day 70: The Nation Remembers, BBC Events Production for BBC One

Multicamera Work

Tom Parr, James Abadi and Camera Team, Release the Hounds – Series 1 Gogglebox Entertainment for ITV2 ‘The mood was skilfully set to create a truly exhilarating spectacle.’

Nominees: Camera Team, VJ Day 70: The Nation Remembers, BBC Events Production for BBC One Chris Howe, Alan Carr: Chatty Man – Series 13/14, Open Mike Productions for Channel 4

Multicamera Work – Sport

Simon Wheeler, Indian Premier League IMG Productions for Sky Sports ‘Outstanding initiative in harsh conditions produced a slick and exciting viewer experience.’

Nominee: Paul Davies and Matthew Griffiths, Six Nations 2015: The Final Day, BBC Sport for BBC One

Director – Fiction

Director – Fiction: Marvellous Design – Trails & Packaging: Film4 Idents

Design – Titles: Humans

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Julian Farino, Marvellous Fifty Fathoms/Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Two ‘The director brought both fictional and real versions of the same character to our screens as if it was the most natural thing in the world. A bittersweet, but ultimately heart-warming, story, where the characters and overarching human positivity were the stars of the show. The piece was grounded, yet inspirational.’

Nominees: Alice Troughton, Cucumber, Red Production Company for Channel 4 Paul Andrew Williams, The Eichmann Show, Feelgood Fiction for BBC Two �

29

Director – Non Fiction

Colette Camden, What Do Artists Do All Day? Sue Webster BBC Arts for BBC Four ‘Beautifully shot and constructed, as well as a great example of wonderful storytelling.’

Nominees: Edward Watts, Escape from ISIS, ITN Productions/Ronachan Films for Channel 4 Dan Edge, Outbreak: The Truth About Ebola, Mongoose Pictures/Quicksilver Media for BBC Two

Photography – Drama: The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies

Photography – Documentary/ Factual & Non Drama

Brendan McGinty, Secret Life of Twins Oxford Scientific Films for ITV ‘Intimate, innovative, extraordinary.

This was not the triumph of style over content, but a case of the photography enhancing viewers’ understanding.’

Nominees: Camera Team, Pets – Wild at Heart, John Downer Productions for BBC One James Newton, The Detectives, Minnow Films for BBC Two

Photography – Drama

Mike Eley, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies Carnival Film & Television for ITV ‘The photography emotionally reflected the journey of the central character. We were inside his head, thanks to the outstanding camerawork adding another engrossing layer to this moving and powerful story.’

Nominees: Gavin Finney, Wolf Hall, Company Pictures for BBC Two Simon Dennis, Peaky Blinders – Series 2, Caryn Mandabach/Tiger Aspect for BBC Two

Editing – Sport: BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014

Photography – Documentary/Factual & Non Drama: Secret Life of Twins

Editing – Drama: Cucumber

Editing – Documentary & Factual: Welcome To Mayfair

Editing – Documentary & Factual

Todd Downing, Welcome To Mayfair CTVC for BBC Two ‘Impressive editing and storytelling allowed viewers to get to know the characters without being told what to think about them. A thoughtful and unrushed pace.’

Nominees: Stuart Napier and Imogen Pollard, Pets – Wild at Heart, John Downer Productions for BBC One Rupert Houseman, The Detectives, Minnow Films for BBC Two

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Director – Non Fiction: What Do Artists Do All Day? Sue Webster

Editing – Entertainment & Situation Comedy: W1A

Pictures: Richard Kendal/Channel 4/ITV/BBC

Editing – Drama

Paulo Pandolpho, Cucumber Red Production Company for Channel 4 ‘The editing quite clearly was one of the stars of an incredibly brave piece of television. Outstanding visceral storytelling, where the skill of the ­editor was key.’

Nominees: David Blackmore, Wolf Hall, Company Pictures/Playground Entertainment for BBC Two Elen Pierce Lewis, Marvellous, Fifty Fathoms/Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Two

Editing – Sport

Editing Team, BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014 BBC Sport for BBC One ‘The levels of craft and skill on show were exceptional, with perfectly judged edits and original sound design.

The result was a set of visually stunning films with clever storytelling at their heart. Some of the ideas were brave, but accomplished editing and production realised lofty ambitions.’

Nominees: Tim Boyd and Robin Nurse, F1 2014 End of Season Closing Montage, BBC Sport for BBC One BBC Production Team and The Farm North Post Production, FA Cup Final, BBC Sport for BBC One

Lifetime Achievement Dennis de Groot

‘His production credits stretch back more than 36 years, when he started work in the model and optical-effects departments on classic comedy films Life of Brian and Time Bandits.

‘He was evidently badly bitten by the comedy bug, as he quickly established himself as the go-to production designer for many of TV’s most successful and revered sitcoms, entertainment shows and comedy dramas .

‘From Alan Partridge, through French and Saunders, Black Books, Jam, Little Britain, That Mitchell and Webb Look, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, The IT Crowd and Bad Education – to name just a few titles in his extraordinary canon of work – he has demonstrated his knack of complementing demanding and complex sitcoms and sketch shows with inspired and inventive sets and witty design solutions. It is no surprise that he is sought after time and time again by the best writers, producers and performers in the comedy fraternity.’

Dennis de Groot

Design & Craft Innovation Pets –Wild at Heart

Editing – Entertainment & Situation Comedy

Robin Hill, W1A BBC Comedy Productions London for BBC Two ‘Very well edited: the jokes landed well and strong, emotional moments appeared effortless. The editor gave us a consistent, very enjoyable tone.’

Nominees: William Webb and Pete Drinkwater, Raised by Wolves – Series 1, Big Talk Productions for Channel 4 Mark Henson and Steven Ackroyd, Cockroaches – Series 1, Big Talk Productions for ITV2

Pets – Wild at Heart ‘This series on pets was anything but domestic in terms of its visual flair and technical wizardry.

‘The animals were shot on a huge variety of camera systems – including high-speed, infrared, ultraviolet, fluoroscopy, remote, underwater and onboard cameras and periscopes.

‘The exhilarating photography was

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

complemented with editing that seamlessly integrated each engaging animal narrative with revelatory science.

‘The breadth of different production techniques lent an epic lens to the ordinary and the familiar, and the production team pushed boundaries to create fascinating images that have never been seen before.’

31

RTS NEWS

Belfast hosts inaugural awards

R

TS Northern Ireland’s inaugural awards saw World Productions’ police corruption series Line of Duty beat fellow BBC Two cop series The Fall to win the drama category.

Veteran broadcaster and former BBC Chief Political Correspondent John Sergeant hosted the awards, which were attended by more than 200 local TV and film production luminaries, at the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast in November. The awards coincided with the annual Belfast Media Festival.

“In recent years, Northern Ireland has established itself as an exciting new centre of creativity and we felt it was only right to showcase and celebrate the extraordinary quality and diversity of work being produced right on our doorsteps,” said Kieran Doherty, who chaired the awards committee.

Belfast-based DoubleBand Films emerged with two

From left: John Sergeant, Christine Bleakley, Richard Williams and Michael Wilson awards: Single Documentary, for Road, about the Dunlop family’s domination of motorcycle road racing; and Factual Series, for Brave New World – New Zealand, which looked at the impact of Ulster pioneers in New Zealand. Both programmes were made for BBC Northern Ireland.

Local animation skills were recognised, with Flickerpix receiving the Comedy and Entertainment Programme award for BBC NI’s On the Air, which was based on dialogue

from Gerry Anderson’s radio show. Puffin Rock from Dog Ears airs on RTÉjr in Ireland and secured the prize for Children’s Animation.

UTV Live Tonight scooped the News category for its coverage of the release of John Downey, who had been accused of the 1982 bomb attack on Hyde Park. BBC Spotlight’s investigation, A Woman Alone with the IRA, which examined the Mairia Cahill sexual abuse case, took the Current Affairs award. Waddell Media won

the International Production award for Channel 4’s Hitler’s Hidden Drug Habit.

TV presenter Christine Bleakley and RTS Northern Ireland Chair Michael Wilson presented the Judges’ Award to Northern Ireland Screen CEO Richard Williams.

“Richard has been instrumental in the development of Titanic Studios, in bringing Universal, HBO and other producers to our shores, creating globally renowned content, building skills and investing in Northern Ireland’s creative industries,” said Wilson.

“NI Screen has provided funding of various kinds to just about every major media company in Northern Ireland,” he added.

RTS Northern Ireland staged the awards with the help of BBC NI, C4, NI Screen and UTV. Yellowmoon Post Production, Ka-boom and City Air Express sponsored the awards.

Matthew Bell

n More than 170 local media students attended the annual Breaking into Media day organised jointly by the Devon and Cornwall Centre and the Media Innovation Network in November.

A panel, drawn from local employers BBC South West, Twofour, Denhams, Silverstream and Elixel, and freelance photographer Richard Lappas, offered tips on how to kick-start a media career.

There was also a chance for students to talk informally with the professionals about

32

work experience and advice on preparing for interviews.

The RTS Devon and Cornwall Student Television Awards ceremony, held the same day, attracted entries of a high standard, with strong competition in the drama and animation categories.

Students from Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth University, the University of St Mark and St John and Falmouth University won the top prizes in the five categories – with the last picking up two awards.

The keynote address by producer/director Caius Julyan (Animal Planet’s I Shouldn’t Be Alive) was followed by a short question and answer session.

The day ended with a screening of Fog of Sex, a documentary by media students at Newport Film School. It was directed by Christopher Morris, formerly of Newport but now Director of the School of Film & Television at Falmouth University.

Simon Willis

RTS Devon & Cornwall Student Television Awards winner

Jade Dyer

South West students rewarded with tips

BBC

Strictly Come Dancing

Heggessey: paranoia, gangsters and crises

T

op Gear was “an accident waiting to happen”, said Lorraine Heggessey, who told the audience enjoying her RTS London Christmas Lecture that she would have dealt with the programme’s presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, more quickly.

“Jeremy is a bit like a spoiled toddler,” she said. He had “crossed the line several times with quite racist remarks and got away with it”, added the former BBC and TalkbackThames executive.

Referring to the incident in March when Clarkson launched a physical and verbal attack on a member of the show’s production team, Heggessey added: “[He] crossed the line from which there’s no return.”

“I know the BBC wanted to have an inquiry,” she continued, “but I would have thought you could have had your inquiry in a day and made a decision.” Clarkson was not dropped from BBC

Two’s hit motoring series until more than two weeks after his suspension.

When Heggessey ran the BBC’s children’s department in the late 1990s she acted swiftly when faced with a serious disciplinary problem.

She sacked Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon after The News of the World exposed him for taking cocaine. “Crises never go away,” she said, “they only get bigger. So, you do need to move quickly.”

Heggessey mounted a strong defence of the public-­ service values of the BBC and Channel 4. “Good television costs money,” she said.

“Pretty much since I left the BBC in 2005, there has been an endless round of cuts and redundancies, which is not the best way to foster creativity and boost morale.

“Privatisation of C4 has sneaked on to the agenda,” she said, adding that it had been done in an “underhand” way. “To start proposing a major change like this

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

at a time when the DCMS has refused to extend Terry Burns’s tenure, so that C4 is essentially without a chair, and when everyone is focused on the BBC licence fee, makes it seem like the DCMS is trying to pull a fast one.”

Looking back over more than 30 years in TV, Heggessey recalled some of her more memorable moments, including breastfeeding while interviewing notorious gangster “Mad” Frankie Fraser and giving door-stepping reporter Roger Cook – who reacted furiously – a taste of his own medicine.

She joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1979, working on Newsnight and then Panorama, which was known by insiders as, variously, “Piranha Tank” or “Paranoia”.

Heggessey said: “The maxim of most producers was, ‘It’s not enough to succeed; those around you must fail’.”

Following a stretch freelancing – during which she made the Hard News pro-

gramme for C4 about Cook – she returned to the corporation, producing BBC One’s The Underworld crime series, which featured the interview with Fraser.

Taking up the reins as Controller of BBC One in 2000, Heggessey was fortunate to find the BBC awash with money from a series of above-inflation licence-fee settlements. As a result, she was able to revitalise the channel’s drama output with popular series such as Spooks and Waking the Dead.

Saturday-night TV was ripe for revolution. “ITV owned that territory, with big hits such as Pop Idol,” she recalled.

“I was looking for something original that would storm through the schedules.”

The answer was Strictly Come Dancing, which made its debut in 2004 and was soon pulling in audiences of more than 10 million. Doctor Who, with Russell T Davies at the helm, materialised the following year after an absence (barring a one-off TV film) of 16 years.

In 2005, Heggessey moved to production company TalkbackThames as Chief Executive, where she sold Britain’s Got Talent to ITV. “It very nearly didn’t happen,” she recalled. “ITV rejected it more than once, even after we’d made what I thought was a sensational pilot.”

Heggessey, who is Chair of the Grierson Trust, which promotes documentary film-making, and a member of C4’s Growth Fund Advisory Board, said that broadcasting had “changed beyond recognition” since her early days at the BBC. Television has regularly been declared dead during those years, said Heggessey, but “TV is a powerful force and very much alive and kicking”.

Matthew Bell

33

RTS NEWS

Father Brown is blessed in Brum

M

idlands Centre welcomed 420 guests to its annual awards ceremony at the National Motorcycle Museum outside Birmingham in November.

RTS Chief Executive ­Theresa Wise presented the Baird Medal to Worcestershire-born actor Mark Williams, who also won the Best Acting Male category for his performance in BBC One’s Father Brown. Williams’s other memorable characters include Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter films and the tailor from The Fast Show.

Father Brown, a BBC Drama production, scooped the Best Fictional Programme prize.

The Best Acting Female award went to Elisabeth Dermot Walsh for BBC One’s medical soap Doctors, which is also made by BBC Drama.

BBC Birmingham’s Jonathan Gibson was named TV Journalist of the Year, while Best News Programme was The Reburial of Richard III from BBC East Midlands. North One Television’s Travel Man: 48 Hours in Marrakech won Best Factual Programme and BBC Birmingham’s Inside Out: Extremism took the current affairs prize.

The awards were hosted

by ITV News Central presenter Sameena Ali-Khan who was named Best On Screen Personality, a secret kept from

Best Fictional Programme winners with Baird Medal winner Mark Williams (right) her on the night by the event’s production team.

Williams joined BBC Head of Daytime Drama Will Trotter to present the student awards, which attracted a record number of entries.

They praised the entrants and encouraged them to make their mark in the TV industry.

The student categories were won by Jan Julian Rospond from Birmingham

City University (The Curse of the Were-Rat, Animation); Nathan Riley, Carla Bithell and Dave Morgan, Staffordshire University (Wardrobe Wars, Comedy & Entertainment); Meera Darji, Coventry University (TransIndia, Factual); and Josh Ormerod, Jordan Daynes, Patrick Brown and Romey Watters, University of Derby (Mould, Drama).

Dorothy Hobson

Kay fills boot with North West awards n BBC One comedy series BBC Four’s Black Roses: Peter Kay’s Car Share bagged The Killing of Sophie Lancaster four prizes at the RTS North (BBC Learning) won Best West Awards in November.

Drama, while its star, Julie Goodnight Vienna ProducHesmondhalgh, was named Best Drama Performer tions’ Peter Kay vehicle was (Female) for her portrayal of named Best Comedy. It also Lancaster’s mother. The picked up awards for Best harrowing film told the realComedy Performance (Kay), life story of a young woman script writing (Kay and Sian who was murdered for Gibson, who also starred in dressing differently. the show, Paul Coleman Fisayo Akinade was and Tim Reid) and named Best Drama post-production (Core Performer (Male) for his Post). performance in RusITV’s Coronation Street nabbed two sell T Davies’s E4 Continuing drama about Drama awards: young gay men, Simon Gregson Banana (Red for Best PerforProduction Company). mance; and Best More than 450 Storyline for industry profes“Steve’s Depression”, which feasionals and guests attended the tured Gregson’s Fisayo Akinade awards ceremony character.

34

Three’s How Safe Are My Drugs?, at the Hilton Deansgate in Current Affairs (BBC Current Manchester, which was Affairs); and ITV’s Perspectives: hosted by actor and preMichael Jackson’s Thriller – With senter Ted Robbins.

Ashley Banjo, Factual EnterNorth West Centre Chair and Shine North MD Alex tainment (Blakeway North).

Connock said: “The BBC’s In the children’s categories move to MediaCity pushed a the winners were: CBeebies’ wave of creativity in TV Twirlywoos: Underneath across the North West.

(Mackinnon and Saunders/ Ragdoll Productions) and That’s clear to see in the Stargazing, (BBC Chilhuge range and impact of the programmes dren’s); and CBBC’s Being – and people – winMe: A Newsround Special, (BBC Children’s). CBBC’s ning RTS awards.”

Sam & Mark’s Big Granada Reports’ Friday Wind-up (BBC Elaine Willcox was Children’s) was named Best named Best EnterRegional Journalist. Other factual tainment awards went to: Programme.

BBC One’s ScrapThe Judges’ Award was prepers, Best Factual Series (Liberty sented to Director Bell); ITV’s Exeof BBC Studios Peter Salmon. cuted, Single Doc Julie Hesmondhalgh Matthew Bell (Shiver); BBC

O

Students get tutorial in journalism

BBC

n the eve of its fifth series, The Voice UK’s digital team revealed some of the innovations planned for the BBC One talent show at a London Centre event in mid-November.

New to the show in January is the Virtual Voice, which will offer 360° virtualreality video, and a greater focus on BBC iPlayer to satisfy growing demand for content on mobile and ­connected TV platforms.

The Voice’s digital producers make content for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and BBC online to create a buzz around the show.

“The most important thing for me is to make sure we are connecting with the fans on an engaging, entertaining level before, during and after the show,” said Muki Kulhan, the Executive Digital Producer for Wall to Wall Television, which makes The Voice.

Ricky Wilson and will.i.am return to the coaches’ oversize chairs for the final series on the BBC, and are joined by singers Paloma Faith and Boy George.

ITV, which bought Talpa Media (the Dutch company that owns The Voice’s format) early last year, has nabbed the rights for series 6, 7 and 8 of the show.

“When The Voice first came to the BBC, I was excited because we had a format that had digital at the heart of it: it wasn’t just an add on,” recalled BBC iPlayer Commissioning Editor Sarah Clay, who has worked on the show since its debut in March 2012.

Discussing the focus on iPlayer for series 5, Clay said: “We’re trying to grow [audiences] by 20%. BBC iPlayer isn’t just where people go to catch up on shows they’ve missed any more – it’s now more of an entertainment destination. We’re planning to launch the new series on iPlayer, with an exclusive

The Voice UK coaches

Voice raises its digital game 10-minute teaser called Meet the Coaches.”

“The show is now massively integrated with social media,” explained The Voice Tweeter David Levin who, like Clay, has worked on all of the series. “Some of the tone of the TV show now reflects the social content.”

Social-media content has changed over the life of the show. Levin said that video, particularly on Twitter and Facebook, was becoming more important.

Glenn Miller, Facebook Head of Entertainment Partnerships, EMEA, argued that The Voice understands the importance of building a community: “The show is at the centre, but the community is the coaches, the contestants and the fans.”

Interactivity is a key part of the digital mix. The HomeCoach app, which allows fans to play along on a second screen, is being upgraded for the new series. During series 4, the app was

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

downloaded 980,000 times.

Series 5 will take interactivity further. Virtual reality has been a “gimmick” until now, Miller said, but he argued that The Voice’s 360° videos would “allow the fans to get right into the middle of the show”.

Digital content is important – iPlayer attracts 1 million or so viewers every show – but TV is still The Voice’s primary platform. “When you look at the audience of over 8 million, social is still a fairly small proportion of the overall numbers,” said Clay. “It generates buzz and discussion with fans, getting them closer to what’s going on in the studio, and reaching other audiences. But, without TV, the show wouldn’t exist on this scale.”

“More people are second screening and on social media while watching the TV show, but the time watching TV is not decreasing – there’s no cannibalisation of the audience,” said Miller.

Matthew Bell

n Almost 200 journalism students from Highbury College and the Universities of Winchester, Bournemouth and Southampton Solent attended the Southern Centre’s “Working in Journalism” event in November.

The event, which was held at Highbury College, Portsmouth, discussed changing practices in journalism and also provided informal access to 15 working journalists.

Attendees included Managing Editor of ITV News Robin Elias, London Live reporter Reya El-Salahi and the Director of News Services at Olympic Broadcasting Services, Grant Coleman.

Robin Elias The majority of the young audience admitted to not watching the main TV bulletins, preferring more informal sources, but Elias stressed that trusted brands are more important than ever when social media can be full of conjecture.

Head of Visual Journalism at Sky News, Peter Diapre emphasised the growing importance of packaging TV for smart phones and tablets.

Coleman revealed that he searches the internet to see what job applicants post on social media because that says a lot about a person’s ability to act professionally.

Gordon Cooper and Deborah Collcutt.

35

RTS NEWS The Dubliner who created Dracula The Republic of Ireland Centre celebrated Halloween with a screening of I Created Dracula. The Director, Ian Graham, then answered questions about his 1994 film for RTÉ One. Graham said his documentary explored the life, times and inspiration of gothic writer Bram Stoker: “I made this film about a Dubliner who created an international character, but who himself appeared to be obscure.

“He has been eclipsed by his own creation, Count Dracula. It was interesting to explore Stoker’s complex life, and show his accomplishments beyond Dracula.”

The film also covered Stoker’s time at London’s Lyceum Theatre.

Charles Byrne

Bill Vinten OBE 1920-2015

A

notable leader and influential innovator in television camera systems, William Patrick Vinten OBE FRTS died on 8 November, aged 95.

Bill, or Paddy as he was known to his family, was co-opted to the RTS Council, appointed Vice-Chair of the Society for 1972-73, and became a Fellow in 1975.

Bill grew up in a film technology environment. His father started the family-run Vinten company in 1910 to serve the emerging British film industry with cameras, film printers and the like.

Keen to explore the creative side, Bill joined GHW Productions, before moving to the Royal Naval Film Unit in 1942.

After the war, he developed his skills as a film lighting cameraman with the Rank

Bill Vinten Organisation, which led him to explore the use of high-­ definition television.

He returned to the family firm in 1952 and adapted it to handle the growth in demand for high-quality TV studio systems. As Engineering Director, Bill became recognised as the driving force behind Vinten’s television camera tripods, pedestals, dollies and cranes; for a time, the firm had around 80% of the world market.

In the 1950s, under BBC contract, Bill developed the

n Young people from across the country descended on the BFI in November for the annual RTS Student Masterclasses, hearing from the best in the business on how to succeed in craft skills and programme making.

Videos from the sessions, including a documentary masterclass from Minnow Films’s Morgan Matthews and insights into editing drama and documentaries from Ben Stark and Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, are now available to view on our website (rts.org. uk/studentmasterclasses2015).

Highlights from the RTS Craft & Design Awards ceremony, including backstage interviews with the winners, are available to watch online at rts.org.uk/craftawardshighlights.

36

Beowulf As well as covering RTS events, the digital team has been busy creating exclusive content for the Society’s website. In addition to our weekly round-up of the best programmes on television, we’ve just launched a fortnightly look at the best on-demand shows.

ITV

ONLINE at the RTS Following the decision to take BBC Three online, we hit the streets to ask the public for their thoughts about the controversial move. See their answers at rts.org.uk/ BBC3voxpop.

Ahead of the launch of ITV’s major new drama Beowulf, online journalist Pippa Shawley looked into the ancient legend on which it is based: rts.org.uk/beowulf.

Meanwhile, our new digital intern Ed Gove has produced a round-up of the virtual-­ reality products launching in 2016: rts.org.uk/VR2016.

If you have any thoughts about what we should be covering online, please contact Digital Editor Tim Dickens (TDickens@ rts.org.uk)

innovative hydro-pneumatic HP419 camera pedestal. This excellent and influential device remained the preferred studio camera support for over two decades, with a series of award-winning variants.

Nevertheless, Bill considered his greatest achievement to be the ingenious Vinten Mark 3 pan and tilt camera mounting head, of which over 17,000 were sold globally.

He continued in the family company as both Director and as a full-time engineer until he retired in September 1992 at the age of 72.

Bill initiated and actively supported a charitable trust through the Guild of Television Cameramen, aimed at helping those seeking to make a career in television as camera operators.

Don McLean

Tech futurist sounds TV spy warning n Technical soothsayer Stephen Whitelaw gazed into the future of the internet in a presentation to the North East and the Border Centre at the University of Sunderland.

There is, Whitelaw said, no such thing as privacy – even intimate details can be gleaned online and analysed.

Data-miners will soon know what people are going to think before they know it.

Whitelaw said that smart TVs are always on, ready to be mined for information on consumers’ programme preferences and searches for the benefit of advertisers.

Graeme Aldous

Chloe MacLeod

Claire Enders

Enders analyses PSB’s true value

C

laire Enders offered a robust defence of public service broadcasting when she delivered the RTS Scotland Campbell Swinton Lecture at BBC Scotland in November.

The founder and CEO of Enders Analysis backed the Scottish Government’s media policy. “Here, the administration believes that PSB is a fundamental good for all and believes in the core market

interventions – the BBC, Channel 4 – that have been developed over almost a century,” she said.

Enders gave a detailed and thought-provoking analysis of how the two broadcasters are key to the UK’s cultural well-being. She argued that the BBC and C4 have contributed “overwhelmingly to the 30-year British creative success story that is the audiovisual sector and, even more so, in the nations of the UK”.

Enders added: “Together, they were responsible for over 60% of all commissions to independents and they have an entirely different and fairer system of commissioning, especially of smaller producers.”

She went on to criticise the UK Government’s approach to PSB, offering a gloomy prognosis. “It is a strange moment, just now. We still stand on secure ground while contemplating fairly catastrophic scenarios for the future of public service broadcasting.”

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session chaired by STV Director of Channels Bobby Hain. Enders’ insight was welcomed by one member of the audience who said: “It was very refreshing to hear someone say what everyone is thinking but never says aloud.”

“I think PSB is seriously under threat,” said Philip Schlesinger, Professor of Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow. “There has been every sign that there is a commitment on the part of the [UK] Government to diminish the scope and scale of the system, irrespective of the evidence.”

The full text of Enders’ lecture is available online (www.rts.org.uk/enders).

Rhiannon Adele Melrose

New awards for Scotland n RTS Scotland launched its annual awards at the end of November, announcing new categories for directing, on-screen personality and history.

‘The real strength of the awards is that they are very inclusive – they’re not just for people who work on multi-millionpound productions,’ said STV Director of Channels and Chair of the RTS Scotland Awards Committee Bobby Hain.

STV Deputy Director of Channels Elizabeth Partyka, who received the 2014 RTS Scotland Award for her outstanding contribution to Scottish television, said: ‘What is really good about the awards and the way the RTS operates its awards system is that it is judged by your peers. It’s really important to the winners, like myself, that it’s your peers who have voted.’

The deadline for entries for the 2015 RTS Scotland Awards is 12 February. The ceremony will take place at Oran Mor on 25 May. Nicola Watson

n RTS Scotland welcomed students and sound engineers to an event in late October to discuss the latest developments in audio post-production.

Speakers included Avid Pro Tools specialist Simon Sherbourne and dubbing mixer Paul Wilson, whose credits include BBC One’s Panorama.

Wilson discussed sound, narrative and the thought

processes behind building a basic soundtrack. He used recent BBC Two documentary Planet Oil to demonstrate how vital sound was in telling a good story.

The dubbing mixer also stripped the audio from a piece of video and then reintroduced tracks, one by one, to reveal their purpose. “If you play these examples to people, it shows them that

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Chloe MacLeod

Audio advice for all sound doesn’t just happen.

Breaking things down shows how much goes into it,” Wilson explained.

The final part of the presentation discussed loudness

and how to normalise sound levels. Sherbourne demonstrated how Nugen Audio monitoring tools work.

Rachael McAlonan and Sarah Stirling

37

OFF MESSAGE

F

irst Danny Cohen, then Alan Yentob, and apparently there are no plans to replace either executive in the new, slimmed-down BBC hierarchy.

With drama supremo Ben Stephenson having exited New Broadcasting House earlier last year, there is suddenly a very different feel to the BBC’s commissioning powerhouse.

As others have remarked, it’s hard to imagine the BBC without Yentob.

A BBC minus Yentob is a bit like the Tory Party without Margaret Thatcher.

Her demise was followed by some ghastly in-fighting.

The BBC veteran will, of course, continue to present Imagine. Off Message hopes that the erstwhile Creative Director expands his radio activities.

Yentob’s Radio 4 show on the centenary of the poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, broadcast in June, was a textbook example of great arts broadcasting.

It illustrated that, in the right hands, even TS Eliot can sound inclusive.

■ Without Yentob on tap to make the BBC’s case, who will fill the gap?

He’s always been a great ambassador for the Beeb’s cultural mission.

With ITV beefing up its attack on the BBC, friends such as Melvyn Bragg, David Attenborough and Jon Snow are likely to be more important than ever.

Sir David, who knows a thing or

38

two about evolution, told Radio Times of his fears for the corporation’s future.

“The BBC is an extraordinary organisation and it’s got enough problems trying to keep up with changing social demands, let alone what the politicians want to do with it, so I am very concerned about the future of the BBC,” he said.

Meanwhile, Michael Grade recently told journalists that he thought our national broadcaster “was in a good place at the moment, politically”.

The year 2016 may well turn out to be a watershed for the BBC. Attenborough and Grade can’t both be right.

■ Staying with Grade, it will not have gone unnoticed that the former CEO of Channel 4 has changed his mind about selling off the fourth channel.

He now thinks that privatising the broadcaster would enable Channel 4 to become a scale business.

Grade’s views were widely reported.

Off Message, however, can reveal that there was one footnote omitted from the reports.

Asked how he felt at the prospect of an American media group buying Channel 4, Grade replied: “That’s a different question. The Government will have to decide what outcomes it wouldn’t want. That would be in the bill, if that was what it decided to do.”

■ We all know that Lorraine Heggessey was BBC One’s first female Controller. Less well known is how, as a young Panorama producer,

Heggessey almost ended up in the Gulag.

She was working undercover in the Soviet Union on an exposé of Jewish persecution. The reporter was Richard Lindley, 20 years her senior.

Despite the obvious age gap, Heggessey and Lindley posed as a couple enjoying a package holiday. On an overnight train to Leningrad, they were forced to share a sleeping compartment with another couple.

“It slightly freaked us out,” Heggessey told RTS London members during her Christmas Lecture. “Richard went to bed early with ‘flu’ and I stayed up drinking vodka with some of the other tourists.

“At some stage, late into the night, they confronted me and said they realised Richard was a reporter on Panorama and wanted to know what we were up to.

“Thinking on my feet, I said, ‘I work in the office at Panorama and I’m his mistress, so, whatever you do, don’t let him know you’ve rumbled him because we’ve come away for a romantic week.’

“Why we would have chosen Moscow and Leningrad, God only knows.”

Not exactly From Russia with Love.

■ And finally, Off Message is delighted that the brilliant Armando Iannucci has become one of the RTS’s new vice-presidents.

At the recent RTS Patron dinner, the great satirist noted that the irony of being appointed a veep had not escaped him.

January 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television

RTS PATRONS RTS Principal Patrons

BBC

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Turner Broadcasting System Inc Viacom International Media Networks YouTube

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ITN KPMG McKinsey and Co S4C STV Group

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Autocue Digital Television Group ITV Anglia ITV Granada

ITV London ITV Meridian ITV Tyne Tees ITV Wales

ITV West ITV Yorkshire Lumina Search PricewaterhouseCoopers

Quantel Raidió Teilifís Éireann UTV Television Vinten Broadcast

Patron HRH The Prince of Wales

President Sir Peter Bazalgette

CENTRES COUNCIL

History Don McLean

Vice-Presidents David Abraham Dawn Airey Sir David Attenborough OM

Chair of RTS Trustees John Hardie

Who’s who at the RTS

CH CVO CBE FRS

Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE Dame Colette Bowe OBE Lord Bragg of Wigton John Cresswell Adam Crozier Mike Darcey Greg Dyke Lord Hall of Birkenhead Lorraine Heggessey Ashley Highfield Armando Iannucci Ian Jones Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE Rt Hon Baroness Jowell of Brixton DBE PC David Lynn Sir Trevor McDonald OBE Ken MacQuarrie Gavin Patterson Trevor Phillips OBE Stewart Purvis CBE Sir Howard Stringer

Television www.rts.org.uk January 2016

Channel 4

Honorary Secretary David Lowen Honorary Treasurer Mike Green

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Tim Davie Mike Green John Hardie Huw Jones Jane Lighting Graham McWilliam David Lowen Simon Pitts Graeme Thompson Jane Turton

EXECUTIVE

Chief Executive Theresa Wise

ITV

Lynn Barlow Mike Best Charles Byrne Isabel Clarke Alex Connock Gordon Cooper Tim Hartley Kingsley Marshall Kristin Mason Graeme Thompson Penny Westlake James Wilson Michael Wilson

SPECIALIST GROUP CHAIRS

Archives Steve Bryant

Diversity Marcus Ryder Early Evening Events Dan Brooke Education Graeme Thompson RTS Futures Camilla Lewis

Sky

IBC Conference Liaison Terry Marsh RTS Legends TBC RTS Technology Bursaries Simon Pitts

AWARDS COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Awards & Fellowship Policy David Lowen

Craft & Design Awards Cheryl Taylor Television Journalism Awards Stewart Purvis CBE Programme Awards Alex Mahon Student Television Awards Stuart Murphy

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Entry Level Training Fair Monday 25 January Hallam Conference Centre 44 Hallam Street, London W1W 6JJ 4:00pm-8:00pm BOOKING: WWW.RTS.ORG.UK