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Home , Anita Rani, BBC Music Awards, Big Talk Productions, Clive Myrie, David Dimbleby, Declan Donnelly

April 2016

In the hot seat The regeneration game RTS STUDENT AWARDS 2016 3 JUNE 1:00pm BFI Southbank, SE1 8XT

www.rts.org.uk Journal of The April 2016 l Volume 53/4

From the CEO The RTS is still buzz- It was wonderful to see implications of the rise of multichan- ing from this year’s being presented with the Judges’ nel networks in the early-evening Programme Awards, Award. The honour recognises event “Beyond YouTube”. Thanks to held at Mayfair’s ­Lenny’s huge contribution to raising Kate Bulkley for being such an erudite Grosvenor House the issue of diversity in our industry chair and to all the panellists. Hotel. Richard and keeping it high on all of our If data is your thing, don’t miss “Big Madeley­ was a agendas. Data: What’s the big deal?”, which will superb host, handling an occasionally Away from the glamour of Grosvenor be held at The Hospital Club in London boisterous crowd with good humour House, the RTS was treated to a very on 19 April. Tickets are selling fast so, and tact. Congratulations to all the thoughtful speech from ’s if you haven’t already booked, I’d winners and nominees. Chief Creative Officer, Jay Hunt, deliv- recommend doing so right away. Of the 200 or so jurors this year, ered in the inspirational surroundings I can reveal that 52% were female of the British Museum. and 27% were black or minority Thanks to Jay and to the evening’s ­ethnic. I am proud to be part of an chair, John Hardie. His questions organisation that puts diversity at ­provided an extra dimension to a its heart – and a big thanks to the great event. awards chair, Mahon, for March also gave RTS members an making this happen. opportunity to consider the full Theresa Wise Contents Kirsty Wark’s TV Diary The big breakfast Kirsty Wark tracks down an exotic Easter treat and Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt explains how she 5 summons up the spirit of in W1A 18 helped reinvigorate Channel 4 by nurturing an inclusive commissioning culture How to revive a hit As expectations around the return of go into Click to cook 6 overdrive, Neil Midgley discovers the secret of rebooting Online food channels are inspiring millennials to hone old favourites 22 their culinary skills. Pippa Shawley logs on to Food Tube and beyond In or out? What’s best for British TV What impact would Brexit have on the UK TV community? A dramatic take on disability 8 Raymond Snoddy samples opinion ahead of the vote in June Maggie Brown meets TV screenwriter Peter Bowker, 24 whose show The A Word examines a family’s complex Power, politics and parties responses to their autistic son Charlotte Moore controls a BBC budget of more than £1bn. 10 Andrew Billen meets TV’s top mandarin TV’s nemesis? Matthew Bell hears a panel of experts warn that the Our Friend in the 26 likes of YouTube are generating a tsunami of content for Joe Godwin gets a job in and asks, ‘Is this younger viewers a renaissance I see before me?’ 14 RTS Programme Awards 2016 ITN goes global The awards ceremony was hosted by Richard Madeley John Hardie tells Steve Clarke how ‘authentic high-impact 31 in London on 22 March. The winners and nominees over 15 storytelling’ is at the heart of ITN’s revival seven pages

Cover picture: Ben Jennings

Editor Production, design, advertising Royal Television Society Subscription rates Printing Legal notice Steve Clarke Gordon Jamieson 3 Dorset Rise UK £115 ISSN 0308-454X © Royal Television Society 2016. [email protected] [email protected] London EC4Y 8EN Overseas (surface) £146.11 Printer: FE Burman, The views expressed in Television Writer Sub-editor T: 020 7822 2810 Overseas (airmail) £172.22 20 Crimscott St, are not necessarily those of the RTS. Matthew Bell Sarah Bancroft E: [email protected] Enquiries: [email protected] London, SE1 5TP Registered Charity 313 728 [email protected] [email protected] W: www.rts.org.uk

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 3 Your guide to upcoming national and RTS NEWS regional events

LONDON NORTH WEST Wednesday 20 April Wednesday 27 April Getting in and getting on Crime tour With Joe Godwin, Director, BBC Venue: Meet at Academy, and Jude Winstanley, Town Hall, Albert Square, Managing Director, The Unit List. Manchester M60 2LA Chair: Nadine Dereza. 6:30pm Tuesday 3 May for 7:00pm The Great Big Telly Quiz 2016 Venue: ITV London Studios, 6:30pm Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Venue: Compass Room, The Wednesday 4 May Lowry Theatre, Salford M50 3AZ Sir Paul Nurse Lighting from every angle ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 Speakers include John Colley, ■ [email protected] Venue: RTS, 3 Dorset Rise, General Manager, Arri Lighting National events London EC4Y 8EN Rental, and Stuart Harris, National Film and Television ■ John Mitchell RTS EARLY EVENING EVENT RTS AWARDS School. 6:30pm for 7:00pm ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@btinter- Tuesday 19 April Friday 3 June Venue: ITV London Studios, net.com Big data: What's the big deal? RTS Student Television Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Panellists: Laura Chittick, Awards 2016 Wednesday 18 May Senior Manager, Accenture; Venue: BFI Southbank, London London Assembly elections ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 Mark Connolly, Director Media SE1 8XT Steven Barnett, Professor of ■ [email protected] Performance and Investment, Communications, School of Havas Media Group; Pedro Costa RTS CONFERENCE Media, Art and Design, University SCOTLAND Fernandez, Deputy Head of Tuesday 27 September of Westminster, chairs an industry ■ James Wilson 07899 761167 Analytics, Channel 4; and Jamie RTS London Conference 2016 panel including Jim Grice, Head of ■ james.wilson@cityofglasgow- West, Deputy Managing Director, Principal sponsor: NBCUniversal News and Current Affairs, London college.ac.uk Sky Media. Chaired by Torin International Live. How well did the industry Douglas. 6:30pm for 6:45pm Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, cover the London election and is SOUTHERN Venue: The Hospital Club, 24 Endell London N1 9AG the regularly well served ■ Gordon Cooper Street, London WC2H 9HQ for news and current affairs? ■ [email protected] ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk RTS MASTERCLASS DAY 6:30pm for 7:00pm Monday 14 November Venue: ITV London Studios, THAMES VALLEY JOINT PUBLIC LECTURE RTS Student Programme Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Wednesday 11 May Wednesday 11 May Masterclasses ■ Daniel Cherowbrier Annual NAB Review RTS/IET Joint Public Lecture Venue: BFI Southbank, London ■ [email protected] 6:30pm for 7:00pm Sir Paul Nurse: Science as SE1 8XT Venue: Pincents Manor, Calcot, revolution MIDLANDS Reading RG31 4UQ Sir Paul Nurse is the Chief RTS MASTERCLASS DAY Thursday 7 July Wednesday 15 June Executive and Director of the Tuesday 15 November RTS Midlands Conference 2016 Summer BBQ and lecture Francis Crick Institute and RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses More details soon More details soon former President of the Royal Venue: BFI Southbank, London Venue: Spring Grove House, West Venue: Pincents Manor, Calcot, Society. He was awarded the SE1 8XT Midlands Safari Park DY12 1LF Reading RG31 4UQ 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 ■ Penny Westlake and Medicine with Leland ■ [email protected] ■ [email protected] Hartwell and Tim Hunt. Local events Event chair: Tim Davie, CEO NORTH EAST & THE BORDER WALES of BBC Worldwide. Reception Wednesday 27 April ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 sponsored by Fujitsu. 6:30pm ■ Belinda Biggam Networking evenings ■ [email protected] for 7:00pm ■ [email protected] The last Wednesday of the month, Venue: British Museum, Great for anyone working in TV, film, YORKSHIRE Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG DEVON & CORNWALL computer games or digital ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 ■ Book online at www.rts.org.uk ■ Kingsley Marshall ­production. 6:00pm onwards. ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. ■ Kingsley.Marshall@falmouth. Venue: Tyneside Bar Café, Tyne- co.uk RTS AGM co.uk side Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, New- Tuesday 24 May castle upon Tyne NE1 6QG Annual General Meeting EAST ANGLIA ■ Jill Graham 6:00pm start ■ Contact TBC ■ [email protected]

4 April 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television TV diary

Kirsty Wark tracks down an exotic Easter treat and summons up the spirit of Simone de Beauvoir in W1A

aster Monday and a the week, but actually we were hardly fit in. The commission didn’t pilgrimage, but in the in a studio the previous Tuesday. happen, but many other temporary culinary, rather than This was quite apt, really, as were structures for the Serpentine did go religious, sense. I was discussing Sarah Bakewell’s new and ahead. The permanent Serpentine in the foothills of the rather zany guide to the existential- Sackler Building is still the British- Tramuntana Moun- ists and the idea of “being”: At the Iraqi Dame’s only building in central tains in Mallorca with Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and London. my husband, Alan Clements. Apricot Cocktails. EHigh above us, up a death-defying I thought we would have felt the ■ I find train travel joyous and mostly mountain track that passed for a road, presence of Jean-Paul Sartre and peaceful, especially for writing, par- the ancient white walls of Es Verger Simone de Beauvoir if we’d all worn ticularly as I’m deep inside my second restaurant glinted in the sunshine. black woollen turtle-neck sweaters, novel just now. Es Verger is always worth a hike, smoked Gauloises and sipped apricot As I walked to Euston this morning even if on the snaking trail where you cocktails during the recording. at 7:30am to catch the train home to have to jump out of the way for Mal- But it was a bit warm for wool in , I stopped outside Honey & lorcan drivers, sober on the way up the studio, the cigarettes would have Co in Warren Street to marvel at the and less so on the way down. set off the smoke alarm, and the BBC jewel-like cakes, fresh breads and It is a sublime, old family restaurant licence fee doesn’t run to apricot pastries in the window. serving melt-in-the mouth shoulder cocktails. It has to be one of the most enticing of lamb, probably the sister of the one sights in London. They were getting we passed on the road, cooked with ■ It was terribly sad to be discussing ready to serve breakfast and, in the herbs and beer in an ancient wood Zaha Hadid’s unexpected death on corner of the window, I spied pots oven for a very long time. Thursday’s . I found her to of their wonderful home-made mar- The good news is that they open be utterly charming, though her rep- malade. 365 days of the year. The bad, for utation was fearsome. Julia Peyton-­ However, right now I have another unsuspecting visitors with plastic, Jones, the outgoing Co-Director of source. Second to the scent of slow- is that they only take cash. Imagine the Serpentine Gallery in London, roasted Mallorcan lamb on Easter smelling the delicious cooking, but where Zaha was a long-standing Monday is the aroma of citrus as Alan no euros? It would be enough to Trustee, talked about her with great slaves over a hot stove, turning make you throw yourself off the top. affection on the programme. oranges and lemons from the garden She told a funny story about offer- into saintly St Clements marmalade. ■ I managed to be in two places at ing Zaha her first commission for the I reckon that if he ever decides to the same time on Monday. I also Serpentine in 1996– a pop-up shop in jack in the day job in TV, he might started the week presenting Start the a shed so tiny that, when she came to have a second calling. Week. Normally, it’s a live show, but inspect it late in the day (she didn’t not on bank holidays. So the guests like early meetings), Zaha, two of her Kirsty Wark is a journalist, author and and I imagined that we were starting colleagues and her chauffeur could broadcaster.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 5 Content As expectations around the return of Top Gear go into overdrive, Neil Midgley discovers the secret of rebooting old favourites How to revive a hit

s the cost of failure in CEO of , the ITV- particularly those that are relationship-­ TV gets ever higher, owned indie bringing the show back. driven, tend to focus on characters in particularly in drama, it “We know that it’ll attract a large audi- their twenties and thirties. That’s when is no surprise when ence for its first episode. How we human beings make and break rela- commissioners turn to retain those viewers across the next tionships, have kids and forge careers. the past to fill tomor- seven hours is obviously one of the The lives of the middle-­aged tend to row’s schedules. Some of these things we talk about all day, every day. be less, well, dramatic. second-lifeA shows become huge hits. “Ultimately, that has to be about the Or, at least, they used to be. Poldark returned from 1975 to score stories we tell. I think there will be a “Times have changed, and 49-year- as one of the biggest new dramas of fascination to see where these charac- olds aren’t really in their slippers. Fifty 2015. Some reboots, such as , ters are now, what they’re doing, and is the new 40,” says Steve November, become such an established part of the how their lives shine a torch on to our ITV’s former Director of Drama, who TV landscape that it’s hard to believe lives.” commissioned the revival. they ever went away. Others, such as For ITV and Big Talk, re-engaging Cold “These aren’t characters who feel old, ITV’s revival of Stars in Their Eyes last Feet’s writer, , at the same they don’t feel sedate, they don’t feel year, misfire. time as doing deals with the main like they’ve slowed down. And, actu- So what goes into reimagining an old cast – , , ally, the stories come thick and fast. favourite and what are the pitfalls to , and John “What we’ve got now – and hope- avoid? Thomson – was a heroic exercise. fully this is something that will reso- “Expectations are incredibly high for Those actors are now playing char- nate with the generation of viewers Cold Feet, so I think the biggest challenge acters that they left behind 13 years who remember Cold Feet – is having is to make something that moves the ago. And they are now more fifty- ageing parents, who might be show forward and doesn’t wallow in something than thirtysomething. demanding, and having teenage kids.” previous glories,” says , There is a reason why TV dramas, But no IVF this time around? “I

6 a consolidated audience of 5.1 million, though, has followed that golden rule. the first episode of the new X-Files gave Its 2015 revival of Stars in Their Eyes, Channel 5 its highest-rated drama ever. presented with heavy irony by Harry Like Allen and November, Keenan Hill, flopped. doesn’t worry that her stars are 13 years “Somebody thought that it was a good less sexy than the last time sparks flew idea to have essentially send between them. “The chemistry on up the old show,” says Duncan Gray, screen really crackled between them, a former Controller of Entertainment as it did in the original series,” she says. Commissioning at ITV. “Nobody paid “I think that something such as Cold any attention to what it was that people Feet is a really different type of drama. used to love about Stars in Their Eyes. “The X-Files is, at its heart, a super- “You’d have a supermarket worker natural sci-fi horror who could barely look piece, whereas Cold Feet you in the eye but, the is a much more emo- THE BIGGEST second he walked tional, relationship through those doors drama.” CHALLENGE as Neil Diamond, he For other dramas IS TO MAKE became an utterly – such as Poldark – compelling performer. a return to the screen SOMETHING “There was a majesty means a new cast and a THAT MOVES and a dignity about the new take on the original show – as well as a material. And in enter- THE SHOW cheeky postmodern- tainment, reviving old ism if you wanted to formats can mean a FORWARD look for it.” relatively small twist AND DOESN’T Perhaps the most – as with All Star Family pressurised reboot Fortunes – or a stunning WALLOW IN currently in produc- change, as with Through PREVIOUS tion in British TV is Top the Keyhole. Gear. and “ did a GLORIES his new team must version of Through the step into the world-­ Keyhole with his friends beating shoes of Jeremy when he was a teenager – like, a spoof Clarkson et al. The new incarnation lost version of it. He used to make these its Executive Producer, Lisa Clark, at Chris Evans (right) and videos and stuff,” says Talkback Man- Christmas, and the BBC has now Matt LeBlanc head the aging Director Leon Wilson of the new, announced an awkward-sounding split new presenting team Keith Lemon-fronted show. between exec Clare Pizey as “editorial of Top Gear “He loved the format. Even before lead” and Evans as “creative lead”. , he’d talked to ITV about The team is in an unenviable posi- wouldn’t rule that out, who knows?” bringing it back, called Through the tion. On the one hand, they don’t want laughs November. “I’m not saying ‘No’.” Keith-hole.” to alienate loyal fans but, on the other, Allen contests the notion that Cold So Lemon was an obvious choice to they don’t want to be seen as simply Feet is, in fact, a “reboot”: this is, he turn from its old, copying Clarkson and co. says, just Series 6 of the show, albeit cosy daytime incarnation into a “I worry that it will all be a bit straight, with a long gap since Series 5. post-watershed Saturday-night zoo. because Clarkson, May and Hammond In the US, Fox has pulled a similar But, says Wilson, very little about the depended so much on their chemis- trick with The X-Files. Following a actual format has changed. There are try,” says Tiff Needell, a former Top Gear 14-year hiatus, the show returned with now two VTs for each celebrity house presenter, who now fronts ITV4’s Fifth its original showrunner, Chris Carter, – with the first full of actual clues, and Gear. “It could easily lose its edge. The and its original stars, Gillian Anderson the second more of a skit. And Lemon cars will be lovely, the guests will be and David Duchovny. does both studio presentation and the lovely, everything will be lovely.” “The fabulous chemistry between VTs, instead of handing over to a roving The new Top Gear team could do those two leads very much ran through reporter. Aside from that, it’s much the worse than listen to November’s advice this new series,” says Katie Keenan, same show. to himself about bringing back Cold Feet: Head of Acquisitions at Channel 5, “We were very keen to get the right “You go back to a much-loved show, to which aired the new version in the UK. balance between the comedy and the some degree, at your peril. “But Carter had absolutely reinvented playability,” says Wilson. “The playabil- “The risk of people not thanking you it for 15 years later – these post-9/11 ity still had to be there, so that old fans for screwing it up is probably just as big times. It felt very on the money, in of the show could still enjoy it for what as, if not greater than, the risk of people terms of the political state of the world it was previously, and younger fans thanking you for bringing it back. as it stands, everything that’s happen- could get the comedy they’d expect “We can’t rest on the laurels of a ing in the US, the Middle East.” from Keith.” much-loved series. We’ve got to deliver. And the viewers are out there: with Not every ITV entertainment reboot, This has to be really, really, really good.”

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 7 EU referendum What impact would Brexit have on the UK TV community? Raymond Snoddy samples opinion ahead of the vote in June

In or out What’s best for British TV?

he UK’s successful inde­ I will be discussing with the Pact board He adds: “The French have never pendent television produc­ what they would like to do,” says liked the Anglo-Saxon domination of tion sector is having its own McVay. He believes it is very difficult their media.” “referen­ to know what effect a UK Brexit vote Veteran independent producer Ber­ dum” several months early. would have on the TV industry. nard Clark is Chair of TVT, the interna­ John McVay, Chief Execu­ What is clear is that about one-third, tional TV services company, which also tive of Pact, which represents more or £378m, of the UK’s international makes factual programmes. In the Pact Tthan 450 indies, has sent out “voting” programme sales – including pre-sales “referendum”, he is a definite “Out”. messages to gauge the attitude of his and formats – comes from Europe. Clark’s opposition is based largely on member companies. These make a This could, at the very least, face a the levels of EU bureaucracy and regu­ major contribution to the estimated period of considerable uncertainty. lation. He believes that, if people want £1.28bn of international programme If there were to be a Brexit, McVay programmes, they will buy them – sales and associated services earned believes that “there is nothing to stop whether the UK is in the EU or not. by the UK each year. producers in other EU countries lob­ , founder of Films of From a television business point of bying and saying: ‘These guys are no Record, which made the first film inside view, indies have been asked whether longer part of the club, let’s make sure the European Commission during the the UK should stay in or get out. they don’t get in [under foreign pro­ last UK referendum in 1975, is an “Once I get the result of the survey gramme quotas].’” equally emphatic “In”. Both producers

8 enjoy increasing trade with a variety of London, notes that there is a general countries beyond Europe (including the LEAVE: IF unease about the inevitable uncer­ US, Japan and China); neither think that tainty that Brexit would bring. their companies will be greatly affected PEOPLE WANT “A vote to leave the EU would create either way. PROGRAMMES, uncertainty not just for June, July and Carolyn Fairbairn, Director-General August. It would take five years to of the CBI and a former strategy head THEY WILL BUY negotiate something to put in its for both the BBC and ITV, takes a THEM – WHETHER place,” he says. “Getting access to the trenchant view. single broadcasting market would be She says: “The biggest impact would THE UK IS IN THE very complicated and it would only be not being able to influence EU reg­ take one veto to block agreement.” ulation, particularly around intellectual EU OR NOT British programme-makers might property and the Digital Single Market not face tariffs on their programme (DSM) – having all those rules imposed sales but – in the absence of a deal because we have a stronger industry Broadcasters, agrees that one of the – they would have to fight with US than many of the European countries, main issues would be the likely need producers for their share of the particularly in TV production. There to negotiate a new UK framework to non-EU quota. This is 50% (but only would be a real risk.” replace the Television Without Fron­ 40% in France). The CBI chief believes the notion that tiers directive. Smaller British indies would also the UK could escape the provisions of However, and the UK’s ter­ lose access to funding from the EU’s the DSM through Brexit is nonsense. restrial broadcasters are declining to Media Programme for co-productions “Because we still have to sell our pro­ comment on the effects of Brexit on involving two or more countries. grammes in Europe, we would have to the television industry in advance of Sky, like the BBC and Ofcom, is not abide by EU regulation,” argues Fair­ the referendum on 23 June, for fear of commenting on the Brexit scenario bairn. “We would simply have those being seen to be taking sides. ahead of the referendum, but it is clear regulations imposed on us without The silent approach is particularly that the pay-TV company would barely having had a chance to influence them.” marked in the case of broadcasters that be affected by a British exit. Tim Suter, a former Ofcom Partner run news channels. The newly enlarged group runs and now a policy consultant, believes An executive at one such company broadcast services in five EU countries, that the UK media industry has bene­ suggests that there is a general view (the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and fited greatly from the single-market that access to the European market – Austria) and does not trade across approach. particularly for US-based broadcasters borders in the conventional sense. Sky He points out that this has enabled – is one of the reasons why the UK has would undoubtedly qualify as an EU a programme licensed in the UK by been able to create such a successful company still active in four EU coun­ Ofcom – it has issued more than 600 global production and broadcasting hub. tries following a Brexit. licences for commercial TV services “Nothing would happen overnight The reality is that not many execu­ here – to have access to all the other [following Brexit] but, over time, there tives in the television industry have yet EU countries. could be a diminution. If we were going begun to think about the issue, mainly Following Brexit, the UK would have to be broadcasting into Europe, we because they think that, on balance, it to renegotiate that kind of access “and would need to think about where we is unlikely to happen. This is an attitude it would be by no means certain to me would be based,” says the executive. that could change as we get closer to that Europe would be keen, because He adds that US broadcasters based 23 June. it’s a principle that is already coming in London might split their presence Scripps Managing Director for the under a lot of strain”. between the UK and a country with UK and EMEA Phillip Luff, for exam­

Shutterstock Compared with some other EU EU membership. ple, says the company (co-owner of countries, the UK is relatively liberal Another executive, who works for UKTV) is not looking at any plan B at on a range of broadcasting issues. one of the US majors located in the moment. “We think the impact on These include children’s advertising, Scripps would be minimal because of gambling and alcohol ads, and Russian-­ our multinational approach to struc­ language services. The latter are con­ turing our business,” he explains. troversial, for example, when broadcast REMAIN: ACCESS There could be at least one short- to the Baltic states. term benefit of Brexit for the UK “I think it’s very hard to imagine that, TO THE SINGLE industry. It could lift a threat from the after all these years, Europe would just BROADCASTING Commission’s DSM plans, which could buckle given the sheer dominance of see of the traditional way of the UK industry. It’s a huge political MARKET WOULD selling programme rights on a territory-­ problem for the French,” Suter argues. BE VERY by-territory basis. He would expect UK producers to And there is one broadcaster that face tougher terms – although the COMPLICATED could privately favour a vote to remain overall impact would not be huge, he in the EU. Such a referendum outcome predicts, after a potential period of AND IT WOULD might end the cabinet career of Brexit confusion. ONLY TAKE ONE rebel and culture secretary John Whit­ Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive tingdale – and, with it, his ambition to of the Association for International VETO TO BLOCK privatise Channel 4.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 9 t was a heck of a coming-out party. Promoted in January from Controller of BBC One to the new post of Controller, TV Power, politics Channels and iPlayer, Char- lotte Moore was introduced to theI world by no less than the BBC’s Director-General at the Serpentine and parties Gallery in March. Those who, following inquiries about their dietary requirements, The Billen profile were expecting an intimate sit-down discovered themselves competing for canapés with David Dimbleby, Claudia Charlotte Moore controls a BBC budget Winkleman, Kirsty Young, Graham of more than £1bn. Andrew Billen Norton, , Brian Cox and, well, tout le bazar. meets TV’s top mandarin Moore, when she spoke, gave the culture secretary a piece of her mind for questioning her old channel’s dis- tinctiveness and gave a clear steer that BBC Two needed rather more of it. Under her, BBC One would be the big tent in which everyone crowded (a bit like this party). BBC Two would celebrate our differences. This was one of the most powerful people in television telling some of its most powerful talent how things were going to be, a woman in charge of more than £1bn of licence fee and with more power to determine what we watch than anyone for decades. “Oh, God, the obsession with power!” exclaims Moore when I meet her a few weeks later in one of those interchange- able offices provided for meetings by New ’s architects. “Listen. I’ve worked as a genre commis- sioner and a channel controller, and where it works best is where you really enjoy the conversation in the room. It’s trying to work on an idea together, develop it and talk about it.” When the DG, Tony Hall, spoke to her about his idea of abolishing chan- nel controllers she saw it as a chance to embrace the new “multichannel, multi-platform, multi-creative opportunities”. She was enjoying BBC One, where she had been since 2013, but this was a way to make all the channels “compli- mentary and distinctive”. Moore, at 47, is one of those bright, creative people with a background in idiosyncratic programme-making and commissioning who has taught herself to speak BBC mandarin – although, admittedly, this must have been only a minor challenge to someone who mastered Bahasa Indonesia while on her gap year. Charlotte Moore

BBC Yet, she can also be perfectly down

10 to earth. The first problem on her mind the lunchtime we meet is how she will find time to bake for her children’s school cake sale the next day. Rice Kris- pies cakes, I suggest, is the way to go. Earlier in the year, at the launch for The Night Manager, she admitted that watching it was a relief “after the week I’ve had”. The week she had had was one during which she had resigned from her husband’s camera-operator business after The claimed a conflict of interest with her BBC job. As I left the screening, I spotted her in the hotel reception, deep in conversa- tion on her mobile. She gave me a wink. She says, and I believe her, that she Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die is highly sociable, but she can also be direct and pointed. At the Serpentine, she omitted to thank, praise or even name the now ex-Controller of BBC Two, the departing Kim Shillinglaw, who had also gone for the big job. Was that an oversight? “Listen, it’s all about trying to articulate what we want to do with this new portfolio strategy. That’s the job I’m here to do and that’s what I was wanting to articulate.” She could have said Kim had done a great job and she was going to build on it. “Well, you know, I wanted to articulate how we’re going to define the channels.” The words “love”, “lost” and “no” bubble into my head. “Drama has become the big story on BBC Two,” she says. “I genuinely believe that factual should be at the heart of what BBC Two is about.” This means, I check, factual program­ mes most week nights at 9:00pm. She has announced new authored docu- mentaries by Sue Bourne, Nick Broomfield and Fergus O’Brien. She says that it is an “interesting question” whether the quirky film strand, Modern Times, cancelled by Shil- linglaw, should return, and praises Back in Time for the as “a really fun BBC Two programme, full of fasci- nating information”. It is not, she says, about brows, high or low, but “smart television” that expands minds and shows the world from different perspectives. “Diversity is extremely important to me,” she adds. “I’ve always championed that throughout my career. Being able to look across the channels to see how we can bring diversity into the main- stream and bring new faces to the channels is really important.” While this is borne out by her career Welcome To Lagos in documentaries – filming in the � All pictures: BBC

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 11 Moore’s moves Graham Turner/Guardian Graham

Charlotte Moore, Controller,­ BBC TV Channels and iPlayer

Born 19 June 1968; brought up in Guildford, ; two brothers Married To Johann Perry, camera- Dickensian man; two children. They live in west London Education Wycombe Abbey school; � developing world, executive produc- more distinctive. Of course, I’m always Bristol University (history) ing The Other Side series for Channel 4 driving to be more distinctive. But I – Moore has, nevertheless, thrown out suppose I feel, on behalf of all the cre- 2002 Production Secretary/PA, Lenny Henry’s proposal for a ring- atives I work with, none of us goes into Ideal fenced fund for BAME employment ideas meetings thinking, ‘I want to 2004 Head of Documentaries, Ideal within the BBC, dismissing it as a make more of the same.’” World potential “tick-boxing exercise”. The I ask if UK, which has been 2005 Head of Contemporary Campaign for Broadcasting Equality lost to ITV, is a victim of the political ­Factual, IWC Media was, to put it mildly, disappointed. attacks on its lack of distinction. 2006 Commissioning Executive Talking of the mainstream, however, “ITV bought Talpa [the Dutch pro- for Documentaries, BBC brings us to BBC One, whose control- duction company that owns the for- 2009 Commissioning Editor for lership, she is not, really, actually, giving mat] and, therefore, The Voice. I’m a real Documentaries, BBC up. While there will be a BBC Two “edi- champion of The Voice. It has been a 2013 February Acting Controller, tor” on the model of Cassian Harrison’s great programme for BBC One. It was Daytime, BBC editorship of BBC Four, she will not be all about new talent. I loved the idea 2013 June Controller, BBC One appointing an editor for BBC One. that it was not about what you looked 2016 January Controller, BBC TV “I think that to have someone sepa- like, that it was all about the quality of Channels and iPlayer rate would mean that you then end up the voice.” being in the same role as the director That wasn’t quite the issue, though. Triumphs: The Great British Bake of TV,” she says – and, despite rumours The issue for critics was that, unlike Off, Welcome To Lagos that this post, too, will be abolished, , it was a bought-in, Disaster: Prized Apart, she expects Lord Hall to appoint a foreign format. game show axed after one season director of television soon. “Of course, new British shows are a Watching now: Too busy for any- With The Night Manager, The A Word great thing, and, of course, that’s what thing except forthcoming BBC and War and Peace all this year, when, I we want to do – but I don’t think we programmes ask, will people (that is, John Whitting- should close ourselves off to the global Reading: Elena Ferrante’s novels dale) stop bitching about a lack of dis- industry,” she responds. Surprising fact: Speaks Bahasa tinctiveness on BBC One? Moore says that it is not her role to Indonesia, following a gap year “Well, listen, I welcome the debate,” go out and battle for the BBC. Some- teaching English in the country she says, which may well mean the one, however, surely needs to explain opposite. “Of course, I want to get to its critics that it will never be able to

12 commissioned the mind-changing Welcome To Lagos. Other hits included the controversial Terry Pratchett: Choos- ing to Die and the phenomenon that is The Great British Bake Off. Briefly Acting Controller of Daytime, she took over from Danny Cohen at BBC One in 2013. He, as her new boss, described Moore as an “outstanding candidate”. She shows little interest in puffing her career to me and is positively reluctant to discuss what preceded it. “I was brought up in Surrey. I don’t think there is anything interesting about it. A lovely family.” Two brothers also work in television but it was not a heavy viewing home. “I don’t really enjoy talking about my private life.” Yet, when The Daily Mail discovered this January that she was company secretary to her husband’s business, both she and he – Johann Perry – were all over the paper. The paper did not suggest that she had commissioned Perry Images and the BBC said she had declared her husband’s job, but she resigned anyway. No wonder The Night Manager was a welcome relief. “Oh God, I think I was probably referring to all sorts of stuff I’d been The Great British Bake Off BBC BBC dealing with at the BBC. I’ve always been very clear about what my hus- compete with in meeting the asked by Channel 4 if there were any band does. He works for all sorts of Prime Minister’s preference for long- stories about baggage belts breaking broadcasters, making all sorts of form drama serials. down. I said: ‘Baggage belts? They programmes.” “But at the BBC it is very much led haven’t worked for years.’” As a private person, though, is she by the story. In publishing, you don’t The Nigerian government hated it so prepared for that level of scrutiny? say to an author: ‘Give me so many much that its High Commissioner “When you’re in charge of something pages.’” Besides, she says, Tony Jordan’s demanded it be cancelled. like BBC One or, now, the other TV Dickensian had 20 episodes. She became Head of Documentaries channels, clearly there’s a level of trans- Is it coming back, I ask eagerly. at Ideal World, ’s Scottish parency and accountability. I totally “We’ve had to make very difficult indie, and then Head of Contemporary accept that, but I don’t think my private decisions, really difficult, about what Factual when it merged with Wark life’s got anything to do with that.” you bring back and what you don’t.” Clements to form IWC. She is happy to tell me that she So it’s not? “No.” There, she was responsible for Stephen arrives at NBH each morning by She is not a native W1A speaker, Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. 9:15am after doing the school run and having begun her career, after reading She left as it was being bought by RDF is back by 6:30pm or 7:00pm. She West African history at Bristol Univer- and, in 2006, joined the BBC as a docu- resumes her viewing duties after the sity, in sector. She mentary commissioner under Richard two children are in bed. started working for Ideal World as a Klein. An early triumph for her was “You have to do the hours to get the researcher and made a mix of travel Brian Woods’s Bafta-winning Evicted: work done, but it’s a great way to pri- and history films in her twenties, free- The Hidden Homeless. oritise. Once you’ve got kids needing lancing at assistant-producer rank. A She praises Klein. Now that he has you, you can’t walk and say, ‘Sorry. I break came in 1993 with The Time Trav- parted company with ITV, is there any can’t be there for you.’ It’s quite a level- eller, a film commissioned by John chance of him returning to the corpo- ler, isn’t it? It keeps your feet on the Willis at Channel 4, in which, as Asso- ration? “Yes, because Richard’s a tal- ground.” ciate Producer, she travelled to New ented man. It would be interesting to With Lord Hall intent on thrusting Guinea with the travel writer Norman see what he does next.” her into the limelight, that, you may Lewis, by then 84. A fiver, perhaps, on him becoming think, is important. Yet, and although I In 1999, she made the Channel 4 BBC Two’s editor. cannot entirely read what fuels Char- observational series Lagos Airport off Upon his elevation to BBC Four Con- lotte Moore’s ambition, I really don’t the back of the fashion for airline docs. troller in 2009, she succeeded him. think she is on a power trip. For all “It was chaotic. I remember being Revisiting an old haunt, she quickly that, it has been quite a journey.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 13 OUR FRIEND IN THE MIDLANDS

Joe Godwin gets a job in Birmingham

s the quadricen­ and asks, ‘Is this a Home Front, Father Brown and Doctors, tenary of Shake­ renaissance I see and the Asian Network in the city. speare’s death Not long ago, The Mailbox felt like approaches, my before me?’ the Media Marie Celeste – now it’s thoughts turn to full again. a less well-known Birmingham’s next media chapter Midlands anniver­ is going to be about digital; our Digital sary. To work for the BBC was my Innovation Unit is beavering away on Amidsummer night’s dream and, stuff for BBC Three. A new team is 30 years ago, I wrote to Kay Alexander leading the BBC’s six-month online at , asking for her advice Bard-fest, Shakespeare Lives. about a career in television. Co-curated by the BBC and the She kindly arranged for me to British Council, it will open the rich speak to someone in personnel and, archives of Shakespeare to the whole eventually, I found myself working as world, as well as streaming perfor­ a Regional Station Assistant – not in mances and features for the anniver­ Birmingham, but in Southampton. sary celebrations. Born in Warwickshire and weaned And it’s not just us. New indies, on BBC Midlands, I never did work at such as Colette Foster’s Full Fat, are Pebble Mill. I arrived in Birmingham appearing, and Lenny Henry made to run the BBC Academy and BBC the wonderful Danny and the Human Birmingham too late – it had gone. Zoo here. He is now making the case

Pebble Mill at one with the earth. Hampartsoumian Paul for the to be the place But its brutalist form casts a deep to make a real difference in terms of shadow over the Midlands media economic and cultural watershed: the diversity in TV. landscape. Midlands Engine is revving up. HS2 There’s a feeling here that Birming­ In the 20th century, Birmingham will bring millions of people and ham fell off the BBC’s map of Britain. wasn’t just any old BBC regional cen­ billions of pounds straight into the But now we’re rebuilding our pres­ tre. In 1922, it was the first and, for heart of Birmingham. The likes of ence, to become the BBC that this decades, the most important. In 2004, HSBC are relocating their UK head­ great city and region deserve. the BBC moved to a new city-centre quarters to the city, and a new John I’m very proud to be the BBC’s site in The Mailbox, which was mod­ Lewis bestrides the wonderfully “Director of Better” for Birmingham. ern, efficient and cheaper to run. ­rejuvenated New Street Station. We’ve got the B-word back on every­ But in 2012, as part of a rationalisa­ Confidence is high and the focus one’s lips across the BBC. It brought tion of production bases, much of is increasingly on Birmingham’s own the BBC Music Awards to the city, Birmingham’s factual TV and radio huge growth potential and second- with more to come in 2016. moved again, this time to Bristol. The city cultural status. We are looking Next, our aim is to produce more Mailbox was suddenly half empty and less over our shoulders at our friends BBC TV and radio programmes here not so efficient – something that Tony in the North and their Powerhouse. in the years ahead, and I’m quietly Hall encountered in his second week And BBC Birmingham is in the confident that this will happen. as Director-General and that he was throes of its own mini renaissance. determined to do something about. The BBC Academy has joined Midlands Joe Godwin is Director of the BBC Academy The West Midlands is at an Today, Radio WM, The Archers and and Head of Centre, BBC Birmingham.

14 April 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television ITN goes global

ITN goes global ITN

here was a time when end of 2020. The group aims to ITN was simply a news Television news expand on both sides of the Atlantic. provider struggling to Its operations are being reorganised make money. Not any into two divisions: Broadcast News more. Today, the compa- John Hardie tells and ITN Productions. ny is highly profitable and Steve Clarke how While TV news will remain at the is as likely to film a Football League heart of the firm’s activities, ITN matchT or produce a feted Lego ad for hopes its non-news businesses will ‘authentic, high-impact BT as it is to send Tom Bradby to generate more than 50% of total reve- Brussels to anchor News at Ten. ITN storytelling’ is at the nues by 2020. “Our ambition is that is even developing drama. heart of ITN’s revival ITN will become a world-class pro- “I don’t think we’ll be doing Wolf duction company,” stresses Hardie, Hall or Game of Thrones any time soon,” commentators wondered whether adding: “ITN is about world-class says CEO John Hardie wryly. “But ITN and all the pioneering things it television news and business that looking at some of the bigger stories of stood for in television journalism arises naturally from that.” the past few years and finding ways to were facing extinction. Its business philosophy is summed bring those to the screen dramatically But Hardie, who had previously up in what the CEO describes as is something that I believe ITN can do.” held important jobs at ITV and Disney, “authentic, high-impact storytelling”. He mentions Carnival’s award-­ set about diversifying, and turned the And it is this mantra that informs the winning two-parter for ITV, The Lost company around. company’s approach to its separate, Honour of Christopher Jefferies, as the In 2015, ITN Productions’ revenues but related, activities: broadcast news, sort of factually based material that rose by 44%, year-on-year, thanks to sports production, digital content ITN might invest in. making shows such as BBC Two’s services, advertising production and Considering what Hardie has already Young Vets, Channel 4’s Dispatches and television production. achieved at the firm, the idea of The Agenda for ITV. The division’s The plan is for ITN Productions to co-producing a signature drama, even success helped to raise the operating grow to the same size as the broad- one as finely wrought as the film he profits of the ITN group to £5.76m cast news division by 2020. Anyone mentions, seems utterly plausible. He on revenues of £112m. involved in producing content needs was appointed to run ITN during the Last month, the CEO announced no reminding that it is an inherently dark days of 2009. Then, the compa- another set of expansion plans, as he high-risk business. ITN Productions, ny’s finances, hit by a £22.8m pension revealed bold targets to grow ITN’s however, is already one of the UK’s deficit, were so dire that some revenues to more than £180m by the biggest indies. Its clients include all �

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 15 National Editor Hardie on… Allegra Stratton joined ITN from The BBC the BBC BBC

‘The BBC may be a rival to us in journalism but it is not our enemy. WE FIND THAT A The BBC is extremely important to television broadcasting. We see LOT OF PEOPLE the BBC as a client that we want to ARE KNOCKING work with. ‘We’ve worked very hard in the AT OUR DOOR past few years to try and come THESE DAYS… up with programme ideas that we think work for the BBC. Our ambi- WE’VE GOT SOME tion is to do a lot more business with the BBC in the future.… OF THE BEST IN ‘I’m a lot less concerned about THE BUSINESS BBC Studios competing with us. I’m more concerned that the BBC opens its doors so there are many more opportunities for independ- ent producers like us. If it’s a two- way street, we have no problem.… � the big British broadcasters, along- what our competitive advantages are. ‘Everyone talks about what side US channels such as Discovery We will win business through the the problem with the BBC is, but and A+E. “We’ve made great strides in speed and quality of what we do. there’s not one problem or one the US in the last couple of years,” “We can make high-quality program­ concern. So long as the BBC is notes Hardie. mes very quickly. That’s what our clients contributing towards a healthy What began as making fast turn­ like about us.” ecology in broadcasting production around documentaries for organisa- The approach is to “get good in one we have no other issues with it. tions such as National Geographic, the area and expand from that”. The com- ‘Yes, it is massively better funded Smithsonian and Discovery, is morphing mitment is to grow organically, rather than ITN in news, and across all of into a more significant operation. than, say, buying a producer specialis- its business, but we’ve never advo- In 2015, ITN produced its first US ing in factual entertainment and folding cated a reduction in the funding of series, the 10-part crime show Killer it into ITN. BBC News or any part of the BBC. Instinct, which was subsequently “There’s a lot to be said for, when ‘Nor have we advocated a recommissioned. The objective is for you grow, keeping it all together in one reduction in the licence fee. To be the US “to become 10% of the much location, rather than having a patch- honest, I am busy enough running larger ITN by 2020”, says Hardie. work quilt of little production compa- ITN without telling the BBC how big But in such hyper-competitive and nies all over Soho and elsewhere. or how well it should be run.… uncertain times, isn’t Hardie worried “I want to keep us together as one ‘We used to think that not having about whether he can deliver such an ITN. I’m not even considering an 24/7 news was a disadvantage. ambitious strategy? acquisition just now because, if I did Now, in the world of Facebook “I think these are extremely good one, I’d want it to be completely and , we can break news times to be in the content production absorbed and contribute not just to its digitally.… business,” says the CEO emphatically. own business but to all of ITN.” ‘Does BBC News still need a new “In the US, the spectrum of clients The synergies that can arise from channel in an online age? You can ranges from the classic networks to the such a holistic approach to the busi- argue it both ways. I am genuinely cable channels to the Netflixs and ness are obvious in current affairs agnostic. In terms of competition, it Amazons. series such as ITV’s The Agenda and is more a matter for Sky and CNN.’ “Yes, there is plenty of competition, Channel 4’s Dispatches: ITN produces but we need to be very clear about The Agenda and is a regulator

16 ITN covers Aviva Premiership Rugby ITN

contributor to Dispatches. They are also now a very good and very intelligent evident in ITN’s expanding sports show that has maintained ITN’s edge division. “People are surprised at how on great dramatic storytelling, but has big we are in sport these days,” sug- moved on into penetrating, deep Hardie on… gests Hardie. ITN produces match clips analysis.” Diversity and highlights for and The Are other BBC journalists in his Times’ smartphone services. It also sights? “We find that a lot of people are holds the contract with the Football knocking at our door these days. We’re ‘In the past few years BAME (black League to film 1,800 matches a year open to consider people, but then and minority ethnic) representation and assemble highlights packages for, we’ve got some of the best in the busi- among ITN employees has increased

All pictures: ITN pictures: All among others, Channel 5. ness in our existing stable.” from slightly below the national “We’re gearing up substantially,” On the vexed question of persuading average to slightly above it. says Hardie. “Consider what sports younger viewers to adopt the ITN habit, ‘That’s no cause for celebration: says: it’s largely live production and Hardie is clear and not at all defensive. it’s only national, as opposed to fast-turnaround journalism. And that’s For them, ITN’s news needs to arrive London. I think we’re up from 11% what ITN does.” seamlessly, wherever they are and on to 14%, or something above that.… Yet ITN knows that, at least in the whatever devices they are using. ‘On screen, or for any other short term, people’s perceptions of ITN “It’s about a generation on mobile, a part of what we do, our goal is for are wedded to the health – or otherwise generation on social media. Rather every part of ITN to be at or above – of its flagship news bulletins for ITV, than us say, ‘If we build it, they’ll come’, the national average.… In London, Channel 4 and Channel 5. and us investing in websites and drag- where the BAME population is It is still too early to give a definitive ging people to them, our approach is: about 40%, we’ve obviously got a verdict on the relaunched ITV News at wherever you are, we will use social long way to go.… Ten, but there is no doubt that poach- media, breaking and rolling news and ‘Lenny Henry’s stimulus is making ing the BBC’s Robert Peston and tailor it to make it interesting so that it us take this more seriously. We’ve Allegra Stratton, respectively Political appears naturally,” he says. done a much better job in recruit- Editor and National Editor, has given Meanwhile, the difficulty of dealing ment in the past few years, making the bulletin extra analytical heft. with ITN’s pension deficit remains. A sure that we reach places so that The BBC’s Ten O’Clock News still has year ago, it emerged that the deficit had people from those communities more viewers (a consolidated average grown to £98.5m, up from £80.4m. How realise this is a place you can come of 4.2 million against ITN’s 1.8 million concerned is Hardie by this situation? and work for.… in the year to date). “We’ve made massive headway in ‘Recently, every single manager Hardie, however, seems content that profitability but the frustrating thing is completed unconscious bias train- the programme is heading in the right that those profits have largely had to ing.…The job is not done when you direction: “Television news is not a be invested in the pension deficit,” he hire people, it only beings when you business where you make a few says. “One reason why we want to hire people from different back- changes and suddenly the ratings boost our financial performance is grounds to your own. respond.… I am very satisfied with the that, not only then do we make pay- ‘You have to create an environ- ratings, as is ITV.” ments to the pension deficit, but we’ve ment where people feel they can The CEO adds: “I think it’s been also got more money to invest in thrive.’ noticed by a lot of people that this is future growth.”

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 17 The big breakfast

want to give you a very new ways of thinking. He’d seen personal view of what it’s Channel 4 lots of companies but one had really been like trying to change the impressed. It’s almost a cliché in crea- culture at Channel 4 from the tive circles now to cite Pixar, particu- inside out. Five years ago, I Chief Creative Officer larly after Ed Catmull’s excellent book walked over the glass bridge Jay Hunt explains how Creativity Inc. But, back then, its unique atI Horseferry Road to start my job. It’s way of working was less well known easy to forget what Channel 4 looked she helped reinvigorate here. like then. The Pixar culture is built on robust It had always been an iconic brand her channel by peer review. At its heart, the organisa- that resonated with young audiences. nurturing an inclusive tion is defined by a belief that decision-­ A buzz word for innovation and mis- making is better when it draws on a chief making. commissioning culture collective knowledge. But it was also battered and bruised. One of the central tenets of the Pixar The recession had hit it hard – 20% of particular conundrum because they’re model is the Brains Trust. It’s basically headcount had been wiped out. On air, built on the notion that ideas are king. a posh name for a meeting of the top it could be schizophrenic. Two hun- Many people still subscribe to the view creative team. It was set up during the dred hours of cast a long that the televisual equivalent of the making of Toy Story, with a purpose that shadow. Factual had to fly the flag for artist in the garret is the only real could have come straight from the the remit. To top it all, the creative ­custodian of creative thinking. mouth of one of their own superheroes. team was famously cliquey. But can we really build a billion-­ It was tasked with “rooting out medi- A snapshot supplier survey done just pound business on the promise of ocrity”. It became a forum to tease and before I arrived made hair-raising something that incalculable? We tend to test a concept in a safe, supportive envi- reading. Channel 4 was still the indies’ romanticise what we do. There’s even a ronment. That might sound like any old champion, but the indies were falling clue in the title. We call ourselves the meeting you go to, but the difference out of love with a broadcaster that they creative industries, implying that peo- here is the willingness to be honest. accused of cosy deals with former ple in other industries do something Catmull’s mantra was simple but commissioners and a closed-shop that isn’t creative. incredibly hard to deliver. He said: culture that concentrated spend on But, of course, this tortured wrestling “Candour is the key to collaborating a favoured few. with ideas is universal. There are bril- effectively. Lack of candour leads to Roll forward five years and where liant case studies from companies as dysfunctional environments.” are we now? Today, Channel 4 is posi- varied as Twitter and Dyson. The And I knew all about those. I’m a tively bullish. No Big Brother, no begging themes are the same: how do you strange control experiment all of my bowl, no busted business ventures. structure to improve your chances? own. As the only person to have run So, how has it changed? Well, most How do you tolerate and nurture mav- channels at 4, 5 and the BBC, I’ve seen obviously, we’ve worked with brilliant erick thinking but still deliver at scale? several broadcasting cultures up close. people who’ve had brilliant ideas and My then-Channel Executive, Ed Collaboration was not one of their made them into brilliant TV. Writers, Havard, was sent on a management defining behaviours. And nor, frankly, directors, producers and editors, all course in LA. It was designed to foster was candour. delivering their very best work for C4. All of them paid lip service to honest But we’ve also changed the way we peer review, with big meetings inspira- work. Why? Because anyone in TV ‘PROGRAMME tionally labelled “programme reviews”. knows that what we all do is a form of REVIEWS’… These were studies in political game insanity. The roulette wheel at a seedy playing that would have put the Borgias Vegas casino has better odds than WERE STUDIES to shame. At 4, that behaviour was picking hit shows. IN POLITICAL even more marked. When I arrived at C4, I realised we David Abraham recounts a funny needed to shift the odds. To put it GAME PLAYING story of his first meeting with the another way, we needed to bring some THAT WOULD commissioning heads of department science to the art of being creative. And before I arrived at 4. They all took their there was some urgency. I remember HAVE PUT THE seats expectantly. David kicked off by the blood draining from my face when BORGIAS TO asking how often they normally met I first read the lofty remit I signed up to. as a group. Creative organisations present a SHAME One of them, who still works here,

18 piped up: “Well, we never really meet like this.” It was against this rather unpromising backdrop that we started to work in a different way. We would be a different sort of broadcaster. A team working in partnership with indies to improve our collective chances. I started by organising two-hour meetings twice a week with my own team. We couldn’t manage it consist- ently. Now we meet every week, first thing on a Tuesday, for 90 minutes. It’s called “the breakfast” but that’s a mis- nomer: the only sustenance is coffee. We discuss everything and anything. What should our response be to the growing number of unemployed young people? What would it look like if we took this germ of an insight and planted it over there? How do we cap- ture the current disaffection with con- ventional politics? Three years on, it’s become a power- ful forum for finessing ideas. Imagine a focus group of people, who genuinely get TV, trying to work out how to get your show on air. And that’s it. No one in the room has any other motivation for being there. They’re not incentivised to help. They don’t have a financial stake in success. They’re just trying to make the good, better. Creatively, it’s become like turning to a clever friend. And, critically, it’s changed what’s on air. Take The Island, a fantastic piece of work delivered by Shine – but the com- missioners at 4 did help shape what it would become. In that instance, the breakfast added value. Because what’s not to like about getting some additional brainpower on cracking a show? I’ve always found the idea of a chan- nel controller sitting there like Nero, giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on a recommission, to be rather cartoonish. It’s even more so now, when data has given us so many tools to help spot what might work. Did social media leap on the show? Were the audience appre- ciation scores high? Did it deliver the perfect tick the scheduling team are looking for, where a show launches well, possibly drops off but then grows again? Jay Hunt

Paul Hampartsoumian Paul Metrics help when you are selling a �

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 19 I think I’m right in saying Qthat Channel 5 has eight or QUESTION nine commissioners, ITV has 17 – and Channel 4 has 56. According & ANSWER to the company’s annual report, you are dealing with 338 indies. But that’s almost enough people to John Hardie, CEO, ITN: act as executive producers. Is that QYou’ve described an how you think things should be? environment at Channel 4 where No, definitely not. We’ve spent commissioners shape the shows Aa lot of time talking about and even originate the ideas. Do exactly that. One of the more independent producers share depressing things I’ve seen happen your view of this proactive recently is indies beginning to process? assume that this will happen. This Jay Hunt: It is very instructive is not what Channel 4 is there to Ain a number of different do. We’re not there to make or ways.… On one level, it makes us exec produce the shows. I’m pretty very quick at saying no to things.… firm with people that this is not We’re often talking about spending our function. hundreds of thousands, sometimes But are we part of a creative con- millions, of pounds on a show. versation? Yes… we’re not a normal If you are thinking of any other broadcaster. We’re required to have kind of investment – and someone a perspective, to prompt debate says to you, “Tell you what, you and to engage people in inspiring don’t need to get involved, but change.… I think you will have a 100 people who know quite a lot different interaction. about this can give you some feed- I don’t think any indie will tell back, would that be helpful?” – in you that they remember a time the main, my experience has been when they walked into a broad- that it is quite helpful. caster, put a piece of paper on the Instead of being head in hands, table and someone leant over and deconstructing why a show didn’t wrote a cheque. � vision to parts of a creative business work, we’re upstream of that, help- That’s exactly as it should be. It’s that needs to make the uncertain ing to shape it so that – together – a dialogue, isn’t it? certain. there’s a better chance of it working. How do you make something Let me be clear what this strategy is It’s a pretty benign process, with better by talking about it? By get- not, though. It’s not a short cut to the another set of brains trying to get ting the best brains you can on moment of magic that leads to great something right. making it as robust as it can be TV. In a world where Netflix and Ama- before we get it out of the door. zon tell me that they can predict what You talked a lot about the I don’t make any apology for the I will watch, I am a refusenik. Qcandour inside Channel 4. fact that we work in a different way. You can’t run the numbers for sur- Are you confident that this prise or feed my viewing habits into extends to the producers and they No doubt, for the next several a big machine and tell me I will like know exactly where they stand? Qyears, you will be committed something I never even knew existed. I think so. One of the things to Channel 4 but, at some point, The creative flair in this room is still Awe’ve wrestled with a lot is: you will think about moving on. what ignites the flame. To extend the how can producers be actively What would your ideal job be? analogy, looking for clues in the data involved, how can we bring them I honestly don’t think about is how we manage to keep the flame into the meeting? Ait… Channel 4 gets under your alight. There is a fundamental problem skin in a pretty extraordinary way. We’ve stood shoulder to shoulder around commercial sensitivity. For You become religious about it. It with other indies to grow shows. First obvious reasons, I can’t have The matters to me massively that it is Dates became a hit after we bloody Garden in there discussing an idea protected and that it continues to mindedly refused to give up on it. Simi- from Ricochet.… be able to do what it does.… I am larly, The Last Leg went from struggling We’ve got nothing to hide. It’s a not avoiding your question: to get an audience of more than 1 mil- forum where lots of different people I genuinely don’t know what I’ll lion to delivering double digit young are thinking [about how] we can do next. But, right now, this share and audiences over 2 million. get this closer to being commis- matters to me more. So certain am I that we need more sionable by Channel 4. If I could input into our creative conversations at find a way of cracking that commer- The full transcript of Jay Hunt’s 4, not less, that the breakfast meeting cial sensitivity, I’d be very happy to speech and Q&A can be found at: I hold with my heads of department open the doors to everyone. www.rts.org.uk/jayhunt has been rolled out to the whole of my team and beyond.

20 First Dates Catastrophe All pictures: 4 Channel

Once a week, there are at least nine been at the coalface himself. He knows different groups of people kicking CANDOUR IS that you’ll only win if you try and then around ideas. The team who write our keep trying. press listings and run our presentation THE KEY TO Not having to deliver a profit has desk have joined in, too. We’ve even COLLABORATING allowed us the space to fail. And being got people from sales in the mix. EFFECTIVELY. more pragmatic about failing has In any given week, more than ensured that we have succeeded. In 100 people at 4 are discussing what we LACK OF the maelstrom of political noise we are could put on the telly. In time, I hope CANDOUR living through at the moment, maybe that people from all over the company it needs spelling out even further. I am will become part of this quiet revolu- LEADS TO absolutely certain that we would not tion, because they force us to think DYSFUNCTIONAL have achieved what we have achieved differently. in private hands. And forcing us to think differently ENVIRONMENTS I know now that 4 can be just as has led to a higher number of shows innovative off air as it can on air. Five that feel genuinely original. It’s also years on, it’s a different kind of broad- made us work faster, particularly in vote. In the end, like channel controllers caster. A place where brilliant indies genres where mass audience taste is so everywhere, I have to decide and be work with commissioners who are hard to call. Comedy is a great example. accountable to David and the board. talented producers themselves to make Helped by the breakfasts, Catastrophe But those decisions are now informed unmissable shows – shows that move was recommissioned before it was by the most inclusive commissioning the dial not just here but globally. aired. Flowers, our brilliantly dark new process I’ve ever been part of. At its best, I believe Channel 4 can comedy drama, was championed in So, five years on, these are the things rival the greatest creative organisations the room not just by my talented Head I know. Creativity can be led by teams, in the world. And, let’s face it, who of Comedy, Phil Clarke, but by our not just individuals. Risking failure wouldn’t want to be part of that. Head of Documentaries, Nick Mirsky. ensures you succeed. Different perspec- If it all sounds a bit People’s Repub- tives colliding sparks real originality. This is an edited version of a speech by lic of Channel 4, it’s not. You can’t I also know that I’ve been lucky. Channel 4 Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt churn through the decision-making Lucky because I’ve had the luxury of at the event ‘Five years at 4: building a needed to commission thousands of being able to experiment. For starters, creative culture’, which was held at the programmes across a portfolio of I’ve had a boss who understands crea- British Museum on 15 March and produced channels by putting every decision to a tive risk-taking. David gets it. He’s by Martin Stott.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 21 Click to cook

ake a loaf of bread, as well as the use of Facebook’s share hollow out the centre, Internet video button. “It’s got this inherent shareabil- place a Camembert in ity,” agrees Malone. She believes that the hole and bake for experi­mentation and reviewing audi- 15 minutes. It’s not the Online food channels ence feedback has been key to the most original recipe, are inspiring millennials page’s rapid growth. admittedly,T but Proper Tasty’s 35-second BuzzFeed is the latest brand to target instructional video has clocked up to hone their culinary millennials with an interest in food. nearly 40 million views since it was created Food Tube, an uploaded to Facebook in late December. skills. Pippa Shawley online arena for sharing cooking tips Proper Tasty, the British spin-off of logs on to Food Tube and recipes. BuzzFeed’s original Tasty page, launched A live Twittercast to promote Oliver’s in December 2015 and is part of a and beyond Food Revolution in 2010 made the chef growing movement of online channels curious about the possibilities of com- offering cooking inspiration. The Camembert Bread Bowl is just one municating directly with audiences. If you’re on Facebook, it’s hard to of more than 80 videos created by Consequently, the chef overhauled his have missed Proper Tasty’s eye-catching Proper Tasty’s two-person production YouTube channel. Until then, it had posts. Each video, rarely over a minute team since it launched. been a holding pen for videos on long, offers brief instructions for creat- Malone believes the success of the JamieOliver.com and promotional clips ing dishes including Yorkshire pudding videos is down to the “hyper-focused” for his TV shows. profiteroles, mojito-marinated chicken content aimed at British audiences. As part of YouTube’s original-content and mince-pie doughnuts. What’s more, videos on Facebook play partnership scheme, Oliver and his “It’s just been phenomenal,” says automatically, making them easy to production company, Fresh One, Ailbhe Malone, Head of Life at Buzz- engage with. pitched the idea for a cooking channel Feed UK, of the reaction to the videos, The reaction to the recipes is typified featuring the chef and new talent. which gained 1 billion views in the first by a string of comments beneath each Fast-forward three years, and today three months. post of people referring it to friends, Food Tube is one of the most-watched

22 IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE SOMETHING culinary channels on the web. “We audience, the better. “You’re borrow-­ did make a few mistakes in those early THAT INSPIRES ing someone’s precious time for that days,” recalls Richard Herd, Food Tube YOU TO SHARE moment,” explains Richard Herd. Network Manager at Fresh One. WITH FRIENDS “There has to be a reason that they Originally, the team produced con- watch you rather than the 1,000 other tent in a similar way to Oliver’s TV AND GO, ‘OH, things that are blinking on the right- ­ shows, believing that the YouTube MAYBE I’LL hand side. audience would just want the same “TV’s much more passive… you kind of recipe segments, but faster. [TRY THAT]’ might move from one programme to “They didn’t,” admits Herd. “They the next without getting up from the wanted something else, and they told sofa. [Online], if you don’t like some- us so in the first few videos. They saw to share with our wider friendship thing, you turn it off and you find Jamie moving online as a TV person group,” he adds. something else because there’s another coming into their space.” Since then, the channel has gained thing that’s flashing at you.” While internet criticism can be par- over 1.5 million subscribers; its videos As for the content itself, simplicity is ticularly cruel, the immediate feedback have been viewed more than 189 mil- what excels online. available through YouTube and social lion times. While the team has “It should always be approachable,” media allowed the Food Tube team to increased to 14, Spafford says that they advises Ailbhe Malone. “It should see what needed adapting. “It was are not looking to hire any more people. always be something that inspires you changing the grammar of how we pres- “For us, it’s about keeping it as a to share with friends and go, ‘Oh, ent to them: it was much more direct, really close-knit and tight team. We maybe I’ll put that in the slow cooker it was much more down-the-lens, it very much built it up around friends and have it for tea tomorrow night’.” was much more conversational,” says and family,” he explains. Avoiding “cheffy” food (emulsions, Herd. “It was a bit rough around the Now a multimillion-pound business, foams, liquid nitrogen), as Malone puts edges, which suited us, because we the group has diversified into cook- it, is something that even Jamie Oliver’s were trying to make things cheaper and books. “It was fantastic, but probably a camp agrees with. faster.… It gave Jamie even more of that little bit too early for us – I’m not sure “Our best-performing video on all freedom to do what he wanted to do.” we really had the scale of audience the channels is How to Poach an Egg With Today, the channel has more than that we wanted,” admits Spafford of Jamie Oliver,” says Herd. “It’s something 2.2 million subscribers and the videos the book released by Penguin in 2012. that people search for all the time.… have been viewed more than 200 mil- The group has also collaborated with When you see a big list of ‘how to lion times. Cannily, Oliver has intro- brands, and two years ago it launched poach an egg’ videos, you’re more than duced, and collaborated with, an app. likely going to go to a name that you upcoming cooks and vloggers, includ- “The thinking behind the app was to trust rather than somebody else.” ing online nutrition trainer Joe Wicks create a platform where people could While audiences will continue to (alias The Body Coach). upload their own recipes, their own watch the likes of Oliver on television The approach has attracted a tips and tricks.… To be able to showcase and online, traditional programme-­ younger, male-skewed audience. their stories and their recipes has been makers are bound to view the popular According to Herd, Food Tube’s core amazing.” It’s clear that such collabora- online videos, produced on signifi- audience is 65% male, aged 20-40. That tion and flexibility is vital to succeed cantly smaller budgets, with envy. contrasts with the audience for Jamie in the online food landscape. While last year’s Great British Bake Oliver’s main brand, which is aged Choosing what content to watch Offfinale delighted an audience of between 25 and 45, and 65% female. online can be time consuming and 13.4 million, Proper Tasty’s most-watched This 20-40 age group is one that the the more a channel can listen to its video – for homemade Ferrero team behind SortedFood knew well Roche-inspired balls – has already when they founded their YouTube been watched over 44 million times. channel while still at university. Each day seems to bring another “We started writing recipes on the OUR BEST- voice to online food programming. back of beer mats and we wanted to PERFORMING Brands such as Sainsbury’s and Hell- share these with more people,” recalls mann’s have adopted Proper Tasty’s style Jamie Spafford, one of four school VIDEO ON ALL of snappy, inspiration-heavy videos, friends who would gather in the pub THE CHANNELS IS and publishers such as Vice’s Munchies during university holidays to moan have invested time and money in pro- about how badly they were eating. HOW TO POACH ducing longer-form food films. “One of the obvious places for us at AN EGG WITH It seems that the appetite for creating the time was YouTube, so we started shareable culinary content shows no filming ourselves making these recipes JAMIE OLIVER signs of slowing.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 23 A dramatic take on disability

ithin a few . It was bought for a minutes of Screenwriting remake by CBS – which flopped – taking tea with but also brought financial television rewards. writer Peter Maggie Brown meets After Bowker’s fruitful collaboration Bowker, it TV screenwriter with Director Julian Farino on Marvel- becomesW clear why he writes such lous, the pair are working on another effective dramas on subjects close to Peter Bowker, whose idea for an uplifting drama mined his heart. He is a people person: curi- from difficult material: Syrian asylum ous, observant and fascinated by fam- show The A Word seekers in Britain. ily dynamics and human quirks. At That’s another Bowker compulsion, one point, he suddenly directs a ques- examines a family’s working on two projects simultane- tion at me, and I realise how easy it complex responses to ously. The main project absorbing his would be to open up to him. obviously huge energy is a Second Aged 57, born in Stockport – his their autistic son World War drama, not yet green-lit, strong northern accent is still intact but probably for the BBC. – he also tends to end every other about a million people would watch it.” It tells the story of the war from sentence with laughter. When he talks In fact, achieved a consoli- multiple perspectives: a Polish family, about his fictional characters, it is as if dated audience of 2 million. “I thought an American surgeon working in , they are real. they would like it [and then] it would and German, French, and Canadian For example, his latest series, The A be over. But, my God, even now people protagonists, too. Word, revolves around an extended stop me and talk about it.” “And there is a connection between family’s response to Joe, an autistic Bowker spent months visiting Bald- these people. We, as viewers know five-year-old boy, played by Max Vento. win in Stoke-on-Trent before he wrote it, they don’t. I describe it as the love Bowker says that he was so totally . They became firm friends: child of Deutschland 83 and Saving engaged that “I wrote a whole case Bowker spent last Boxing Day in Stoke Private Ryan.” study of the imaginary figure”, then with Baldwin, who also stays at the It will, he adds, be “one huge thing qualified as the production’s autistic Bowker home in London’s East Sheen, – epic, if it happens. I have written the adviser so that he could be on set to and they walk Baldwin’s dog in Rich- first script, written a huge series bible, check that nothing was changed. mond Park. “I don’t live up North in the story of the war. It’s the hardest “Unlike many writers, I have no a cobbled street,” he laughs. thing I have ever done in my life, like interest in directing. But I didn’t want The experimental, scrapbook being back at school.” to get a phone call in my study at approach and daring use of the Neil Professor Richard Overy, of Exeter home, telling me: This couldn’t hap- Baldwin Choir for Marvellous reveal University, is the historical adviser for pen.’ It is such a controversial area.” another of Bowker’s traits, a willing- the project, which is being developed Disability is one of the recurring ness to take risks. by ITV-owned Mammoth. strands in Bowker’s versatile output: His 2004 series Blackpool, about an “The irony is that, whenever I write his first authored series, Flesh and Blood ambitious arcade owner played by something, I think of something else. (2002), told the story of an adopted , married songs (Viva Where is this coming from? I start on man tracing his birth parents and Las Vegas was the opening number) and something and have an idea for some- eventually coming to accept their performance with sleaze, referencing thing else,” he confesses. mental impairment. It was hailed as At least with BBC One’s The A Word, a breakthrough. the inspiration is clear – although it Later, there was high praise for Mar- IF AN ACTOR coincides with public concern over vellous, his touching 2014 BBC Two access to treatment for people who are drama about the extraordinary life of GETS THE autistic. Bowker spent 14 years at a the real Neil Baldwin, a man with learn- EMOTIONAL hospital teaching youngsters with ing difficulties, played by . learning difficulties, including children “It opened doors,” says Bowker. “The RHYTHM OF MY on the autism spectrum. “That was my A Word was much easier to sell on the WORK, I HANG work before I became a writer,” he says. back of it. People were reassured that Prior to that, he studied philosophy and I could do warm and funny. I thought ON TO THEM English at Leeds University.

24 IT’S THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE, LIKE BEING BACK AT SCHOOL

might want to tell me to fuck off but.…’” He adds: “If an actor gets the emotional rhythm of my work, I hang on to them. I have used more than once. I would always return to Jamie Nesbitt [cast in Bowker’s drama Occupation]. I think we gravitate towards each other.” And Toby Jones, after playing Neil Baldwin was the uneasy banker in BBC One’s Capital, Bowker’s 2015 adaptation of the John Lanchester novel. But he hopes he has not finished with autism and The A Word: “My real ambition for it is to come back every two years, because the problems and the issues, and what it does to the family, get worse. That becomes more pronounced as they get older. And once a child stops being cute.… “On a purely selfish, dramatist level, that is satisfying because it is about reality, what we value, the whole drive for our children, for them to be suc- cessful at some level.” Is disability under-represented on television? “I have an agenda, which is: more integrated castings, where, say, one of the characters has cerebral palsy. Make it part of drama.” Even so, Bowker thought it would The A Word

BBC be too much to ask of a child on the autism spectrum to play Joe. In his thirties, he started a creative exposed. When I was teaching, I How would the young Bowker view writing master’s at the University of reckon 80% of the parents must have you? “Through a haze of amphetamine,” East Anglia, before switching to TV split up over it.” he laughs. “He’d probably think I am a scriptwriting when he realised that he Another Bowker trait is his tendency, wanker. And that’s right, an 18-year-old was more interested in crafting dialogue. when he finds an actor on his wave- should always think that. He’d also be This was followed by work on BBC length, to keep in touch. Christopher delighted that I was making a living as One’s and ITV’s Peak Practice. Eccleston played the adopted son in a writer. I think he would be surprised While The A List is a reimagining Flesh and Blood, and was cast as the that I moved south. I am.” of the Israeli series Yellow Peppers, blundering grandfather in The A Word. Why south? “I met my girlfriend, relocated from the Arava desert to the Bowker explains: “I thought it would [now my] wife, down here. When I first Lake District, it is informed by Bowker’s be fun to have a patriarch compara- moved down, it was easier to get to experience of a friend coping with an tively young and who still has a meetings.” autistic child. vibrancy and who cannot be patron- A keen theatregoer, Bowker nurses “You diagnose autism as a descrip- ised – that’s for sure! Not only is he an ambition to write for : tive condition, not a blood test,” he annoying, domineering, controlling, “I like the live-ness of it all, the unme­ - says. “It is very hard to pin down and he’s Chris! diated experience.” locate where it begins and ends. The “All that vitality and drive. I had to Unsurprisingly, one of his favourites disruption to the family... just about write the email, to ask him to play a is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the every fault line in the relationship is granddad. He’s only 52. I said, ‘You Night-Time.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 25 TV’s nemesis? Multichannel TV Matthew Bell hears a panel of experts warn that the likes of YouTube are generating a tsunami of content for younger viewers

raditional TV has been on the endangered species list for many years, yet it has fought off every new media predator to threaten it. But has television finally met its match with the rise of online multichannelT networks (MCNs)? “Now is the most exciting time for companies in the online video space,” claimed Rightster chief Ashley MacKen- zie at “Beyond YouTube”, a sold-out RTS event in March that debated whether online channels were the future of TV. “It’s clear that online video is a phe- nomenon that’s gone beyond just something that’s happening on the internet,” said journalist Kate Bulkley, who chaired the discussion. “The qual- ity is growing. It’s not simply short form and it has certainly gone far beyond the ‘cat-on-skateboard’ videos that were on YouTube before.” YouTube and Facebook, which between them boast 19 billion daily views worldwide, offer huge platforms to video content producers. And the growth of online video has brought new players, including MCNs, into the marketplace. Two of these MCNs – Rightster and the Disney-owned Maker Studios – were represented on the RTS panel. But there are many others, including music site Vevo, Endemol Beyond and the entertainment MCN Awesomeness Mobile platforms such as Snapchat, with its 8 billion daily views, offer TV, which is majority-owned by multichannel networks a potential DreamWorks Animation. outlet for their video content The audience for online video

26 Richard Broughton

remains youthful, argued MacKenzie. He is a veteran of the MCN business, having founded a video service in 2007 called Base79, which he sold to Right- ster two years ago. “The genuine heavy users remain 10- to 18-year-old kids,” said MacKen- zie, who took up the reins as Rightster CEO at the end of last year. “I’m not certain whether that’s going to change massively.” Pay-TV giant Sky has always been a THE [ONLINE technological pioneer and its new TV VIDEO SECTOR] service Sky Q includes an online video section, which pulls together content IS WHERE THE from many digital creators, including GROWTH IS Barcroft Media, Red Bull Media House and GoPro.

Julia Barry, Editorial Director, Sky Hampartsoumian Paul On-Demand, agreed with MacKenzie that audiences were young, but added that there was an untapped older mar- ‘TV has passed its tipping point’ ket. “There’s a real opportunity to grow the reach of this content and bring To set the scene for the panel discus- In the past, Broughton explained, more eyeballs to it by putting it into sion, Ampere Analysis Research Direc- MCNs have been squeezed, losing 45% our Sky ecosystem and opening up tor Richard Broughton outlined the of their ad revenue to the platforms access,” she said. threat that the online multi-channel that host their content and much of the Barry added: “We think that networks pose to television. rest to the creators of the content. easy-to-understand curation will help The traditional TV model in western The solution, he said, was for MCNs discoverability for a 25-plus audience. Europe, he explained, had ‘tipped to ‘start producing their own content We’re going for really simple content into decline’. Online advertising had or [build] closer ties to the content categories such as ‘quick laughs’ and already surpassed the value of both creators themselves’, so they ‘no ‘food and drink’, which we know our public service television and TV ad longer need to give away the majority customers will go to.” revenues, with Ampere predicting of the revenue that comes through James Kirkham moved to Bigballs that it would overtake the revenue from advertising. A lot of the MCNs Media in February to run its global of pay-broadcasters before 2020. have been moving into production.’ football fans’ channel, Copa90, which The amount and quality of online Working with brands that want he said had an audience “sweet spot of video is growing, and attracting more to connect with MCN audiences – 18 to 25”. He argued that barriers were advertising. Traditional broadcasters, including a ‘demographic that has breaking down between different typically via their online catch-up perhaps lost its connection with tra- media. Young audiences saw no differ- services, are an important part of this ditional, commercial broadcast TV’ – ence between “on and offline, between growth but so, too, are the social-video would also boost revenues, he argued. a football management game, watch- platforms, such as Facebook – which is Broughton suggested that the MCNs ing [football] on TV and watching increasingly focusing on video. were in a strong position: ‘They are con- catch-up”. The platform landscape is changing. tent creators, they’ve got brand affilia- Mobile platforms such as Snapchat, ‘YouTube is no longer the only horse in tions and they have multiple outlets on which now has 8 billion daily views, this race,’ he said. ‘A few years ago, it which you can view their content. offer MCNs another potential outlet for was just YouTube, with very small play- ‘Traditional broadcasters don’t need their content. ers elsewhere, but social video from to be worried about their business “It demonstrates this insatiable Facebook has been rapidly catching up any time soon but, if they or their appetite that audiences have to con- with the other social-media platforms shareholders are looking for growth, nect,” said Dan’l Hewitt, UK Managing – Twitter and Snapchat – hot on its the [online video sector] is where the Director of Maker Studios. heels.’ growth is.’

Shutterstock Traditional television, though, is still �

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 27 QUESTION & ANSWER

Helen Purvis, Knight Ayton QManagement: Do you see a time when traditional TV talent will go online? Ashley MacKenzie, Rightster: A It’s an inherently different business model.… An independent TV production company goes to a commissioner, the commissioner runs a , gives them a load of money, they make [the show] and

hand it back to the channel. Bloomberg That is entirely different to [online talent]. They spend more of the puzzle for us. It’s a fantastic time managing their community part and it’s going to remain, but it’s and responding to comments.… definitely not the whole picture… There are tools that allow them to brands are a huge part of it, too. do it in near real time. For them, We have the likes of Hyundai and that is a critical, if not the most Nissan as big-brand partners. important, component of how they Ashley MacKenzie, Rightster: build their audience. A YouTube and Facebook are always going to handle the basic Nick Doff, The EPG Shop: digital ad monetisation – and so QHow, as an industry, are you they should.… Where companies working to get a bigger cut of the like ours come in is when those [YouTube] cake? companies fall away. They are From left: James Kirkham, Ashley MacKenzie, Rightster: not going to make the investment Julia Barry, Kate Bulkley, Dan’l It’s always been a 55-45 split in content creation, because it A Hewitt and Ashley MacKenzie [of revenue] in our favour.… I don’t doesn’t scale. We have a better know whether 55% is the right understanding of the audience number but it’s not going to move. online, especially around our � relevant in this shiny digital age. Youth Dan’l Hewitt, Maker Studios: content propositions. brand Vice recently announced that its A YouTube is a very important first European linear-TV channel, Vice- platform and the scale is there.… Martin Izzard, Red Lorry land, would launch in September. “It We don’t have to pay bandwidth QYellow Lorry: Where will the makes absolute sense for Vice to costs [or] invest in ad-serving growth be in terms of genres and launch TV channels,” insisted Hewitt. technology: everything is there for content? Will bringing Vice’s programming us and we’re able to bring in brand James Kirkham, Bigballs into a television environment change partners and sell that advertising. A Media: We’re most excited the way its content is viewed? Watch- about everything outside the 90… ing online video, whether on mobile Kate Bulkley: Brand-funded minutes [of a match].… We think or tablet, tends to be a solitary experi- Q content is “where the money [football] fans have been forgotten ence, whereas TV is more communal. is”, isn’t it? and [so we] have a fan-centric “There is the potential to make Dan’l Hewitt, Maker Studios: perspective. online video content more communal A It’s [about] scaling, yes. Julia Barry, Sky: On the Sky in the home, in the sense that you sit Brands are now looking for these A platform, we’re finding [that down [as a family] and watch it “always-on” propositions. So, Coke there’s] much more short-form together,” argued Barry. now has channels, McDonald’s [content], not just in online video Branded content is a growing part of has a channel in the UK, and all but in on-demand video as well. the online landscape and, according to these brands are looking for great Fanzine content, whether it’s the panel, a profitable avenue to production partners to help them around Game of Thrones or Legends explore. Digital video service Red Bull with storytelling. The opportunities of Tomorrow, people love that stuff. TV, reckoned Kirkham, set the bench- really [are] untapped. Dan’l Hewitt, Maker Studios: mark by “creating sporting events that James Kirkham, Bigballs A We’re developing dramas for were the advert in themselves”. A Media: YouTube is just part Instagram… in 15-second episodes. Subscription services, such as the ad-free YouTube Red, which made its

28 YOUTUBE IS NO LONGER THE ONLY HORSE IN THIS RACE Paul Hampartsoumian Paul

US debut at the end of last year, were vlogger Zoella could make a subscrip- The panellists confessed to feeling seen as more of a risk. “It’s a tall ask in tion service pay, asked Bulkley. their age – most of them were at least the short term,” said MacKenzie, who “They are mainstream media names a couple of decades older than the argued that the youthful consumers of that have risen to the top,” answered typical consumers of their content online video would not have the means Kirkham. “There are a huge number and services. to pay for such a service. with staggering followings [below “I’m 40,” said Hewitt, “and I [recently] However, he added that “organisa- PewDiePie and Zoella].” had that experience that I’m sure my tions such as [YouTube] are going to go Hewitt reckoned that there was mum had a few years ago, where I had longer, deeper and harder than anyone an opportunity to work with up-and-­ to lean over to one of our creators and else. So it would be a brave person to coming online talent. “We have to say: ‘Can you show me what the hell bet against YouTube.” rethink how we commission and you’ve done on Snapchat because I Hewitt’s company, Maker Studios, develop new forms of programming don’t understand how that works.’” made the reality-adventure series Scare with these new types of talent. We have MacKenzie admitted that it is a PewDiePie for Red. The Swedish gamer to work with them in a different way; world he barely understands. Address- Felix Kjellberg – his online name is they’re not trained actors – they’ve ing the audience, he asked: “How PewDiePie – is YouTube’s biggest done it themselves,” he said. many of you really understand why draw, with more than 43 million sub- kids watch so much YouTube? scribers to his channel. “I’ve been doing this [job] for nearly Kirkham reckoned that a subscrip- DO YOU REALLY a decade and I don’t get it. It is stagger- tion service would stand or fall on the ing, the social change that’s going on.” quality of its product: “Does it augment UNDERSTAND your life and make things better? Is it WHY KIDS The RTS early-evening event, ‘Beyond providing you with stuff that is rich, YouTube’ was held at the Cavendish exclusive or new?” WATCH SO MUCH ­Conference Centre in central London But who beyond YouTube’s top rank on 14 March. The producers were Kate of PewDiePie and fashion and beauty YOUTUBE? Bulkley and Stephen Gaynor.

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 29 SAVE THE DATE

27 September Kings Place, London N1 9AG

RTS London ­Conference 2016 Principal sponsor: NBCUniversal International

www.rts.org.uk The awards were presented on 22 March at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The ceremony was hosted by Richard Madeley RTS Programme Awards 2016 In partnership with

Host:

Judges’ Award Sir Lenny Henry ‘Lenny’s call for a sea change in our industry shook us from our compla- cency and, in the two years since he gave that lecture, real action has been taken. ‘Clearly, this is still a case of “work- in-progress”, but the journey of change is under way. As a consequence of Lenny’s wake-up call to us all, every major British broadcaster has intro- duced new initiatives and policies about diversity in front of and behind the camera. And the difference is seen on screen. The cast – and the crew – is changing.’ won two awards: the Breakthrough The winners and nominees of the Award and Comedy rest of the 27 awards are listed over Performance the following six pages � Pictures: Richard Kendal/Channel 4 Pictures: Richard Kendal/Channel

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 31 Actor – Female – Doctor Foster Drama Republic for BBC One ‘Such a finely judged performance, utterly engrossing.’ Nominees: Claire Foy – Wolf Hall, A Company Pictures and Playground Entertainment Production for BBC Two Claire Rushbrook – Home Fires, An ITV Studios and Masterpiece co-production for ITV Actor – Male – The Dresser Playground Entertainment for BBC Two ‘Titanically good, an absolute master- class in acting.’ Nominees: Tom Courtenay – Unforgotten, Mainstreet Pictures for ITV Adam Long – Don’t Take My Baby, BBC Breakthrough Award: Documentaries Production for BBC Three Michaela Coel – Chewing Gum Arts Handmade BBC Scotland Arts Production for BBC Four ‘Understated in a powerful way, a pro- gramme that challenged many con- ventions of contemporary television. It was direct, adventurous, and beautiful.’ Nominees: Grayson Perry’s Dream House, Swan Films for Channel 4 Hockney, A Blakeway and Fly Film Production for BBC Two Breakthrough Award Michaela Coel – Chewing Gum Retort Television for E4 Children’s Programme: ‘A talent that breaks through in every My Life: I Am Leo direction.’ Nominees: Richard Bentley – The Stranger on the Bridge, Postcard Productions for Channel 4 Sian Gibson – Peter Kay’s Car Share, Goodnight Vienna Productions for BBC iPlayer Children’s Programme My Life: I Am Leo Nine Lives Media for CBBC ‘An uplifting piece of television that had, at its heart, an unexpected joy.’ Nominees: Lily’s Driftwood Bay – Goodbye Seabird, Sixteen South for Nick Junior The Dumping Ground, CBBC Productions

Drama Serial: The Lost Drama Series: No Offence Honour of Christopher Jefferies

32 Comedy Performance Michaela Coel – Chewing Gum Retort Television for E4 ‘Fresh, totally unique, edgy and brave… utterly original.’ Nominees: Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney – Catastrophe, An Avalon Television production with co-producers Birdbath Productions and Merman for Channel 4 Nick Helm – Uncle, Baby Cow Productions for BBC Three Daytime Programme Judge Rinder ITV Studios for ITV ‘Incredibly watchable, distinctive and entertaining.’ Host: Richard Madeley Arts: Handmade

Pictures: Richard Kendal/Paul Hampartsoumian/BBC/Channel 4 Hampartsoumian/BBC/Channel Pictures: Richard Kendal/Paul Nominees: Posh Pawnbrokers, Boomerang for Channel 4 This Morning, ITV Studios for ITV Documentary Series The Romanians Are Coming Keo Films for Channel 4 ‘Amazing casting and full of exquisite layering.’ Nominees: ’ Extreme Russia, Sundog Pictures for BBC Three The Detectives, Minnow Films for BBC Two Drama Serial The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies Carnival Films for ITV ‘Compelling and tender… it took the viewer on a deeply moving emotional journey.’ Actor – Male: Anthony Nominees: Hopkins – The Dresser This Is ’90, Warp Films for Channel 4 Wolf Hall, A Company Pictures and Playground Entertainment Production for BBC Two Drama Series No Offence Abbott Vision for Channel 4 ‘It felt like nothing else, and brought something new to the genre. Clever, funny, tense and with strong performances at its centre.’ Nominees: Humans, Kudos Film & TV for Channel 4 The Last Kingdom, Carnival Films for BBC Two � Actor – Female: Suranne Jones – Doctor Foster Scripted Comedy: Catastrophe

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 33 Entertainment Release the Hounds Gogglebox Entertainment for ITV2 ‘Brilliantly made, with great production values that really move the genre forward.’ Nominees: The Show, for BBC One The Last Leg, Open Mike Productions for Channel 4 Entertainment Performance Anthony McPartlin and – I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Entertainment: Live Event: VE Day 70: Out of Here!/Britain’s Got Talent/Ant Release the Hounds The Nation Remembers and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway ITV Studios/Thames and Syco/ITV Studios and Mitre Television for ITV ‘Consistently excellent, warm, funny and ridiculously versatile.’ Nominees: Adam Hills – The Last Leg, Open Mike Productions for Channel 4 Jack Whitehall – A League of Their Own, CPL Productions for Sky 1 History Holocaust: Night Will Fall Spring Films/Angel TV for Channel 4 ‘A landmark film, an affirmation of the importance of television as a medium of truth and a document of record in itself.’ Scripted Comedy: History: Holocaust: Nominees: Catastrophe Night Will Fall Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, BBC History Production for BBC Dagrau o Waed: Rhyfel Corea (Tears of Blood: Korean War), Awen Media/JTV Entertainment Performance: Anthony McPartlin and for Declan Donnelly – Celebrity…/…Talent/… Takeaway Live Event VE Day 70: The Nation Remembers BBC Events Production for BBC One ‘It felt so very special… we loved it.’ Nominees: Alternative General Election with , Zeppotron/ITN for Channel 4 2015, BRITs TV for ITV Popular Factual and Features DIY SOS: Homes for Veterans BBC Features Production for BBC One ‘Great to see a format being re- invented to such great effect and feeling­ so relevant.’­ Nominees: First Dates, Twenty Twenty for Daytime Programme: Channel 4 Judge Rinder SAS: Who Dares Wins, Minnow Films for Channel 4

34 Presenter Reggie Yates – Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia Sundog Pictures for BBC Three ‘He seems so natural, coming through the screen as highly relatable and unaffected.’ Nominees: David Olusoga – Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, BBC History Production for BBC Two Grayson Perry – Grayson Perry’s Dream House, Swan Films for Channel 4 Science & Natural History Oak Tree: Nature’s Greatest Survivor Furnace TV for BBC Four ‘Incredible!… Innovative in approach and execution, it seemed perfectly pitched for its audience.’ Nominees: Big Blue Live, BBC Natural History production for BBC One Japan: Earth’s Enchanted Islands, BBC Natural History production for BBC Two Scripted Comedy Catastrophe An Avalon Television production with co-producers Birdbath Productions and Merman for Channel 4 ‘Brilliantly intelligent characters ­delivering dialogue that was simply Documentary Series: The Single Documentary: laugh-out-loud funny.’ Romanians Are Coming Storyville: India’s Daughter Nominees: People Just Do Nothing, Roughcut TV for BBC Three Peter Kay’s Car Share, Goodnight Vienna Productions for BBC iPlayer Single Documentary Storyville: India’s Daughter Assassin Films for BBC ‘A faultless film, both remarkable and important.’ Nominees: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Jigsaw Productions for My Son the Jihadi, True Vision Productions for Channel 4 Single Drama Coalition Cuba Pictures for Channel 4 ‘A clever and very original film that was funny and perceptive… as well as beautifully written and performed.’ Nominees: : White Christmas, Presenter: Reggie Yates – Zeppotron for Channel 4 Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia Cyberbully, Raw Television for Channel 4� Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/Channel 4/ITV Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/Channel

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 35 Soap and Continuing Drama Lifetime Achievement Award ITV Studios for ITV ‘Strong, confident storytelling in the finest tradition of British continuing ‘Through the second half of the drama.’ 1960s, the black and white image Nominees: of the fashionably dressed Joan , ITV Studios for ITV Bakewell interviewing the agenda- EastEnders, BBC Drama Production setting creative artists of the day London for BBC One became almost emblematic of 1960s Britain. Sports Presenter, Commentator ‘Here – – was an unin- or Pundit timidated, intelligent woman ready David Coulthard to challenge everyone she spoke to BBC Sport for BBC One on television, to move the interview ‘It’s his personality that draws you in format on from the deferential to – a fantastic broadcaster with great the truly inquiring, and to do so in insights to share.’ her own unique style. And while Nominees: she wasn’t the only early role Gary Neville – Monday Night Football, model for the women that followed her into television, she was cer- Alan Shearer, BBC Sport for BBC One tainly one of the most inspiring.’ Sports Programme Monday Night Football Sky Sports ‘A show that sets the sport’s agenda, with an articulate, immaculate team of pundits happy to go all out to lay their opinions on the line.’ Nominees: Champions League Goals Show, BT Sport The Ashes, Sky Sports Writer – Comedy Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan – Catastrophe An Avalon Television production with co-producers Birdbath Productions and Merman for Channel 4 ‘The humour in this writing felt ­genuinely authentic, yet packed full of jokes and constantly subversive.’ Sports Presenter, Commentator Sports Programme: Nominees: or Pundit: David Coulthard Monday Night Football Michaela Coel – Chewing Gum, Retort Television for E4 Peter Kay, Sian Gibson, Paul Coleman and Tim Reid – Peter Kay’s Car Share, Goodnight Vienna Productions for BBC iPlayer Writer - Drama Peter Morgan - The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies Carnival Films for ITV ‘This writing was exceptionally skilful and poignant… absolutely first rate.’ Nominees: – Cucumber, Red Production Company for Channel 4 Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne – This Writer – Comedy: Rob Delaney and Is England ’90, Warp Films for Channel 4 Sharon Horgan – Catastrophe

36 Popular Factual and Features: DIY SOS: Homes for Veterans

Science & Natural History: Oak Tree: Nature’s Greatest Survivors Single Drama: Coalition

Soap and Continuing Writer –Drama: Peter Morgan, The Drama: Emmerdale Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/Channel 4/BSkyB/ITV Pictures: Richard Kendal/BBC/Channel

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 37 RTS NEWS Students celebrate success he University of people in Wales over the past South Wales took decade. home three of the Recently, the charity five top prizes at the announced that it would be TRTS Wales Student Televi- closing due to a lack of sion Awards, which were funds. “Ironically, we close held at Bridgend College’s at a time when arts organisa- Sony Theatre in mid-March. tions like us, that nurture A team of students from creative thinking and devel- the university won the Ani- opment for the next genera- mation award for Evanescent, tion, are needed most,” said which, said the jury, “pre- Zoom Chair Miranda Ballin. sented a breathtaking vision As part of the festival, RTS of a world coming to life, with Wales organised a workshop striking imagery and an aimed at students and new evocative soundtrack”. entrants, “What next? Break- Zak Campbell, Simon Pax ing into film and TV”. McDowell and Santa Naz Mantoo, from the Aumeistere took the Factual Edinburgh International Factual award winners award for That’s That: The Television Festival, discussed Three Loves of Vala, a moving two of its schemes, The Net- account of life in a Latvian Aberystwyth University the Drama award with his work and Ones to Watch. mental institution. students Jonathan Eve, Des- spooky, coming-of-age para- “The event was a fantastic The Open category was tina Bartley and Naomi Sleet ble, Needless Things. way for Welsh students to won by Jordanne Richards took the Entertainment prize The awards were held at ask all their big, small or and Katherine Sykes for the for Tea Break Murder, which the Zoom Cymru Interna- embarrassing questions gruesome An Unfortunate End: featured “stylish design and tional Youth Film Festival. about how to break into the The Boy and the Fairy, which strong performances”. Zoom Cymru is a youth film industry,” she said. exhibited “breadth, ambition Victor Mawer from the education charity, which has Tessa Hughes, Production and sheer originality”. University of Wales nabbed worked with 15,000 young Manager at Modern Televi- sion, noted the diversity of the students’ interests: “There were many aspiring Wales sees Real effects film directors, but also those interested in graphics, pre- at some Daleks lurking at effects, the aim is to ensure senting, camera, sound, radio the back of his company’s safety and control, as well as documentaries, script writ- premises in . realism. A car was set alight ing, sci-fi drama, media law RTS Wales members in the yard outside but the and even pyrotechnics.” visited Real SFX at the end of fire could, in fact, be turned Independent producer February to learn how it cre- on or off instantly. In another John Mead emphasised the ates realistic special effects demonstration, two volun- importance to new entrants for shows such as the BBC’s teers smashed pint glasses of research and of develop- Doctor Who and Sherlock, made of harmless sugar glass ing their personal skills. and new ITV Encore crime over their heads. “Students today need to be drama Houdini & Doyle. Hargreaves said that great hungrier, smarter, more Hargreaves, an effects care has to be taken on set: eloquent and crammed full supervisor, founded Real SFX ‘Actors are like children – of personality,” he said. An effect from Sherlock in 2008 to meet the growth they’re very precious. If an Zoe Rushton, Talent Man- in drama production in South actor has to fall to the floor, ager at BBC Cymru Wales, n ‘I really love my job,’ said Wales. It has expanded and you make sure [the landing’s] and Roger Burnell, MD of Real SFX founder Danny now has bases in Manchester soft. You can’t afford to lose a youth broadcast training Hargreaves as he fired what and Glasgow. day’s filming due to injury.’ scheme It’s My Shout, com- appeared to be a laser gun He emphasised that, with Hywel Wiliam pleted the five-person panel. Hywel Wiliam and Tim Hartley

38 cheap and cheerful: a camera Other techniques used in plus lens comes to just £200. the series included: ultravio- By contrast, trackside cam- let photography of the budg- eras, without a lens, cost ies’ plumage; fluoroscopy to £40,000 – these, though, are take the viewer inside a not so frequently hit and hamster hoarding food by shattered by the cars. way of real-time X-ray “The special camera shot is images; and thermal imaging certainly not a beauty shot,” he to show how dogs keep cool. explained. Instead, sequences Dalton holds a licence to of a few seconds are used to operate drones and brought bring the viewers so close to one to the event. “You can fly the cars they can almost it in the wind and it can be smell the burning rubber. jumping around but the shot “You run the audience is cinematic and smooth,” he over with the car and then said. “It’s a wonderful tool to Earthflight used a drone to film flamingos

BBC go back to the normal [cov- have in your box of tricks.” erage],” added Colyer. He showed a clip from BBC In natural history, the key is One series Earthflight, in which “to apply technology and he used a drone to film from cameras to create stories to above 2 million pink flamin- Up close and put the audience where it goes on Kenya’s Lake Bogo- wouldn’t naturally be able to ria. “The flamingos didn’t go”, explained John Downer, react to the drone in any very personal who worked at the BBC Natu- significant way and we flew ral History Unit before found- very low. They didn’t see it as ing John Downer Productions. a predator. Other animals are emarkable shots of something that would need The Bristol indie won last a little more nervous of it,” animals and racing to be made uniquely,” he said. year’s RTS Design & Craft explained Dalton. cars at the latest The current RTS Young Innovation award for Pets: Event chair David Thomas London Centre Technologist of the Year Wild at Heart, which was asked if there was a use for eventR showed how small develops and deploys special directed by Downer and special cameras outside of cameras can revolutionise cameras for Formula 1, produced by Philip Dalton. sport and natural history. the TV-viewing experience. bringing viewers up close to The BBC One series was Downer said it would need Speaking in March at ITV the speeding cars. Cameras shot using a huge variety of only imagination to harness London Studios, Mike Colyer need to be made to meet the cameras and processes, some of these processes in offered his definition of a demands of circuits around including that of 150-year- drama: “Sherlock could use the special camera, or rather, the world, and can be fitted old Schlieren photography, Schlieren technique [to show] what it wasn’t. “I want to to kerbs, in the pits and even which was used to show air a scent. You could see how make one thing absolutely in the track itself. currents moving around a that could be integrated into clear – a GoPro is not a spe- Formula 1 is awash with bird’s wings and to visualise its modern filming style.” cial camera. To me, it’s money, but Colyer’s kit is a dog’s breath. Matthew Bell ONLINE at the RTS

n March saw the highest Ant and Dec hanging around at the British Museum in National Student Television monthly traffic we’ve ever for a chat with us backstage. March, but have read her Awards in Leeds. Our 2016 seen on the RTS website. Judges’ Award winner Lenny speech in Television (page 18), bursary scheme is now open Overall, we enjoyed over Henry – and the Society’s head online to read the full- for applications: www.rts.org. 50% more visitors than in latest Fellow – gave us a length Q&A with insightful uk/bursaries March 2015. lovely interview. Do I detect chair John Hardie. www.rts. I’m particularly proud of a hint of a tear as he talks of org.uk/jayhunt If you have any thoughts the short videos our team his pride at being given the Another RTS Bursary stu- about what we should be made at the Programme gong? www.rts.org.uk/lenny dent has won a major award. covering online, please contact Awards (www.rts.org.uk/pro- If you missed Channel 4 Kyle Shiels picked up the Digital Editor Tim Dickens grammeawards), with winners CCO Jay Hunt’s performance Best Live prize at the ([email protected]).

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 39 RTS NEWS Carnival drama wins in the West secured the other two drama BBC Two in 1981. BBC Fea- prizes: Best Director (Peter tures also won awards for Kosminsky) and Best Com- Fake or Fortune (Factual), DIY poser (Debbie Wiseman). SOS: Homes for Veterans (Fac- The Sir Ambrose Fleming tual Entertainment) and On Memorial Award, for an out- Screen Talent (Anita Rani of standing contribution to TV, Countryfile). went to Testimony Films MD BBC Points West notched up Steve Humphries. The indie’s two wins in news: reporter docs include Channel 4’s 9/11 Fiona Lamdin for covering Firehouse and BBC Two’s the murder of teenager Becky Britain’s Greatest Generation. Watts; and the team behind starred “This is a purple patch for the Points West Abuse Special. in The Lost Honour of film, TV and animation in Drummer TV scooped two Christopher Jefferies

ITV Bristol,” said RTS Bristol Chair awards for CBBC's Ice Stars Lynn Barlow. “Not only did (Children’s) and BBC Three’s he Lost Honour of Chris- suspected of the murder of we recognise the extraordi- programme about the young topher Jefferies was the Joanna Yeates and subjected nary drama produced at Bris- homeless, Where Am I Sleeping big winner at the RTS to a tabloid witch-hunt. tol’s Bottle Yard Studios but Tonight? (Documentary). West of England The ITV two-parter took also the impact of Testimony. Best Natural History pro- TAwards in March, bagging Best TV Drama, as well as Over 25 years, Steve and his gramme went to Silverback five of seven drama prizes. awards for Cinematography team have been responsible Films for BBC One series The The awards, produced in (Mike Eley), Editing (Kristina for many memorable docu- Hunt, which was voiced by association with Evolutions Hetherington) and Sound mentaries, all produced by an Sir . Bristol, were held at the Bristol (Fraser Barber, Danny Shee- independent company in a Other winners included Old Vic and hosted by Jason han, Paul Cotterell, Matt world where global conglom- John Downer Productions for Watkins. The actor took Davies and Gavin Rose). erates dominate.” BBC One’s Pets: Wild at Heart. home the On Screen Perfor- To qualify for these awards, The Bristol Centre’s Special Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory mance prize for his perfor- at least 60% of a drama had Award went to BBC Features’ won for the series’ music, mance in the Carnival Films to be shot in the West of See Hear, celebrating 35 years alongside its editors, Stuart drama. Watkins played the England. on TV. The magazine show Napier and Imogen Pollard. retired schoolteacher wrongly BBC Two drama Wolf Hall for deaf people first aired on Matthew Bell

turned down a permanent Newsnight anchor role at Radio 4’s World at One because she didn’t want to leave Scotland and move to shares tactical tips London full time. Wark has worked on lighter n After 23 years presenting only once, interviewing then- fare, appearing on BBC One’s Newsnight, Kirsty Wark knows First Minister of Scotland Alex Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, the standards expected. “We Salmond in 2007 about the which she was determined to should be forensic but irrev- release of Lockerbie bomber win. “I was distracted erent,” she told an RTS North Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. because I kept thinking how West event at the Lowry “The BBC apologised and said Benghazi was under attack Theatre, Salford. “If [the I’d been rude and abusive. I and here I was working on Kirsty Wark viewer] is not surprised, then was probably too forceful,” she Claire Harrison a baked Alaska,” she said. we’ve failed.” said. “But, if I’d been a man, She also recalled shouting “An evening with Kirsty they wouldn’t have said that.” The anchor of BBC Two’s at Pete Doherty when the Wark” in March featured a Noting that her hair had news and current affairs musician appeared ready pre-Newsnight clip, when her turned grey while presenting show joined BBC Radio Scot- to walk out of an interview. thorough research led Prime Newsnight, she added: “A man land in 1976 as a graduate. “Come back here. The BBC Minister is a ‘silver-haired fox’, yet a Talking to ex-BBC North has paid for three camera- to stumble. “I love the prep woman is viewed as some West Political Editor Jim men for this,” she said. – it’s so important,” she said. medieval witch. It’s totally Hancock at the RTS event, Doherty did the interview. Wark said she went too far unfair.” Wark revealed that she Kevin Fitzpatrick

40 Bournemouth University’s Red Balloon Productions Ultra-HDTV took the Best Non-Broadcast award for its video work, hitches need Magna Carta: Spirit of Justice, for an exhibition at Salisbury solutions Cathedral. The Student Awards n Mark Horton of Ericsson’s attracted 65 entries, impress- Encoding Division offered ing the judges with their the Thames Valley Centre an Fred Dinenage and Sally Taylor presenting the awards

Jon Craig inventiveness, technical prow- enlightening, and sometimes ess and production values. controversial, insight into Tehzeeb by Myriam Raja at Ultra-HDTV in mid-March. Southern honours the Arts University Bourne- Conducting an interactive mouth won the Drama prize. investigation into the human It was “one of those rare visual system, Horton its local TV talent projects where everything demonstrated the concept of is right – production design, saccadic eye movement. cinematography, acting and He showed how the images n Two hundred guests cele- Newcomer On-screen award a mature and skilful script”, we “see” are only partly brated the work of BBC South for Emma Wilkinson and said the judges. based on the light received by East, ITV Meridian, BBC South Best VJ, Christine Alsford. The college picked up two our eyes. Instead, the viewer’s and eight indies, as well as BBC South’s Emma Vardy more student awards: Factual perception of detail is a con- student productions from was named Best Regional (for La Deriva Dei Continenti by struct of pixel count, frame four universities, at the RTS Journalist. Her colleague, Pietro Novello) and Animation rate, colour, contrast and, Southern Professional and Victoria Cook, took the award (for Riflessoby Alice Guzzo). importantly, their own mem- Student Awards at Winches- for Best Feature Within a The Farnham Film School ories and experiences. ter Guildhall in early March. News Programme. at University for the Creative He suggested that down-­ The awards were presented Best Single Documentary Arts took home the Entertain- conversion from Ultra-HDTV by Sally Taylor, from regional was awarded to Ricochet ment award (for Valentines pictures to HD for simulcast BBC TV news programme Productions for Channel 4’s Park by Leah Revivo) and the may not be straightforward, South Today, and ITV News Sex in Class. The Brighton Open category for Urmas as the transformation from Meridian’s Fred Dinenage. indie also nabbed the Best Salu’s Lego stop-motion images with high dynamic ITV Meridian picked up Factual Series award with comedy, Insert Film Title Here, range and wide colour gamut three prizes: Best News BBC Three’s Wanted: A Very I Guess. to HD is not necessarily linear. ­Magazine Programme, the Personal Assistant. Gordon Cooper Zoom lenses also give rise to potential additive diffrac- tion and diffusion. So, com- plex computer-controlled systems are used to grind the lens to reach the optimum Myrie makes the news compromise of control, dis- tortion and clarity. Horton BC News presenter you first get to work in a showed that a lens adequate Clive Myrie was the newsroom, see everything for HD could not be assumed star guest at RTS and say nowt.” to give the same level of Midlands’ “In con- Addressing the need to detail for Ultra-HDTV. Bversation” evening at The improve diversity in TV, Myrie Backwards compatibility Mailbox, BBC Birmingham. argued that, while ethnic has always proved problem- Myrie, who was inter- diversity was important, there atic for broadcasters, and viewed by media consultant was also a need to increase Ultra-HDTV is no different. and ex-BBC correspondent white, working-class rep- At the Thames Valley event, Barnie Choudhury, said that resentation in the BBC and co-hosted by the Society of Clive Myrie

he had been inspired as a Hampartsoumian Paul other media organisations. Motion Picture and Television Bolton schoolboy by watching The March event, jointly Engineers, the most popular Trevor MacDonald reading later, from around the world. hosted with BBC Academy view was that backwards the news on ITV. “I saw He said that he had “agitated” and Digital Cities Birming- compatibility had to be kept someone who looked like to be involved in foreign ham, also saw Andy Bocking, simple, using existing infra- me,” he said. reporting. BBC Head of News Technol- structures in TV stations if Myrie became a BBC for- He shared advice with the ogy, discussing the digital Ultra-HDTV was to become a eign correspondent in 1996, audience that he was given tools used by journalists. mainstream broadcast format. reporting from Tokyo and, early in his career: “When Dorothy Hobson Tony Orme

Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 41 OFF M E SSAGE

here are hard-­ On the other hand, if it’s salt and fork out £580 for a bottle of lunch- working actors vinegar crisps washed down by time Château Palmer. and there is Olivia mineral water, Fleet Street’s finest With the news that Desmond has Colman. Does this complain that Auntie is being a skin- sold his last, remaining TV assets highly versatile thes- flint. (let’s just say you’ll find them under pian ever stop work- At last month’s star-studded BBC the “adult” section of the EPG) The ing? Following her bash at the Serpentine Sackler Gal- owner has officially left stand-out performance as the dogged lery, where Charlotte Moore unveiled television. andT dishevelled spook Angela Burr her latest schedules, peckish journos To think, there was once specula- in BBC One’s brilliant version of John tucked into upmarket canapés. tion that Desmond might lead a Le Carre’s The Night Manager, Colman Odd, then, that at least one scribe private equity bid for ITV. stars in a new Channel 4 comedy. turned up thinking he’d be given a In Flowers, she plays Deborah, wife full, sit-down meal. ■ The timing of ex-drama head of the chronically depressed Maurice, He’d been emailed beforehand by Steve November’s exit from ITV did a children’s author she suspects of the BBC asking if he had any “dietary not go unnoticed by the TV drama having a homosexual affair with his preferences”. community. Japanese illustrator, Shun. Food for thought… Coincidentally, November’s depar- To say that Flowers is dark is an ture – which means that Kevin Lygo understatement. Colman is no stranger ■ UKTV, on the other hand, is at the is head of a totally revamped com- to performing in edgy Channel 4 com- other extreme of the catering spec- missioning team – came as ITV edy: she played Sophie in Peep Show. trum. Scribes invited to a meal to launched two of its best-received It is anyone’s guess how the emo- mark the channel’s latest results were dramas in months. tionally charged Flowers, due on air in all sent a menu to ponder in advance. gave ’s take on early May, will be received. Perhaps it The choice of a trio of first courses, Gerald Durrell’s and Other is destined to become a cult hit. mains and deserts put Off Message’s Animals, the six-part The Durrells, four But it’s encouraging to see taste buds into a tizzy. stars. American money supporting such With joint owner, Scripps, operat- Meanwhile, an original British show. Flowers is ing several international food stations opined that the show was “almost a co-produced by Kudos and NBCU’s – and UKTV running the Good Food case study in how returning for a online comedy SVoD service, Seeso. Channel – the company evidently second stab at a project can vastly knows where its bread is buttered, so improve it”. ■ Can the BBC ever get it right when to speak. ITV’s latest detective drama, Marcella, it comes to providing hospitality to secured good ratings. hungry hacks? ■ The TV community can boast Lygo craves another If the Beeb puts on too much of a its fair number of mavericks. Few, (preferably made in-house), but he spread, the corporation is criticised though, possess the chutzpah of erst- knows better than most people that by The Daily Mail tendency for chuck- while Channel 5 owner and amateur returning, channel-defining hits are ing licence-fee payers’ money down drummer Richard Desmond. harder than ever to commission in the drain. Remember, he once got the FT to the age of Netflix and Amazon.

42 April 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS PATRONS

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Television www.rts.org.uk April 2016 43 Joint Public Lecture Sir Paul Nurse ‘Science as revolution’

Sir Paul Nurse is the Chief Executive Chaired by Tim Davie, 11 May and Director of the Francis Crick 6:30pm for 7:00pm Institute and former President of the CEO, BBC Worldwide Royal Society. He was awarded the Tickets: £10 Venue: 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology and British Museum, Medicine with Leland Hartwell and Booking: London WC1B 3DG Tim Hunt www.rts.org.uk

Reception sponsored by Fujitsu