June 2016

Nima Elbagir: Life on the frontline Size matters A provocative look at short-form content

Pat Younge CEO, Sugar Films (Chair) Randel Bryan Director of Content and Strategy UK, Endemol Shine Beyond UK Adam Gee Commissioning Editor, Multi-platform and Online Video (Factual), Channel 4 Max Gogarty Daily Content Editor, BBC Three Kelly Sweeney Director of Production/Studios, Maker Studios International Andy Taylor CEO, Little Dot Studios Steve Wheen CEO, The Distillery

4 July The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ Booking: www.rts.org.uk Journal of The Royal Television Society June 2016 l Volume 53/6

From the CEO The third annual RTS/ surroundings of the Oran Mor audito- Mockridge, CEO of Virgin Media; Cathy IET Joint Public Lec- rium in Glasgow. Congratulations to Newman, Presenter of Channel 4 News; ture, held in the all the winners. and Sharon White, CEO of Ofcom. unmatched surround- Back in London, RTS Futures held Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, ings of London’s Brit- an intimate workshop in the board- will deliver the opening keynote. ish Museum, was a room here at Dorset Rise: 14 industry An early-bird rate is available for night to remember. I newbies were treated to tips on how those of you who book a place before was thrilled to see such a big turnout. to secure work in the TV sector. June 30 – just go to the RTS website: Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse gave a Bookings are now open for the RTS’s rts.org.uk/event/rts-london-conference-2016. brilliant talk that was both accessible London Conference in September, Meanwhile, we can all look forward and erudite. A massive thanks to Sir “Full stream ahead: commissioning, to supporting our chosen sides in the Paul and to the evening’s chair, BBC producing and distributing content in Euros – and the EU referendum. You Worldwide CEO Tim Davie. I am very an age of on-demand”. never know, we might even have a pleased that our partnership with the The line-up of speakers includes: real summer this year. IET is working so well. David Abraham, CEO of Channel 4; Last month, I was privileged to Sir Peter Bazalgette, Non-executive attend the RTS Scotland Awards. The Chair of ITV and President of the RTS; ceremony was superbly hosted by Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Catriona Shearer and Sanjeev Kohli, Group; Kevin MacLellan, Chair of and took place in the celestial NBCUniversal International; Tom Theresa Wise Contents Simon Shaps’s TV Diary The thrill of escapism During a week in Manhattan, Simon Shaps wonders if What is the secret of a successful Sunday-night 5 reviving old shows is enough to reignite US network TV 19 drama? Sally Woodward Gentle shares her recipe with Steve Clarke Winning access to the frontline Andrew Billen talks to CNN’s Nima Elbagir and finds Testing time ahead for Ofcom 6 out what it is like to be a Muslim covering Islamist- Ofcom is about to become the BBC’s first external inspired acts of horror 22 regulator. Maggie Brown considers the impact this will have on the organisation Past its Olympic peak? After Rio, Eurosport, not the BBC, will call the Olympic The lost generation 9 shots. Owen Gibson previews the corporation’s last A growing number of under-35s are ignoring TV news. exclusive Games 24 Can they be persuaded to watch broadcast bulletins, asks Sanya Burgess? ITV’s new hit-makers Neil Midgley asks if Kevin Lygo’s revamped commissioning Where next for RTÉ? 12 team has the X Factor Raymond Snoddy assesses the challenges facing 26 Dee Forbes, the Irish national broadcaster’s first female Our Friend in the North Director-General Colin McKeown traces the roots of his city’s special 15 TV culture to explain its allure to writers How to get – and keep – a job in TV An RTS Futures workshop gave essential advice to those Science as revolution 28 who want to establish a TV career. Matthew Bell sat in Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse makes a passionate 16 case for science’s capacity to effect positive change. Matthew Bell reports Cover picture: CNN

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 June 2016 3 Your guide to upcoming national and RTS NEWS regional events

President of the RTS; Dido EAST Venue: Tyneside Bar Café, Tyne- National events Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Telecom ■ Nikki O’Donnell side Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, New- Group; Kevin MacLellan, Chair of ■ nikki.odonnell@bbc.co.uk castle upon Tyne NE1 6QG RTS FUTURES NBCUniversal International; Tom ■ Jill Graham Tuesday 28 June Mockridge, CEO of Virgin Media; LONDON ■ [email protected] Funny ha ha?! The serious Channel 4 News Presenter ■ Daniel Cherowbrier business of working in TV Cathy Newman; and Ofcom ■ [email protected] NORTH WEST comedy CEO Sharon White; . ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 Is working in comedy your With burgeoning new models MIDLANDS ■ [email protected] dream job? Find out more from of TV consumption, opportunities Wednesday 29 June the top producers. Panellists for content creators and distribu- RTS Midlands education NORTHERN IRELAND include: James Farrell, Producer tors are both incredibly exciting programme grand finale 2016 ■ John Mitchell of Mrs Brown’s Boys and Flat TV; and potentially hazardous. Students from 15 secondary ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@btinter- Carol Baffour-Awuah, Producer How is the emergence schools across the West net.com who has worked on 8 out of 10 of myriad new distribution Midlands have taken part Cats Does Countdown, Alan platforms impacting on the in competitive education REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Carr: Chatty Man and Michael commissioning and produc- workshops to create a TV ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 McIntyre’s Big Show; Danny tion landscape? With new, programme. These workshops ■ [email protected] Morrisey, Head of Talent for BBC entrepreneurial approaches to were for Years 8 and 9 (ages 12 Comedy. More speakers TBC. production, access to global and 13). The top 15 teams now SCOTLAND 6:45pm for 7:00pm funding and emerging trends in fight it out for the big prize: a ■ James Wilson 07899 761167 Venue: Hallam Conference Centre, consumer behaviour – what are VIP tour of BBC Birmingham. ■ james.wilson@cityofglasgow- 44 Hallam St, London W1W 6JJ the real opportunities and chal- Venue: University of college.ac.uk lenges of creating programming Wolverhampton Wulfruna St, RTS FUTURES for multiple platforms? Wolverhampton WV1 1LY SOUTHERN Monday 4 July Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, ■ Gordon Cooper Size matters: A provocative London N1 9AG Thursday 7 July ■ [email protected] look at short-form content RTS Midlands Conference 2016 Speakers: Randel Bryan, Director RTS MASTERCLASS DAY Keynote speakers: Colette THAMES VALLEY of Content & Strategy UK, Monday 14 November Foster, Full Fat Television; Ian Wednesday 15 June Endemol Shine Beyond UK; RTS Student Programme Mackenzie, Channel 4; Naz Summer BBQ and lecture Adam Gee, Commissioning Masterclasses Mantoo, Edinburgh International PQ and HLG interoperability Editor, Multi-platform and Online Venue: BFI Southbank, London TV Festival; Des Tong, Big Peter Wilson explains the Video (Factual), Channel 4; Max SE1 8XT Centre TV. Breakout sessions mechanisms of Perceptual Gogarty, Daily Content Editor, on diversity (with Barnie Quantising and Hybrid Log- BBC Three; Kelly Sweeney, RTS MASTERCLASS DAY Choudhury) and smartphones Gamma and their implications Director of Production/Studios, Tuesday 15 November for video and news (with Marc for Ultra-HDTV. 6:30pm Maker Studios International; RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses Settle). Book via RTSMidlands@ Venue: Pincents Manor, Calcot, Andy Taylor, CEO, Little Dot Venue: BFI Southbank, London rts.org.uk. 10:00am-3:00pm Reading RG31 4UQ Studios; Steve Wheen, CEO, The SE1 8XT Venue: Spring Grove House, West ■ Penny Westlake Distillery; and Pat Younge, CEO, Midlands Safari Park DY12 1LF ■ [email protected] Sugar Films (Chair) Venue: The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Local events Thursday 3 November WALES Street, London WC2H 9HQ RTS Midlands Awards 2016 ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 BRISTOL Booking opens in early ■ [email protected] RTS CONFERENCE Thursday 14 July September. Tuesday 27 September A night at the zoo Venue: National Motorcycle YORKSHIRE RTS London Conference 2016 Bristol’s only summer TV party! Museum, Coventry Road, Solihull Friday 24 June Full stream ahead: BBQ, band, booze and big tunes. B92 0EJ RTS Yorkshire Programme Commissioning, developing 6:00pm-midnight ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 Awards 2016 and producing TV content in Venue: Bristol Zoo, Clifton, Bristol ■ [email protected] Hosted by Emmerdale stars the age of on-demand BS8 3HA Laura Norton and Mark Charnock Principal sponsor: NBCUniversal ■ Belinda Biggam NORTH EAST & THE BORDER Venue: New Dock Hall, The Royal International ■ [email protected] Thursday 30 June Armouries, Leeds LS10 1LE Keynote speaker: Steve Networking evenings ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal. He DEVON & CORNWALL The last Thursday of the month, ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. is joined by: Channel 4 CEO David ■ Kingsley Marshall for anyone working in TV, film, co.uk Abraham; Sir Peter Bazalgette, ■ Kingsley.Marshall@falmouth. computer games or digital Non-executive Chair of ITV and co.uk ­production. 6:00pm onwards.

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

During a week in Manhattan, Simon Shaps wonders if reviving old shows is enough to reignite US network television

here is something audience decline and get families to MSNBC, and NBC’s decision to borderline voyeuris- gather round the television, as they replace him with Lester Holt, the tic about being in used to do. US’s first African-American network New York for the David Madden, President of Enter- evening-news anchor, has helped annual Upfronts, the tainment at Fox, is quoted in The New NBC News to top the ratings. week-long jamboree York Times: “We are not saying we are when the US net- out of the original-idea business.” ■ My final meeting of the week works present their shiny new sched- involves a visit – for the very first Tules to advertisers. ■ Of course, the revival game is not time – to the News Corp Building I am not here to attend the Upfronts limited to the major networks. Man- on Avenue of the Americas. but – like the NYU graduation cer- hattan is plastered with posters for Having passed the 45-storey tower emony I watch in Yankee Stadium A&E’s remake of the 1977 mega-hit many times over the years, I am not (my daughter is there somewhere Roots, which launched at the end of sure why I have never been inside among the 16,000 members of the May, on Memorial Day. before now. Quite possibly, nobody Class of 2016) – it is obvious that It is a big swing for A&E. The origi- ever invited me. Americans do these big events better nal series was watched by around This time, I am meeting a couple of than anyone else. 130 million people. Getting more than super-smart “scouts”, who are looking The scale of the networks’ annual 10% of that audience today would for books to feed Fox’s film studios. Manhattan party, the parade of celeb- probably count as success. They get excited about one title, whose rities and the lavishness of the hospi- author I have got to know over the tality, though, cannot disguise the ■ On a sunny day, I head over to past year or so. Perhaps I will be malaise that is affecting network TV 30 Rock (NBC’s Rockefeller Plaza invited back. in the US. The advertising dollars HQ) to have lunch with Deborah continue to roll in, but the conversa- Turness, President of NBC News. ■ For more years than I can remem- tion has shifted elsewhere. It seems a long way from her days ber, I have been addicted to my daily at ITN in Gray’s Inn Road, where we fix of the overnight ratings. As I get ■ The headline in The New York Times last met. Deborah seems in her ele- on a plane at JFK, I take a quick look is: “Laying a big bet on nostalgia, TV ment here. at the previous night’s numbers. revisits its past in hopes of securing Ratings have improved since she One story stands out: the audience its future”. Prison Break, 24 and Gilm- arrived and she is approaching the of close to 1 million that watched BT’s ore Girls are all to be revived, although task of creating new revenue streams coverage of the Europa League final it is also announced that ABC’s boldly from her output with huge appetite. on YouTube. While the traditional TV revived The Muppets is to be axed. Equally important, Deborah herself networks roll out their revivals – aka It is as if the flood of revivals is is no longer the story, as she was for “reboots” – the future shape of televi- a way of duping the audience into several months when Nightly News sion is becoming clearer. thinking that the on-demand revolu- anchor Brian Williams was suspended tion never happened. And that famil- for six months for fabricating a story. Simon Shaps is the founder of Simon iar titles from the past will reverse Williams is now back on air at Shaps Ltd.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 5 Winning access to the frontline

Nima Elbagir, reporting for Channel 4’s Sudan: Meet the Janjaweed in 2008 Channel 4

he stained linen suit, the spent two weeks on a series of special self-draining tumbler of The Billen profile reports on the isolation of the Muslim Scotch, the well-turned community in Molenbeek. She had tale about cheating death broadcast her first package, on how on the road – my every Andrew Billen talks to easy it was to obtain radical literature, preconception about war CNN’s Nima Elbagir and when the reports of two explosions correspondentsT has just been shattered came through. by meeting Nima Elbagir. finds out what it is like “We just thought it had to be a gas Although she shares all their best cylinder,” she says. “They couldn’t have qualities, she is not as other foreign to be a Muslim covering had all those warning signs and then hacks. She doesn’t drink. She doesn’t Islamist-inspired have this happen. I think I was almost brag. And when she flies into a war in denial.” zone she packs her prayer mat. acts of horror In April, she was back in Chibok, the Really? “Actually, I tend to use what- Nigerian village from which more than ever I can find. My camping towel will here she is, eating a fish-finger sand- 200 schoolgirls had been kidnapped in generally do.” wich for breakfast and about to go on 2014, when Elbagir was the first foreign I interview Elbagir in the canteen of holiday for three weeks. Not, of course, reporter in. Now, she was showing some Turner’s HQ near London’s Oxford to Tuscany or the Seychelles, but Zan- of the mothers an exclusive video that Street, a slightly confusing place in that zibar and then on to Khartoum, where appeared to show 15 of them alive and it is not sure whether its greatest icon her parents live. well. The tape had been found, she says, is CNN’s Christiane Amanpour or the Her well-earned break follows her typically apportioning credit where it is Cartoon Network’s Scooby-Doo. latest award, from the RTS in February due, by her producer Stephanie Busari. Elbagir is a striking, six-foot-one for Specialist Reporter of the Year. The “We were told that Boko Haram was Sudanese woman who, at 37, has judges praised her “determination, quite unhappy [with the report], but made her name reporting the terrors bravery and deep humanity”. All those that, clearly, didn’t play into our think- inflicted by those who pretend to share qualities were evident again in her ing at all. It is now very closely associ- her faith. coverage of the Brussels bombings ated with Isis and this isn’t the image She has reported from Darfur, Moga- in March. that Isis would like out there,” she says. dishu, Tahrir Square and Chibok. And Elbagir was there anyway, having “No fatwa can justify this. Islamically,

6 easy on the road, but she calls all that “entry-level Islam”. She does not wear a headscarf, although you can see her, like many women, doing so when reporting from Muslim countries. I say that I once heard Max Hastings say on Any Questions that when he saw a woman in a niqab he felt a little sad. “I don’t think that’s really his place to feel sad for someone else,” is her response. “I would feel as outraged as if some mullah felt ‘sad’ that girls were wandering around in hot pants.” But she is a feminist? “I think that I DON’T came more into conflict in my moth- er’s generation. I think my mother THINK [WAR found it very difficult to call herself a REPORTERS] feminist, because to be a feminist was to be very specific things. Feminism SHOULD BE wasn’t terribly intersectional, whereas, MYTHOLOGISED. in my generation, the emphasis on intersectionality in feminism is much WE GET TO more pronounced. I don’t think my LEAVE. IT’S THE faith is incompatible with any aspect PEOPLE WHO of who I am. I never felt that it was.” Elbagir would not call her upbringing STAY IN THOSE liberal. Her father is a committed Sunni, SITUATIONS… but happy for his daughter to report from Darfur. “He just wouldn’t have WHO ARE been happy if I’d been partying until BRAVE 3:00am.” Her mother is even more seri- ous about her faith. Her grandfather, a polyglot with a huge and eclectic

CNN library, drank and “wasn’t particularly bothered”. Three uncles were practic- there is no justification for anything wars in Africa. The page has passed her ing Marxists. they do but, even with their twists and by, but, although she comes from a One tribe her parents definitely turns, there is no way to justify keeping land riven by tribal conflict, she knows belong to is the media. Her father, 219 girls hostage to sell them back to that the phrase “tribal war” can sound Ahmed Abdullah Elbagir, founded the Nigerian government.” dismissive, and a little worse coming Sudan’s al-Khartoum newspaper, sus- As a Muslim, is she ever called dis- from her than a white journalist. pended after a police crackdown on loyal? “That’s something I get accused It haunts her still that the West largely the press last year. Her mother is its of all the time. In Sudan, when I was ignored the tragedy of Darfur, which, publisher. In 1978, when she was born, reporting on Darfur, I was accused of aged 23, she reported for Reuters. It was, her father, then an opposition politician, being a traitor. Again, I completely she says, not an easy story to “package”. was in jail; he was only released three understand that some of these things It has been called genocide since (a years later, when his health had deteri- are very hard to hear. I mean, in Darfur phrase that might have helped), but orated with asthma. we were reporting on mass rape. Elbagir did not call it that at the time The family fled to Britain. Then, “No one wants to believe that they because she felt there were “very spe- during what was known as “the recon- are culpable in a system that could cific criteria to meet”. ciliation”, returned to Sudan to found have allowed something like that to What she did do was spend two the paper. In 1989, Omar al-Bashir happen, but I don’t think it is helpful weeks with the Janjaweed militia leader, – still Sudan’s leader – came to power to deny that it exists.” Musa Hilal. She recalls that “at one in a coup and the presses were seized. Is truth the most important thing to point, he said to me that these women Abroad at the time, Elbagir’s father her as a journalist? “I think that sounds couldn’t be raped, because they didn’t decided not to return home; his family, very serious.” have the moral character to be raped”. meanwhile, was refused permission to That is typical Elbagir, whose British Didn’t she want to explode? “You leave. It was two years before the fam- public schooling has left her with a kind of just think, ‘Well, I could have ily could be reunited in Exeter. There, middle-class­ English accent and a gift a very small moment in which there the young Nima went to a succession for self-effacement.­ would be limited satisfaction, or I can of schools. “I was bored and, basically, Yet the issue is serious. There is an just do my job.’” a nightmare in class,” she recalls. Never- illiterate Facebook page, entitled “RIP She is wary about defining her own theless, with her mother’s encourage­ Nima Elbagir”, which accuses her of Muslim faith. She prays five times a ment, she did well at A level and made spreading “propaganda” about tribal day and fasts, which is not always it to the LSE to study philosophy. �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 7 � After graduating, Elbagir was a There is a third, too, about women Nima’s narrative stringer for Reuters in Sudan and and war reporting. In 2011, following became a trainee journalist. She joined the sexual assault of a French TV More4 News at its launch in 2005. journalist, Reporters Sans Frontières “Jon Snow is the reason I ended up called on editors to stop sending in broadcasting,” she reveals. “I was women to cover the Tahrir Square on a panel at the British Museum protests in Cairo. Elbagir flew there about Darfur and Jon was moderat- soon afterwards. ing. He said to me: ‘Did you ever Was it too dangerous? “No, I think think about being a it’s the complete broadcaster?’ I was opposite in most filming at the time, for I’M NOT situations. For a start, Reuters. So he intro- the aggressiveness duced me to Lindsey TYPICAL OF tends to be less Hilsum. THE ETHNIC-­ when you roll down CNN There was this thing MINORITY the window and it’s called the Film Unit at a woman. I mean, Nima Elbagir, Senior International More4 News. We were EXPERIENCE I found that Correspondent, CNN, London supposed to report, IN THIS extraordinary.” produce and shoot our CNN, Elbagir Family Married, no children; lives own stories. I realised COUNTRY points out, is full of in Battersea that I was a better female role models. Born July 1978, Khartoum on-air reporter than a Her bosses are Father Ahmed Abdullah Elbagir, camera operator.” women who started out on the floor politician and newspaper publisher Channel 4 News was an “amazing as cable news was taking off. They Mother Ibtisam Affan, publisher outfit”, but small. Its offshoot, More4 would not think that way. Brought up Khartoum, Cairo, News, closed in 2009. Ambitious to Would it be different if she and her London, Exeter. do more foreign news, Elbagir joined husband of eight years, a Brit she met Education Private day schools in CNN in 2011. while in Sudan, had children? “I think the West Country; London School After she received her RTS award in that it’s a valid question. I think it’s a of Economics (BSc in philosophy) February, Simon Albury, Chair of the question that we would probably all Campaign for Broadcasting Equality, ask ourselves. 2002 Stringer for Reuters in wanted to know why the British “I don’t think that it would change Sudan, becoming one of the media had not managed to keep her. how I did things. I think that either first journalists to provide foot- This is not a thought that goes you believe it’s worth it or it’s not. I age from Darfur; taken on as a down particularly well with the CNN don’t think that having kids changes London-­based graduate trainee press officer who is sitting in on our this. You could cross the road and get 2005 More4 News and then chat. He points out that the channel mowed down.” Channel4 News produces 20 hours of programming Elbagir refuses even to call herself 2011 Joins CNN in its Johannesburg a week from London and is an estab- brave: “No, because we choose to go, bureau lished UK player. Nor is it one that is and we get to go home. I don’t think 2013 CNN, Nairobi bureau easy for Elbagir to address without it it should be mythologised. We get to 2015 CNN, London bureau sounding as if the BBC and Sky should leave. It’s the people who stay in those have been beating a path to her door. situations, it’s the women who went Biggest stories Unreported World Has she ever been discriminated back to Tahrir Square that night, who documentary Meet the Janjaweed; against in TV because of her race? were brave.” reporting from Mogadishu during “For me, it’s always been an advan- Looking back, she thinks her hairiest US air strikes in 2007; the Ebola tage. I always try and make the point moment was getting caught up in the outbreak; first international journalist that I’m not typical of the ethnic-­ ambush of a supply convoy along the to report from Chibok, Nigeria, after minority experience in this country. Jalalabad highway in Kabul. Boko Haram mass kidnappings It is very dangerous to try and glean I ask if a gun was pointed at her. Awards TV News Story of the Year any lessons from my trajectory. I am “Yes, but it was wall-to-wall traffic and and Broadcast Journalist of the privately educated. I speak Arabic there were Afghan families with picnic Year at Foreign Press Association fluently. I think it would be ridiculous baskets sitting on the floor. It never Awards 2008; Peabody Award if I hadn’t managed to find a job in kind of unfolds in that Hemingway-­ 2014; RTS Specialist Journalist of this climate. esque fashion. It’s always more prosaic the Year 2016 “There are two very separate con- than people imagine it is.” Recreation ‘I’m working on getting versations that need to be had. There’s As I say, Nima Elbagir is really like some hobbies’ the conversation about the value of no press-corps veteran you have ever What she watches in her hotel representation and how you make met. If CNN ever gets her behind a room CNN, BBC, Sky and Al that happen. And there’s a conversa- presenter’s desk, my guess is that she Jazeera Arabic ‘but plenty of tion about why it is so much easier will end up bigger than Amanpour. trashier telly when I’m at home’ for people who come from more Scooby-Doo might need to look out, privileged backgrounds.” too. She’s a star.

8 June 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television Picture redacted

Past its Olympic peak?

s the London 2012 process, was, once again, relief. Barbara Olympics concluded, Television sport Slater, the BBC’s Director of Sport the overwhelming since 2009, says the deal was vital: emotion for the vast “The coverage that the BBC will offer army of BBC execu- After Rio, Eurosport, going forward will still be incredibly tives, consumed for not the BBC, will call comprehensive – the baton for ‘never years by a project on the grandest of miss a moment’ hands on to Euros- scales,A was relief at a job well done. the Olympic shots. port and we retain our special place Just as trepidation slowly gave way as the curator of the best. There’s no to triumph for the organisers, so there Owen Gibson previews restriction on what we can show.” was widespread acknowledgement the corporation’s last But, first, there is the small matter of that London 2012 had also shown the Rio. This summer’s Games should be a BBC at its best. Like the volunteers exclusive Games carnival of colour and excitement, but who gave the Games its unique fla- Rio is facing greater challenges than vour, the athletes who delivered the rights to the Olympics for £920m, perhaps any Games of modern times. best haul of British medals for more leaving the BBC’s position uncertain. There is the threat of the zika virus than a century and Danny Boyle’s In the end, a compromise was bro- and the backdrop of political and singular opening ceremony, the BBC’s kered. From 2018 onwards, the BBC economic turmoil, plus growing cyni- coverage became part of the story of would share UK rights with the ambi- cism about doping and corruption. that golden summer. tious, Discovery-owned Eurosport. Slater says that the key for the BBC Few could have predicted that, four It paid around £110m and gave up will be to remember the lessons of short years later, the Rio Olympics its exclusive rights to the 2018 and London. “What London 2012 demon- would be the last Games at which the 2020 Games in order to be able to strated was that lots of audiences BBC would provide comprehensive show live coverage of the biggest want to experience the Games in coverage. Indeed, it is not long ago that moments across two channels until different ways – the breadth and the BBC was facing the unthinkable at least 2024. depth of the coverage [is what] people prospect of losing the Games alto- The general sense among BBC loved. That is definitely what we are gether. Discovery sent shockwaves Sport executives, negotiating their trying to do with Rio.” through the market last summer by way through a series of budget cuts The first-ever South American seizing the exclusive pan-European and a bruising Charter renewal Games is also the first to take place �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 9 The Rio Olympic park

� in a “minus” time zone since the Slater says that a key lesson of its accursed Atlanta Olympics in 1996. THERE WAS A coverage of the Fifa Women’s World This presents its own challenges. Cup from Canada last year was that Roger Mosey, Slater’s predecessor as SENSE DURING well-­produced catch-up content from Director of Sport, who oversaw the LONDON 2012 the previous evening could be a real hit. BBC’s London 2012 coverage, before THAT THE BBC “The massive advance from London leaving in 2013, says that the time zone 2012 is in things such as speed – we will present particular difficulties. “In OWNED THE have much better behind-the-scenes many ways, it’s easier when it’s the WHOLE THING… infrastructure facilitating everything other way around, and you’re broad- we do,” she says. “You’ll be able to take casting the big live moments in the IT WAS THE the alerts you want. You will be able to afternoon,” he says. ONLY ROUTE TO choose and customise your experience. Some of the biggest moments, such Different people will want really quick, as Usain Bolt’s attempt to win his third THE OLYMPICS really short-form content. All pulled successive 100m title, won’t be broad- together into a really good, bite-sized cast live until the early hours. product.” But, says the defiantly glass-half-full She points to the huge uplift in inter- The time difference will also mean Slater, that will allow a bigger live show- est in Britain’s gymnasts since the last an important catch-up role for BBC case for other sports in peak time in the Olympics, thanks to sustained success. Breakfast. Its iconic red sofa is physi- UK. Some of those, such as gymnastics “We are incredibly proud to be the cally moving down two flights of stairs and cycling, are among the sports that Olympic broadcaster. Those sports can to BBC Sport’s Salford home for the have boomed in the UK since the British be extremely successful – the figures duration of the Games. medal rush started in 2008. from the Glasgow World Gymnastics The live action will be spread across Slater, herself a former gymnast, Championships were phenomenal.” two channels – BBC One and, in who competed at the 1976 Olympics, Technology has also marched on. another reminder of the changes since says that if the BBC had lost the Olym- The sight of commuters catching up 2012, BBC Four, rather than the now pic rights it would have been more on highlights or “snack-sized” pro- online-only BBC Three. difficult to make the case for covering grammes on their smartphones has “The hours of BBC Four are being these sports in the years in between. become commonplace. extended. The Olympics is just too “We have always tried to serve those Meanwhile, families often settle good not to have two networks. With sports well with coverage from world down in front of their main television two channels, you can offer a proper and European championships. That’s with a tablet or phone on their lap, choice,” says Slater. Up to 24 sports will pretty difficult if you don’t have the augmenting or complementing their have dedicated streams online, with up Olympic Games,” she says. viewing on a second screen. to eight on the red button.

10 The BBC’s presenting team: from left, Michael Johnson, Gabby Logan, Clare Balding, Hazel Irvine and Sir Steve Redgrave BBC

“When you say 24/7, it’s not only season. He has a date with his under- across hours but across all media [RIO SUFFERS] THE pants in the Match of the Day studio. devices: 550 hours on BBC One and Olympic gold medallist Jonathan BBC Four, alongside Radio 5 Live,” she THREAT OF THE Edwards will also be missing from the enthuses. “More than 3,000 hours of ZIKA VIRUS AND TV coverage, having decamped to front live coverage; 24 streams. It’s relatively THE BACKDROP Eurosport’s programmes. He will, how- cost-effective to stream content.” ever, be reporting for BBC 5 Live. Mosey, now Master of Selwyn College, OF POLITICAL The balance between news and Cambridge, accepts that Rio will repre- AND ECONOMIC sport will also be more delicate than sent something of the end of an era for ever, given the plethora of issues swirl- the BBC’s Olympic coverage, but TURMOIL, PLUS… ing around these Games – not least, believes that the Eurosport deal was CYNICISM ABOUT the doping cloud that will hang over probably the best that it could have them, whether or not Russian athletes been done in the circumstances. DOPING are allowed to compete. “It was very good for the BBC that it And Channel 4 will also be busy did the deal with Eurosport, and the working out how to follow up the suc- deal it has emerged with is good,” he roles. The experienced line-up includes cess of its bold gamble to screen the says. “But there was a sense during Hazel Irvine, Jason Mohammad, Dan London Paralympics. Again, the chal- London 2012 that the BBC owned the Walker, Matt Baker, Helen Skelton, lenge will be to cope with the time zone whole thing and the only route to the Eleanor Oldroyd and Mark Chapman. – and the fact that the focus will inevi- Olympics was through the BBC. New pundits include former athletes tably be less intense than four years ago. “That sense of the nation coming Becky Adlington and Victoria Pendleton. For Slater, these Games – the last the together for one enormous event is The BBC will take more than BBC will broadcast on this scale but not, not something that you can replicate 400 staff to Rio. So far, it has avoided thankfully, the end of its long, emotive again,” he argues. “In the end, most the usual newspaper sniping about the link with the world’s biggest sporting people will get most of what they want scale of the operation. Numbers are event – will be a celebration, too, of from the BBC. 40% down on London 2012. what the BBC can bring to sport. “But that sense of enterprise and One day, says Slater, it may be possi- They could also be a reminder, at the entrepreneurship that we were able to ble to direct coverage from London but, end of a bruising period financially, of bring to London 2012 will get harder now despite advances in technology, the just what sport can bring to the BBC. that the rights landscape has shifted.” time delay is still too great at present. Slater says: “We’re trying to do the very Much of the presenting talent will be One notable absentee will be Gary best with the resources we have to familiar from London, with Gabby Logan Lineker, who will stay in the UK to bring to audiences as many of those and Clare Balding again taking central concentrate on the start of the football moments that matter to the public.”

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 11 evin Lygo’s new job is possibly the biggest in British television – and certainly the most ITV’s new exposed. ITV’s incoming Director of Television must, together with his freshly minted teamK of commissioning chiefs, arrest a decline in audience that saw the main hit-makers channel’s viewing share halve between 2000 and 2015. ITV programming Downton Abbey is gone, The X Factor is on the wane, and ITV hasn’t launched a breakout hit since Broadchurch in 2013. The company’s share price, which Neil Midgley asks if Kevin Lygo’s peaked at over 280p last July, fell close revamped commissioning team to 200p recently. There are fears of ad spend going has the X Factor down and competition from Netflix going up. While Niall Sloane remains Head of Sport, Michael Jermey keeps charge of news and Helen Warner stays at the helm of daytime, Lygo has brought in five hand-picked senior lieutenants to sort out primetime – and deliver the new hits that ITV so desperately needs. Television presents a user’s guide to the new team.

His challenge Peter Davey ‘There’s a massive amount of opportunity at ITV,’ says Davey. ‘We have a huge Head of Comedy breadth of shows in comedy entertain­ Entertainment ment – panel shows, studio shows, scripted comedy, live events, game shows, and more – for not only the main ITV channel, but also ITV’s digital chan- nels, particularly ITV2. ‘My brief is to work collaboratively with the whole production community, to find the best new entertainment and comedy ideas through the ITV week – and create Harry Hill’s TV Burp

more weekend hits such as Ninja Warrior.’ ITV pictures: All

How will he perform? However, a senior industry source ‘I’m really excited about how they are points to the fact that ITV is launching sending out all the signals of being highly three new talent shows – The Voice, competitive, and everything’s up for The Voice Kids and Little Big Shots (a UK grabs. ITV feels open for business,’ says version of a hit NBC kids’ talent search) Jon Thoday, Managing Director of inde- – into a talent-show market that is at pendent producer Avalon. ‘And we are least saturated, if not in serious decline. particularly interested in early-evening ‘The danger is that ITV has added two Who is he? Saturday and ITV2. new kids’ talent shows, when Britain’s The only one of the prime-time five to ‘We know, from having launched Harry Got Talent already relies heavily on child survive from Peter Fincham’s commis- Hill’s TV Burp in an early-evening Satur- acts,’ says the source. ‘They’ve tripled sioning team (he worked for former day slot, that it can be a great place to the burden on an already depleted Director of Entertainment Elaine Bedell), do something new. And ITV2 is proven ­casting pool. Either that weakens BGT, Davey has been promoted in the as a place where you can successfully or the other two shows aren’t nearly ­reshuffle, to work directly for Lygo. launch a show.’ as well cast.’

12 Her challenge ITV has been delicately negotiating a Siobhan Greene Greene is responsible for ITV’s ‘big five’ new deal with Simon Cowell, for three entertainment shows – The X Factor, more years of BGT and The X Factor Head of Entertainment Britain’s Got Talent, I’m a Celebrity… (through to 2019). At the same time, Get Me Out of Here! and Ant & Dec’s Greene has to successfully relaunch Saturday Night Takeaway, as well as their main BBC competitor, The Voice, the transfer of The Voice from BBC as an ITV show (and launch The Voice One. ‘The job of keeping these shows Kids, too). shining brightly is something that I feel ‘There are a lot of us who just don’t born to do,’ says Greene. ‘It’s going to think The Voice will do the business on be a fantastic challenge – but one that ITV,’ says the source. ‘Which, bizarrely, we are all up for. Plus, working with will leave Cowell in a much independent producers to create a new stronger position.’ generation of shows is, for me, the icing on the cake.’

How will she perform? ‘Shu is Yorkshire born and bred – if you could cut through her, she’d have “ITV” stamped like a stick of rock,’ says a senior industry Who is she? source. ‘She’s incredibly good As Head of Television at Simon Cowell’s with talent management, and Syco TV, Siobhan ‘Shu’ Greene helped she survived a pretty brutal to create and launch Britain’s Got Tal- battle with cancer. Don’t be ent and The X Factor. From 2012, she fooled by the broad grin and the worked under Lygo – in his former job at gorgeously naive persona. There’s ITV Studios – producing shows such as a ruthless winner in there who is Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. utterly driven to succeed.’

with its 2016 hits including The Durrells ITV Encore, a drama channel that is cur- Polly Hill and Marcella, its output is perceived as rently exclusive to Sky and which spends unoriginal. Moreover, its dramas are con- £10m or more annually on original com- Head of Drama sidered by viewers and critics alike to missions – so far, to little success. have been outshone by Hill’s own recent BBC shows, such as The Night Manager and Happy Valley.

How will she perform? ‘Polly is the best possible choice for ITV,’ says Patrick Spence, Managing Director of drama indie Fifty Fathoms, which makes Fortitude for Sky Atlantic and made The A Word for BBC One under Hill. ‘She has the courage to bring an era of ultra-conservatism in drama commis- sioning to an immediate end. ‘And the writing community will trust Polly when she says that ITV will give The Frankenstein Chronicles

them space to express themselves ITV pictures: All again. Writers who had turned their Who is she? backs on ITV will now come back.’ Shows such as The Frankenstein Over 10 years at the BBC, Hill worked her Even with Hill’s Rolodex, it will be a Chronicles and Houdini & Doyle have way up to be Controller of Drama Com- struggle to return ITV drama to its for- not set the ratings on fire. ‘But look at missioning – a job she took over from mer glories. ‘Name one iconic drama Hill’s more niche work on BBC Two, with Ben Stephenson only last May. character on ITV,’ says a drama industry shows such as Wolf Hall and The Hon- insider. ‘In the 1990s, there was Morse, ourable Woman,’ says the insider. ‘If any- Her challenge Robbie Coltrane in Cracker, Jane Tenni- body can make Encore work, she can.’ Though drama is consistently perform- son. Now there isn’t one.’ ing better for ITV than any other genre, Hill also faces the knotty problem of Continued on page 14 �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 13 Her challenge Another senior independent pro- Sue Murphy ‘We have huge strength in the schedule ducer puts it more bluntly: ‘There’s a bit pre-watershed with the soaps, but my of the Janet Street-Porter about Sue. Head of Factual aim is to find some great factual enter- Other creative people can find that Entertainment tainment series that can sit alongside overbearing and overwhelming.’ them,’ says Murphy. ‘Returnable series Industry figures also point to the are the holy grail. To get to where we want to be, we’ll have to take some risks and back the talent and the ideas we believe in.’

How will she perform? ‘I think she’s brilliant, I genuinely do,’ says Alex Fraser, who, as Creative Director of Maverick TV, made Embarrassing Bodies, How to Look Good Naked and 10 Years Younger for Murphy at Channel 4. ‘One of the things Sue’s very good at is thinking about what her audience wants – I don’t Hotel GB

think she’ll just impose Channel 4 sen- ITV pictures: All sibilities on ITV. But I think she will move away from the travelogues.’ disastrous Hotel GB, a mish-mash Fraser also believes that factual format that Optomen made for Chan- Who is she? commissioner Jo Clinton-Davis, who is nel 4 in 2012, saying that Murphy’s Murphy worked for Lygo at Channel 4, staying with ITV and reporting to Mur- time as a producer has been ‘quiet’ as his Head of Features and Factual phy, will be an asset. ‘Jo’s journalistic since then. ‘But ITV factual can only get Entertainment. More recently, she was interrogation, coupled with Sue’s rather better,’ says one. ‘It’s ground zero. It’s a Joint Managing Director of All3Media bold, brave, wonderful, populist mind, total disaster area, it’s a blasted heath, subsidiary Optomen. will be a bit of gold dust,’ says Fraser. where nothing is growing.’

across Channel 4’s entire portfolio Although Avalon’s Thoday is enthusi- Rosemary under Lygo – before joining Discovery astic about ITV2’s potential for finding Networks International in 2014. hit shows, another producer complains Newell that ‘every time I pitch to ITV2, they Her challenge want something different’. Head of Digital To make sense of ITV’s unruly channel Newell also has the tricky problem Channels and portfolio. This includes ITV2 (which of finding a role – if there is one – for benefits from BBC Three’s closure, international acquisitions on ITV’s main Acquisitions especially the transfer of Family Guy, channel after Pushing Daisies, Dexter but has suffered from a lack of consist- and The Americans failed to set audi- ency) and ITV Encore (which attracts ences on fire. woefully low audiences despite spend- ing millions on original drama).

How will she perform? ‘Rosemary is amazing,’ says a senior independent producer. ‘She has never sought the limelight – she’s very happy standing behind charismatic people such as Kevin, but she’s actually doing a lot of the hard work. She’s an incredibly clever, intui- tive, subtle operator. She Who is she? made the Channel 4 A former BBC One scheduler, Newell schedule sing for was Head of Channel Management Kevin.’ Family Guy

14 June 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television OUR FRIEND IN THE NORTH

Colin McKeown or a long, long, long Our culture that ignited in the 1980s time the problem traces the roots of strengthens every year. Liverpool has with being a TV pro- always been a city for storytellers. ducer in Liverpool his city’s special TV Writers of the calibre of McGovern, was very simply that culture to explain Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Alan Bleasdale there was no one to and Willy Russell have been the fore- trade with. In other its allure to writers fathers of a newer generation of writ- words, there was no TV culture. ers such as Nick Leather, Shaun FI’m happy to say that I was one of Duggan, Colette Kane, Esther Wilson, the founding fathers of a show that Arthur Ellison, John Fay, Nicky Allt ignited a new TV culture. Brookside and Dave Kirby. began on 2 November 1982 at 8:00pm These days, if you throw a stick out on the channel that gave birth to of a window in Liverpool you won’t independents, which was, of course, hit a writer, you’ll hit two. Liverpool Channel 4. is an inspirational city and therefore The trickle-down effect was that writers and film-makers gain a real independent producers started to sense of place, in the way that Mus- emerge in all genres, from drama and lims can with Mecca. documentary to reality TV. Brookside Film-makers and technicians who was the new kid in town, much were drawn to London are now scoffed at and maligned by its (well- taking every opportunity to come heeled) counterparts, such as Corona- back, whether on a project basis or tion Street, produced in Manchester. making that lucrative move from However, from its manufacturing south to north. base in Liverpool, Brookside embraced Liverpool writers tap into the fibre

both new technology and new tech- Echo Liverpool of the place, which yields a hard rock niques. We bought two Steadicams of matriarchs and underpins a phe- direct from Los Angeles. started his film career in Liverpool nomenal resilience. I don’t believe that Brookside was shot in a filmic, single-­ with a movie starring Albert Finney, any other city could have endured camera style and its production values called Gumshoe. and finally triumphed over the atroci- encouraged a new generation of British In 2014, I produced the award- ties that it was subjected to during the film-makers who wanted to produce winning film Common, which has 27 years of the Hillsborough tragedy. feature films. Along came Letter To helped change the “joint enterprise” The journey of a city was uniquely Brezhnev, part-financed by Channel 4, law – also written by McGovern. dramatised by Jimmy McGovern in and the 1980s revolution that was the Recently, we launched his latest his ITV drama Hillsborough, which first foundation of what we have today. film,Reg , the true story of Reg Keys, aired in 1996. I produce a range of drama in who challenged Tony Blair about Brit- It helped Liverpool fight back. One Liver­pool that starts at the low-beer ain’s involvement in the Iraq war. Reg of the best tools this wonderful place end with a series of one-off, Play for stars Tim Roth and Anna Maxwell could ever have had was fashioned by Today-style daytime dramas. Last Martin and was shown by BBC One on creative writing. As more world-class month saw us complete 45 episodes 6 June, the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. talent is being drawn to the city, its of this series, entitled Moving On, which The BBC believed in the film so future could not be brighter. was created by Jimmy McGovern. much that News at Ten was delayed At the higher end of the food chain, until 10:30pm. This is an accolade that Colin McKeown MBE is the founder of I have produced feature films such as the city of Liverpool can feel extremely LA Productions and the Liverpool Film Liam, directed by Stephen Frears. He proud of. Academy .

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 15 RTS/IET Lecture Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse makes a passionate case for science’s capacity to effect positive change. Matthew Bell reports Science as revolution Paul Hampartsoumian Paul

ir Paul Nurse delighted his large audience with a passionate defence of Nurse on… politicians and the EU science as a revolutionary force that can transform our lives, when he deliv- ‘Both government and parliamentary scientists in government – I don’t think ered this year’s Royal Television Society scrutiny procedures must be fully that’s true. We need to have politicians andS Institution of Engineering and aware of how science can contribute in government who understand how Technology Joint Public Lecture at the to policymaking, by ensuring that they science works and know how to get British Museum. have access to the highest-quality advice from science. In a wide-ranging speech, the Nobel scientific advice – and by heeding that ‘We have some champions of sci- Prize-winning geneticist discussed advice,’ argued Sir Paul Nurse. ence in government at the moment, the approach to science in the media, He added: ‘Scientific evidence and and we are heavily reliant on them. government and education. And – in argument must be listened to and George Osborne, and Gordon Brown advance of the EU referendum – gave treated with respect. before him, are both champions of strong backing from the scientific ‘For this to be effective, scientists science. community for staying in Europe. must adhere to the highest standards ‘I have to go to them every time The main thrust of Nurse’s lecture, of behaviour. They need to be open if I’m trying to develop something, “Science as revolution”, was that, and honest, free from hype, and be because mostly I am listened to throughout history, science has been a absolutely clear about what knowl- politely but I can’t get access.’ highly revolutionary activity. This, he edge is more certain and what is more Nurse argued that the UK scientific argued, remained the case and science tentative. This can be difficult when community strongly backed staying in would, provided “it is nurtured and the politicians and the public demand cer- the EU, although the media’s under- public properly engaged, continue to tainties that cannot be delivered.’ standable quest for balance could bring great benefits to us all”. BBC Worldwide CEO Tim Davie, who make Brexiters seem more numerous Nurse was awarded the Nobel Prize chaired the joint RTS/IET event, asked than they were. ‘There are only two in 2001 – with Leland Hartwell and Nurse to score UK politicians for their [from science] that I’ve seen in favour Tim Hunt – for work on the cell cycle. support of science. of EU departure and they are [inter- He is currently Director and Chief ‘In Britain, we are among the best viewed] all the time, as if there were Executive of the Francis Crick Insti- in the world. Certainly, a B+ – at least thousands of them,’ he said. tute, which conducts research into the for some of them,’ he replied. ‘Often, ‘If we want good science in this prevention, diagnosis and treatment of scientists say that we need more country, we have to stay in the EU.’ serious illnesses.

16 Nurse on… television and the media

The mass media, including television, individuals. In both spheres of activity, has to be ‘highly responsible’ in its good practitioners are often rather reporting, said Sir Paul Nurse. ‘[It] needs anarchic – trying to organise or manage to avoid sensationalism; to be careful them is like herding cats.’ about so-called balance, when certain But he warned that science was under opinions have little evidential support threat, particularly from ‘those who mix or are potentially highly flawed, to avoid up science, based on evidence and mystification; and to properly explain rationality, with politics and ideology, Picture redacted what can be difficult topics. where opinion, rhetoric and tradition ‘There are excellent communicators hold more sway’. of science in the mass media and they In response to a question from the should be given every encouragement,’ audience on scientific misinformation he added. ‘Let us not underestimate the spread by the media, Nurse said: ‘Scien- power of the mass media. Look at what tists like me have to be on the front foot happened with [Sir David] Attenborough in correcting those errors.’ and how interest in natural history and Initially, this should be done ‘politely zoology [grew] 30 years ago. Look at and courteously’, but, he said, firmer what’s happening with Brian Cox and action was needed for repeat offenders: physics today.’ ‘When they serially offend, we should Great advances in sciences, Nurse crush them and bury their ideas. argued, were ‘usually driven by creative ‘I don’t think the press does a bad job. He directed journalists to the Science and technically capable individuals’. He I often think that science journalists do Media Centre, which ‘has put together a drew a parallel with television, which an excellent job, only to have it ruined by panel of expert scientists who happen to also required ‘collaborative teamwork a terrible headline or a piece of spin, and be media friendly and don’t just look at and creative, technically competent that is very unfortunate.’ their shoes’.

Nurse on… science in school

‘For science to play its proper role, we require a public at ease with science and a democracy that can cope with the complex decisions involving science,’ Picture redacted stressed Sir Paul Nurse. ‘This needs to start in our schools. ‘We have to provide a science educa- tion that not only trains future scientists for the next generation – that’s only a very small fraction of the total popula- tion of schools – but also trains future citizens to cope with the increasing effects that science will have on our democracy. reliable knowledge. Every student who Nurse elaborated on these thoughts ‘Students need to be aware that leaves school should, for example, know during the question and answer session science is a way of thinking, of exper- the difference between astrology and that followed his lecture: ‘In schools, we imenting and making observations, of astronomy – I doubt that more than 50% have to have inspirational teachers, and weighing up evidence. do at the current time – and between the it is difficult to be an inspiring teacher in ‘They need to know that science can theories that underpin homeopathy and a difficult subject such as science. be tentative in its conclusions, but can evidence-­based medicine. ‘[School] shouldn’t be about learning also lead to advances in knowledge of ‘A key requirement of a modern edu- the periodic table; it should be about the world and of ourselves. cation system must be to equip a future understanding the basics of the periodic ‘Science is not simply a series of facts citizenry to cope with the impacts that table. and figures, although some of these can science and technology will have on ‘We should reform the curriculum so be extraordinary, stimulating and inspi- their lives and on the proper functioning that we excite, inspire and explain what rational: science is a process that builds of a healthy democracy.’ science is.’ Page 18 �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 17 in terms of their inherited genes, their Nurse on… revolutionary science cellular chemistry, their interactions with the environment…. ‘Modern science has had another, more curious, type of impact, which I believe is also going to be revolution- ary, on human knowledge. Einstein, in his theory of general relativity, proposed a continuum of space-time to account for gravity, which undermined the common-sense view of the world expressed in terms of time and three dimensions of space…. ‘Studies of atomic structure some Newton’s Principia

British Library years later led to quantum mechanics, a sort of Alice in Wonderland world, a � ‘When we think of revolutions, we circled the Sun; Galileo Galilei’s discovery place where Schrödinger’s cat can be usually consider major transformations of Jupiter’s moons; and Charles Darwin’s alive and dead at the same time… in the spheres of politics, economics, theory of evolution. ‘Revolutions are unsettling and often social organisation or religion, and not ‘The technological advances that strenuously opposed. This was the case of science,’ said Sir Paul Nurse. have arisen from science have been with Copernicus moving the Earth from ‘But to these we should add the legion: the development of energy the centre of the universe. Remember: revolutions brought about by science, sources; … the use of new materials… the [Spanish] Inquisition didn’t argue both cultural – through improved leading to the robotised factory of with Galileo; they simply showed [him] knowledge of the natural world and today; new means of transport; … and the instruments of torture.… of ourselves – and through the major the management of information with ‘At its best, society has shown it impacts that improved knowledge can the telegraph, the radio, the television, can deal with these threats. I am opti- have on… human civilisation.’ the computer and the worldwide web.… mistic that, in the future, society will Nurse illustrated his lecture with ‘There have been other revolutionary increasingly see the value of science in examples of scientists and their ground- consequences of science for society bringing about revolutionary changes breaking work: Nicolaus Copernicus, centred on… what it means to be to our knowledge, and revolutionary who suggested the then-revolutionary human. Like all other living organisms, improvements in society and the idea that the Earth and other planets human beings have to be understood human condition.’

Nurse on… science, ethics and morality

‘Studies based on evolutionary genetics work, which, with it, will bring us ways and animal behaviour have implications in which we can actually manipulate for ethics and morality,’ warned Sir Paul brains. This has significant conse- Nurse. ‘Science has a habit of invading quences. We will better understand other domains of human activity, which giving evidence in court if we under- at first sight appear to have no place stand more about memory and the for science. recall of memory. ‘This was the case for Galileo [Galilei] ‘We are a consequence of our genes, and [Charles] Darwin, and is still the our environment and of how we’ve case today. Modern scientific advances developed. Now, there may be aspects have increasing impacts on spheres of of our behaviour that are really strongly activity once thought to be the domain genetically determined. If that leads to, solely of politics, philosophy and of say, criminal behaviour, you have to ask Sir Paul Nurse

religion.’ Hampartsoumian Paul yourself: can someone really be guilty Discussing the impact that science of something they were born with? We has had on ethics and morality with the and the maintenance of community,’ have to think about these things.’ evening’s chair, Tim Davie, Nurse said he added. that science – in particular, ‘our under- Neuroscience, Nurse argued, was Sir Paul Nurse’s RTS/IET Joint Public standing of genetics and behaviour’ – another area where science could Lecture, ‘Science as revolution’, was could help to explain why people act in come into conflict with ethics and given at the British Museum in cen- an altruistic manner. morality. Although it was ‘still pretty tral London on 11 May. The event was ‘Altruism is key for personal relation­ crude’, neuroscience was ‘giving us chaired by BBC Worldwide CEO Tim ships, the development of society ways of understanding how our brains Davie and produced by Helen Scott.

18 June 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television The Durrells ITV The thrill of escapism

ave you heard firm’s MD, Lee Morris. Disarmingly, about the woman Content he looks like he might have strolled who named her in from a construction site. new production Neither resembles what you might company after her What is the secret think of as Forbes magazine’s idea of a dog? She then of a successful successful entrepreneur. Yet the inde- wentH on to make ITV’s most popular pendent producer has been financed new drama series since Cilla in 2014. Sunday-night drama? by US investment firm The Yucaipa The Durrells, described by The Daily Companies (owner of the Soho House Mail as “a masterclass in ideal Sunday Sally Woodward Gentle club chain), founded by billionaire telly”, was the first show produced by shares her recipe with Ron Burkle. Sid Gentle Films to be broadcast. But appearances can be deceptive. More than 6 million people tuned Steve Clarke A cursory glance at their CVs confirms in regularly this spring to watch the that Woodward Gentle and Morris form sun-soaked, feel-good adventures of of Development, and leading drama an extremely dynamic drama duo. an English family struggling to adjust independents Kudos (as Managing So don’t be surprised if, before long, to life in 1930s Corfu. Director) and Carnival (as Creative they join the growing list of British The six-part remake, based on Director). drama indies that have been acquired Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other “I wanted to call the company Sid, by multinational content and distribu- Animals, gave ITV a much-needed hit after my ancient Bassett Hound, but tion companies. Unless things go very after several high-profile flops. Sea- there was already a firm called Sid, so much awry, the peculiarly named Sid son 2 will start filming in Corfu late I had to use my surname as well,” she Gentle Films looks set to make a this August. explains. splash with those broadcasters and Sid Gentle Films was formed two Woodward Gentle, dressed in a platforms that are hooked on drama. and a half years ago by the experi- comfortable jet-black frock and gold The pair have around 40 years’ enced British TV drama producer jewellery, is sitting on a small, lived-in combined experience in making Sally Woodward Gentle. Her career sofa in her cramped, homely office in successful, and often outstanding, spans the BBC, where she was Head London’s Fitzrovia. Next to her is the TV drama. Their portfolio embraces �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 19 THERE’S A LOAD OF NOT VERY GOOD DRAMA… THERE ARE A LOT OF REMAKES, ADAPTATIONS AND SPIN-OFFS. THEY FEEL QUITE SAFE

� single films, serials and returning Post-Downton Abbey, ITV needed series. They collaborated on Enid, another period drama to cheer up and Crime wave is the BBC Four biopic starring Helena charm audiences on Sunday evenings. drama overkill ­Bonham Carter as Enid Blyton, and on Morris had worked on the production Channel 4’s award-winning adaptation of the BBC’s 2005 adaptation of My Fam- of William Boyd’s Any Human Heart. ily and Other Animals, a single 90-minute Woodward Gentle oversaw four sea- film, coincidentally also scripted by sons of ITV’s gothic crime saga Simon Nye. Whitechapel, and she helped to develop To make it different, Woodward Gen- BBC One’s schedule-defining Spooks. tle knew that the new version needed For good measure, it’s worth men- to put Gerald’s mother – rather than tioning that Morris was a producer on the boy, cute though he was – at the the brilliant British film The Damned centre of the story. United and several high-end period “When you’ve got a single mother pieces, often filmed in faraway places. and four children, you’ve got this The two met at the BBC. “If you’re amazing family dynamic,” she explains. filming abroad and the production’s “We knew the book was funny, with gone tits up, Lee was the man to send beautifully crafted characters, and how in, a bit like the SAS,” says Woodward many episodic adventures there were. Gentle. In two pages, there are ideas for an It was this kind of ability that proved entire episode.”

Sid Gentle Films Gentle Sid so vital in producing The Durrells in She continues: “Basically, we were Corfu during the last Greek financial thinking about what we’d want to Sally Woodward Gentle: ‘I like meltdown. At the time, people were watch at 8:00pm on a Sunday that’s crime drama but I do think that allowed to withdraw no more than E50 unpatronising and has a slight literary there’s too much.… I did four sea- a week from a Greek bank. quality.… You’ve got family, you’ve got sons of Whitechapel and, before So, was there ever a risk that the com- animals. It’s total escapism.” that, I served my time on Waking pany would run out of money during Woodward Gentle makes it all sound the Dead. the two-month Corfu shoot? “No, but very easy. Yet, producing a show that is ‘There is something very reas- we had to take out lots of euros in our so effortless to watch requires hard suring about crime drama. You knickers,” replies Woodward Gentle. graft – and a fresh eye. know where you are; the crimes She is speaking metaphorically. “The Steve Barron, who directed three of get solved. You can have that Greek banking crisis made everybody the six The Durrells and whom Wood- vicarious thrill of crime. here very nervous about lending us ward Gentle had first met when he ‘But there are far too many that money,” explains Morris. “Once we’d was helming pop videos (Barron are too similar. There is a law of got the funding in place, the first ques- directed Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean diminishing returns in certain types tion anyone asked was: ‘What are you video), was ignorant of the books. He of story. Some of them are a little going to do with the money – you’re had never watched a single ITV drama. bit po-faced and don’t actually not going to put it in a Greek bank?’ To rectify this, she sent him several. enjoy the genre enough. But we had to.” These included episodes of Downton ‘There are some people who Whenever a technician or an actor Abbey and Poirot. Barron came back and make crime drama because they flew out from London to join The Dur- said: “Downton, I’ve worked it out, it’s know they can sell it but, actually, rells on location, they were usually just a series of mid-shots.” are slightly embarrassed about given a large wad of euros to accom- “He didn’t know what you could and trying to make it about something. pany them. couldn’t do, so he was very true to the ‘They should just enjoy it as a It sounds a bit like the widowed Mrs material and made it quite magical,” genre. We wish we had a crime Durrell (played to perfection by Keeley opines Woodward Gentle, whose drama. We’ve just picked up Rag Hawes in the series) getting by on a father worked as a set designer at Doll, a book by a new author, wing and a prayer in her new, decrepit Thames Television. pre-publication. We hope that it will home in the Ionian Sea. Aside from The Durrells, Sid Gentle be our crime drama.’ Seemingly, nothing was left to chance has two other shows on the go, plus in developing or producing The Durrells. several in development. The latter

20 “There’s a load of not very good drama,” she adds. “I was just looking at the new shows at the LA Screenings and they all look really dull. “This,” she concedes, “is pretty strong coming from the makers of The Durrells, which is a remake. But there are a lot of remakes, adaptations and spin-offs. They feel quite safe. There’s nothing I am jealous of.” Morris adds: “Everything is execu- tion dependent. The Durrells could have been rubbish. We could have made it in a way that wasn’t the joy it’s been.” Woodward Gentle remembers the time, not that long ago, when she worked at BBC drama. People were demoralised during the reality boom, especially when reality formats won higher ratings than their own shows. “In the drama community, people didn’t know what to do, because drama costs three times as much as reality,” she recalls. “Today, thankfully, drama is selling worldwide and it’s selling for lots of money.” BBC One’s forthcoming SS-GB

BBC Small may no longer be beautiful in a consolidating entertainment land- includes at least one comedy. Sky Arts have got SS-GB away. You’d never have scape. Sid Gentle, which employs a showed the four-part Neil Gaiman’s got the cash to make something like full-time staff of six (including Wood- Likely Stories last month. The cast fea- that,” suggests Morris. ward Gentle and Morris), looks to be tured such talent as Tom Hughes, Today, content providers are deter- bucking this trend. What, then, is their Johnny Vegas, George MacKay, Rita mined to bring feature-film-style end-game: a sale to a broadcaster or a Tushingham and Kenneth Cranham. ­production values to the shows they big studio? Jarvis Cocker provided the music. commission and, if necessary, spend “It isn’t why we set up,” insists More ambitious is an adaptation of big money. Woodward Gentle. “If something came Len Deighton’s SS-GB. The story ima­ So how, in such a competitive TV along and wanted to buy us for lots of gines what might have happened to drama marketplace, does Sid Gentle money, of course we’d have to think Britain under Nazi rule following the Films intend to make its mark? Are its about it very seriously.... Second World War. directors worried that the company “We don’t have to fulfil any demands Woodward Gentle and Morris are might become a one-hit wonder? from a big distribution machine. Had anxious that audiences might confuse “It’s all about either storytelling or we been owned by someone else, I the new, five-part series with Ama- a bit of bucolic escapism,” says Wood- don’t know whether we’d have been zon’s recent version of Philip K Dick’s ward Gentle. “When you read a project allowed to do such a small-scale pro- The Man in the High Castle, set in a post- you ask yourself: what is the pleasure duction as Neil Gaiman for Sky Arts... 1945 parallel world when the Germans is this? There’s got to be pleasure. “We don’t need that distraction at and the Japanese have partitioned the “It can be pleasurable because it’s the moment. Also, we’d want to part- United States. thrilling. It puts you on the edge of ner with the right people, because you If the show – expected to be shown your seat. Or it can be pleasurable would probably have a fantastic on BBC One next winter – follows the because it’s sunshine and animals. Or 12 months but then, once the excite- pedigree of The Durrells, they need not it can be thrilling because it’s intellec- ment had worn off, I am sure people worry. “Five years ago, we wouldn’t tually stimulating.” would want their pound of flesh.”

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 21 Testing time ahead for Ofcom

fcom built its magnification of what it does, and ­reputation as a Regulation more than just expanding the present high-powered com- area of operation of the Content Board.” petition and market-­ Regulating the BBC may require the oriented communi- Ofcom is about to recruitment of up to 50 new staff to cations regulator. become the BBC’s augment Ofcom’s current 787-strong ItO is capable of facing down telecoms ranks, all by 1 January 2017. titans, mobile-merger tycoons and the first external regulator. One key issue will be how it dis- ambitious Murdoch family. charges the duty to ensure BBC impar- But, as it starts the run-up to becom- Maggie Brown tiality and accuracy. Seaton observes: ing the BBC’s first external regulator, considers the impact “The BBC trails clouds of politics. There it faces the need to change its culture are far greater pressures on it than and skills base. this will have on the on other public service broadcasters. The decision to transfer regulation Channel 4 doesn’t face a relentless of the BBC to Ofcom was confirmed by organisation attack from the right.” culture secretary John Whittingdale on Ofcom’s apparent lack of readiness 12 May. His judgement was informed expanding. It will need more of the may be partly explained by a reluctance by Sir David Clementi’s review of the right people.” to take on the job. As the BBC Trust’s governance and regulation of the BBC, And it will need them fast. Ofcom reputation dimmed, Ofcom’s top brass which was published in March. This is light on people with expertise in – former Chair Dame Colette Bowe, emphatically handed the task to broadcasting. The regulator recently ex-Chief Executive Ed Richards, the Ofcom: “It is clear that Ofcom, in addi- lost a clutch of experienced content current Chair, Dame Patricia Hodgson, tion to its role as the economic regula- executives, notably Peter Davies, and Chief Executive Sharon White – all tor of the broadcasting industry, is also Director of Content Policy. began singing from the same hymn a public service regulator.” Previous cutbacks deprived it of a sheet. They did not seek or want to Whittingdale’s decision, the official senior partner post covering content regulate the BBC, they said, but would death knell for the BBC Trust, has been regulation and standards, last occupied do the Government’s bidding. widely welcomed. Professor Jean Sea- by Stewart Purvis. Its Content Board is Ofcom has been careful to show ton, the BBC historian, says: “Ofcom currently chaired by non-broadcaster respect to the BBC Trust and its Chair, has turned itself into a very good regu- Bill Emmott, ex-editor of The Economist. Rona Fairhead: it welcomed the deci- lator.” Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Pro- In April, it recruited former Sky sion to let her remain as the head of fessor of Management and Marketing News chief Nick Pollard to the Content the new BBC unitary board until Octo- at the London Business School, notes: Board on a three-year term. ber 2018. This will give continuity and “The good news is that it’s a genuinely “This is a considerable challenge for stability to the transition. evidence-based regulator.” the Ofcom Board, and for the Content Also, Ofcom does not appear to have However, the considered view of Board that sits beneath it,” adds our prepared a scoping plan for its new many observers is that its new role will industry observer. “It will need to set duties ahead of the BBC Charter be a huge challenge for an organisation up a new set of relationships. It is a renewal white paper – to the apparent run by economists, and that prefers surprise of the BBC Trust. “Ofcom metrics and light-touch regulation seems very cautious,” muses one (wherever possible) to softer, quality-­ THE BBC TRAILS source familiar with the BBC body. based value judgements. As Barwise This is in contrast to the DCMS, observes: “The most important issues CLOUDS OF which aims to have finished its draft around broadcasting are not economic POLITICS. THERE BBC Charter by the summer recess. ones, but editorial.” Ofcom will have the task of issuing A senior industry observer says: ARE FAR GREATER the BBC with an operating framework “Content regulation is not unknown PRESSURES ON IT consistent with the revised Charter. ground for Ofcom – it does it for This will set out the BBC’s obligations. everyone else [but the BBC]. But this THAN ON OTHER The framework will include operat- is a whole new order of magnitude; it PUBLIC SERVICE ing licences for BBC broadcasting and is a very, very big job and a change of describe in some detail what it should scale for Ofcom. This is more than just BROADCASTERS be delivering in television, radio and

22 programming from the nations and regions, out-of-London and independ- ent production. It also conducts market-impact assessments. Under the new system, Ofcom would be the final arbiter of public-value tests. The BBC Trust Unit is an obvious source of expertise for Ofcom. It has some 60 staff positions and spent £2.5m of its £10.2m annual budget on Ofcom fees in 2014-15, according to the last BBC Annual Report and Accounts. The unit oversees editorial standards, guidelines, monitors compliance, manages the Trust’s impartiality semi- nars and reviews, and conducts audi- ence research. Defining distinctiveness is a real worry. There is widespread fear that competitors, which are also regulated by Ofcom, will use it to attack the BBC’s range and popularity. The BBC white paper says it is “a requirement that the BBC should be substantially different to other provid- ers across each and every service, both in primetime and overall”. It describes distinctiveness as a mix of quality, original UK programming, Sharon White

Ofcom together with a level of risk-taking, innovation, challenging audiences, online. For the first time, there will be Ofcom, according to a spokesman, is creative ambition and range. operating licences for the devolved “confident that, with the right resources Tait is an optimist: “I am sure the BBC nations, Wales, Scotland and Northern and planning, we can undertake our board will not want to be in dispute Ireland. The new unitary board will be new responsibilities effectively and with Ofcom. Neither will Ofcom want responsible for all BBC activities. independently”. There is no plan to set to be seen to be trying to force the BBC “The really interesting question is up a special BBC unit. board to do things it doesn’t want.” how Ofcom proposes to hold the BBC By way of comparison, Channel 4 and Alex Towers, Director of the BBC to account for the delivery of its remit Ofcom have a considerable amount of Trust, says: “The details of the new and the additional duty of distinctive- contact. Their executives meet regulatory structure have to be inked ness,” says a former Ofcom insider. ­frequently, with formal sessions and in. We want to get on with this “The regulator is going to have to make regular in-depth reviews. urgently, to provide some certainty sure that the BBC board exercises that Ex-BBC Governor and Trust member and allow a smooth transition.” responsibility. Richard Tait points out, meanwhile, Ofcom’s track record suggests that “Ofcom will not be running the BBC. that “there is already a degree of it would be very unwise to underesti- It will have to develop a new way of co-operation between the BBC Trust mate the organisation. working with the board, but that board Unit and Ofcom”. The two bodies have If it succeeds in adapting to being doesn’t yet exist. It will be a massively a memorandum of understanding. The the BBC’s external regulator, the scaled-up version of what Ofcom does regulator is responsible for overseeing watchdog will emerge as a supremely to regulate Channel 4, but this is new a range of targets and quotas in news, powerful media and communication territory [and] so much bigger.” current affairs, original productions, regulator.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 23 Facebook The lost generation

arol Thompson, 26, average number of hours of television spends her day battling Television news news watched during 2014 by all adults to get the attention of was 108; for those aged 16-24, a mere a classroom of small 25 hours. Worse still was the speed of children. She gets up A growing number of change: the average time spent viewing at 6:15am, runs to work, under-35s are ignoring television news by UK adults has fallen startsC preparing for meetings and adds 9% since 2010; but, for those aged her finishing touches to lesson plans. TV news. Can they be between 16 and 24, it was down 25% At 9:00pm she relaxes on the sofa. Tom Sanderson, a 23-year-old who Watching the news is the last thing on persuaded to watch lives in London and works in market- her mind. broadcast bulletins, ing, avoids scheduled TV, let alone the “I generally watch television that I BBC’s flagship Ten O’clock News. have recorded, rather than watching asks Sanya Burgess? “I never watch it,” he says. “It’s anything live or simply watching something that I guess I would like to things because they happen to be on,” young people today are less interested say I’d do to keep up to date… but I feel explains Thompson, whose viewing in news than they were in the past. there’s never any point in catching up choices tend towards All 4, iPlayer, ITV What has changed is that they have with TV news. By then, something else Hub and Sky Go. more options to choose from, and has happened and it’s old news.” Even if she had the time, she says news is losing out in that competition,” The report notes that, for younger that she wouldn’t spend it watching the explains Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director people in the UK, beyond-the-box news on TV. She struggles to relate to of Research at RISJ and co-author of video accounts for half of all viewing. the newsreaders and the topics, which the report, “What is happening to tele- But for young renters with limited are often reported in ways that, she vision news?”. disposable income such as Sanderson, says, she finds difficult to connect with. In the UK, the number of households owning a TV isn’t always possible. Thompson’s responses are typical of owning TV sets is declining. Average This means that he can’t flick over her generation. A recent report from TV viewing per head of the population to watch the news if he happens to be the Reuters Institute for the Study of has decreased by 10% in three years, watching TV at the right time, some- Journalism (RISJ) showed that people from a high of 241 minutes per day in thing that he used to do when he lived aged 16-35 are rapidly losing interest in 2012 to 216 minutes per day in 2015, with his parents. viewing television news. according to the report. Sanderson finds out about the news “There’s no evidence to suggest that The authors also found that the through word of mouth and social

24 media. He adds: “I no longer watch the to showing clips, to hosting clips, which news, usually due to a lack of time and now auto-play. By the autumn of 2015, not being at home in the evenings. the site reported more than 8 billion “I do think that it’s something that video views per day. could become a problem. I wonder if NowThis News, another brand built we will become a generation of oblivi- around online viewing, also revealed ous youths, who don’t know what is dramatic growth, going from 1 million happening around them unless they views in 2014, to 50 million per month Rasmus Kleis Nielsen are tempted by click bait or it’s com- early in 2015, to 200 million by the pressed into a message 140 characters summer and 600 million a month by long. As much as I hope not, it’s exactly the end of the year. THERE IS NO how I act.” Looking back at his own experience, ONE RECIPE This sort of response doesn’t come Sam Kemble, 34, a research associate as a surprise to Nielsen, who says: “The from Rugeley in Staffordshire, believes AT THIS STAGE, most interesting thing for us is that there that people don’t grow up until they hit BUT THERE IS are many broadcasters that are trying to 30, become homeowners and start a think about how to do new forms of family of their own. A GROWING television news.” “It’s only then that the likes of politics REALISATION He adds: “But even the most innova- and school development, for example, tive and forward-looking organisations become important,” he says. “People THAT THINGS probably recognise that no one has need to pay more attention to their HAVE TO cracked it yet. There is no one recipe own lives and not what Kim and Kanye at this stage, but there is a growing are doing.” CHANGE realisation that things have to change.” Kemble adds: “I don’t think that it is The Brownlow sisters, Jess, 17, and an issue with broadcasters, it’s society.” Maya, 19, who live in Reading and He watches BBC Breakfast news on Oxford, both watch television mainly weekday mornings before work, and through on-demand services. They reads a free newspaper during his keep up to date with the news online. commute. Jess, who is a student at an inde- Tali Boswell, 17, from Wrexham in pendent school in Berkshire, regularly north Wales, agrees with this some- uses All 4, Netflix, Amazon Prime and what harsh verdict. He says: “Although iPlayer, but rarely watches the news. it is not fair to categorise young people, Maya Brownlow “Usually, Facebook will show some- as there are many who are very inter- thing’s going on and, if it’s interesting ested and concerned by current events to me, I’ll look it up,” she explains. and news, I would say that the major- TWITTER AND Maya, an undergraduate at Oxford, ity are not interested in news because FACEBOOK ARE describes her viewing routine as they are distracted by social media and “erratic and often based on how much other things.” HOW THE VAST time I have. I can binge-watch TV or Boswell is a student and part-time MAJORITY OF not at all. I like to keep up with the tennis coach. He watches drama on major news events but I often find it Netflix. When he does watch live TV, PEOPLE MY AGE all quite overwhelming.” it’s sport. He admits that he should do STAY AFLOAT She adds: “News on the TV means more to keep up with the news. He that you only see what has been chosen finds out what’s happening in the WITH THE NEWS for you. Certain events are decided to be world via social media or by listening not worth covering, which I don’t like, to the car radio. even if I understand the necessity of it. “I think that broadcasters should “Broadcasters should definitely use promote news on social media, such as more social media as an outlet; Twitter having a news live stream that could and Facebook are how the vast majority be accessed on Facebook or Twitter of people my age stay afloat with the news feeds,” he suggests. He also thinks news. Any news on TV should be kept that television news does not try hard short and to the point, and perhaps be enough to appeal to younger audiences. published on social media after it has “There is a growing realisation that Sam Kemble been aired.” things have to change if you want to Video on social media and video-­ move beyond serving a shrinking and sharing platforms have clearly poached ageing audience,” warns Nielsen. I DON’T THINK viewers from traditional television. “Tele­vision news providers have to THAT IT IS AN YouTube has reported more than 8 bil- think about providing a digital-first lion daily video views. The messaging experience that works for mobile ISSUE WITH app Snapchat claimed 8 billion daily media, social media and that bring the BROADCASTERS, views by the end of February. moving image and audio-visual news Facebook evolved from posting links into the 21st century.” IT’S SOCIETY

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 25 Where next for RTÉ?

hen Dee Forbes will be no shortage of challenges. Apart arrives in Irish broadcasting from the strong presence of Sky and Dublin to take the availability of all the British chan- up the position nels via cable, RTÉ is likely to face of Director-­ Raymond Snoddy intensified rivalry from TV3. The com- General of Irish assesses the challenges pany was bought last July by Virgin national broadcaster RTÉ, she will be Media and its owner, Liberty Global, W facing Dee Forbes, E the first woman to hold the post and for 80m (£62m). the first to come from outside the the Irish national To add to this complexity, UTV, the organisation in almost 50 years. Northern Irish commercial broadcaster, Moreover, Forbes, currently on gar- broadcaster’s first launched UTV Ireland at the beginning dening leave as President and Manag- of last year. Then, in October, UTV sold ing Director of Discovery Networks, female Director-General its television channels to ITV for £100m, Northern Europe, will be returning to including UTV Ireland, which continues Ireland on something like half her to broadcast despite making heavy present salary. losses and, so far, a limited impact. “Although it was a tough professional “Ireland is one of the most competi- decision to leave Discovery, the personal tive TV markets in the world but, in decision to return to Ireland and lead terms of television, RTÉ is in a reason- its biggest broadcaster, RTÉ, is the ably healthy position. RTÉ One is still opportunity of a lifetime,” said Forbes the most popular channel by a long on her surprise appointment. shot, still a lot more popular than TV3,” She was first approached for the RTÉ says Michael Foley, a journalist and job five years ago but said then that the academic specialising in Irish media. time wasn’t right. It is probable that the “Obviously, people are watching only job in the Irish media that she Picture redacted television in different ways but that’s would ever have accepted is the one no different to where she [Forbes] she will now take on as soon as agree- was,” he adds. “Everybody grumbles ment can be reached with Discovery. but, in the main, the idea of public Forbes, whose parents used to run service broadcasting is actually sup- the East End bar in the village of Dri- ported in Ireland. RTÉ has come out moleague, West Cork (population 468), of the recession intact.” has lived and worked in London for RTÉ also owns Saorview, the Irish 26 years. But, in a sense, she has never equivalent of Freeview, which is now really been away. the primary broadcast platform follow­ For years, her usual routine has been ing analogue switch-off in 2012. It to spend the week working in London shows Ireland’s most popular soap, Fair and then commute to her home in City, and the long-running chat show West Cork. Her partner is also Irish. The Late Late Show. Jeff Ford, former Director of Content The first major item to hit Forbes’s at TV3, the commercial channel that in-tray will be negotiations with the is RTÉ’s main rival, concedes that her Irish Government on a new licence- appointment may have been unex- fee settlement. pected “but it’s a fantastic appointment “The licence fee has been frozen for RTÉ. Her standing in the industry since 2011. Talks with the Government is second to none. The experience and are ongoing,” says Kevin Bakhurst, different view she brings will enable her RTÉ’s Managing Director, News and to take a fresh look at what RTÉ does.” Current Affairs and Deputy Director-­ Ford, now Senior Vice-President for General. Bakhurst, former Controller of Content Development for Europe and the BBC News Channel, was one of the Africa at Fox International Channels, favourites to land the top job. adds: “She’s a girl from rural Cork and RTÉ is financed by a E160 (£124) she has all that international broad- licence fee but can also take advertising. casting experience. It’s the best of both The Irish broadcaster has lost around worlds. It’s a coming-home story.” €9m (£7m) because a limit was When Forbes finally takes over, there imposed on a Government licence-fee

26 subsidy for those on social security. could be one to watch for in future. And, at 15%, Ireland has one of the high- WE HAVE NOT While Forbes tends her garden, before est TV-licence evasion rates in Europe. moving into RTÉ HQ, the broadcasting A plan to introduce a broadcasting GIVEN UP ON battlefield in Ireland is still fluid. Will charge on every household, irrespective SPORT, AS THE ITV axe the loss-making UTV Ireland or of what devices are being used, which BBC HAS DONE decide to invest more to make it a was suggested by former communica- serious player? And why did Liberty tions minister Pat Rabbitte, has been invest in the free-to-air channel, TV3? dropped. Could it have anything to do with Inevitably, Forbes will be seeking state ­Liberty’s minority stake in ITV? help to do something about an evasion Ford is convinced that the status quo rate that, lost revenue aside, makes will be hard to sustain. Something has financial planning difficult at RTÉ. to give, he believes: “The marketplace Another big issue is the struggle to protect RTÉ’s sports rights from a potentially well-funded predator in the shape of TV3. “We have not given up on sport, as the BBC has done,” says Bakhurst. “Apart from the Olympics, Champions League and the Euros, we have the GAA [Gaelic sports such as Irish foot- ball and hurling].” But, in what may be the shape of things to come, TV3 outbid RTÉ in November for the live rights to the Six Picture redacted Nations Championship for the four years from 2018. This was a serious blow in a country obsessed by rugby. Ford suspects that TV3 will get increased budgets to compete not just on sports rights, but on producing more local programming. “Liberty is not a company to buy a channel such as TV3 and just not do anything. I think that it obviously has a strategy in play. I am sure it will be funding the channel at a level to get it to the next stage,” he says. One of the things that Forbes may have to consider in future is entering into partnerships to protect access to as much live sport as possible. is not big enough for that number of Forbes declines to discuss her plans IRELAND IS ONE commercial broadcasters, given that for RTÉ before she arrives, but it would OF THE MOST RTÉ also takes advertising. The adver- be strange, given her experience, if she tising pot is quite tiny and to have did not bring an international outlook COMPETITIVE another commercial broadcaster [UTV to RTÉ. TV MARKETS Ireland] in the market is problematic. The main focus will have to be And why, exactly, is Liberty Global delivering a public service broadcast- IN THE WORLD running a free-to-air TV station?” ing mandate for the people of Ireland. BUT… RTÉ IS IN The only certainty for Forbes is that She has particular knowledge of the her weekend commute is about to Nordic countries. They have similar-­ A REASONABLY become more difficult. Given the state sized populations to Ireland and are HEALTHY of Irish roads, it will probably take her the home of successful noir thrillers. longer to get from Dublin to West Cork Perhaps Nordic-Irish collaborations POSITION than flying to Cork from London.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 27 RTS Futures

An RTS Futures workshop gave essential advice to those who want to establish a TV career. Matthew Bell sat in

Winstanley’s way to win How to get – and keep – a job in TV small group of televi- One live studio show Test the Nation: The n Be respectful of your colleagues and remember your personal sion hopefuls discov- National IQ Test). hygiene ered how to – and, just Her first series production manager as importantly, how role came on the 2005 E4 reality show n Be alert to boundaries not to – go about Beauty and the Geek. Recently, she n Dress smart casual gaining a foothold worked on the Channel 5 documentary n Never save the talent’s number inA the industry at an intimate RTS The Woman with No Face. on your phone Futures event held in late May. Among the 14 young people at the n Rejection is rarely personal Jude Winstanley, an experienced RTS Futures workshop were would-be production manager and founder of producer/directors, editors, programme n Consider each job as a stepping the industry online jobs board The developers and production managers. stone Unit List, offered her personal dos and They listened to Winstanley explain n People have long memories of don’ts over the course of a revealing how to: craft an effective CV; approach negative events – it’s a small two-and-a-half-hour workshop. production companies; land and per- industry Winstanley began her TV career in form in an interview; and build a rep- n Keep up with industry events 1997 as a runner on game and quiz utation to help secure the next job. and developments in working shows, including the ITV series Dale’s Emails to would-be employers practices Supermarket Sweep and Blockbusters. She should be written with care. “You have n A credit just means a contract, moved on to Production Secretary (on to make sure that the employer has no not your name on the actual Channel 5 quiz show One To Win) and reason to put them in the bin,” said credit roller then production co-ordinator (on the Winstanley. CVs should list hard skills, Sky One dating series The Villa and BBC including the ability to drive, speak

28 Where to look for work

foreign languages or use key software, If all goes well and a position is ‘As a runner, there are different such as Photoshop. Professional work offered, she advised: “Do the job you’re genres you can look at, such as should be included, the most recent hired to do and do it really well. Build a entertainment, documentary, natural first, followed by work-experience reputation – when you’re in a job, that history or factual entertainment. placements and university projects. is the easiest time to find the next one. ‘There are opportunities for log- Over a decade of employing people, “People have to create a reputation gers – that’s what continuity people and 20 years working for themselves. used to do – which involves look- in television, the pro- Because the pool of ing at the rushes and making notes, duction manager has IF [THE JOB] people is so great and primarily for the edit. Sometimes, been sent many CVs competition for jobs this includes making transcriptions, with terminal errors IS FOR A is so high, you have normally a word-by-word record of – not least, applicants RETURNING to do more than just master interviews. omitting their name or your job.” ‘There are a few more oppor- phone number. “The SERIES, At work, she advised tunities in scripted comedy and name is really rather MAKE SURE junior staff to net- drama now than for some time. important – otherwise,­ YOU WATCH work, ask questions These could include work as a who do I ring?” said and, if they have a location marshal or as a day run- Winstanley. AN EPISODE spare moment, offer ner, which pops up now and then A covering email, AND HAVE to help colleagues. on big entertainment shows. This she continued, “needs Away from the job, is often a day’s work in a regional to address everything AN OPINION Winstanley suggested location because the [company the employer is look- ABOUT IT that TV newcomers needs to] draw on local experience. ing for. Think hard should try to build ‘Digital companies are another about the job you’re their profile by, for option. They often have a smaller going for and ask what example, writing a [permanent] workforce and may is going to give you the edge?” blog or building a popular Snapchat need freelances with runner and But, she added, newcomers to the feed. researcher skills. Kit-hire compa- industry should not overstate their “Do the job I’ve hired you for first, nies, too, have opportunities for

Paul Hampartsoumian Paul ability or experience: “Be really careful and then do more on top,” she said. technicians and drivers who check the kit and deliver it to clients. ‘Production companies tend not to invest in crew positions [such as in camera or sound], though broad- casters may. But these opportuni- How to get – and keep – a job in TV ties are few and far between. ‘Getting a mentor can give you a about what you say your skill levels are.” Even the most dynamic runner or leg up; [this is] somebody who can Production companies use social media researcher will have time between jobs. advise where and how to look for widely to advertise vacancies, but On the lower rungs of the ladder, opportunities. They can advise on Winstanley warned the TV hopefuls to and often higher, too, TV production how to read the industry press and take care of “what you post and who is a freelance career, with inevitable interpret what this means in terms has access to it. This is a small industry highs and lows. Winstanley advised of employment opportunities. This and negative things tend to get remem- the RTS Futures members to take a is difficult when you start out. bered. You might put things on social methodical, rather than scattergun, ‘You should be reading the media that a prospective employer approach to finding new work. industry press and its Twitter feeds. might not feel so positive about.” Breaks in work, she said, are also Information about trade fairs would Winstanley offered simple tests: a useful time to top up skills and, per- be useful, too – at places such as “Would I like my mum to read this? haps, take on work experience or help [content market] MipTV people Would I like this to appear on the front out with community projects. discuss formats. If a company has page of The Daily Mirror? If the answer “Give yourself a break,” she added. entered into a format deal, there to either question is no, don’t post it.” Catch up with friends and family. “It’s may be opportunities there. For those applicants lucky enough to not good for your mental health to look ‘I’m always impressed by people land an interview, preparing thoroughly for work full time.” who recognise that TV is not just a is important. “Look up the company “fun” career but a business, and and what it does. If [the job] is for a The RTS Futures event ‘How to get that understand what is happening returning series, make sure you watch job’ was held at the RTS head office, in behind the camera and what an episode and have an opinion about central London, on 23 May. The producer creates­ profit.’ it,” she said. was Jude Winstanley.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 29 RTS NEWS Bristol takes to the air with NHU

BC Natural History three metres from a The NHU team took the starlings from the BBC series, Unit science series standing start to catch audience through the story- who has an IMDb listing that Life in the Air was put their prey and how boarding, micro-light shoots, takes in programmes from under the spotlight “shy and nerv- adapted cars and endless Poldark to Springwatch. Arnie Bat an RTS event in Bristol in ous” sparrow hours of patience it took to leads a family of starlings late May, but the insights of hawks fly capture the content. The story that has appeared on TV the production team were low to captivated the 100-strong screens since they were just the warm-up act. the audience at the joint RTS fledglings. Series Producer James Bristol/RTS Wales event as “We have a special licence Brickell and episode produc- well as the millions who to keep the starlings in cap- ers Giles Badger and Simon watched the series at home. tivity and they get more Bell explained the thinking The real stars of Life in the confident as they get more that lay behind the three- Air made a surprise experienced being filmed for part series, which aired late entrance, all kinds of programmes, from on BBC One in April. stage left, drama to natural history,” said “We wanted to in the care- Lloyd. For more information, deconstruct the sci- ful hands of bird see: www.lloydbuck.co.uk ence behind the funda- handlers The NHU celebrates its mentals of how animals Lloyd and 60th birthday next year. It and birds launch them- Rose has spawned a thriving ecol- selves into the air though Buck. ogy in Bristol of natural his- extraordinary physiology,” tory independents, which are said Brickell. collectively responsible for The series was shot in the ground almost 40% of global pro- field and on controlled sets at incredible speeds to In flew gramming about the natural to reveal the science of a snatch small birds from Arnie, one world. wingbeat, how cats leap feeders in gardens. of the celebrity Lynn Barlow

actresses for reasons of Vala, and her relationships privacy. ‘It was of the utmost with her brother, husband and importance that none of closest friend. the details of these people’s Although Latvia has been lives were recognisable, from independent since 1991, a accents, names, locations or ‘Soviet attitude’ lingers, with courses. However, male stu- misconceptions about mental dents have also taken up sex health, and patients kept in work and a future film could remote institutions away from focus on men,’ he said. the public gaze. Fog of Sex was directed by The film’s producer and co- Christopher Morris and made director, Santa Aumeistere, told by students from the Univer- the audience during the Q&A Students make a splash sity of South Wales. session: ‘It is not a film about The documentary festival, ‘‘crazy” people. It is a film about at Welsh film festivals held at the Blackwood Miners’ people and humanity.’ That’s Institute, screened That’s That: That: The Three Loves of Vala n Last month, RTS Wales Three years in the making, the The Three Loves of Vala, one won the Best of Festival award. hosted screenings at the film tells the stories of nine of the winning films from this RTS Wales also took Carmarthen Bay Film Festival female students who com- year’s RTS Wales Student a stand at the Pathways and the inaugural Wales Inter- bined their academic studies Television Awards. Set in an Creative Industries Fair, which national Documentary Festival. with sex work. isolated mental-health institu- was held as part of the docu- The docu-drama Fog of Sex Producer Chris Britten tion in Latvia, the film explores mentary festival. was shown at Carmarthen. said that the film featured the life of its central character, Hywel Wiliam and Tim Hartley

30 North East puts focus on youth

he University of Sun- Three winners were chosen derland hosted the in the Professionally Suppor­ North East and the ted category, which is for Border Centre’s long- entries from courses that Trunning Young Peoples’ benefit from industry sup- Katie Stubbs receives her award for YOUnique

Media Festival in mid-May, port. Carlisle College’s Kasia Photography 2 Tone celebrating film-making at Staniecka, Lucy Adam, Simon schools and colleges across Little, Daniel O’Connor, Han- more than 140 young people University of Sunderland, and the region. nah Kay and Sam Horton, this year. BBC Senior Pro- Chair of the North East and Katie Stubbs from Cleadon, scooped the Drama Award ducer and RTS award-win- the Border Centre. Tyne and Wear, took the with Subjected to Happiness. ning presenter Chris Jackson “This year’s entries have Drama Award for YOUnique, The same college’s Charlie hosted the festival, with showcased the talent that the which the judges praised for Stone won the Entertainment CBBC Wolfblood star Rachel North East has and some of its use of music and sound. Award with The Demon Barbers: Teate also attending. the work has been truly She was also commended in Disco at the Tavern. The Factual “We are passionate about exceptional,” added Festival the Factual Category for prize went to Northern Stars’ creativity and believe young Director Tony Edwards. Wartime Memories. Lauren Johnson, Georgia people should be given every The festival was held in the Emily and Beth Moorby Middlemiss, Matthew Wilson encouragement to grow their David Puttnam Media Centre from Hartlepool Sixth Form and Joe Helm for Closure. talent. Bringing together the at the University of Sunder- College took home the Enter- The event for young film-­ students of the future with land. It was sponsored by tainment Award for Twenty makers aged five to 19, which the professionals of the pres- Gateshead College, Teesside One Pilots, which the judges has been running for more ent was a real privilege,” said University, Northumbria said was intriguing and told a than two decades, attracted Graeme Thompson, Dean of University and the RTS. good story well. some 35 entries involving Arts, Design and Media at the Matthew Bell n With the dust settled on – but it is gaining traction April’s NAB, Thames Valley with cross-vendor standards assembled a panel of experts Thames Valley throws bodies such as AIMS. to dissect Las Vegas’s annual The customers’ wish list broadcast technology fair. light on US tech fest was summarised as: “Greater The event – organised by efficiencies, better return on the RTS Centre and IABM, investment, more interopera- the trade association for bility, better network and suppliers of broadcast tech- viewer analytics, and content nology – was chaired by monetisation”. Dick Hobbs. It featured lumi- Vendors, customers and naries from a cross-section panellists agreed that quality of the industry: Mike Knowles content, whether that was from Ericsson; Bruce Devlin House of Cards on Netflix on a (Mr MXF); Broadcast Innova- smartphone or BBC One’s The tion’s Russell Grute; former Night Manager on a 4K screen, BBC executive Keith Nicholas; was key. The challenge was and IABM’s John Ive. to get content to the right The May event reflected on places and the right people at From left: Mike Knowles, Bruce Devlin and John Ive the disparity between what the right time, in the format vendors wanted to sell and they wanted. “Television is what customers wanted to panellists broadly agreed that: gimmicky; and that internet now the content, not the buy. For the former, NAB was HDR (high dynamic range) is protocol (IP) will not replace distribution channel,” said all about abbreviations – SDN, key to Ultra-HDTV; virtual the standard serial digital Devlin. VR, UHD, 4K, HDR and IP. The reality (VR) is interesting but interface (SDI) any time soon Rob Ettridge

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 31 RTS NEWS Indies score at Scottish awards

Drama and Slate North and News Programme Award, based on Iain Banks’s novel, while BBC Scotland Investigates: won the Drama Award. Burn- The Dog Factory took home istoun’s Big Night (The Comedy the Current Affairs prize. Unit and Bold Yin) scooped “Nearly 300 people came the Comedy Award. together to celebrate the Other winning BBC pro- excellent work of the 15 dif- grammes included: Leopard ferent production companies Drama’s CBBC series Eve that received awards,” said (Best Children’s Programme); RTS Scotland Chair James Raise the Roof Productions’ Wilson. “Jim McColl’s gra- The TV That Made Me (Day- cious acceptance speech time); BBC Scotland Factual’s concluded the proceedings Scotland’s War at Sea (History); beautifully. Commenting that BBC Scotland Science’s no man is an island, he Earth’s Natural Wonders: Living thanked the many profes- on the Edge (Documentary sionals, in front of and behind and Specialist Factual); and the camera and microphone, BBC Scotland Arts Produc- with whom he shared his tion’s Handmade (Arts). success.” Elaine C Smith won the On-screen Personality Award

Paul Reich Photography Reich Paul Channel 4’s Supershoppers, The awards, which were produced by Firecrest Films, held at the Oran Mor in Glas- he work of 15 produc- the BBC gardening series, took home the Factual gow, were hosted by Reporting tion companies was which first aired in 1978. Entertainment and Features Scotland presenter Catriona recognised at the RTS Elaine C Smith was named Award. BT and producer Shearer and comedian San- Scotland Awards in On-screen Personality of the Sunset+Vine won the Sport: jeev Kohli. Tlate May, demonstrating the Year for the STV series Burdz Best Live Event category. April Chamberlain chaired strength of the independent Eye View, which followed the STV’s Bernard Ponsonby the judging panel. The awards sector north of the border. actress and comedian across picked up the Television ceremony was produced by The RTS Scotland Award Scotland as she performed Journalist of the Year Award Cheryl Strong, and supported went to The Beechgrove Garden her one-woman show. for the second year running. by post-production company presenter Jim McColl and the The BBC had a good In the other news and cur- 422 and students from City Tern TV production team to evening. Stonemouth, pro- rent affairs categories, STV of Glasgow College. celebrate 1,000 episodes of duced by BBC Scotland News at Six: Central won the Matthew Bell ONLINE at the RTS n Our short feature on raunchy n We’re delighted to unveil a period drama Versailles, which brand new membership section began its run on BBC Two on on the website, which includes 1 June, caused an online stir. a range of new benefits for RTS We reported on the controversy members. We’ve also stream- that’s dogged the 10-part Franco- lined the process for joining Versailles

Canadian production, including online and made it easier to BBC the fact that it was filmed in renew your membership. www. English, not French. Sensing rts.org.uk/membership n Another exclusive RTS online The 96-page report is available a hit, we also put together a feature is access to a state-of- to download or read online at handy guide to who was who n Fresh from its premiere at the the-industry report commis- www.rts.org.uk/valueofcontent in Louis XIV’s court. More than RTS’s AGM last month, we’ve got sioned by Liberty Global. ‘The 20,000 page views on the RTS a new showreel featuring the value of content’ analyses the If you have any thoughts about website suggest there’s a lot of best of the Society’s activities changing consumption habits of what we should be covering interest in the series, which cost across the British Isles over consumers and offers strategies online, please contact Digital £20m-plus to make (www.rts. the past year: www.rts.org.uk/ for companies working at every Editor Tim Dickens org.uk/Versailles). RTS2015 level of content production. ([email protected]).

32 fcom was in the firing line during London Centre’s panel discussion of theO TV coverage of London’s mayoral election in May. The executives in charge of election coverage at ITV London News and local TV channel London Live criti- cised the impartiality rules imposed by Ofcom. From left: Jim Grice, Antony Dore, Rachel Corp and Steven Barnett

Rachel Corp, Editor of ITV Kristin Mason News London at ITN, said that the Ofcom rules made its coverage harder: “Ofcom decided that London was just TV election coverage one big constituency and declared five of the parties standing as the major candi- dates, so those five had to under the microscope have equal coverage.” This decision led to serious logistical problems for a local to balance it and keep a different balance in covering tions Steven Barnett, for the news programme with lim- careful running score of the the candidates. relentless focus on Khan ited resources and airtime. airtime each candidate got.” “Goldsmith and Khan got allegedly having shared plat- “If we had to do five inter- As well as covering the the most coverage, with the forms with Islamic extrem- views in a day, it meant that Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, Green next three – Liberals, Ukip ists. The broadcasters replied some other stories just and Ukip candidates, as and Greens – slightly less,” that this was the campaign couldn’t be covered. It also instructed by Ofcom, London revealed Antony Dore, Editor fought by the Conservatives. meant that we couldn’t do a Live also ran interviews with of BBC London News. “We asked many times of head-to-head between lead- Respect’s George Galloway The BBC held a debate Goldsmith, why are you con- ing candidates Zac Goldsmith and Sophie Walker, the Wom- between the top five candi- ducting the campaign You and Sadiq Khan. We had to do en’s Equality Party candidate. dates and also did some are? That particular focus on all five together,” said Corp. London Live broadcast two Apprentice-style interviews Khan was the main part of “Since only two candidates debates. The first featured with them. “The power of their campaign,” said Dore. stood a chance of winning, it eight candidates plus a mod- the mayor is not enormous, All the panellists called on meant that the audience was erator; the second just Gold- so the personality and char- Ofcom to look again at its not well served,” she added. smith and Khan. “That did acter of whoever fills that impartiality rules. “The polit- Jim Grice, Head of News lead to a problem with the role is important,” said Dore. ical landscape has changed and Current Affairs at Lon- Ofcom ruling,” said Grice. The TV coverage was criti- – the rules might have don Live, agreed that Ofcom’s The BBC stuck to its own cised from the floor of the worked when there were just rules made a difference to its guidance on impartiality in event, which was chaired by three parties – but they don’t coverage: “We only do five the election coverage – not University of Westminster work now,” said Corp. hours’ news a day, so we had Ofcom’s – so it established a Professor of Communica- Nick Radlo

Shiers Trust to fund STV oral history n The 2016 Shiers Trust the oral history this summer. Since the first award was Award will be used to record “The recordings will be held in made in 2000, the Shiers Trust the memories of people who perpetuity at archives in Scot- grant has funded projects worked at and watched STV land and England, and, such as the digitisation of from 1957 to 2017. The com- through the generosity of the back issues of The Radio Times. pany celebrates its 60th Shiers Trust, we will provide The grant is funded by a anniversary next year. relevant transcripts for future bequest from the late US TV The award of £2,000 has historians as well as the audio- historian and long-standing year to projects that would been made to the Scottish visual records,” said SBH member of the RTS, George make a valuable Contribution Broadcasting Heritage Group, Group Chair and former STV Shiers. Grants of up to £2,000 to conserving TV history. which plans to start work on dubbing mixer Tim Amyes. are made by the RTS each Matthew Bell

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 33 OFF M E SSAGE

oes Off Message ■ TV casting directors hunting for new Fraser is finally off to pastures new. detect a small BAME acting talent have already noted Where he works next is anybody’s spoonful of sex- the exceptional abilities of 25-year-old guess, but few practitioners of the dark ism in the row Paapa Essiedu. He played Demetrius arts of spin have been as loyal to Sky as over BBC online in Russell T Davies’s bold reworking Fraser. Off Message wishes him well. recipes being of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for BBC removed from the One, but is still to land a lead TV role ■ Talking of ex-Sky people, don’t be main BBC website? in an original drama. The actor’s run surprised if Mike Darcey returns to DImagine the kerfuffle if the men as a remarkable Hamlet at the RSC in the TV sector later this year. responsible for the move – messrs Stratford ends in August. If you haven’t The affable Antipodean ran News Hall and Purnell, apparently – had seen him, do try. UK for three years prior to the reha- announced that they were scaling back It’s regrettable that Essiedu’s per- bilitation of Rebekah Brooks. Darcey web coverage of football or cricket. formance as the dithering Dane has knows more about subscription-based Yes, it’s true that there is no short- been, to some extent, eclipsed by services than most. And his experience age of digital recipes. Few, though, are Benedict Cumberbatch playing Ham- of successfully negotiating sports as helpful or as clear as the BBC’s. let at the Barbican; incidentally, Cum- rights is nigh on peerless. And it’s not as if cooking doesn’t berbatch’s Richard III in The Hollow The erstwhile RTS Chairman is provide the Beeb with some of its Crown was spellbinding. likely to be in pole position on head- biggest shows. Think MasterChef or The BBC white paper’s words on hunters’ lists. With the prospects for Bake Off. diversity are all fine and good, but print-based news media looking they need to be put into practice. grim, don’t expect him to return to ■ From culinary matters to the dra- And if TV drama bosses really are the newspaper world. mas taking place behind the scenes serious about diversity, acting talent as the BBC firms up a successor to such as Essiedu must be employed in ■ The lines between TV and radio its departed drama doyenne Polly high-profile roles. Frankly, initiatives are becoming even more porous. Hill. The attractions of such a big job such as giving Lenny Henry a part in Off Message was pleased to see a are enormous, as are the pressures. Broadchurch don’t really deal with the video version of John Wilson’s recent One likely candidate is Channel 4’s diversity issue. and revealing Radio 4 Mastertapes Head of Drama, Piers Wenger, a for- encounter with Paul McCartney mer drama leader at BBC Wales. His ■ By definition, PRs at TV companies made available on iPlayer. track record at Channel 4 is impres- tend to be peripatetic. There are, of The dulcet-toned Wilson is a bril- sive. His biggest hit to date is the course, exceptions. liantly empathetic interviewer. He excellent Humans. One of these is the redoubtable Sky succeeded in getting the much inter- But wasn’t it a mistake for the spin doctor Robert Fraser. For years, viewed ex-Beatle to open up. There broadcaster to schedule the star- Fraser has been as much a part of the were plenty of fresh anecdotes plus studded Indian Summers, axed after firm as satellite dishes or The Simpsons some charming musical interludes. two seasons, on Sunday nights, when on Sky One. Surely, it’s time we saw more of the both BBC One and ITV were full of All good things come to an end and, Front Row presenter on TV. He’d be a fiction? following 16 years at the broadcaster, big asset to BBC Four’s arts coverage.

34 June 2016 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS PATRONS

RTS Principal BBC Channel 4 ITV Sky Patrons

RTS Discovery Networks Turner Broadcasting System Inc International Liberty Global Viacom International Media Networks Patrons NBCUniversal International YouTube The Walt Disney Company

RTS Accenture Enders Analysis IBM Sargent-Disc Major Amazon Video EY IMG Studios STV Group Patrons Audio Network FremantleMedia ITN UKTV BT FTI Consulting KPMG Virgin Media Channel 5 Fujitsu McKinsey and Co YouView Deloitte Huawei S4C

RTS Alvarez & Marsal LLP ITV London ITV West Quantel Patrons Autocue ITV Meridian ITV Yorkshire Raidió Teilifís Éireann Digital Television Group ITV Tyne Tees Lumina Search UTV Television ITV Anglia ITV Wales PricewaterhouseCoopers Vinten Broadcast ITV Granada

Who’s who Patron President CENTRES COUNCIL History at the RTS HRH The Prince of Wales Sir Peter Bazalgette Lynn Barlow Don McLean Mike Best Vice-Presidents Chair of RTS Trustees Charles Byrne IBC Conference Liaison David Abraham John Hardie Isabel Clarke Terry Marsh Dawn Airey Alex Connock Sir David Attenborough OM Honorary Secretary Gordon Cooper RTS Legends CH CVO CBE FRS David Lowen Tim Hartley TBC Baroness Floella Kingsley Marshall Benjamin OBE Honorary Treasurer Kristin Mason RTS Technology Bursaries Dame Colette Bowe OBE Mike Green Nikki O’Donnell Simon Pitts Lord Bragg of Wigton Graeme Thompson John Cresswell BOARD OF TRUSTEES Penny Westlake AWARDS COMMITTEE Adam Crozier Tim Davie James Wilson CHAIRS Mike Darcey Mike Green Awards & Fellowship Greg Dyke John Hardie SPECIALIST GROUP Policy Lord Hall of Birkenhead Huw Jones CHAIRS David Lowen Lorraine Heggessey Jane Lighting Archives Ashley Highfield Graham McWilliam Steve Bryant Craft & Design Awards Armando Iannucci OBE David Lowen Cheryl Taylor Ian Jones Simon Pitts Diversity Baroness Lawrence of Graeme Thompson Marcus Ryder Television Journalism Clarendon OBE Jane Turton Awards Rt Hon Baroness Jowell Rob Woodward Early Evening Events Stewart Purvis CBE of Brixton DBE PC Dan Brooke David Lynn EXECUTIVE Programme Awards Sir Trevor McDonald OBE Chief Executive Education Alex Mahon Ken MacQuarrie Theresa Wise Graeme Thompson Gavin Patterson Student Television Trevor Phillips OBE RTS Futures Awards Stewart Purvis CBE Donna Taberer Stuart Murphy Sir Howard Stringer

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2016 35