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February 2020

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www.sargent-disc.com www.digitalproductionoffice.com @SargentDisc @DigiProdOffice /SargentDisc /digitalproductionoffice Journal of The Royal Society February 2020 l Volume 57/2

From the CEO The RTS’s year is off his interviewer, Kate Bulkley, and to award winner , who has to a racing start, with a the producer, Martin Stott. enjoyed a meteoric rise, thanks to his full events calendar. At The second season of Sex Education BBC Three show Man Like Mobeen and our head office, juries is, if anything, even funnier than the his appearances on Live at the Apollo. have been busy debat- first. , for one, am hooked. RTS Our cover story is an interview ing the nominees and Cymru and Bafta Cymru col- with UKTV’s CEO, Marcus Arthur. He winners of both the laborated – in what I hope will be explains his strategy, that BBC RTS Television Journalism Awards and the first of many similar partnerships Studios is the business’s sole owner. the RTS Programme Awards. – on a screening and Q&A with some Also, don’t miss Torin Douglas’s Our events in and beyond of the show’s production team. Catch analysis of what looks certain to be a have been packed. Matthew Bell’s report inside. very busy year for and whoever ’s director of programmes, In Salford, RTS North West hosted is appointed to succeed Sharon White , braved a bad cold and a a masterclass with the acclaimed US as the regulator’s Chief Executive. chilly January night to talk at length showrunner Frank Spotnitz, whose on a range of topics, and show clips credits include The -Files. The audi- from the broadcaster’s exciting new ence lapped his insights into the schedule. There is a full report in this US approach to TV storytelling. issue of Television. Huge thanks to Ian, Elsewhere, Roz Laws profiles RTS Theresa Wise Contents Deborah Williams’ TV Diary Katz shares his recipe Deborah Williams is reluctant to take off her PJs before Channel 4’s director of programmes, Ian Katz, tells the 5 she heads to for a surprising turn of events 16 RTS how he seeks to put clear blue water between the broadcaster and the SVoD giants Ear Candy: : The Morning After Can’t stop talking about the first winter Love Island? Sex for all ages 6 Neither can Kem Cetinay and Arielle Free, the hosts of An RTS panel reveals how the explicit scenes required the show’s . Kate Holman clicks play 18 for Sex Education were filmed only once the cast was comfortable Working Lives: Studio manager Pinewood Studios’ senior TV studio manager Naomi Inside the writers room 7 Dulake is interviewed by Matthew Bell At an RTS masterclass, showrunner Frank Spotnitz, 20 whose credits include The X-Files, guides students UKTV looks beyond the UK through the craft of storytelling CEO Marcus Arthur aims to grow the company 8 internationally now that it is fully owned by BBC Are the kids alright? Studios. Steve Clarke reports An RTS London event debates the future of children’s 22 TV in the online age Ofcom: In the eye of the storm Torin Douglas outlines the challenges facing the Custom-made for uncertain times 10 regulator in the months ahead Jeff Shell, the new CEO of NBCUniversal, is known for his 24 innate smartness and willingness to work harder than Our Friend in his colleagues. Leo Barraclough reports Andrew Sheldon considers whether TV production in the 13 North of is finally reaching powerhouse scale RTS news and events listings Reports of Society activities across the nations and The real deal role model 27 regions, and calendar of forthcoming public events Guz Khan, star and co-writer of Man Like Mobeen, is hot 14 property. Roz Laws describes his rapid rise from school teacher to multiple RTS award winner Cover: Traces (UKTV)

Editor Production, design, advertising Subscription rates Printing Legal notice Steve Clarke Gordon Jamieson 3 Dorset Rise UK £115 ISSN 0308-454X © Royal Television Society 2020. [email protected] [email protected] London EC4Y 8EN Overseas (surface) £146.11 Printer: FE Burman The views expressed in Television News editor and writer Sub-editor T: 020 7822 2810 Overseas (airmail) £172.22 20 Crimscott Street 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 February 2020 3 Objectivity.

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Deborah Williams is reluctant to take off her PJs before she heads to Manchester for a surprising turn of events

t is always a pleasure to start members will be using to help the ever-strengthening Manchester the working week in your PJs industry meet the target of doubling accent and love of the blues, not and know that you can stay disability commitment by of the reds. in them for most of the day, 2020. No pressure there, then. having meetings ■ And, finally, to theInclusive Com- anyone knowing or caring. ■ Meeting number two – still wear- panies Awards. My expectations It is one of the rare weeks ing PJs – is all about day-to-day CDN are low: the shortlist is massive when I will spend the majority of it business, lining up projects for the and intimidating. I hook up with Iout of London. I am going to Man- first quarter of 2020. That done, it’s my youngest sister (the nephew’s chester to attend an awards cere- off to Manchester. mother, in case you’ve not been tak- mony where I have been nominated ing notes). for an Inclusive Companies award. ■ Alongside the awards ceremony, I Everyone is busy drinking fizz and I am looking forward to it as the am booked into an academy school taking pictures – this introvert’s idea whole Brexit, leaving thing in Trafford for one of my regular of hell. Anyway, turns out, it’s a good and general election result has been “speakers for schools” sessions. thing I made the journey: I win the getting on my nerves. Basically, the likes of me travel Lifetime Achiever Award 2019. To say across the country talking in schools that I am in shock really is an under- ■ Working for the Creative Diversity to year 9s who want to know what it’s statement. I can’t share with you the Network means that you end up like to work in TV. Telling the story of first words that come out of my trawling through the worst of peo- one’s life to future is mouth – much too dirty. ple’s thinking and understanding exhausting and exhilarating. Once I calm down and take it (or lack thereof) of what diversity is, Each time I walk away, I’m inspired. in on the way home the next day, I and how it’s a positive in an increas- It’s great that young people want to finally allow myself to feel OK about ingly negative world. work in television, that they do the winning. I manage to take some of My travels around the UK tell me research and ask difficult questions my own advice: do what you do, that there are real issues that need to – and that they laugh at my terrible always, because you never know who be discussed – but these are less to do jokes. is watching. with the colour of our passports, and Most of all, it’s great that, after my more with how we support diverse sessions, they are not deterred. ■ Friday: finance day, review- talent to finance the creation of qual- ing end-of-year accounts and the ity content. ■ I squeeze in a bit of personal time, monthly paying of invoices. and drop in on my nephew. He is I jump back into online conversa- ■ Anyway, the first PJ meeting is a a seven-year-old with the mind of tions, drawing up strategies and conference call with our research a scholar. It is a short visit, but we responding without sounding too partners at the University of Leices- play cards, using the deck he has pompous and self-righteous. ter. We are at the sign-off stage on a designed. We discuss the world, Which is really difficult when report identifying the barriers to dis- via the globe in his bedroom, and you’re always right. abled people working off-screen in he insists I taste the hot pepper TV, and what needs to be done about sauce his dad has made. Ninety Deborah Williams is CEO of the Creative these. The findings are what CDN minutes well spent – despite his Diversity Network.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 5 Ear candy

From left: Kem Cetinay and Arielle Free

Love Island: The Morning After ITV Can’t stop talking about the first winterLove Island? Neither can Kem Cetinay and Arielle Free, the hosts of the show’s podcast. Kate Holman clicks play

lose the curtains, Arielle Free, ITV’s officialLove Island Kem and Arielle’s effortless chem- turn up the heating podcast covers everything from istry and love of the show feels like and settle on the romances and bromances to show- a hilarious catch-up with friends. sofa. Love Island is mances – and everything in between. Arielle reveals her personal theories back with its first- With heads spinning, hearts break- and predictions about the future ever winter edition, ing and arguments starting, Kem and romances and break-ups of the cur- along with a new Arielle are on hand to dissect all the rent series. location and a new host. latest happenings from the previous Kem provides the essential decoding CIf you haven’t got your fix from episode condensed into a half-hour of the Love Island lingo, while sharing the daily episode, the Love Island: The of gossip that’s perfect for your morn- his personal experiences and insider Morning After podcast returns for a ing commute. secrets of villa life. third series as the much-needed The podcast also welcomes a host If you dared to have a social life pick-me-up after the drama of the of special guests and celebrity fans of in January and missed an episode of night before. the show, including 1 DJ Scott Love Island, The Morning After podcast Hosted by 2017 Love Island winner Mills, ex-Islander and will prepare you for that water-cooler Kem Cetinay and Radio 1 presenter new host . moment at work. n

6 WORKING LIVES

Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes (shot at Pinewood last year for UKTV channel Gold)

Studio manager Ollie Upton, ©UKTV 2019 ©UKTV Upton, Ollie

aomi Dulake has been ­recording. They’re usually a happy from 30 to 70 people working on the at Pinewood Studios bunch. I look after the talent, too, and studio floor, plus another 20 in the for six years, working any issues they have with dressing gallery, and the talent. on some of the UK’s rooms, hair, make-up and wardrobe. biggest shows, includ- How do I become a studio manager? ing UKTV celebrity Do other shows shoot differently? It’s great to start as a runner because gameshow Taskmaster and ’s such as rehearse you meet everyone on the team and BBCN One Not Going Out. on set and we have them at the studios learn about their roles. Personally, I for much longer – usually six weeks started as a co-ordinator for an out- What does the job involve? or so. Each week, we do rehearsals, a side broadcast company, before mov- When we get a production confirmed technical run-through, a pre-record ing to Pinewood. at Pinewood TV, I latch myself on to it and then a recording in front of a live two or three months before it comes audience. We turn the sets around and What qualities do you need to have? into the studio. I book all the kit and then start work on the next episode You’ve got to be calm, collected and the crew; oversee the building of the the following week. organised, especially with scheduling. set; and book the recording days and At the other end of the scale, we And be approachable – productions the strike days, when the set is dis- shoot three, sometimes four episodes will want to talk to you in confidence. mantled. If the show has an audience, of Warwick Davis’s ITV quiz Tenable I have to get them on and off site, too. in a single day at Pinewood. What are the best and worst aspects? I love the fast pace and solving prob- Do you work long days? Has the job changed over the years? lems, and you get to see what you’ve On recording days, I can work up to Programme budgets have fallen over worked on very quickly on TV. The 14 hours. Two episodes of Taskmaster time, but productions still expect the worst? Your job can become your life – each with an audience of 300 – are same service. at times. While I’m working on one shot back to back in a day. A show production, I’m also preparing for the takes two and a half hours to record, What does Pinewood offer shows? next shows to move in. I can be busy with only a 20-minute turnaround Three TV studios and a small but on anything up to six productions at – when we get one audience out and experienced team – returning pro- one time – but everyone thinks they the next in – between the first and ductions see the same faces, people have my time exclusively. n second show. who really know their shows. Having Taskmaster has a massive following said that, it takes a huge number of Pinewood Studios’ senior TV studio man- and we always try to find a way to people to actually shoot a show. On a ager Naomi Dulake was interviewed by accommodate its fans for the recording day, we can have anything Matthew Bell.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 7 Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes UKTV UKTV looks beyond the UK CEO Marcus Arthur aims to grow the company internationally now that it is fully owned by BBC Studios. Steve Clarke reports

arcus Arthur may The line-up comprises pay-channels­ confidently into commissioning origi- be a BBC veteran, Gold, W, Alibi and Eden, plus free-to-air nal shows, latterly scoring with Dad’s but the winds of services Dave, Drama and Yesterday. Army: The Lost Episodes, the glossy PR change blowing UKTV – formed originally as a part- drama Flack and, of course, Taskmaster. through UKTV nership between BBC Worldwide and Now, UKTV has reached what Arthur these past nine – has consistently recently described as “a monthsM or so have been like no other punched above its weight against moment” and he is weighing up the in his lengthy BBC career. US-backed competitors. This is thanks next phase of its development. Last June, he succeeded Darren to its exclusive, first-look deal with the Arthur was in , Childs as the outfit’s CEO. His appoint- BBC, which gives it secondary linear-TV one of six brothers and sisters. His father ment followed the end of the joint and catch-up rights to everything from was a firefighter, his mother a secretary. venture with Discovery, which finally and to, last but He read psychology at the University of gave BBC Studios full control of UKTV hardly least, Dad’s Army. Throw in all of Glasgow, followed by an MBA. and its seven-channel portfolio (its Gavin & Stacey and and it’s His first job was selling advertising three lifestyle channels were acquired not hard to see why UKTV has been so for BBC Magazines. A defining time by Discovery as part of the separation) resilient for so long. was working at , where he and the online hub, UKTV Play. Childs’ regime saw the group move was publishing director for four years.

8 ‘STRONG CHANNEL BRANDS AND STRONG CHANNELS: THAT’S THE WAY WE MARKET AND SELL’

Next year, he will celebrate 30 years The broadcaster reported a 7.76% at the Beeb. share of commercial impacts in 2019, Prior to taking over the top job at up from the previous year’s 7.48%. His UKTV, he ran BBC Studios’ UK region, ambition is to get this up to 9%. “If we a job that involved running 10 busi- achieved that, we’d be the second nesses ranging across magazines, biggest channels group again. There DVDs, live events, audio and clips. He are people who are bigger than us, but was also responsible for Studios’ Aus- we can compete with them because tralian business, which includes six we’ve got great content,” says Arthur. pay-TV channels – all “hugely profita- UKTV commissions accounted for ble”, he notes. seven of its top-10 performers in 2019, It was here that he gained the expe- including Gold’s The Cockfields and rience that qualified him to run UKTV, Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, Dave’s whose board he has been on for six Taskmaster, W’s : Delivering years. “I knew the business reasonably Babies and Alibi’s Traces. Dave helped well from the outside before I came grow the portfolio’s share of 16- to in,” says Arthur with a degree of 34-year-olds by 14% (up from a 5% to a Marcus Arthur self-effacement. BBC 5.76% share of audience). UKTV claims On Childs’ watch, a period spanning that Dave is the number-one­ non-PSB eight years, revenues at UKTV grew by Compston. It was the channel’s first channel for this demographic. 68%, while the portfolio’s share of original scripted show and its ratings If this sounds like it has all been commercial viewing increased by 42%. success took UKTV by surprise. plain sailing with Arthur at the helm, The new CEO is under no illusions In the past, this show would have think again. In November, Channel 4 that he can repeat this: today’s market been “very difficult” for UKTV to announced that it had snapped up the is considerably more competitive. afford. Now, explains Arthur, thanks to company’s most successful original “Over that period, UKTV’s content BBC Studios’ distribution deal, money show, Taskmaster. costs doubled. The ambition to grow that previously might have gone to Reports suggested that staff at UKTV channels and launch new things was Discovery or a third-party distributor were “heartbroken” by the loss of the fully invested in by both of the share- “stays in the family”. flagship series. Arthur puts it like this: holders,” he recalls. “That was an He emphasises: “Having Studios as “At some point, all your children leave opportunity for massive growth. There an owner should allow us to be more home. We put blood, sweat and tears is less obvious opportunity now, but universal in some of the content we into that programme. Originally, they there will be stuff there.” are commissioning and making.” went to Channel 4 with it. It didn’t Before the split from Discovery, he While acknowledging a “macro work with them, so they came to us. says the company was “almost land- threat” of the US streamers as compe- “We put that show on the map and locked” in its ability to make decisions. tition for people’s viewing time, he invested huge amounts of marketing “It was a UK-only business and that’s insists that the arrival of BritBox and money to grow it. It got to the place how it looked at its future, bought its the extension of BBC iPlayer’s typical where the renegotiation was such that rights and bought its content slate,” he window to a year are unlikely to dam- we couldn’t hold on to it.” explains. “UKTV almost completes the age his business. Typically upbeat, Arthur highlights set for BBC Studios, because it has “We’re a linear-channels business the opportunity to invest in new shows production, content distribution and – strong channel brands and strong now that the budget for Taskmaster is origination and relationships with channels. That’s the way we market freed up. indies – but what it never had was a and sell. We make our money through The priorities are drama, comedy large channel portfolio outside the BBC two models: pay and, more than any- and factual entertainment. Also likely that it could run its content through.” thing, advertising. are more partnerships between UKTV Arthur, a convivial man who seems “For me, there’s still clear water and the BBC’s main channels of the to burst with energy, stresses that, in its between that business model and kind that saw Expedition with Steve Back- latest iteration, UKTV can commission BritBox charging you £5.99 a month.” shall launch as a four-episode BBC Two shows that can make a splash in inter- The original commissions and an series before a further six parts broad- national markets and even launch some unexpected surge in young viewers cast on Dave. of its channels and brands outside of helped UKTV recover from 2018’s And don’t be surprised if the present the UK. five-year low: the company recorded a seven-channel line-up starts to grow He cites the of crime 4% growth in commercial share across again. Arthur hints: “We haven’t got a thriller Traces, the acclaimed drama its portfolio last year, despite being definitive plan, but we will be looking commissioned for Alibi, starring Martin demoted on EPGs. at every opportunity.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 9 his was always going to be told his ministers not to appear on a big year for Ofcom. Its PSB Radio 4’s Today programme. to-do list for 2020 includes: He also crossed swords with Chan- overhauling the telecoms Torin Douglas outlines nel 4 after it empty-chaired him (with market and upgrading the a melting block of ice) during its cli- UK’s broadband network; the challenges facing mate-change election debate. a major review of public service the regulator in the The Conservatives complained to broadcastingT and its future in the face Ofcom that the block of ice breached of changing technology and audience months ahead Channel 4’s impartiality obligations. habits and huge global competition; Ofcom’s Election Committee rejected tackling both “online harm” and appointing Ofcom’s new Chief the complaint, but the incident showed industry diversity issues; updating EU Executive and the recently opened that the UK’s communications regula- “audio-visual services” rules post search for the next BBC Director-­ tor cannot avoid politics. Brexit; and, as the BBC’s regulator, General have highlighted the sensitive, And that’s just one of the potential trying to sharpen the corporation’s sometimes fraught, relationship problems for Ofcom. During the elec- performance and decision-making. between regulators, broadcasters and tion campaign, Johnson made an ambi- But the stakes have been raised, for government. tious pledge to connect all UK homes to a body that cherishes its reputation as Warning signs emerged during the “gigabit-speed” broadband by 2025 – an independent regulator, by a newly general election, when Prime Minister a task Ofcom is now striving to fulfil. powerful Government with strong questioned the BBC’s On 8 January, it announced a new views and ambitions in the media licence-fee funding, accused its news five-year telecoms plan aimed at and telecoms sphere. The delay in programmes of anti-Brexit bias and encouraging BT and other telcos to

10 invest more heavily in fibre. But the under its acting Chief Executive, Jona- regulator still had no Chief Executive, ‘SOME IN than Oxley? even though the favoured candidate to The race to meet the 2025 target for succeed Sharon White was named in GOVERNMENT faster and more reliable broadband is last November. VIEW [OFCOM] of crucial importance, to broadcasters, “Ofcom has chosen Melanie Dawes, as much as anyone, as their audiences one of the UK’s most senior civil serv- AS A VEHICLE TO move online. ants, to be its new Chief Executive,” it FORCE CHANGE But a bigger priority for the television wrote. “The 53-year-old, the most world – particularly the BBC, Channel 4 senior woman in the civil service, is ON THE NATIONAL and ITV – is Ofcom’s PSB review, aimed currently permanent secretary at the at preserving the benefits of public Ministry of Housing, Communities and BROADCASTER’ service broadcasting in the face of Local Government....” changing technology, viewing behaviour The newspaper added that the and unprecedented global competition. announcement was not likely to be review of the public service broadcast- The first stage is about to be published: confirmed until after the election – ing system, which some in government its assessment of the current state of and that this might have an impact view as a vehicle to force change on PSB, and how it performed from 2014 on her appointment, which had to be the national broadcaster.” to 2018. Now, Ofcom is looking to the agreed by the culture secretary. The following morning, the BBC future and what it calls the fundamen- And so it transpired. When the scale announced that Tony Hall would step tal question: how to ensure a mix of of the election victory became clear, down as Director-General in the high-quality, original UK content in an Johnson’s team floated the idea of a summer. on-demand and increasingly personal- radical shake-up of Whitehall, under Colin Browne, Chair of Voice of the ised environment. which the Department of Digital, Cul- Listener and Viewer, which works to Under the title Small Screen: Big ture, Media and Sport (DCMS) might lose promote high-quality broadcasting, Debate, it has launched a nationwide oversight of digital and telecommunica- says: “Reports that the Government series of discussions with broadcasters, tions policy or be disbanded altogether. has turned down Ofcom’s candidate producers and representative groups, Culture secretary , for CEO don’t augur well for its rela- as well as examining the views of who had stood down as an MP, was tionship with the Government. audiences via focus groups. given a peerage and stayed on, ahead “It’s just another piece in what looks Sir , Chair of ITV and of a planned February reshuffle. No like an uncertain and potentially haz- former Chair of the Arts Council, led an Ofcom appointment was announced. ardous period for PSB, which has been independent review of the UK’s crea- On 19 January, an explanation further complicated by the upcoming tive industries. He says the future of emerged in a Telegraph headline: retirement of Tony Hall.” the UK’s PSB is crucial to its democ- “Revolution in Whitehall hits search He adds: “We know the Government racy, culture and economy: “Are we for Ofcom chief”. The paper reported: has made unfriendly comments about going to have trustworthy news? Are “In the latest sign of the determination the BBC and Channel 4 and it remains we going to have British-made pro- in No 10 to shake up officialdom and to be seen how far Ofcom is affected grammes for Brits about Brits? The the BBC, the Government has refused by that. Ofcom has always tried to regulator needs to ensure there is pro- to approve the regulator’s preferred avoid the politics but you can’t protect tection for the content and distribution candidate and launched a search for PSB by regulation , you need that underpins our .” leaders beyond Whitehall. Culture government legislation.” The crucial issue here, say ITV and secretary Baroness Morgan has been But let’s put aside the politics. the BBC, is “prominence” – making making personal approaches to indus- What are Ofcom’s key tasks for 2020, sure that audiences can easily find try executives to encourage them to public service content in a world of apply for the role.” TVs, tablets and online stream- explained the ing, where programmes are discovered significance of the change: “The regu- ‘YOU CAN’T via apps, rather than EPGs that priori- lator is at the centre of attempts to PROTECT PSB tise the public service channels. overhaul the telecoms market to Clare Sumner, the BBC’s policy direc- deliver a nationwide broadband BY REGULATION tor, recently told the Westminster Media upgrade five years. Meeting the Forum: “We need a flexible framework ambitious goal was one of the Prime ALONE, YOU NEED of regulation that enables PSBs to thrive Minister’s main campaign pledges. GOVERNMENT in the face of unprecedented global “Ofcom is also responsible for regu- competition, where UK content and lation of the BBC and due to conduct a LEGISLATION’ trusted news are not the priority for �

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 11 ‘OUR REGULATORY SYSTEM HAS ITS ORIGINS IN AN ERA WHEN THE BBC WAS SEEN AS THE BIG BEAST IN THE JUNGLE’

BBC Chair Sir David Clementi BBC

� many others. This means future- last month in by its group international giants – , Spotify, proof legislation that gives Ofcom the CEO, Jeremy Darroch, with a headline Facebook, YouTube – whose financial flexibility to update its rules in real online of “What Prohibition teaches resources dwarf our own.” time, because the pace of change is us about regulating the internet”. Last autumn, Ofcom accused the incredible and it’s only going to get Sky is backing a bill by Lord McNally, BBC of a lack of transparency, after quicker.” which, Darroch wrote, would “kick off the Director-General overturned a Magnus Brooke, ITV’s director of the long-overdue process by empow- ruling by its Executive Complaints policy and regulatory affairs, says ering Ofcom to prepare a duty-of-care Unit over remarks about Donald that, unless the regulator and the obligation for online platforms, over- Trump made by BBC Breakfast pre- Government take a tough line on the seen by an independent and evi­ senter . prominence rules, global companies denced-based­­ regulator”. Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s director for may simply decide to do without the And then there’s Ofcom’s relatively content and media policy, said: “We UK’s PSB content. “We need a fair new role as regulator of the BBC, have serious concerns around the balance between the PSBs and the where both sides have been flexing transparency of the BBC’s complaints platforms, to ensure what we might their muscles. A year ago, BBC Chair Sir process, which must command the call ‘inclusion’ – that national content David Clementi told the Oxford Media confidence of the public. We’ll be is protected.” Convention that the need to seek requiring the BBC to be more trans- Sky has a different view. It sees the Ofcom approval for iPlayer updates parent about its processes and compli- PSB review as a chance to challenge was holding the corporation back. ance findings as a matter of urgency.” the orthodoxy espoused by ITV and “Every month is precious,” he said. The Guardian reported that the BBC the BBC, by opening up local news to “Netflix, for example, currently had tried to stop Ofcom’s inquiry. It new competition. updates its app more than 50 times a alleged that David Jordan, the corpo- At the Westminster forum, Sky’s year – around once a week – with no ration’s director of editorial policy policy director, David Wheeldon, said hold-up, and no need for regulatory and standards, had argued strongly the PSB landscape should , to approval. that Ofcom lacked the authority to better reflect today’s media land- “[Our] regulatory system has its examine the case. A BBC spokesper- scape: “I urge Ofcom to be bold in its origins in an era when the BBC was son said: “We note Ofcom’s finding thinking and not be afraid to chal- seen as the big beast in the jungle, and the fact that it agrees with the lenge the long-held assumptions against whom all others needed pro- Director-General’s decision.” about ‘how things are done’.” tection. That view of the world has Ofcom’s next Chief Executive will Sky has also intervened on the now passed. Increasingly, our major not have a quiet life, whoever eventu- issue of “online harm”, with an competitors are well funded, ally gets the job. n

12 OUR FRIEND IN LEEDS

Andrew Sheldon hen positive shift in approach from further considers whether education. The sector is introducing a Osborne TV production in the degree of real-world practicality first through initiatives such as Connected uttered North of England Campus, which brings all the York- the phrase shire universities together to focus on “Northern is finally reaching meeting the needs of the industry. Powerhouse” back in 2014, it’s fair to powerhouse scale Despite some cynicism, Chan- Wsay that the TV industry wasn’t at the nel 4’s relocation has undoubtedly front of his mind. But, six years on, is been key. There have been challenges it time to start thinking of it as such? – and there are probably more still to Back then, the mood in the TV come – but, overall, it has had a clear industry across the North of England galvanising effect. was very different. Both Leeds and The broadcaster now has a team Manchester were still struggling with of commissioners in place who are the impact of ITV’s retrenchment to invested in the project. Armed with London, while the BBC’s project as the the new out-of-London quotas, they anchor tenant of MediaCity UK was have the potential to create a huge barely into its stride. impact. And not just in Leeds, but In the indie community, there was across the North, by encouraging an ongoing struggle for commissions production in the likes of , – with only a handful of companies , Hull and Newcastle. showing any signs of growth. Channel 5 has long recognised forward to today and it’s a value that regional producers offer,

different story, with cautious opti- North True and green-lit projects accordingly mism that the TV industry’s own – many of them in the North West version of the Northern Powerhouse Manchester, established companies and . ITV has made a long- is emerging. In 2020, the key players such as Blakeway North, Nine Lives term commitment with its soaps and all have a stake somewhere along and Workerbee have been joined by shows including . the M62. and Gobstopper. No less welcome, the BBC is step- After a decade of taking root, In Leeds, True North and Rollem ping outside of Salford with a new Media­City UK is the world-class, now share the city with Wise Owl, Air digital hub in Newcastle, coupled digitally focused hub it set out to be. TV, True Vision North and Duck Soup. with its promise to move two-thirds The BBC’s flagship presence is now The Garden has opened an office, and of its employees outside London by joined by ITV (with Corrie at its , Daisybeck, the maker of Channel 5’s 2027. Put together, it all suggests that obviously), and myriad other studio Yorkshire Vet franchise, has received an “out of London” is finally being taken and post-production facilities. investment from Entertainment One, seriously. Across the Pennines, in Leeds, that a clear indicator of confidence in I have no idea whether George is balanced by Channel 4, with its northern production. Osborne’s broader vision of a North- new national headquarters building After years of wondering whether ern Powerhouse will ever be realised, due to open at the end of this year, building a career outside London was but, for the first time in this century, and also by Sky (the owner of my even possible, there is a lift across there is a good chance that the TV own company, True North), which both scripted and non-scripted, and a industry will be able to deliver its employs 650 people in its future- tangible shift in attitude as the num- own evocation. If only someone facing Digital and Technology Ser- ber of vacancies across the production could sort out those bloody trains… ■ vices Campus at Leeds Dock. sector rises. For the first time in nearly 20 years, It’s being met in part by people Andrew Sheldon is creative director and the indie sector is growing. In relocating, but there has also been a founder of True North.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 13 Guz Khan in Profile Man Like Mobeen Guz Khan, star and co-writer of Man Like Mobeen, is hot property. Roz Laws describes his rapid rise from school teacher to multiple RTS award winner

hen he’s not in the jungle pen- ning quips for Ant and Dec, Andy Milligan is the co-writer of Man Like Mobeen and has a running joke withW the sitcom’s creator and star, Guz Khan. As they work on the hit BBC Three series together, Milligan asks him, “Can you tell me what every Muslim in Britain will think of this joke?” This is because Khan has been dubbed “the face of British Muslims” – a result, Milligan points out, of it being far more likely for a bearded, practising Muslim to appear on our screens as a suicide bomber than as a character like Mobeen. Khan has a wry laugh at the label and declares: “That is a crown I do not want to wear. It’s tricky, as realistic depictions of Muslims on TV are still so few and far between. If there were another five shows likeMan Like Mobeen, it would take the pressure off. And I do feel the pressure of trying to represent people as fairly as possible. “I hope my community is proud that they have a voice that’s honest. I’m sure that there are doctors and lawyers in [the sub- urb where Man Like Mobeen is set] say- ing, ‘This is not our story! – but they The real deal can tell their own.” The third series of Man Like Mobeen recently dropped on BBC iPlayer. Set and filmed in inner-city Birmingham, the comedy follows Mobeen Deen, a role model young man with a dark past as a drug dealer who is trying to set a better example for his much younger sister in

the absence of their parents. BBC

14 Khan’s depiction of “the ends” is much money or time and I hope it based on his own experience growing ‘I WANT TO helped these youngsters see they could up on a council estate in with have a future in the industry.” a single mum. Pakistani immigrant SEE MORE Khan has also shown his former Zainab Khan raised him and his two WORKING-CLASS pupils at Grace Academy what they sisters following his father’s death could achieve. “I still see them all the when he was three. PEOPLE IN FRONT time, on the street and in the super- It’s been a swift rise to prominence OF AND BEHIND market. I think I’ve become more of a for 34-year-old Ghulam Khan, a mar- crazy uncle to them. A few of them are ried father of four. Five years ago, he THE CAMERA’ interested in acting and have started was teaching humanities in Coventry their own YouTube channels, which and making comedy sketches for You- fills me with joy.” Tube. One went viral after he joked audience laughed at things I didn’t Wolverhampton actor Dúaa Karim that the filmJurassic World should be even realise were jokes. was just 15 when she won the role of banned for racism because it called a “We hang episodes around issues Mobeen’s sister, Aqsa. “He’s just like species of dinosaur “pachys”. such as knife crime, racial profiling my , in real life as well as on His Mobeen character subsequently and the NHS and, in the third series, screen,” she says of Khan. “He’s very appeared on iPlayer in the short Road- we set one episode in a food bank. But kind and encouraging of young talent.” man Ramadan, as part of the Comedy the important thing is to make it funny, With Khan’s dedication to honesty, Feeds series. His comic guide to the not worthy. in retrospect it seems obvious that, Islamic month of fasting became one “Working with Guz isn’t so different when he appeared on a recent episode of the platform’s most-watched shows. from Ant and Dec. All three are very of the BBC One Would I Lie Events moved quickly. He gave up nice people who make me laugh. To You?, his two hilarious stories – con- his teaching job and secured a for “Guz is very generous with his time cerning locking a fellow teacher in a Man Like Mobeen, also landing a break- on set and knows everyone’s names. cupboard and paying a friend to share fast radio show on BBC Asian Network We all know self-centred performers, his hotel room to scare away ghosts and a part alongside in but Guz couldn’t be further from that. – had to be true. Comedy Central’s Drunk History. He was “Any bad points? He’s always late He says: “That was great fun. The later to star alongside all the reunited and never answers his phone, which is offers are coming in to appear on other in a Walkers’ crisps advert. annoying. But that’s about the worst panel shows but if I feel the vibe isn’t In August 2017, it was announced that thing I can think of.” right, I give it a miss. I don’t have to be Man Like Mobeen was going to a full series. One of Khan’s passions is helping everywhere.” Executive producer Ben Cavey from others to break into TV. For series 3 of Khan did say yes to playing Idris Tiger Aspect – the show’s co-producer Man Like Mobeen, he launched a training Elba’s friend Del in Netflix’sTurn Up – described Khan as “one of the most scheme in partnership with Film Bir- Charlie and spent several weeks in a exciting new talents in the country”. mingham, BBC Comedy and Tiger camper van with Billy Zane for Sky The judges at the 2018 RTS Aspect to offer eight paid, entry-level One’s Curfew. Additionally, he was cast Awards agreed, naming him the Out- positions in production for people by in her TV remake of standing New Talent. He has also from the . Four Weddings and a Funeral. scooped the Actor and (with Milligan) Khan says: “Most people have no For Khan’s next project he’s going Writer prizes for the past two years. idea how to access the entertainment back to school, but not to teach. He’s On paper, you wouldn’t expect the industry – where do you start? So it’s created a new sitcom that he hopes to Khan and Milligan partnership to work important for us to offer opportunities. star in based on his classroom career. as well as it does. The latter – Ant and I want to see more working-class peo- He ponders: “I’ve got to know Dec’s only full-time writer for the past ple in front of and behind the camera. well, as another 14 years – admits he’s from “quite a Talking is all well and good but you teacher turned . He said that posh part” of Newcastle and doesn’t need to walk the walk. no one else has come through as get all the jokes in Mobeen. He was “ didn’t cost us too quickly as me. brought in as a script editor on Comedy “I’d asked the school to hold my Feeds and hit it off with Khan. position because I’d be back in a year “We don’t have much in common,” ‘HE’S ALWAYS after having a bit of fun with comedy. says Milligan. “We bonded over our But I never came close to going back, shared interest in hip hop and comedi- LATE AND NEVER because it just kept building. ans such as Eddie Murphy. “I think it’s because people gravitate “There’s lots I don’t understand, ANSWERS HIS towards someone they recognise. I’m from Punjabi and Urdu words to cul- PHONE, WHICH one of their own and not fake. I’m not tural references. When we did a pre- some Rada-trained actor, I’ve stumbled

BBC view screening in Birmingham, the IS ANNOYING’ into this. But it seems to be going OK.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 15 Crazy Delicious Channel 4 Katz shares his recipe

Channel 4’s director of programmes, Ian Katz, tells the RTS how he seeks to put clear blue water between the broadcaster and the SVoD giants

ike every broadcaster, we have to be quicker.… What we can E4 comedy, Maxxx, written and starring Channel 4 is feeling the compete on is TLC and impact. You get actor OT Fagbenle, who appeared in The heat from the streaming our bespoke attention from develop- Handmaid’s Tale. “OT has never written giants. But, at an RTS ment through to marketing. We des- a comedy before. It’s been a labour of early-evening event, the perately want a show to land. love over two or three years. Those are network’s director of “What I’m finding, particularly with the kind of soft things that we can programmesL stated that, despite their writers, is that the appeal of these, deliver that those with more money bigger budgets, he can offer producers weighed against the money and the than us are not that interested in.” the personal touch that Netflix et al lack. other things the SVoD world can offer, Judged by a clip from Maxxx that had Ian Katz said: “If you ask drama pro- is growing.” the audience laughing noisily, the story ducers what is it like dealing with the Katz added that UK writers were about a former boy band star who streamers, they tend to say two things. showing their frustration with the becomes a drug-raddled, tabloid laugh- On the plus side, you get quick streaming world: “There is a sense that ing stock, could take its place alongside answers and big budgets; on the nega- you can toil away for years and drop other Channel 4 comic gems such as tive side, they swallow up all your something into the SVoD pond and it Catastrophe, Peep Show and . rights and you have a five-minute just disappears. It’s much better to work It’s been two years since Katz suc- window.… with a PSB.” ceeded Jay Hunt at Channel 4. By all “We can’t compete on money and As evidence, he highlighted a new accounts, the experience has been

16 something of a baptism of fire for the than the £5m-plus that might be spent former Guardian deputy editor, whose by the SVoDs. only other job in TV was editing BBC Turning to comedy, the director of Two’s current affairs flagship, programmes admitted that the genre , between 2013 and 2017. struggled to match drama for ratings The last six months have seen things but argued that it often overperformed settle down for Katz at the network, as on . “We have a fabulous tradition viewing figures have improved and in comedy and there is a definitional critics and audiences alike have started quality about it,” said Katz, who injected to applaud elements of his schedule. £10m into comedy in 2018. “If you can There’s even been an Oscar nomina- get comedy right, it has an incredibly tion, for the Channel 4 Syrian war doc- long life. Week in and out, our biggest umentary For Sama. shows on All 4 are comedies such as He acknowledged that 2019 had been Friday Night Dinner and .” a year of “two halves” in terms of rat- He singled out Stath Lets Flats and This ings. A tough beginning was followed Way Up for praise and said he would by a much improved second half. continue to seek out significant content “We finished the year in a very that would sit in the archive and gener- strong place,” said Katz, pointing out ate views. “It is worth throwing out that Channel 4’s audience share was more fishing lines as every now and “level across the demographics”. “In then you get a Derry Girls,” he declared. peak, we were the only commercial Channel 4’s controversial decision to broadcaster that was up for all demo- “empty chair” Boris Johnson with a graphics,” he claimed. “Crucially for us, melting ice block during a general elec- we were significantly up on BAME tion leaders’ debate staged by Channel 4 audiences, which was a big objective.” News was arguably one of the defining When he was appointed at the end media moments of the recent election. of 2017, Katz said his aim at Channel 4 It provoked outrage in the Conserva- was to “make waves”. In 2019, he had tive Party and a complaint to Ofcom Ian Katz

Channel 4 succeeded in creating “a lot of waves” Channel 4 that the broadcaster had infringed due as he identified shows such as: the impartiality rules, which was rejected. prescient James Graham drama Brexit: broadcaster coincided with CEO Alex Katz said that, as a journalist he had The Uncivil War (his first commission Mahon developing and opening new spent many years attempting to get starred as Dom- regional offices in Leeds, and climate change “into the heart of the inic Cummings); the second series of Glasgow. political and the media agenda and Derry Girls; and the Michael Jackson He told the RTS that setting stories mostly failing”. But, overnight, Chan- documentary Leaving Neverland. in specific places outside London gave nel 4’s debate put the on the For a taste of 2020, Katz played a Channel 4 another “point of difference” subject. “I’m very proud of that. It was video showcasing Crazy Delicious, a between itself and the SVoDs. an extraordinary achievement.” food-based competition that includes The Accident devastated a fictional He described as an edible set; The Write Offs, a series small Welsh town and Deadwater Fell “probably the highest-quality news about adult literacy presented by Sandi centred on a Scottish village, while programme in the world”. Toksvig; and a new documentary, Derry Girls was set against the back- He added: “Ofcom has consistently Unexplained, which examines the still ground of the Troubles in Northern given Channel 4 News a clean bill of controversial death of Stuart Lubbock, Ireland. health in terms of its impartiality. I who was found dead in the swimming “Locating our stories strongly in concentrate on the news we make, and pool at Michael Barrymore’s house. specific places gives us a real point of I think it’s first rate. “This film lays bare a really profound difference and we will be looking for “One of the most heartening things institutional failure to deliver justice,” more of these programmes,” he added. for me last year was that our news said Katz. “It’s jaw dropping that, after Not that Channel 4 was averse to audiences were up substantially, both 20 years, no one has been brought to co-producing with the SVoDs. Russell in volume and in share and across all account for this death. T Davies’s upcoming drama Boys has demographics. I think that speaks for “It also tells the extraordinary story been made in tandem with HBO . itself.” n of what a catastrophe like this does to This had given the show a “very high a family.… But what takes it to another production budget”, noted Katz, who Report by Steve Clarke. ‘In Conversation level and makes it quintessential expected more such partnerships in a with Ian Katz’ was held at H Club London Channel 4 is its extraordinary window “variegated landscape”. on 21 January. Ian Katz was interviewed on the way the media, celebrity and Deadwater Fell, produced by Kudos, by journalist and media commentator the public intersect.” had not been made for peanuts but its Kate Bulkley. The producer was Katz’s first two years at the budget was closer to £2m per episode Martin Stott.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 17 Sex for all ages An RTS panel reveals how the explicit scenes required for Sex Education were filmed only once the cast was comfortable

Gillian Anderson in Sex Education Netflix

ew series by the streamers Jaws dropped around the cinema commercial hit for Netflix. The US have made as much noise during what we can safely say – even streamer is famously reticent about as Netflix’s Sex Education, this early in the year – will be 2020’s releasing viewing figures. which brings the genre of most astonishing opening sequence. “We didn’t have any idea that people the US high-school teen Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) is shown would respond to the show in this way drama to the UK – and trying and failing to control his newly and, particularly, that the breadth of adds plenty of gauche sex. discovered sexual urges in a scene that audience would be as it is,” said execu- FThe global giant released the second ends in excruciating embarrassment in tive producer Jamie Campbell, creative season of the comedy-drama in Janu- front of his therapist mother, Jean director of Eleven Film, which makes ary. A few days earlier, the first episode (). the series. was premiered at a joint RTS Cymru Season 1 of Sex Education was a huge Campbell was speaking as part of a Wales/Bafta Cymru event in . critical success and, almost certainly, a three-person panel with casting

18 director Lauren Evans and location opportunity to tap into South Wales’s manager Midge Ferguson, which fol- ‘[THESE WERE] ready supply of production crews. Since lowed the screening of the first epi- the BBC decided to shoot in sode of the new eight-part series. SOME OF Wales some 15 years ago, many shows, Sex Education attracts “an audience THE MOST such as , have followed in its that is very youthful and an audience EMBARRASSING wake, bringing behind-the-camera that is very senile – and lots [of people] talent with them. in between,” joked Campbell. “People PHONE CALLS “I found most of the locations driv- think it has something very contem- OF MY LIFE’ ing around and getting lost,” explained porary to say, which can appeal both to location manager Midge Ferguson, very young and old people.” who grew up in nearby Monmouth. The series, in which Otis Milburn “A lot of shows end up using the offers advice on sex to his fellow sixth- the most embarrassing phone calls of same old locations – if you’ve ever form pupils – mixes hilarious teenage my life. These were young actors and I been down Bute Street in [Cardiff] Bay, sexual confusion with a sensitive dis- had to have a conversation [with them], you know it’s had the shit shot out of cussion of sex and relationships. But, making it transparent from the begin- it. Trying to find [places] that are fresh added Campbell, Sex Education is not ning that it’s got sexual content… and, as well as aesthetically brilliant is what “didactic”; rather, it is “truthful and especially in this climate, to make sure I’m after. Wales is just full of fantastic emotionally open, which people like”. everybody feels that they’re armed with places. Campbell praised series creator the knowledge of what the show’s “I had a good chat with the director, Laurie Nunn. “The conceit of the show about, how we’re going to shoot it and Ben Taylor, and the [production] is very unusual and shouldn’t work,” what is required of each character, so designer, [Samantha Harley], about he said. “It allows you to be broad that they could make an informed their thinking, so I had an idea of what comedically but also go to some quite decision before they committed [to it].” I was looking for. Then, I literally dark and emotionally deep places.” An integrity co-ordinator was headed off in a direction that I thought Director Ben Taylor’s input was as brought on board for filming “so that I might find them. I had good days and important, argued Campbell, as Nunn’s. all these scenes of a sexual nature bad days. He explained that Taylor, whose credits [could be] broken down and almost “You spend a long time driving include Channel 4 comedy Catastrophe, choreographed. Everyone talks around and [asking yourself whether a married “Laurie’s vision” to the look through what they are and are not location] is interesting or says some- and feel of the “American teen movies comfortable with – everyone has a thing about a character. After a while, and high-school TV shows that we grew voice,” said Evans. you get to know what works and why up with, particularly the John Hughes “It is amazing to think that, even as it works.” movies”. Hughes made his name with recently as five years ago, I would say “Midge took us around in his car and 1980s teen films such as The Breakfast more than 90% of productions would showed us [some locations outside] Club and Pretty in Pink. have no parameters to work with,” Caerleon,” recalled Campbell. “He was “There’s an innocence about those added Campbell. “In physically inti- showing us stuff that we were getting shows and an aspirational quality,” said mate scenes… you’d just cross your blown away by.” Campbell. British series, he continued, fingers, go for it and hope that every- The show’s location, however, tend to focus on “what a horrible expe- one was OK. That was good because remains unspecified, which gives Sex rience [school] is”. “And often it is, so people, on the whole, have good inten- Education a universal feel. “It is its own that’s fair enough, but one of the things tions, but you want to make sure that place,” said Campbell. we wanted to do was to say that our people feel and are safe.” Working for Netflix, Campbell con- characters were going to look back and Sex Education is set in the fictional tinued, had been “unequivocally a feel it was the best time of their lives, Moordale Secondary, filmed in Caer- great experience”. rather than a time to escape from.” leon, South Wales. The series makes He added: “It really backed the script Sex Education’s cast is a mix of the the most of the Wye Valley’s many and Ben’s creative vision for how to famous and experienced – Anderson, beauty spots, few of which have been shoot it, and told us to get on with it Butterfield and, new for season 2, seen in TV drama before. and make it the most ‘authorially’ pure Anne-Marie Duff – and first-timers. Wales offered “extraordinary places show that we could make. Discussing how she cast the show, to shoot”, said Campbell, and the “That is an unusual approach. Most Lauren Evans admitted that, initially, broadcasters ask you to shape it for a “it was a daunting challenge”. “With a particular demographic. younger cast… some of whom had “As producers of the show, it’s a very never [acted] before, it’s about feel… ‘NETFLIX TOLD liberating process.” n and trying to assess quickly whether US… TO MAKE they’ve got potential.” Report by Matthew Bell. ‘Sex Education Cast diversity, she said, was critical: IT THE MOST series 2 screening and Q&A’ was the first “It was hugely important to find an “AUTHORIALLY” joint venture between RTS Cymru Wales eclectic ensemble that was representa- and Bafta Cymru. It was held at the tive, so everyone could see themselves PURE SHOW Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on 15 Janu- on screen.” THAT WE COULD ary and chaired by BBC Radio 1 presenter The sexually explicit nature of the Steffan Powell. The event was produced show led to Evans enduring “some of MAKE’ by Edward Russell for RTS Cymru Wales.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 19 Inside the ‘IT IS ONLY AS SCARY AS IT IS writers room BELIEVABLE’

At an RTS masterclass, showrunner Frank Spotnitz, whose credits include The X-Files, guides students through the craft of storytelling

t’s 2010, and screenwriter and – was its “world-building”. In other showrunner Frank Spotnitz words, “establishing the place and sits in a plane at LAX ahead of culture of the imaginary world you’ve a 10-hour flight, eager to begin invented”. his new life. On the strength A key part of this is “making things of a deal with Sky to air his believable”, he explained. “We always newI spy thriller Hunted, he has sold up, had the motto [that], ‘It’s only as scary lock, stock and barrel, in the US, and is as it’s believable’. We wanted you to be moving his business, his family and afraid to turn off the lights after watch- dogs to London. ing the show. Our strategy for doing As the plane taxis to the runway for that was [to write] everyday situations take-off, he takes a quick call from one with ordinary people.” of his producers, only to be told that He carried this mantra forward Sky has cancelled the show. Suddenly, when building the worlds for his other Spotnitz is unemployed; Hunted seems shows. One example was the dysto- dead in the water, along with his Euro- pian thriller The Man in the High Castle, pean dream. adapted from the Philip K Dick novel “But you have to be brave in this for Amazon. “The book has no narra- business,” he told the capacity audi- tive… but I wanted to honour Philip K ence at an RTS North West Masterclass. Dick, so what I did was ask, ‘What is “It’s my theme: don’t give up.… It’s the this book about?’ [It’s about] how you US, we have 24 episodes a year. The most important thing, not just for writ- hold on to your humanity when you’re studio wants the crew to be shooting ing, but for anything in life.” in an inhuman world.” every day – they have air dates to meet… It turns out that Hunted was dropped He illustrated his point by showing The crew needs a new script every eight to allow Sky to renew Strike Back for a the RTS a clip of the show, set in a business days. And it has to work. second season. “So I get myself a British world where and Japan had “You never have a writers room on agent… and the next day she calls and won the Second World War, in which a the first episode. The first episode is a says, ‘You’re not going to believe it. I “nice all-American, average-guy state template where the show is defined. have a job for you already. On Strike Back.’ trooper” casually explains that, “on “[Afterwards], you probably have six “And when the BBC green-lit Hunted, Tuesdays, the local hospital burns to eight writers in the writers room… was so happy with the work ‘cripples’ and the terminally ill”. focused on solving problems together. I’d done on Strike Back, that it came on “That’s what’s so horrifying,” Spot- It creates an efficiency and a speed. board with Hunted, and doubled the nitz emphasised. “Not that they do it, And you might get a better idea than budget of that show overnight.” but that a nice man doesn’t care.” you ever would have thought of on Following a seven-year career in Similarly, the Nazi officer played by your own.” journalism, Spotnitz cut his TV writing Rufus Sewell is a good, nurturing Asked if the writers-room system teeth on the groundbreaking sci-fi show father. “You can feel it’s believable. was competitive, Spotnitz said that a The X-Files. He started on the series as a That’s why I wanted to do the show. I good writers room was self-regulating, staffer in the writers room – “my second wanted to say that… [what happened] because this week “it might be my turn film school” – after meeting the show’s in the Germany of the 1930s and 1940s and I’m soliciting ideas from you, but creator, Chris Carter, at a book group. can happen anywhere, any time.… next week it’ll be your turn and you’ll The writer believes that an impor- Good people can do evil things.” be soliciting ideas from me and the tant reason for the show’s massive He gave the many students in the rest of the writers. There’s courtesy success – 99 awards and 217 nomina- audience an appreciation of what it’s and integrity, because you know your tions, including five Golden Globes like to work in a writers room. “In the turn will come.”

20 Hunted BBC

The showrunner is in charge of the story for a TV drama in the US. Tradi- there should be a mini-cliffhanger.… room and their decision is final. tionally, he said, “the format [for a TV And, by the time you get to your script, “When building a writers room… I episode] was 47 minutes – a teaser or it’s much more likely that this road ‘cast’ it. I ask: ‘What kinds of conversa- cold open before the main title, then map you’re building will work. You can tions will we have in that room?’ I four acts separated by commercial analyse your story: is the action rising, want people with different strengths. breaks. The teaser will be five to seven is my protagonist active? “Deliberately, I don’t meet people pages, then each of your acts 10 to “It’s a tool. Although I don’t have until I’ve read their script… I would read 12 pages,” he said. commercial breaks now, I still write your script and you would read mine. Pinning cards to a cork board, Spot- this way.” Then we’d meet and I’d want to hear nitz took the audience through the With his latest drama series Leonardo, what you think of my script. You’d have process. “You write these cards, putting set to hit screens later this year, Spot- insights and ideas that are interesting. down ‘Teaser’, ‘Act I’…. And then you nitz’s final advice for the student audi- “As a showrunner, you want writers begin to imagine scenes.… Write a card ence was: “Aim for the stars. Really try who have shown you the respect of that describes the scene that you to make whatever you write as great as reading and understanding what intend to write. it can be.… Audiences are smart.... Work you’ve done. That way, they can bring “What you need to know in order to hard at being smart in your writing, at you things that you never would have write that card is: how does the scene surprising people.” thought of on your own, but that are begin, how does the scene end, what’s And, of course: “Don’t give up.” n consistent with what you’ve created. the conflict in the scene? “I also ask: ‘Will you really be pas- “The reason why writing by hand is Report by Carole Solazzo. The RTS sionate about this show?’ Because, if good is that it makes you slow down and masterclass was held on 27 January at you’re not, it’s not going to be a happy reflect on what you’re writing. It gives the University of Salford. It was hosted by experience.” you time to change things as you go. ITV News entertainment correspondent The audience gained a valuable “Keep going until you fill up the Caroline Whitmore and produced by insight into the craft of constructing a entire board.… At the end of each act Rachel Pinkney.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 21 Are the kids alright? An RTS London event debated the future of children’s TV in the online age

The Tiger Who Came To Tea

hildren are the canar­ of content. But they love variety, too. We changed ourselves so we are fit for ies in the mine, picking Overall, kids are consuming as much or the future,” said Webb, who will leave things up first,” obser­ even more public service broadcasting.” the BBC in March after 15 years. The ved Greg Childs, direc­ Her confidence was grounded in the only option, she added, was more of tor of the Children’s research she led for the BBC Children’s the same “relentless activity”. “The risk Media Foundation, as Big Digital Plan around 2015. This is if we stop.” heC introduced an RTS debate on how resulted in an extra £34m being Richard Bradley, executive producer children’s TV and content movers and pumped into a range of new content of and Managing shakers are adapting to the fact that from 2017, including strands aimed at Director of Lion TV, responded: “If the young people have migrated online. teenagers up to the age of 16, rather kids are alright, I am just hoping the An optimistic tone was established than stopping at around 10. producers and broadcasters are. The from the start by Alice Webb, the out­ The initiative has embraced apps conundrum is, [even] with all this going head of BBC Children’s and and YouTube, with shorter content and demand… why is it so bloody hard to ­Education, who asserted: “Yes, the kids animation, but also encourages other make a living from children’s? The are absolutely fine. They have more BBC commissioners to consider, for public service broadcaster world, the choice than they ever had. They are example, making more youthful drama. creative ecology, is out of balance. The exercising choice and are after things “As the biggest producer, we are BBC is the only home.” that interest them. relentlessly focused on them. We think Netflix, he continued, had opened a “Kids love consuming large amounts we are the prime choice for children.… door into another world. Productions

22 were fully funded but “you are compet­ kids and teens inadvertently”, Scott BFI Young Audiences Content Fund, ing against producers from all over the suggested. “They didn’t set out to do it, launched last April. With £57m to dis­ world. This is work for hire – your IP is [but] we should learn from them.” The tribute, the three-year pilot is aimed gone. [The streamers] pay a premium online companies offered high-quality at encouraging a plurality of suppliers. for that, though it has started to shrink.” programming, and earned subscriber The first nine awards include shows Bradley wondered whether, since loyalty by providing differentiated and for CITV, Channel 5’s Milkshake!, Netflix and others had spotted the trusted content. Moreover, “kids are and Alba, plus 15 development BBC’s Natural History Unit’s expertise, conservative: they prevent churn”. projects. “it could do something similar for These factors contributed to Netflix “The jury is out,” opined Bradley. children’s television?”. The BBC there­ being seen as “a cool brand”. “The shows won’t be on screen for fore needed to be flexible and “get Beano’s research into the children’s another year.… It is too early to assess.” away from its obsession with channels”. Childs said that the Children’s Media Now preparing to make the 11th Foundation was watching the situation series of Horrible Histories for CBBC, with ‘WITH ALL THIS very closely, as was Pact. “We are very the catalogue available on Netflix,­ Brad­ exercised about future funding,” he ley highlighted how the format had DEMAND… WHY said. The experiment will end when adapted to comedy shorts online. Horri- IS IT SO BLOODY the BBC’s licence fee is reviewed in ble History spoof songs had attracted 2022. The hope was that the scheme healthy audiences: 3.8 million views for HARD TO MAKE would be extended. Charles II King of Bling and 2.6 million for A LIVING FROM A looming problem for advertising-­ Dick Turpin. funded online children’s content Childs asked the panel: if an original CHILDREN’S TV?’ relates to personal data. The ­ BBC series such as Horrible Histories was tion Commissioner’s Office has pro­ watched by children on Netflix, did posed sweeping new regulations to they even realise CBBC had helped it to market had identified key traits affect­ protect children’s data online. The Age prominence? Webb replied: “Predomi­ ing youngsters’ embrace of digital. They Appropriate Design Code could result nantly, children know it is a BBC show.” were generally questioning and wary, in video sites banning children under Bradley had a proposal: “The BBC with 58% not prepared to share data. 18 to ensure that they are not targeted should make more cultural noise about Children also accepted individualism by commercial messages. children’s television. There is no chil­ and diversity. Scott saw a future for YouTube has already withdrawn dren’s promotion [on BBC One or BBC shared viewing and event television. advertising from content suitable for Two]. Why not promote after She cited ITV’s quirky new hit The children after being fined $170m in the news, Hetty Feather after a drama? I Masked Singer as an attractive example. September by the US regulator, the The Tiger Who Came To Tea urge the public service broadcasters to Jon Gisby, Managing Director of Federal Trade Commission, for violat­

Channel 4 make more noise about what we do.” WildBrain Spark (part of the Canadian ing child privacy laws. Channel 4 promoted a 30-minute WildBrain Group, which owns the The UK system would carry penal­ animated version of The Tiger Who Came rights to ), said that, while ties, including fines, in line with the To Tea as its seasonal treat at the end of seismic shifts were taking place, with EU-wide General Data Protection 2019, Bradley noted, “but children’s TV linear-TV squeezed between ad-funded Regulation, introduced in 2018. Mean­ should not just be for ”. video and SVoD, there was potential while, the BBC’s bespoke children’s The third panellist to speak was for the different pieces to fit together iPlayer is on hold while age restrictions Emma Scott, Chief Executive of Beano and provide more versatility in the on access are discussed. Studios, which, in 2017, updated creation of successful shows. The panellists agreed that the BBC DC Thomson’s comic underdogs Den­ “On content, nothing changes,” he needed to press on, and that its role in nis the Menace and Gnasher for the insisted. “We are looking for great providing children’s television and digital world. stories. If you have a great character, content was a key part of its future She said it was to fund it doesn’t have to be launched… with a survival. More canaries in the mine animation from broadcasters alone, TV series.” were needed. n because the deficit-funding model Asked whether it was inevitable that covered only 80% of the budget. local – that is, UK – content would Report by Maggie Brown. ‘Are the Kids ­Traditionally, the gap would have been disappear in this global market, Gisby Alright? The future of children’s TV’ was funded by selling toys, merchandise replied: “No. But if it is a uniquely UK, an RTS London event held at the Univer- and events, but this was breaking 22-episode series, then it gets harder.” sity of Westminster, in central London down as retailers struggled. Another reason for cautious opti­ on 22 January. The producers were Carol Netflix and YouTube had “cracked mism about UK production was the Owens and Nikki Stearman.

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 23 Custom-made for uncertain times

hen Jeff Shell, ways resemble the state of the movie 54, kicked off Profile business when Shell took over Univer­ his tenure as sal. It is a world he described as “scary Chief Execu­ and changing, and, if you just stay tive of NBC­ Jeff Shell, the new where you are, you going to die Universal last CEO of NBCUniversal, eventually”. month,W the avid sports fan was faced is known for his Chris Meledandri, the producer of with a field of play containing many Universal hits such as , fast-moving players. This is unlikely to innate smartness Sing and , has said faze the one-time high-school basket­ of Shell: “One of Jeff’s secret powers ball player, who has spent his career and willingness to [is…] either he has no fear or he can out-weaving and out-jumping rivals. compartmentalise his fear in a way that “I want to be in a business that work harder than I have never seen before, which is criti­ needs fixing or is transitioning,” Shell his colleagues. Leo cal because, to me, the challenge of the told the Los Angeles Times when he was film industry remaining creative comes Chair of the Universal Filmed Enter­ Barraclough reports down to managing our own fear.” tainment Group. Shell has demonstrated his willing­ “He’s wicked smart and he’s quicker Taking Universal movie properties ness to challenge existing ecosystems. on the curve than anyone I have ever such as Despicable Me and Fast and Furi- When he was in charge of the Univer­ met,” sports executive Tim Leiweke ous, Shell focused on building them sal movie business, he signalled his said of his close friend Shell. into lucrative franchises. Key to this openness to a narrowing of the A Los Angeles native and a product was creating ancillary revenue from ­theatrical window for films, a move of the city’s public education system, consumer products and harnessing the that risked antagonising cinema chain Shell is the oldest of four children born promotional power of the wider Com­ owners. to a cardiologist father and a teacher-­ cast group to supersize them into Steve Burke, Shell’s former boss at therapist mother. global brands. This strategy was known NBCU, who now chairs the group, has After studying economics and internally as Symphony. praised him for his humility and ability applied mathematics at Berkeley, he Shell is a no-nonsense executive as a team player. Describing himself as got his MBA at Harvard, before kicking with a ready grasp of complex busi­ a “business person”, Shell acknowl­ off his career at investment bank Salo­ ness details; he’s also been praised for edges that, at the core of the entertain­ mon Brothers and in strategic planning being thoughtful and capable of acts ment business, are “art” and “artists”. for Disney. of kindness. He shouldn’t be seen as “The best way to manage a creative Shell held several positions at News a softy, though. business is to be there, to help and Corporation, including President of He is admired for his ability to be support but stay out of the way, and let Fox Cable Networks Group, subse­ decisive when adapting to new cir­ artists be artists and film-makers be quently becoming CEO of Gemstar TV cumstances. Within weeks of NBCU film-makers, and create their Guide International. buying DreamWorks Animation, home without any of us business people After joining Philadelphia-based of , in 2016, Shell announced that getting too involved,” he said during a cable giant in 2004, he ran a some 200 jobs would go at the anima­ panel on creativity. host of its channels, including E! and tion studio as it was rapidly integrated At a gala event held in his honour, its sports networks. When Comcast into its new parent operations. Shell was asked what the best advice purchased NBCU in 2011, he was dis­ Last year, he merged NBCU’s inter­ was that he had received as a student patched to London to manage the national and US film and TV opera­ was. “To outwork everybody – smarts international business. tions, which coincided with news that are important but the hard work gets Two years later, he became head of Kevin MacLellan, the Chair of NBCU’s you further than your intelligence,” he Universal, despite his lack of movie biz global distribution and international replied. He ascribed his success to experience – or perhaps because of it: operations, was exiting the company being “lucky and having good people Comcast was said to have wanted a after nearly two decades. around me... I don’t think I’m that Hollywood outsider, albeit one of the Shell seems custom-made for such smart.” corporation’s most trusted lieutenants, uncertain times. The challenges that He admitted to being “too direct” in to shake up the film division. the TV business faces now in some his dealings with colleagues, which he

24 service, with a free basic tier and a paid-for premium tier, although Com­ cast subscribers will get this as part of their bundle. In the US, the company’s ownership of rights to the Tokyo Olympics will help draw the eyeballs that will bring advertisers to Peacock, says Tim West­ cott, research director for channels and programming at IHS Markit. The venture will use the same digital infrastructure that supports Sky’s Now streaming platform in Europe, one example of the many synergies that Shell will look to develop between the two Comcast units. Among the shows to feature on Pea­ cock will be the US version of The Office, after it ends its run on Netflix in 2021, plus a swathe of NBCU-produced and acquired shows that are being commissioned specifically for the platform. Co-productions with Sky are also in the works. However, NBCU will con­ tinue to license many of its shows to third-party buyers, both in the US and Jeff Shell

NBCUniversal internationally. Shell’s brief, of course, encompasses far more than Peacock and NBC. Other ‘EITHER HE HAS NO FEAR OR HE CAN parts of the empire include Spanish-­ COMPARTMENTALISE HIS FEAR IN A language network , NBCU’s cable networks, such as USA Network, WAY I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE’ and , its film studios Univer­ sal and DreamWorks Animation, movie ticketing company Fandango, and the saw as both his best and worst quality. state-run media outlets such as Voice Universal Studios theme parks. Shell put this down to his need to be of America. This role led to his deten­ Another challenge for Shell to grapple “honest”. tion for several hours at Moscow air­ with is NBCU’s news division, which He has interests beyond entertain­ port in 2016, before being deported to has been under a cloud following its ment. His politics are left of centre the . handling of Ronan Farrow’s reporting – he was a fervent supporter of Barack Shell even took time recently to on Harvey Weinstein, and Today anchor Obama. Shell and his wife, Laura, last come to , with other white Matt Lauer’s departure amid an alleged year hosted a fundraiser for Senator knights, of legendary Beverly Hills sexual harassment scandal. Another Kamala Harris at their home, when she eatery Nate ’n Al’s. In sport, he sup­ priority is the launch of an international was vying for the Democratic presi­ ports the Dodgers baseball team. news channel with Sky. dential nomination. One of Shell’s first challenges as With the Comcast brass cheering Obama nominated Shell to the NBCU’s new leader is to ensure it com­ him on, and with the support of his Broadcasting Board of Governors, now petes in the streaming wars; its own colleagues at Sky, Shell is a new giant known as the US Agency for Global platform, Peacock, launches in April. of the global media arena, albeit a Media, which operates various This will be an advertising-supported humble one. n

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 25 Do you need £4,000 for a history of ­television project?

Grants will be given to assist in the long-­standing member of the Apply now for ­completion of new or unfinished RTS. The Shiers Trust grant is now projects, work or literature specific in its 20th year. the 2020 Shiers to the objectives of the Trust. Trust Award ‘Literature’ is defined as including Application procedure audio-visual media such as DVDs Applications are now invited and and websites. It is essential that The Trust can make a should be submitted to the applicants read all the conditions Trustees by Friday 27 March 2020 grant of up to £4,000 and criteria, which can be found on the officialapplication ­ form. towards publishing online at the address below. work on any aspect George Shiers, a distinguished www.rts.org.uk/ of TV history US television historian, was a shiers-trust-award

8 Image: characters Minnie Caldwell (), () and Martha Longhurst (), 1971 © Allstar/Granada/ITV RTS NEWS Thomas Shelby may have put Birmingham on the world map but

RTS Midlands it was another bad boy – Ebenezer Scrooge – who took centre stage when Peaky Blinders creator and writer Steven Knight gave a master- class at BBC Birmingham. The December event – organised by BBC Birming- ham in partnership with RTS Midlands – celebrated the writer’s latest project, a three-part adaptation of A Christmas Carol, a highlight of BBC One’s festive schedule. Knight’s gritty and bleak take on the Dickens classic found favour with critics. It has been adapted countless times, which is why Knight said he under- took a detailed study of the A Christmas Carol

original text in search of a BBC fresh take on a familiar story. “If Dickens was around now, he’d probably be writ- ing returning television Knight rides critical wave series because he wrote in episodes and he managed to them forensically and thought, about putting Birmingham not at London prices but create characters that seem ‘He’s like this but why is he on the map. He told the within striking distance of to be eternal, with Scrooge like this? What made him audience that he’d just visited London,” he said. probably the pre-eminent become that person?’ the proposed site of his new The studios promise to be one,” he said. “There are some surprises TV and film studios in the a game-changer for the “I was particularly taken and some shocks but I hope city’s Digbeth district. region’s creative sector. Add with the paragraphs where people will return to the “The need for studio space to that, Knight’s pledge to Dickens goes off at a tangent. book and realise where in is alarming film series 7 of Peaky Blinders They don’t move the plot they’ve come from.” now. There’s a reason why in Birmingham, and it’s no along but they do give an Knight has not just helped the Americans want to come wonder the city sees him as insight into the characters, to make the Brummie accent here. What we can offer in that keeps giving. particularly Scrooge. I studied cool, he’s also passionate Birmingham is film studios Teresa Bogan Students caught Red Handed in Devon

RTS Devon and Corn- centre’s 2020 Student hands-on experience of production Robin Johnston. wall members and Awards. It was designed to using the kit. RTS Devon and Cornwall local students went demonstrate all the skills All the attendees had time is planning to run a larger

Devon and Devon Cornwall behind the scenes of a needed to run a live broad- to speak with the technical event later in 2020 to give full-scale streaming webcast cast, as well as to promote crew and see every element more people the opportunity at a workshop held in asso- the awards. of the event, from presenting of behind-the-scenes access ciation with Devon indie Red At the workshop, Red and scripting through to to a broadcast production Handed TV in December. Handed’s crew broke down camerawork, sound and – and even to take on some The webcast was a the different aspects of the streaming. of the roles of the crew when 10-minute scripted piece broadcast through demon- The event was organised it goes live. about the judging of the RTS strations and gave attendees by Red Handed’s head of Rick Horne

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 27 RTS NEWS the undergraduate category for Drama, Camera and Edit- RTS news ing, before enjoying further success in Ireland at the Richard Harris International IN BRIEF Film Festival, Disappear Here Film Festival and Under- ground Cinema Awards. Production on the It also won Best Student rise in the East Film and Best Young Actor awards at the Los Angeles RTS East held its latest Film Awards. networking event at the Forum Backwater looks at the lives in Norwich in mid-January. More of a young man and his than 30 industry professionals elderly father. It is a film of and students gathered to great tenderness and sensi- make connections and discuss tivity, addressing questions TV production in the East of of rural isolation, old age and Xxxxxxxxxx England. Businesses that have the onset of dementia, and relocated from London to the onerous duties of care Backwater

Norfolk spoke about the oppor- IADT/NFS demanded of the younger tunities available to them and . McCallion and their clients, including reduced O’Malley revealed that they costs, lower environmental had personal experience of impact, and great locations celebrates the film’s subject matter. and facilities. Casting was a key element: rather than starting with a award-laden film script, they used workshops enjoys to develop character and a busy year dialogue. The multi-award-­ O’Malley were both students Their advice to young RTS Scotland kicked off 2020 winning student film at IADT/NFS Dun Laoghaire, film-makers was to choose with its annual general meeting Backwater received an Dublin, and their film took wisely when it comes to the

and an ‘alternative’ Burns night of Republic Ireland enthusiastic response the Drama prize at the RTS story: pick something you celebration at the Glasgow Art from a capacity audience at Student care deeply about – and then Club in late January. The AGM RTÉ in Dublin in December. Television Awards last year. make sure your cast is report revealed a busy 2019, Director Brendan McCal- Backwater went on to win exactly what you want. which included a growth in lion and producer Frank three national RTS awards in Agnes Cogan membership and a record num- ber of entries to the centre’s awards. Members and guests and music videos. The enjoyed an evening of enter- Slough facility employs a tainment from a local women’s Cinelab opens its doors team of 27 film enthusiasts. comedy group, Witsherface, When they formed the in celebration of Scotland’s Many believe advances resurgence in film, which company, Bull and Mahtani national poet, Robert Burns. in digital acquisition exceeds the current expected it to focus largely have consigned film to demands for dynamic range on film archives and restora-

Thames Valley the history books, but and – while deliv- tion. Although it continues to Newcastle cinema Adrian Bull and John ering a unique film aesthetic. remaster original film stock hosts RTS quiz Mahtani, co-founders of Cinelab, which was for concerts and events, Cinelab London, dismissed founded in 2013, offers a Cinelab has seen a massive RTS North East and the Border’s this belief as they delivered a wide range of integrated film increase in the use of film in annual quiz moved to a new passionate discourse on why and digital services, and has both features and adverts. venue, the Tyneside Cinema in film remains relevant. The worked with more than The duo gave their RTS Newcastle, and welcomed a duo were talking at an RTS 500 cinematographers. It guests a tour of the Cinelab new host, Doctor Velvet. The Thames Valley event, “21st processes all film formats, facility, including the film quiz, which was held shortly century film”, in December. from Super 8 to 65mm and processing and scanning before Christmas, drew a The demand for higher- its work includes feature areas. crowd of 60. quality content has led to a films, TV series, commercials Tony Orme

28 Your guide to upcoming events. Book online at RTS EVENTS www.rts.org.uk EAST NORTH WEST Venue: Guildhall Winchester, The National events Wednesday 4 March Monday 24 February Broadway, Winchester SO23 9GH RTS East Awards and Student RTS North West Student Media Thursday 12 March RTS EARLY-EVENING EVENT Television Awards 2020 Conference 2020 In conversation with Thursday 20 February Black Tie event. 7:00pm-11:00pm 2:00pm Venue: TBC Screening and Q&A for Venue: The Assembly House, Venue: Lowry Theatre, Salford Thursday 26 March Flesh and Blood Theatre Street, Norwich NR2 1RQ Quays, MediaCity UK, Salford Freelancers’ fair Q&A with writer and executive ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 M50 3AZ Venue: The Vestry, 61 Commer­cial producer Sarah Williams, director ■ [email protected] Monday 24 February Road, Southampton SO15 1GG Louise Hooper, executive producer RTS North West Student Tele- Thursday 26 March Kate Bartlett and producer Letitia vision Awards 2020 Working in journalism Knight. 6:00pm for 6:30pm ■ Michael Wilson Presented by Sally Nugent, BBC Venue: Solent University (TBC) Venue: Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftes­ ■ [email protected] Breakfast. 6:30pm ■ Stephanie Farmer bury Avenue, London W1D 5DY Venue: Lowry Theatre, as above ■ SFarmer@.ac.uk LONDON ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 RTS AWARDS Wednesday 4 March ■ [email protected] THAMES VALLEY Wednesday 26 February 2020 Protecting our TV heritage Tuesday 3 March RTS Television Journalism Panellists: Charles Fairall, head Getting started in TV tech roles Awards 2020 of conservation, BFI; Megan ■ John Mitchell Speakers: Fletcher, sound Sponsored by Avid McCooley, moving image archi- ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@ editor; Jonathan Glazier, studio Venue: London Hilton on Park vist, Yorkshire Film Archive; Kay btinternet.com multi-cam director; Hannah Lane, London W1K 1BE Page, Co-MD, Northbound TV; Green, camera operator; Tom Jennifer Wilson, data and tax- REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Metcalf, VT operator, Sky; Tom RTS EARLY-EVENING EVENT onomy manager, BBC Scotland. ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 Morgan, head of client services, Thursday 27 February Chair: Sue Malden, RTS Archive ■ [email protected] Envy Post Production; Claire Screening and Q&A for Liar, Group. 6:30pm for 7:00pm Wilkie, founder, WilkieTV; Carrie episode 1 of series 2 Venue: University of Westminster, SCOTLAND Wootten, director, Rise. Chair: Q&A with producers Harry and 309 Upper Regent Street, Lon­ Thursday 20 February Prof Lyndsay Duthie, head of Jack Williams and stars Joanne don W1B 2HT The network speaks – with the school, UCA. 5:30pm-7:30pm Froggatt and Katherine Kelly. Wednesday 18 March Creative Diversity Network Venue: Film and Media Centre, 6:00pm for 6:30pm RTS London Student Television Facilitated by Alison Smith, University for the Creative Arts, Venue: Curzon Bloomsbury, Awards 2020 access and engagement officer, Falkner Road, Farnham GU9 7DS Brunswick Centre, London Hosted by Sabrina Grant. 6:30pm Scottish Queer International ■ Tony Orme WC1N 1AW Venue: Channel 4, 126 Horseferry Film Festival. 3:30pm-6:30pm ■ [email protected] Road, London SW1P 2TX Venue: Channel 4, 10 Montrose RTS AWARDS ■ Phil Barnes Street, Glasgow G1 1RE WALES Tuesday 17 March 2020 ■ [email protected] Thursday 5 March ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 RTS Programme Awards 2020 Inspirational women: Interna- ■ [email protected] In partnership with Audio MIDLANDS tional Women’s Day event Network Thursday 19 March Joint event with WFTV Scotland. WEST OF ENGLAND Venue: Grosvenor House Hotel, RTS Midlands Student Television 6:00pm-8:00pm Wednesday 26 February London W1K 7TN Awards 2020 Venue: Royal College of Physi­ RTS West of England Student 6:30pm for 7:30pm cians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Television Awards 2020 Venue: BBC Birmingham, The 232-242 St Vincent Street, 6:30pm-9:00pm Local events Mailbox, Birmingham B1 1AY Glasgow G2 5RJ Venue: Everyman Cinema Bristol, ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 Wednesday 6 May 44 Whiteladies Rd, Bristol BS8 2NH DEVON AND CORNWALL ■ [email protected] RTS Scotland Television Awards Sunday 29 March Wednesday 25 March 2020 nominees party RTS West of England RTS Devon and Cornwall Stu- NORTH EAST AND THE BORDER 6:00pm Awards 2020 dent Television Awards 2020 Saturday 29 February Venue: Glasgow Art Club, Venue: Bristol Old Vic, King 6:00pm for 6:30pm. RTS North East and the Border 185 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4HU Street, Bristol BS1 4ED Venue: Jill Craigie Cinema, Uni­ Awards 2020 ■ Cheryl Strong ■ Suzy Lambert versity of , Drake Circus, To book your place, please email: ■ [email protected] ■ [email protected] Plymouth PL4 8AA [email protected] ■ Jane Hudson Venue: Hilton Hotel, Bottle Bank, SOUTHERN YORKSHIRE ■ RTSDevonandCornwall@rts. Gateshead NE8 2AR Friday 6 March ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 org.uk ■ Joanna Makepeace RTS Southern Professional and ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. ■ joanna.makepeace Student Television Awards 2020 co.uk @.ac.uk 7:00pm-late

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 29 OFF M E SSAGE

ot exactly a quiet missed. He is succeeded by the Con- taboo-breaking, Shrill enters genuinely start to 2020. servative MP, Julian Knight. A former fresh territory. Perfect for binge Tony Hall’s deci- BBC consumer affairs reporter, Knight viewing on a winter’s evening. sion to step promises to be “a critical friend of down surprised the BBC”. ■ Talking of , you may remem- quite a few. At times like these, the BBC needs ber that, back at the RTS Cambridge Some in the all the friends it can get, critical or Convention in September, Netflix’s know – or who thought they were otherwise. Reed Hastings was asked if there was Nin the know – believed he would one British programme he wished remain in situ to lead the BBC’s cen- ■ Sweeping cuts in news have been he’d made. “We were outbid for Flea- tenary celebrations in 2022. But all the order of the day at Broadcasting bag,” admitted the Netflix leader. good things come to an end. House. This is not echoed in the rest Channel 4’s director of programmes, Much has been written about how of the industry as the UK’s TV sector Ian Katz, was asked a similar question the outgoing Director-General steadied continues to boom. at an RTS session last month. What the ship following ’s­ In 2019, the amount spent on pro- was the show he’d let slip through his brief, chaotic regime. duction in the UK exceeded £3.6bn, fingers? None other than the multiple As one insider put it: “Before he a hike of 16% on the previous highest award-winner­ . came, we were lurching from crisis to on record, according to figures pub- Let’s all hope that Alex Mahon has crisis. He averted a disastrous melt- lished by the last forgiven him. down.” Too true. month. Lord Hall presided over a BBC that, High-end drama was largely ■ Finally, Viacom recently wel- creatively, was often at the very top responsible: it accounted for £1.7bn, a comed the former ITV Studios high- of its game. Think of genre-defining massive increase of 29% on 2018 and flyer and Disney executive Maria content such as , The Night a record total. Kyriacou to its Camden offices as Manager, Line of Duty, A Very English Scan- , , Killing President, ViacomCBS Networks UK dal, the recent The Trial of Eve, Avenue 5 and The North Water were & Australia. and the consistent success of Strictly. all part-filmed in the UK last year. In She was originally appointed last Or the apparently never-ending total, 123 high-end TV productions October – as President, Viacom gems from the Natural History Unit were shot at least partially on these International Media Networks UK, and the brilliant BBC lampoon, W1A. shores, an impressive figure to Northern and Eastern Europe, over- Off Message wishes him well as the celebrate.­ seeing channels in some 33 territo- new Chair of the National Gallery. ries. But a recent reorganisation at ■ With so many scripted shows of Viacom means that Kyriacou’s role ■ Another January surprise was the genuine quality to watch, it’s all too expanded – before she had even replacement of Damian Collins MP easy to miss shows that hover under started the job. as Chair of the all-important Digital, the radar. Her new brief gives her responsi- Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Shrill, the comedy acquired bilities for English-language markets The very able Collins was, among for BBC Three, may be one show in New Zealand, Israel and Ireland, as other things, acclaimed for his work you’ve missed. The series is based on well as Australia and the UK. on fake news and interrogating Face- a memoir written by the American Off Message congratulates her and book. He spoke at many RTS events author, comedian and activist, Lindy looks forward to even bigger things and chaired the Society’s All-Party West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. for one of the UK’s most talented Parliamentary Group. Damian will be If you thought Fleabag was international TV executives.

30 February 2020 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS PATRONS RTS Principal BBC Channel 4 ITV Sky Patrons

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Who’s who Patron Chair of RTS Trustees CENTRES COUNCIL Education at the RTS HRH The Prince of Wales Jane Turton Lynn Barlow Graeme Thompson Phil Barnes Vice-Presidents Honorary Secretary Tony Campbell RTS Futures David Abraham David Lowen April Chamberlain Alex Wootten Agnes Cogan Sir OM Honorary Treasurer Caren Davies RTS Technology Bursaries CH CVO CBE FRS Mike Green Stephanie Farmer Simon Pitts Baroness Floella Rick Horne Benjamin OBE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Cat Lewis AWARDS COMMITTEE Mike Darcey Lynn Barlow Will Nicholson CHAIRS Julian Bellamy Tony Orme Awards & Fellowship Lord Hall of Birkenhead Vikkie Policy Mike Green Fiona Thompson David Lowen OBE David Lowen Michael Wilson Ian Jones Anne Mensah Judith Winnan Craft & Design Awards Baroness Lawrence of Jane Millichip Anne Mensah Clarendon OBE Simon Pitts SPECIALIST GROUP David Lynn Sarah Rose CHAIRS Programme Awards Sir Trevor McDonald OBE Jane Turton Archives Wayne Garvie Ken MacQuarrie Rob Woodward Dale Grayson Gavin Patterson Student Television OBE EXECUTIVE Diversity Awards Stewart Purvis CBE Chief Executive Angela Ferreira Siobhan Greene Sir Howard Stringer Theresa Wise Early Evening Events Television Journalism Bursaries Manager Keith Underwood Awards Anne Dawson Simon Bucks

Television www.rts.org.uk February 2020 31 AUDIO NETWORK

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