November 2019

The art of screenwriting Jack Thorne Jez Butterworth Russell T Davies ScreenSkills develops and sustains a world-class workforce for UK film, TV (high-end, children’s, unscripted), animation, VFX and games

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Peaky Blinders © BBC/Caryn Mandabach Production Ltd 2019/Robert Viglasky Killing Eve 2 © Sid Gentle Productions Doctor Who © BBC Journal of The Royal Television Society November 2019 l Volume 56/10

From the CEO Elsewhere, all eyes This was followed by a Q&A with the broadcaster and political journalist might be on the elec- series’ creators. It was great to see so and former Chair of the RTS Televi- tion but, here at the many of the show’s dedicated fans at sion Journalism Awards; Seetha RTS, we’ve continued this highly entertaining evening. Kumar, CEO of ScreenSkills; Andy to roll out our autumn It is always a thrill to get out of Lon- Lucas, vice-president, global distribu- events calendar. don and visit the nations and regions. tion technology, Universal Pictures The early-evening Attending this year’s RTS Northern International; Kevin Lygo, ITV’s direc- session on branded content was a Ireland Programme Awards, held in tor of television; Niall Sloane, ITV’s sell-out. Huge thanks to everybody Belfast and hosted by Vogue Williams, director of sport; Jane Turton, CEO of who made this such an informative was a real pleasure. All3Media; and Sally Woodward Gen- and stimulating session. I am espe- Back in London, a stellar line-up of tle, CEO of Sid Gentle Films. cially grateful to all of the panellists. television practitioners gave two days The first two episodes of season 2 of RTS Student Masterclasses at the IET. of Sky Atlantic’s high-concept drama Finally, congratulations to our eight Britannia were shown at an exclusive new RTS Fellows: Kenton Allen, CEO RTS screening at the Curzon Soho. of Big Talk Productions; Sue Inglish, Theresa Wise Contents Ranvir Singh’s TV Diary An audience with a TV revolutionary Ranvir Singh puts practicalities before politics as she Russell T Davies explains to Gethin Jones why TV still 4 braces for another Downing Street doorstep 18 needs to get out of its straight, white rut. Matthew Bell has a front-row seat Ear Candy: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Can’t wait for your weekly fix? Kate Holman plugs Soccer’s moment of truth 5 into the show’s podcast It’s not only the fans who will be watching Amazon 20 Prime’s live Premier League kick-off next month, as Working lives: Sustainability manager Ross Biddiscombe discovers Richard Smith, BBC sustainability manager, is 6 interviewed by Roz Laws Television’s biggest fan Jane Turton, CEO of All3Media and the new Chair of the Jack on the box 22 RTS, tells Steve Clarke why she lives and breathes TV Jack Thorne, writer of The Accident and adaptor of His 8 Dark Materials, is one of the UK’s most sought-after Our Friend in Scotland screenwriters. He talks to Ben Dowell In an era of Netflix and Disney+, play to your strengths, 25 recommends Simon Pitts Sky’s big spender Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ deal-maker extraordinaire and TV’s tech pioneers 11 supporter of Extinction Rebellion, tells Andrew Billen how Anne Dawson looks at how the RTS Technology Bursary she came clean to her bosses about her left-wing views 27 Scheme encourages young women to consider careers once seen as off limits to them Message in the magic Caroline Frost meets some of the producers of the Brands boost budgets 14 BBC’s latest natural history blockbuster, Seven Worlds, Advertisers are increasingly stepping in to close One Planet 30 the funding gap, discovers Matthew Bell at an RTS early-evening event Britannia – ‘There’s no Jane Austen here’ Jez Butterworth and colleagues tell the RTS how his RTS news and events listings 16 ‘gloriously bonkers’ historical saga repurposed the Reports of Society activities across the nations and English costume drama. Steve Clarke reports 32 regions, and calendar of forthcoming public events

Editor Production, design, advertising Royal Television Society Subscription rates Printing Legal notice Steve Clarke Gordon Jamieson 3 Dorset Rise UK £115 ISSN 0308-454X © Royal Television Society 2019. [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 November 2019 3 TV diary

Ranvir Singh puts practicalities before politics as she braces for another Downing Street doorstep

y alarm has it easy to enjoy red-carpet events. him a lot, and the pressure and guilt been almost Some people live for them. Not me. of being a single mum with an only constantly set As I sit in make-up, 12 hours after I child who deserves my full, undivided for 3:30am for woke up, I’m repeating to myself, attention. I’m pretty sure I’m doing seven years “Enjoy this, enjoy this”. I get a photo both badly sometimes. now. My with Harry Kane while I’m inside, feel body is so humbled and inadequate hearing the ■ Saturday, and we watch the Rugby attuned to it that I almost always stories, and flop into bed at midnight. World Cup final while out ­having awakeM before it goes off. It’s now breakfast. I shed a tear over the 3:03am on Monday morning and I’m ■ It looks likely a snap election will South African captain and secretly staring at my phone, having just been be passed by the Commons tonight. want them to win because it means happily dreaming about glaciers. I’m at ITN to do the national evening so much more to them than just I flew back late last night from four news. It still excites me every time I being a game. That’s not patriotic, I magical days in Iceland marvelling at hear Big Ben’s “bongs” at the top of know, but it’s how I feel. the power of Mother Earth. After a the show, and tonight’s is a big show. few hours’ sleep, it’s time to get my There’s an electric, hyper-focused ■ I’ve been invited to watch Strictly head back into the man-made fire- atmosphere in the newsroom. at Elstree Studios tonight. So, after works of Westminster politics. It’s decided that we should take the handing my son over in Warwick I’ll be out in the dark, freezing-cold programme out of the studio and on to services car park to my sister, I get conditions of live TV outside Parlia- the platform erected in front of Parlia- ready and drive there with a friend. ment and No 10, talking about Brexit ment. It’s my first OB for evening In the VIP tent we have to hand in in the week we’re supposed to be news, and, for the first time in years, our phones – just like you do inside leaving the EU. You’d assume that my I’m actually nervous.… By 7:00pm we Downing Street. first thoughts of the morning/middle are done and I’m genuinely thrilled. We’re shown to our seats, and told of the night would be about the latest they’ll give us water and a biscuit in news lines, but it’s more important to ■ The next day, I’m in Sunderland about two hours to keep us going. consider the correct thickness of for a family funeral. The following Even though I’ve worked in live TV thermals, boots and coat for the day. day, after Good Morning Britain, which for years, it’s still exciting being here. Get it wrong and brain freeze sets I do Monday to Thursday, I go to My hands hurt from all the clap- in very quickly. Practicalities before the gym with my personal trainer. ping we have to do, sometimes to politics, people. The evening is dedicated to spend- order for the edit. It’s bloody ing time with my son – and making exhausting watching close-up how ■ Later on, it’s time to get ready for Halloween fun for him. fast the dancers’ bodies move. Wow. the Pride of Britain Awards red carpet. The internal battle rages daily, Mike Bushell is saved again. It’s the one big TV event that’s about sometimes minute to minute: pursu- brilliant people, and I love meeting ing a career that needs a lot of atten- Ranvir Singh is Good Morning Brit- them but, to be honest, I don’t find tion but which takes me away from ain’s political editor.

4 Ear candy TV diary

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK BBC Can’t wait for your weekly fix?Kate Holman plugs into the show’s podcast

tart your engines! have included Downton Draggy and The duo discuss everything from who RuPaul’s Drag Race has winning queens are awarded RuPeter slayed on the runway to the perfor- finally made its way badges. And, each Thursday, drag mance of the week’s worst lip-sync. across the pond for a legend RuPaul is joined by Michelle Scarlett and Baby are joined by an UK makeover – and a Visage and an array of celebrity eclectic mix of special guests and weekly podcast from guests, such as Alan Carr, Andrew celebrity fans. Drag king Kemah Bob BBC Sounds for even Garfield and Cheryl. They judge the and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan more content about the nation’s drag queens on their talent, charisma have both appeared. There have also favouriteS drag queens. and individuality in the search for the been visits from the latest queen to After 11 series of the popular US next drag superstar. have sashayed away from the compe- drag competition, diehard fans On Sundays, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: tition for an exclusive tea-spilling rejoiced when it was announced that The Podcast brings the show’s com- interview. RuPaul’s Drag Race would be heading munity viewing experience to the Alongside the main podcast, BBC to BBC Three for the first UK series. podcasting world. There’s a full Sounds offers a playlist created by the While staying true to the US format, debrief of the latest episode from week’s eliminated queen to help get the UK version has been sprinkled super-fan hosts Scarlett Moffatt and you through the Sunday-evening with a touch of British flair. Tasks “punk-horror drag queen” Baby Lame. blues. n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 5 WORKING LIVES Sustainability manager

ichard Smith has been department. I had no sustainability the BBC’s sustainability training or qualifications, but I was manager for 10 years. enthusiastic and understood TV He was previously an production. on-screen reporter for I think my two careers share some BBC regional news pro- skill sets. You have to be relentlessly grammes, including Midlands Today. As resilient and persuasive, and be able to homeR affairs correspondent for BBC take a lot of complex information and South East, he reported on drugs, asylum make it understandable. seekers and homelessness, and won an I was taken on for six months to RTS award. develop a carbon calculator for TV Based at MediaCity UK in Salford, production. I’ve been here ever since. Smith heads a team working to raise I have since trained with the Institute awareness of environmental issues of Environmental Management and for a CBeebies programme. The pro- within the television industry and Assessment to become a chartered ducer had asked me for advice on reduce the carbon footprint of pro- environmentalist. conveying issues of climate change gramme production. to toddlers, which is wonderful. He devised the Albert carbon calcu- What does the job involve? lator, which he shared with the rest It’s very varied, from writing the BBC’s How has the role and reactions to it of the TV industry through Bafta. The sustainability strategy and reporting to changed in a decade? scheme is now used by more than management at the highest levels, to Ten years ago, I had to explain much 500 production companies in the UK talking to a production company that’s more about environmental issues. and beyond. not thought much about sustainability Now, everybody understands the Programmes that complete the cer- before and is taking the first steps to phrase “climate change”. tification can use the Albert Sustainable becoming greener. Things that seemed a challenge five Production logo in their end credits. A vital part of the role is sharing our years ago are now commonplace, such values with the rest of the industry, as as casts and crews using reusable How did you get the job of sustain­ they can’t just stop at the BBC’s front water bottles rather than endless ability manager? door. ­single-use plastic bottles. It sounds idealistic, but I went into I am very involved in training. I TV programmes have really helped journalism because I wanted to change co-founded a partnership between the to raise awareness. Now, it’s not just in the world. After 14 years, I realised I’d BBC, ITV and others to create what we documentaries and on the news that probably changed it as much as I could. think is the world’s first training course viewers learn about climate change. My awareness of climate change was on climate change and environmental The issues were bubbling away in the growing and I realised this was an area impacts specifically for the television background of the Russell T Davies where I could achieve more. In 2008, I industry. It has been taught to hundreds drama Years and Years, bringing them read about the BBC’s new environmen- of people. alive in a genre where you wouldn’t tal strategy and contacted that This morning, I was checking a script expect the subject to be tackled.

6 Plastic pollution at Manta Point, off the coast of Indonesia Jukka Saarikorpi

How do carbon footprints vary in the per hour of output. That compares to 2027, we want the BBC to have made TV industry and are they falling? the total annual carbon footprint of the world a better place environmen- Studio-based programmes, such as three UK houses. I have no authority tally than if it had never existed. Mastermind, make several programmes to tell anybody what to do. I’m not in It’s a huge challenge but it’s possible, a day and are very efficient. High-end the business of preaching, but there through practical steps such as plant- drama and documentaries have a are things we can all do to be more ing trees and improving our biodiver- higher carbon footprint as it takes much sustainable. sity and the volume and wealth of longer to produce footage and it might You could sign up to a renewable natural organisms. For example, we involve foreign travel. energy supplier, use low-energy light- have beehives on the roof here at Natural history documentaries have ing in a studio and switch off equip- MediaCity UK. a high carbon footprint but that is ment when not in use. Turn the When I give them the statistics, peo- more than outweighed by the powerful thermostat down and wear a jumper. ple are shocked by the severity of the effect TV can have. The global impact Think about your travel, about not environmental problem, but part of my of Sir David Attenborough talking flying if possible, and using public job is getting them out of a sense of about plastic waste in our oceans on transport. If you must drive, pack the despair and suggesting what we can Blue Planet II was incredible. car with people. Reuse existing sets do about it. Awareness of climate change has and hire props and costumes instead I hope I can inspire them because never been higher but, unfortunately, of buying new ones. I am full of hope for the future. the size of carbon footprints isn’t fall- Everyone can play a part, even down If I felt I was wasting my time, I ing yet. That’s our big challenge. to thinking before printing something wouldn’t be doing this job. I feel like or printing on both sides of the paper. this is what I was born to do and I’m What can we do to reduce our carbon not going to stop. n footprint? Are you hopeful about the environ­ The average carbon footprint across mental future of the planet? Richard Smith, BBC sustainability man- the TV industry is 13 tonnes of carbon By the end of the BBC’s Charter, in ager, was interviewed by Roz Laws.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 7 Jack on the box

Screenwriting Jack Thorne, writer of The Accident and adaptor of His Dark Materials, is one of the UK’s most sought-after screenwriters. He talks to Ben Dowell Jack Thorne Sky

achel doesn’t let me Pullman’s His Dark Materials has blazed producers of his stage adaptation of cycle,” laughs writer on to BBC One. And there’s the devas- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (so, no Jack Thorne as I am tatingly powerful four-parter The Acci- prizes for guessing on which day of the leaving his north Lon- dent, which ends his Channel 4 state- week Elliott was born). don home following of-the-­nation trilogy. First was National Thorne is worried that all this looks our interview. Rachel Treasure, starring Robbie Coltrane as a like he’s a bit of a show-off. In fact, he ‘isR his wife, a comedy agent and keen comedian accused of historical sex is a nervous character who agrees that cyclist herself, who laughs back: “Yes, abuse. This was followed by the Sarah he needs reminding that all his labours he’d just be cycling along and have a Lancashire-fronted­ Kiri, focusing on do bear fruit. script idea and that would be that.” race and the child protection system, The 40-year-old (he turns 41 in They obviously know there’s nothing as it told the story of the death of a December) returns to his home office funny about cycling accidents, but the young black girl in foster care. straight after dropping off his son at point is that Thorne is a man so teem- The space where all this is made nursery. He doesn’t take long walks for ing with ideas he should probably not possible is a large room in the middle inspiration, he says – he thrashes away don the Lycra. Ever. A self-confessed of Thorne’s tall Islington townhouse, at his computer even when inspiration “obsessive”, he says he needs to have which positively radiates with work: dries up. two projects on the go at any one time books, scripts and memorabilia cover The first episode of His Dark Materials to help contain his fertile imagination most of the surfaces. The walls are underwent 46 drafts before he hit the and a rigorous work ethic. bedecked with posters of his shows, right note, having gone down what Before fatherhood, this saw him including the underrated supernatural he describes as “a number of wrong work 14-hour days, sometimes drama The Fades and the sublimely directions”. His job, he modestly main- ploughing on through the night. Now funny, poignant, profound and nostal- tains, was simply to transpose the that he’s a dad (son Elliott, named after gic This is England sequence of dramas. brilliance of Philip Pullman’s book to the ET hero, is three), this has changed There’s also a framed Harry Potter the screen. “When you’re given perfec- a bit, but not by much. babygrow emblazoned with “Thurs- tion, it’s scary as shit,” he laughs. This month, he has had two major day’s Child” – a reminder that Jack But does he ever rest? And would he projects on air. The first series of his Thorne is an accomplished theatre describe himself as, how shall I put it, a magisterial adaptation of Philip writer, too. It was a present from the workaholic? “No, that’s totally fair,” he

8 His Dark Materials BBC says. “There’s always something to do, own rules, which screwed me up. I and I don’t really have much down- ‘SEX, RACE, think I got a tiny bit pretentious as a time, but we’re good at holidays.” writer. Which isn’t to say that it’s the And then he stops, noting that, with CLASS, GUILT, worst thing I have ever made. It’s a two shows due in August, that wasn’t INNOCENCE, piece I’m totally proud of. This trilogy quite true this summer. “When Elliott JUSTICE ARE is really important to me: it was my was napping I would work and disap- opportunity to do something that was pear for an afternoon, but Rachel is WHAT so personal and so important, which I understanding of it all,” he laughs again. INTEREST ME’ may never get again.” What clearly drives him is his intense The Accident, as we have just seen, passion, which is evident in the way he also starred Lancashire (whose talents talks – short sentences, punctuated Thorne greatly admires) and is the sear- with the refrain, “Do you know what I made absolutely the right choice and ing study of the impact of a devastating mean?”. This passion also shows when that’s how the criminal justice system accident on a small Welsh town. he discusses the Channel 4 trilogy. He works: ‘Guilty people aren’t found While National Treasure explores cul- still wakes up in the middle of the guilty, that’s all you’re saying there.’ But pability and guilt in the sexual sphere night fretting about the ending to Kiri. that thing of not providing people with and Kiri looks at racial injustice in the It concluded with the wrong man closure… I think I did rush it and I was world of mixed-race adoption, The (Kiri’s biological father) being impris- speeding towards the end. Accident, he says, is firmly concerned oned for killing Kiri while the perpe- “So whatever decision we’d made with class. trator, Kiri’s foster father (played by about the way it should have ended, we The Grenfell tragedy was the inspi- Steven Mackintosh), sits at his kitchen probably didn’t do it confidently enough ration for this piece. As he discusses table, seemingly free from the conse- and we probably didn’t do it quite well the failures heaped on the residents of quences of his crime. For the US ver- enough. I’m really proud of the show, the west London tower block, he gets sion, Thorne thought about adding a but I’m annoyed with myself for the very emotional. blue-light, police-car effect, and still ending. If I had my time again I would They were let down, he believes, not wonders if he should have done so. probably do something very different. squarely because of their race (most of “My sister said the other day that we “I think I fell too in love with my the victims were non-white), but �

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 9 The Accident Channel 4

� because they “were working class The writer continues to follow the and easily dismissed”. ‘WHEN YOU inquiry into Grenfell Tower closely. However, the Bristol-born writer ARE GIVEN He reveals that he has received three (whose family later moved to Luton) separate offers to write a drama about firmly resists the label working class PERFECTION the tragedy but felt unable to. for himself: “I’m from a middle-class [TO ADAPT], IT’S He is hopeful that one day some- family. I went to a comprehensive one will write it, “when things are a school. We didn’t have a shit tonne of SCARY AS SHIT’ bit clearer about what’s to be said”. money – we had some and my parents “TV is good at this stuff,” he adds. were both white-collar workers. My “TV’s good at spotlights” dad was a town planner, my mother This allowed him to find his feet as I also notice that he has a copy of was a teacher, who became a carer for a writer. Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities adults with learning difficulties. From there, he “grabbed whatever on the floor by his desk. Is that in the “Sex, race, class, guilt, innocence, training I could”, including on a Royal offing, too? “It might be in the near justice are what interest me,” he says, Court young writer’s programme future,” he laughs. “It’s sitting on top before explaining why he believes and work experience with the Harry of some Buffy scripts and I’m not class has sometimes been overlooked Potter producer Heyday Films (which redoing Buffy.” in today’s diversity-conscious TV land- spawned a good relationship – he has As to the future of TV in the scape. “Class is fundamentally about just written an upcoming movie adap­ streamer-­rampant space, he still feels access. And theatre’s not doing well tation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s optimistic: “I don’t know what the on that any more – there was a time The Secret Garden for the company). future will hold but I think Peter when theatre was really good at it. He then got a job in development ­Kosminsky is right when he recently “It is a complicated time, and it’s with the acclaimed director Paweł said that the danger is that local sto- complicated because nobody has any Pawlikowski before writing for such ries might not be told in the stream- money. Outreach is the first thing that shows as Shameless and Skins prior to ing world. gets forgotten, and telly isn’t very penning his own triumphs. But then, one of the biggest dramas good at it. But people are trying.” Thorne intends to continue riding of the last year was an incredibly local After graduating from Pembroke his success. He was mired in writing story – Chernobyl. College, Cambridge, just before the series 2 of His Dark Materials when we “I think the landscape is constantly turn of the millennium, Thorne first met. He is also working on a new evolving but, at the moment, it feels wanted to be an actor or politician. four-part drama for the BBC, Best Inter- like good drama is being made and I But he remains forever grateful to ests, which recounts how the parents dearly hope that continues.” his brother, who let him live in his of a seriously ill daughter fight to keep With him still plugging away – and flat for a mere £150 a month for six their child alive despite doctors insist- staying off his bike - you can bet that years when he first came to London. ing she should be allowed to die. it’s got more than a fair chance. n

10 Sky Sky’s big spender

The Billen profile Jane Millichip, Sky Studios’ deal-maker extraordinaire and supporter of Extinction Rebellion, tells Andrew Billen how she came clean to her bosses about her left-wing views

hen Jane fell off his chair laughing,” she says. print revolution and everything that Millichip got “It was just that I would never want to has happened in the 30-plus years her job as embarrass Sky.” since contain the lesson that the Managing Is it true, I ask, that her current boss, media must always evolve. Neverthe- Director of Sky Studio’s CEO, Gary Davey, once less, her core politics have not changed Sky Vision in said she was really not too bad for a much. Having voted Labour all her life, 2013,W she felt she should confess all to commie? She smiles. “It wasn’t quite she is “struggling with”, but has not her boss – after all, the broadcaster that. He joked about the fact that, ruled out, voting for Jeremy Corbyn on was still almost half-owned by despite my socialist leanings, he rather 12 December. Much more dangerously, Rupert Murdoch. The thing was, liked me.” she leads a militant Facebook group when she was 21, she had stood on That’s sounds like a careful para- known as Archers against Brexit, the picket line at Murdoch’s Wapping phrase, I say. “Well, it’s a source of great whose rallying cries are “We believe plant in solidarity with the printers he humour between us, but I’m a massive Ambridge can deliver, where West- had just fired. advocate of Sky as an employer.” minster has failed” and “Joe Grundy “My boss at the time, Rob Webster, She now believes that the Wapping says no thank you, Theresa May”. �

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 11 � Millichip’s main home is in the Cots­ wolds, where she and her husband raise a modest number of livestock. It is at the Sky Central café in unpastoral Osterley, west London, that we meet, however. She has this year been promoted to chief commercial officer of Sky Studios, Sky’s beefed-up production arm. The company’s new owner, Comcast, this summer pledged an unprecedented £1bn for productions over the next five years. Already, 52 shows are in develop- ment, led by an HBO co-production starring Jude Law about an island of disturbing atavism off the British coast. “It’s kind of barking,” she promises of The Third Day. Has she ever had so much money to spend? “I know. It’s extraordinary. If you’d asked me six years ago if I would be managing that kind of risk at such a big player, I couldn’t have conceived it. “I don’t know whether it’s something about the way we work at Sky but, although you feel absolutely responsi- ble for that money, there’s a bravery around risk management, a sense of Sky Vision show Riviera commitment. It’s not a blame culture.” The thrill of her job, she says, is find- ing the deals to green-light a project. will jealously hoard home-made multifaceted business, able to draw on “It’s amazing when you come up with ­content while they launch their own different revenue models, but the fact a solution. It’s very enabling.” direct-to-consumer services (although, is that we’re premium pay. Has she ever had to say no to some- under a new deal, Sky will still have “At the top of every decision is: ‘Is thing the creatives wanted to do? “We first dibs on HBO shows). this content worth paying for?’ It’s a rarely end up saying no, because those “Well, it’s not like we all woke up very simple notion and we often ‘nos’ will be weeded out along the way and thought, ‘Oh fuck, the SVoDs are remind ourselves of it in the meetings as part of the development process. taking over’. I mean, when I joined Sky when we’re having an argument about No, we haven’t so far under Studios.” six and a half years ago, Jeremy Dar- something: ‘Is this going to be content Inevitably, a turkey will peck its way roch [Sky’s CEO] – even then – was worth paying for?’ into the line-up eventually. But she saying, ‘I don’t want to rent content for “I certainly also believe that what claims that Sky Vision, the distribution the rest of Sky’s life. I want us to own we’re not doing is adding to that kind arm that she ran until her promotion, our own content, be in charge of it, of mass-produced gorge that is hap- was not responsible for a turkey on own our own destiny, build our own pening in the wider marketplace.” her watch. creative story.’” Is there too much telly right now? It depends how one categorises At this stage in our chat, Millichip “There probably is too much telly poultry, I suggest. The second season becomes the latest of many Sky exec- around. And there probably is too of Fortitude froze out many of those utives over the decades to try to explain much mediocre telly.” who had stayed with the first. to me Sky’s commissioning strategy for Growing up in Worcestershire in the She assures me that the shivery noir drama. In recent times, the company 1960s and 1970s, she likely watched fantasy recovered its investment. “It’s has been building on “ensemble-cast plenty of mediocrity on her parents’ sold very well around the world and I multi-season­ series”, she says. black-and-white set. They were a was keen for us to do a season 3, even Yet that does not seem to describe working-class family, her father a though the sales, though still going the two dramas that have brought Sky carpenter, her mother a dinner lady. well, were starting to tail off. its perception-changing accolades, The home had no car or phone, which “We knew that we couldn’t go to four Patrick Melrose and Chernobyl. “I was just may explain, she thinks, her techno- or five seasons. But we felt, for the hard- about to say, in the last couple of years, logical incompetence (at a TV sales core fans, we needed to close the story. we’ve also given ourselves a licence to conference she once tried to load a I couldn’t bear leaving it at the end of do closed-ended, big minis, but what VHS tape by aiming her calculator at season 2, so we did a short season 3.” you need is a whole portfolio of the player). She says that Sky was on the path to returning series before you go to those. She went to Sheffield Polytechnic to doing more of its own productions long “I think there is a real respect for study languages and political science before Comcast bought the company quality here but also a kind of respect and was studying in Verona when the last year. That, I suggest, must be for popular television, wholeheartedly real Chernobyl happened in 1986. because behemoths such as Disney commercial television. Sky works as a “Leafy veg was taken out of

12 supermarkets all over Italy because the been to Sheffield Poly at exactly the cloud was blowing our way,” she recalls. same time as her (spooky or what?). ‘SKY IS, BY Having been intent on journalism He loved life on Auckland’s north A COUNTRY from a young age (All the President’s Men shore, but she felt disconnected. “I felt came out when she was 11), she left really weird living somewhere that was MILE, THE BEST Sheffield to join Haymarket’s maga- quite irrelevant.” EMPLOYER zines training scheme. Her first pub- After three years, they returned to lished article was on in-car air the UK, where Freedman now runs an I HAVE EVER fresheners for Car and Industry Trader, a upmarket picture-framing business for COME ACROSS’ three-page triumph. She began to the likes of Tracey Emin. Their main report on the media and became fasci- home, the one with the animals, is now nated by the “innards” of that world in Stroud, an epicentre of climate-­ – so fascinated that merely writing change protest. Not only does she about it turned out not to be enough. know the Extinction Rebellion As editor, next, of TV World, she pub- co-founder Gail Bradbrook, but extinc- lished a cover story on the Australian tion rebels have stayed in her flat dur- children’s show Bananas in Pyjamas. ing the London protests. “That was my nadir. That was when Does she join Bradbrook in her naked I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of this. dances beneath full moons? “I do not.” Anthropomorphic bananas in striped Perhaps she is too busy. In 2007, pyjamas is not Woodward and Millichip became chief operating Bernstein.’” officer of at RDF Right and then MD Jane’s journey She found a job in sales at Intel, a of Zodiak Rights, before embarking now defunct distributor. But straight on her biggest adventure of all, at Sky Jane Helen Millichip, chief commer- selling was not her thing, either. She Vision. There, in six years, she took cial officer, Sky Studios went to Living TV, then owned by revenues from £8m to £240m. Sky Vision show Riviera Flextech, as a commissioning editor, First, however, there was that own- Lives A smallholding in Stroud,

Sky and it was there she viewed a pilot for ing up to do. She told Rob Webster plus a flat in London and a home in Most Haunted and realised – although that, back in the 1990s, she had organ- Cornwall (‘It’s like indoors camping’) she would never have bought the show ised strikes for the NUJ when the Married To Paul Freedman; two on the basis of a written pitch – that its union was derecognised by magazine sons makers were on to something. publishers across London. And, what Born 17 August 1965 in Bewdley, What was it really about, these peo- was more, as a student, had joined the Worcestershire, daughter of Brian ple stumbling round old buildings at picket line at Wapping a couple of Millichip and Kathleen Lloyd the dead of night, intent on scaring times. (“It was very rainy.”) Educated Bewdley High School and themselves? The power of suggestion? “I actually never had any problem Sheffield Polytechnic (BA in modern “No, it was about ghost hunting.” coming to Sky and I’d say that it’s very languages and politics) Were there ghosts? “We had a scien- old-school thinking to [even] consider tist and a historian on hand….” that you might. I know you’ll think this 1989 Journalist, Haymarket So there was no cheating? “No. Not is fluff, but it’s not: Sky is, by a country 1992 Editor, TV World by me anyway. We had orbs. We always mile, the best employer I have ever 2001 Senior commissioner, Living TV had orbs.” come across. The work practices here 2005 MD, South Pacific Pictures, Orbs? “They’re kind of balls of light are better than at any other. The rigour New Zealand that look a little bit like camera flare with which we adopt proper work 2007 COO, RDF Rights – but, obviously, aren’t.” practices by doing the right thing by the 2010 MD, Zodiak Rights There was a bit of a hoo-ha with staff, setting up networks for women, 2013 MD, Sky Vision Ofcom, which banned ITV from making LGBT+, multiculturalism, parents, net- a copycat version, citing its public ser- works for the staff by the staff, the Greatest achievement Turbocharg- vice obligations. Happily free of these, whole Sky Ocean Rescue campaign.…” ing Sky Vision revenues Living persuaded the regulator that its Receiving a lifetime achievement Most dubious move Commission- show was entertainment, not religion. award at a ceremony in Cannes in ing Most Haunted Living went on to buy in a seance with October, the glamorously dressed Hobbies Cocktail mixing, surfing, Diana, Princess of Wales. Millichip looks ­Millichip berated the TV industry for keeping pigs and sheep less convinced about that one. handing out “crap and pointless cor- Watching Succession, His Dark Out of the blue, she was offered the porate gifts” at markets and festivals Materials, Sex Education (with “great adventure” of a job as Managing that harm the environment. her sons) Director of a production company in Webster, now Managing Director of Reading William Boyd’s New Zealand. Upon arrival, she dis- Sky Sports, messaged: “Love this Jane, Sweet Caress covered Most Haunted was shown even just love it.” They say ‘She’s a content visionary’ there. “I thought, ‘This damn thing is Now that she explains it, her journey (Content Innovation Awards 2019) following me around the planet.’” from Wapping to Osterley no longer She says ‘We’re not here to make By now, she had two very young looks quite so convoluted. Jane Milli- shows that make us feel good sons with her husband, businessman chip is one of those people who make about ourselves’ Paul Freedman, who, it turned out, had their own way through life. n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 13 Message in the magic

Natural history Caroline Frost meets some of the producers of the BBC’s latest natural history blockbuster, Seven Worlds, One Planet

rom the opening moments marvels at his colleague’s continuing divided the narrative into continents. of Seven Worlds, One Planet enthusiasm. “He was extraordinary Keeling believes this helps bring home we know that we’re in safe then, he’s phenomenal now. We took the planet’s diversity and makes it more hands. Orchestral strings him on two trips for this series, to personal for viewers (“We all belong to soar as a deserted, sun-­ Iceland for that opening scene, then to one of them”), but the advances in film- dappled beach comes into Kenya for the summing up. We’d spent ing technology are more striking. view. Sir David Attenborough strides a few years going back and forth with Drone cameras have come such a outF across the sand, a big, warm coat clips, and he was getting more and long way in the past decade that they the only concession to his 93 years. more engaged. He still just wants to have transformed how producers With his unique authority, he intro- make a really good story.” approach their subjects. “We can fly duces a montage of images drawn Around this broadcasting totem, further, quieter, longer,” explains Keel- from seven continents to give us hints much else has changed. Keeling is ing. “We’ve been able to take them of the emotion-stirring, jaw-dropping being modest when he explains: “We’re through a volcano at night, over oceans, stories to come. It is immediately clear not reinventing anything, you can’t through jungles, and get a completely that, once again, both Sir David and the change this kind of television dramati- fresh perspective.” BBC’s Natural History Unit have cally, but we’ve taken steps and moved Arguably most revolutionary, though, excelled themselves. it on a bit. We’ve become more sophis- is the message about the importance of Executive producer Jonny Keeling ticated in how we tell our stories.” conservation, one that runs throughout first worked with Attenborough two That evolution includes the way the series rather than being tacked on decades ago on Life of Mammals and that, for the first time, producers have at the end. Just as Blue Planet II brought

14 Seven Worlds, One engage on the topic with a mainstream logistics. “We try to keep people in the Planet presenter audience. “We’ve been talking about same time zone,” says Alexander, “other­ Sir David Attenborough conservation for 30 years or more, but wise, nobody would ever get any sleep.” filming in Iceland now there’s an awareness, people For Napper, the Australia gig meant wanting to be told more. the chance to film lots of animals that “I think we’ve struggled in the past weren’t really known, while Asia because TV commissioners don’t want involved “a third of the land mass of people to feel sad. And if you say a lot the world, with just 60 minutes to say of negative things on the same subject, something sensible”. there’s a danger of just creating white Despite the long days, weeks and noise. years spent waiting for an elusive crea- “But this show is about the diversity, ture to appear and behave according beauty and personality of each conti- to script, it’s clear that the whole team nent – so, when you do give that con- retains a sense of wonder for all that servation message, it’s not just that they have witnessed. And each has everything is sad and you should feel a favourite moment that they still mildly guilty, but that, while things are hold dear. wrong, we can change. We want to Keeling remembers his time in Aus- empower viewers.” tralia, filming dingoes hunting kanga- For Keeling, Attenborough puts it roos: “It took us two years to find the best in the film. “He asks us, ‘The natu- right place, six weeks with multiple ral world is critical, but every breath cameras to get the sequence, so that we take, every mouthful of food, is felt like a personal triumph – if not for dependent on it, so why wouldn’t we the poor kangaroo.” take care of it?’ I find that really pow- For Alexander, it was the big cats of erful and important.” South America. “The puma is [a] big, Seven Worlds is a massive enterprise: beautiful cat, and we had a mother four years in the making, 1,500 people with three cubs. We’d been there many working across 41 countries on 92 shoots times, but never caught her hunting, across 1,794 days to create more than and we’d already stayed for six weeks. 2,200 hours of film. The talents of the I rolled the dice, we stayed an extra BBC’s Natural History Unit were boosted week and that’s when it happened, as by the deep pockets of co-producers in is often the way with nature.” France, Germany, China and the US. And Napper holds close to her heart Keeling explains the careful line he the fact she managed to get on film the

BBC had to walk in “making sure that those golden snub-nosed monkeys native to producers are happy, but that the British western China’s snow forests, a breed home the perils of single-use plastics, audience gets a quality programme, too”. that Attenborough had been wanting to this series contains powerful stories of For Alexander, the “most important film since the 1960s but never managed climate change, both sad and uplifting. things we wanted were to find new until then. Whether it’s the triumphant come- stories. That was the biggest demand “It was tricky to get access to them,” back of whales since the international we made of all the researchers and she says. “People knew there was ban on commercial hunting in 1986, producers – as much new stuff as they something there, but they weren’t sure or the way that melting glaciers have could get their hands on.” what – it’s where the story of the yeti affected animal behaviour, the mes- How does one go and discover new came from. They walk on their hind sage is fully integrated into the narra- nature? “We rely heavily on the scien- legs and are incredibly striking-looking. tive, and all the more effective for it. tific community,” he says. “But it can The adults are perhaps a bit ugly, but “You just can’t ignore it any more,” come from anywhere. I saw a picture the babies are super cute.” reflects series producer Scott Alexan- of a hamster in a magazine, and I She adds: “That’s the amazing thing der. “There is an appetite for it now. I thought, ‘Hamsters are in Europe?’ It about the natural world. People think think that, if we’d made this film and was just a moment of curiosity, and we must have run out of stories by not included any conservation, we’d that’s ended up in the show.” now, but we rely heavily on scientists, have been shot down in flames.” After a year in the office spent carv- on research, new behaviours, new Emma Napper, one of the team’s ing out themes and story­lines, planning locations. And when you find them, it’s producers, who had the formidable and making choices about what to hard, hard work, but, my goodness, it’s task of helming the Australia and Asia leave out, the producers were generally good if you can find something even episodes, welcomes the chance to allotted two shows each, depending on David doesn’t know about.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 15 Britannia – ‘There’s no Jane Austen here’

Druid Mackenzie Crook in Britannia

eriod dramas come in episodes of Britannia season 2, followed Drama myriad forms. Latterly, by a panel Q&A session, the overwhel­ Sky few have been as high ming­ impression from Butterworth, his concept as Jez Butter- brother Tom (a writer on the series) and Jez Butterworth and worth’s bloody and producer James Richardson was of the colleagues tell the RTS somewhat bewildering fun the trio had in conceiving and saga,P Britannia, set roughly 2,000 years executing what one reviewer described how his ‘gloriously ago as the invading Romans attempt as a “gloriously bonkers” show. to “civilise” an island of warring Richardson, who founded Britannia’s bonkers’ historical saga Celtic tribes. maker, Vertigo Films, back in 2002, repurposed the English Co-produced by Sky Atlantic and claimed that the series was dreamed up Amazon Prime Video, the skill of the “over lots of bottles of red wine”. Judged costume drama. make-up department alone is worth by some of the more trippy sequences reports tuning in for. The prosthetic work featuring what looks like a druid rave, Steve Clarke done to Mackenzie Crook, who plays and the clever use of music from the druid mystic Veran, is extraordinary. psychedelic 1960s (especially Donovan’s At an RTS screening of the first two Season of the Witch), you wonder if the

16 wine had been spiked with something Romans did, about 20% of what the who plays Amena, (queen-in-waiting of a tad more mind-altering. Celts did and we know nothing about the Cantii tribe) and Eleanor Worthing- “Jez and I had never made any TV,” what the druids did. So you can do ton-Cox, cast as Cait, a young woman explained Richardson. “We knew noth- what you want.’ from the Cantii tribe due to undergo an ing about how it worked. We’re used “Even the bit that the Romans wrote initiation into womanhood on the eve to film. Tom had done TV. He was the was written later and it was written of the solstice. The procedure was expert who helped us steer Britannia.” from the perspective of how brilliant knocked off schedule by the invading Butterworth, the brilliant playwright they were.” Roman hordes. responsible for Jerusalem and The Ferry- Bloody rituals, full-on violence and Scholey said she was attracted to the man, admitted that, for the first nine series because its female characters episodes that comprised series 1, he were all strong, independent women. was learning on the job. She added that she wouldn’t have This might have been so, but his been interested in playing Amena had name on the credits was enough to the part required her to be “a bod- secure such A-list actors as David ice-ripping prop for a man. That’s not Morrissey and Zoë Wanamaker, who why I became an actor. She’s equal to respectively play Roman general Aulus, the men, if not greater.” and Celtic queen Antedia. Worthington-Cox was 14 years old So, did Butterworth have to learn to when she began working on Britannia. use a different muscle as he switched She is the youngest recipient of a Lau- from the stage to TV drama, asked the rence Olivier Award, won when she evening’s chair, journalist Caroline was just 10 for her performance in the Frost? “Spending 10 or 20 hours with lead role in Matilda the Musical. one character.… My plays are pretty Three years ago, she played Janet long but they’re not that long. That Hodgson in Sky’s The Enfield Haunting, chance to pick up something and nominated for a Bafta supporting make it run and run is something I’d actress award. never attempted. She said: “I feel so lucky because I “In film, it’s over before it’s even started out on this when I was 14.… To Jez Butterworth begun. It’s like a haiku, filming keep Hampartsoumian Paul be honest, it’s been an absolute roller getting shorter. When I started out, they coaster.… From day one, Nikolaj [the took 120 days, now they’re 90. TV is actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who plays Divis, completely different, all the rules are ‘IT IS ABOUT an outcast druid] and I got on like a different.” ONE RELIGION house on fire. He is insane and so am I. How did they get it past Sky, whose I don’t think I could have worked with most successful drama, Game of DYING OUT AND anyone better.… With this guy, there Thrones, has been compared to Britan- ANOTHER ONE isn’t a dull moment.” nia? “Bizarrely, when I said, ‘Let’s do She added: “I can say on behalf of all druids, Celts and the Roman invasion COMING ALONG’ of the women in this series that we feel of Britain, they madly went, ‘That we’ve been treated as equals.” sounds cool’,” replied Richardson. Scholey told the RTS that she par- “They were massively supportive of cod mysticism aside, Britannia does ticularly enjoyed the show’s salty lan- the idea: ‘Let’s just dive into this world engage with a topic that down the ages guage and dry humour: “The scripts that we know nothing about.’ has been a recurring preoccupation for were so refreshing. You’re in a big “They were very good about us not human societies. “In all seriousness, period dress and to have the freedom making a particularly historically it is about one religion dying out and of speaking quite colloquial, hilarious accurate show.” another one coming along,” said But- dialogue is brilliant. With scant historical knowledge of terworth. “There are massive tectonic “The juxtaposition is not what you’d Britain in 43CE and no novels on which shifts in faith around this time, as one expect. There is no Jane Austen here.” to draw (Game of Thrones is, of course, set of gods bully the other lot off the You can say that again. And for the based on George RR Martin’s best- ball. That was the reason for me want- record, Jez Butterworth claims he has sellers), the imaginations of Britannia’s ing to do it. never seen a single episode of Game of creators were free to go into overdrive. “To have characters who were under Thrones. n “As you can see, it’s quite an ambi- those kind of pressures, where their tious show. The three of us were liter- entire world of belief is crumbling and The RTS screening of Britannia season 2 ally sitting round a table going, ‘What under threat – that is the reason for and panel discussion was held at the Cur- can we make all these people do choosing the period.” zon Soho, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, now?’” recalled Richardson. “The his- Charismatic female characters are on 29 October. The chair was journalist torical accuracy was never part of that an essential element of “historical” and broadcaster Caroline Frost. It was process. The historical advisor actually fantasy TV. Britannia is no exception. On produced by the RTS in conjunction with said: ‘We know about 40% of what the the panel were two: Annabel Scholey, Vertigo Films.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 17 An audience with a TV revolutionary

Screenwriting Russell T Davies explains to Gethin Jones why TV still needs to get out of its straight, white rut. Matthew Bell has a front-row seat

n just 20 years, Russell T Davies Peter presenter, he was running a Doctor department. He tried his hand at has left an indelible mark on Who monster competition. Jones went directing, editing, dubbing and much British television. From Queer as on to appear on the show twice him- else, recalling that, in children’s TV, Folk, via Doctor Who, to this year’s self, albeit as a couple of villainous “the budgets are small so you get dystopian chiller Years and Years, extras – a Dalek and a Cyberman. thrown into these areas.… After a few Davies has written unforgettable Davies told his compatriots that he years, you’ve learnt an awful lot more drama. His work – like the writer in grew up in “a very bookish house”, than you would if you were in a role as personI – is opinionated and loud, but which boasted a full set of the Encyclo- a One Show researcher.” also warm and human. paedia Britannica. His parents were the Davies produced children’s shows, The Swansea-born writer was in “first in their families to go university”, including CITV’s Children’s Ward, before expansive mood as he discussed his he said, but added that they “revered graduating to adult telly, storylining career with Gethin Jones at a sold-out television almost as much as they ITV’s Coronation Street and writing event in late October at the Royal revered books”. scripts for the same channel’s period Welsh College of Music and Drama Davies was a talented artist – he soap The Grand. to mark the 60th anniversary of RTS turned down a job as a football cartoon­ His breakthrough came with the Cymru Wales. ist on the Sunday Sport – but settled on a groundbreaking 1999 Channel 4 drama The TV broadcaster had first met career in television, moving to Man- Queer as Folk, set in Manchester’s gay Davies 15 years earlier when, as a Blue chester to work in the BBC’s children’s scene. TV had seen nothing like it

18 and eclectic career, which has seen the “Right now, especially.” On Boys, he writer move seamlessly between fam- continued, there were “up to 40 or ily (Doctor Who), children’s (The Sarah 45 gay characters, all played by gay Jane Adventures) adult (Cucumber) and actors.… I’ve cast trans people: Bethany even period (Casanova) drama. Black, in Cucumber. Throughout, he has unapologetically “I think television is astonishingly… chronicled the lives of gay people. white and straight – and straightfor- A boyhood fan of Doctor Who, Davies ward, as well. It’s 2019 now, and you’ve persuaded the BBC to regenerate the got to get with it.” n sci-fi series in 2003. Filming started the following year in Cardiff. The RTS Cymru Wales event ‘In conversa- When the show aired in March 2005, tion with Russell T Davies’ was held at the with Davies as lead writer and execu- Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama tive producer, it proved a huge ratings in Cardiff on 28 October and produced by and critical hit – and a shot in the arm Edward Russell. for TV production in South Wales, especially when two spin-offs, Torch- wood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, followed. Davies on… “I remember a time when a lot of my friends in the TV industry were strug- … The confidence to sell a drama gling for work, and then Doctor Who ‘That’s a lifelong battle.… You have happened and they worked for a long to summon up the nerve to go time. You brought the industry, that we into a room to pitch to people. You have now, to Wales,” said Jones. don’t get any written treatments Davies’s much-garlanded 2018 drama off me… but I can talk pretty well.… for BBC One, A Very English Scandal, told I will sit in a room and sell it. You the story of Liberal Party leader Jeremy have to – it’s my job.’ Thorpe’s affair with Norman Scott and his attempt to murder him. … Casting Welsh actors “It’s a story that had never been told ‘As I get more power… I try to put by a gay man. It is from a very brilliant Welsh characters into everything. book by John Preston. The tone, wit When I was young, there were no and style of [the drama] is from the Welsh characters on television at book – he’s a brilliant writer. But he is all, and that’s a fact. I remember Russell T Davies with a straight man writing the story,” said my dad calling us in from the street Gethin Jones (right) and Davies. “For 40 years, it has been a when [Swansea-born actor] Mar- Judith Winnan (left), who mystery why these men behaved as garet John was in an episode of presented him with his they [did]. Frankly, it’s the story of a Z Cars.’ RTS Fellowship

Aaron Lowe Photography Lowe Aaron middle-aged gay man falling in love with a beautiful gay man who takes … Writing for TV before – an honest portrayal of the too much drink and drugs. I under- ‘When I was young, there were lives of young gay men, sex and all. stand that.” three channels, two soap operas “It was hard filming a gay drama Earlier this year, BBC One’s Years and Casualty – and that was it. on certain streets of Manchester,” said and Years offered a nightmare vision It was hard to be a writer then, Davies. One scene near a pub in a of a near-future Great Britain. “It wasn’t frankly.… If you’re out of work as rough part of town was particularly a ratings success, but I’m genuinely a writer and you’re not generat- hairy: “They very much objected to a immensely proud of it,” said Davies. “I ing your own YouTube material, drama called Queer as Folk filming near think it’s one of my favourite things in whether it’s sketches or dramas… them, so they attacked the crew with my whole career.” then what are you doing? There are machetes.” Davies’s next project is Boys, a drama a million outlets now to find your “Queer as Folk was a blast of life for about Aids in the 1980s, which is set to expression in stuff. I know it’s still me – it was the first time I’d been air on Channel 4 next October. One of hard but it’s not as hard as it was.… taken out of children’s [drama] and its stars, Welsh actor Callum Scott ‘Read lots… the BBC Writers soap opera,” he added. Howells, was in the hall. Room has thousands of scripts. The success of Queer as Folk, with two Responding to a question from the Read film scripts, read plays, more well-received series, Bob & Rose audience on whether gay and trans- because that’s the way to learn and The Second Coming, following in its gender actors should be cast in gay how to do it.’ wake, spawned a hugely successful and transgender roles, Davies replied:

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 19 Soccer’s moment of truth

run-of-the-mill English is the moment of truth for British foot- TV sport Premier League fixture ball’s value, and its success or failure on a Tuesday evening will be noted and reflected around It’s not only the fans early next month is set the world.” to be one of the most Amazon’s offering will include a few who will be watching significant football innovations, such as a live “around the Amazon Prime’s live matches to be played in more than grounds” goals show, with action from twoA decades. as many as six matches happening Premier League ­ That is because the game between simultaneously. The coverage, however, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth will will feel similar to Sky and BT Sport, kick-off next month, be the first ever to be broadcast live and especially in terms of on-screen talent. as exclusively by one of the tech giants. Game experts include Thierry Henry Ross Biddiscombe Amazon, the global digital platform and Alex Scott, while Gaby Logan and discovers and retailer, is showing this and 19 other Peter Crouch from Amazon’s own Back Premier League games to UK audiences of the Net football entertainment show during December via its subscription will also appear. service Amazon Prime after paying “On Boxing Day alone, we will have about £90m for a three-year deal. more than 50 on-screen presenters, After more than 25 years of Premier pundits, reporters and commentators. League live games being carved up by We wanted to create a broad line-up of pay-TV platforms, Amazon’s entry into presenters, pundits and commentators, the UK football market will be studied with a mixture of familiar faces and intensely across the sporting world. newer ones,” says Alex Green, Manag- “We’re entering a new era of sports ing Director of Amazon Prime Video rights valuations,” says Enders Analysis in Europe. research analyst Julian Aquilina. “This Green is confident that Amazon’s

20 technological infrastructure will cope through its retail [platform]. That’s why, think it will add significantly more with streaming multiple concurrent of the online services in the UK, Ama- football fans than you’ve already got as matches, despite concerns expressed zon is the best fit for live football.” a result of your initial Premier League by fans, who complained of buffering While Amazon experiments with purchase.” If this is the case, a second issues during live ATP men’s tennis football, major sports rights bidding in Amazon bid for Premier League games games earlier this year on Prime. the UK by other digital giants is at best may be unlikely. Fans also said navigation was patchy. Facebook has broadcast a few Other significant voices are also “clunky” on the busy Prime home niche sports live, such as triathlons, and suggesting difficult times for sports page. Yet Amazon’s “test and learn” it discussed a $600,000 Indian Premier rights. Enders Analysis boss Claire approach – like that of all software League cricket deal in 2017 but it was Enders has already gone on record this companies – means Green is eventually outbid. year predicting a 20% drop in the value convinced of the success of what he Meanwhile, YouTube (owned by of the Premier League’s domestic calls “one of the biggest streaming Google) has twice screened the Cham- rights in the next auction in 2021. events worldwide”. pions League final live thanks to a Analysts believe that, if the price So, will football fans subscribe to yet partnership with BT Sport. Netflix declines for the League, then so could another service? It’s been estimated by seems content with having a few the value of all other UK sports rights. Ampere Analysis that Amazon will sports documentaries. At the RTS Cambridge Convention need at least 600,000 new or retained But, whether or not Amazon suc- in September, Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch subscribers for each of the three years said that losing some sports rights of this deal in order for it to make would no longer have a big impact on financial sense. ‘OF THE UK his business. Classic Premier League fixtures, such Darroch said that fewer than half of as Liverpool vs Everton and Manches- ONLINE SERVICES, Sky customers nowadays take sport, ter United against Tottenham, will compared with 93% in 2004, when he certainly help, says Aquilina: “But it’s AMAZON IS THE joined the company. “At the time, we also about database collection for BEST FIT FOR were very, very wedded to sport and Amazon, and the good thing is that, I didn’t like the look of that,” he said. historically it’s done very well at FOOTBALL’ “We are very, very value driven. Our

AP Photo/Jon Super AP Photo/Jon retaining customers; it has a very low ability to analyse the value of sport and churn rate, particularly when custom- understand where it fits into our busi- ers sign up for a whole year, which is ceeds or fails with its Premier League ness… we’ll decide where that is at the what Amazon is hoping.” package, the whole live sports rights right time.” However, estimating potential Pre- market is set for huge changes as the Sky Studios is emerging as a signifi- mier League income is complicated pay-TV companies hint at belt- ­ cant content producer, not least in because, at the moment, Amazon is tightening to come. drama, with Chernobyl expected to dom- offering a free one-month trial. In Crucially, despite the Amazon deal, inate TV awards ceremonies. The eco- other words, some core fans may the total value of the current domestic nomic case for investing in drama rather choose not to buy a long-term £7.99 Premier League rights income fell, than premium sports makes sense. monthly subscription package that compared with three years ago. Yet, as a new generation of direct-to-­ includes all other Prime TV shows and The 2015 auction was worth £5.4bn consumer services becomes avail­able free delivery on any online purchases. (paid by Sky and BT Sport), but the (both Apple TV+ and BritBox laun­ched Yet the analyst community believes current deal (which also includes earlier this month) only a fool would that the key 600,000 subs number is Amazon’s money) is worth just over write off the appeal of live TV sports. achievable. Ampere Analysis estimates £5bn, despite more games being sold “In the next year or two, more stu- that only 25% of current Prime sub- and a couple of smaller game packages dios will have moved aggressively into scribers like to watch Premier League being created to attract bids from a international markets with direct-to- games, which suggests that there are tech giant. customer offerings of their own and many football fans who have yet to The other bad news for sports TV they will withhold rights to their pro- sign up for Prime. rights owners is Amazon’s low churn gramming to third parties such as Sky,” Richard Broughton, research director rate. “If [low churn] happens with said Richard Broughton. “Yes, that will at Ampere, is betting on Amazon’s deal football fans, then you don’t need to free up budget for pay-TV companies succeeding financially: “It’s a relatively buy the Premier League rights again to to make their own programmes, but it small Premier League package and it keep that Amazon Prime customer,” also makes remaining rights, like can easily afford it. Amazon will make says sports broadcasting consultant sports rights, more valuable. money not just through subscriptions Phil Lines. “You would only buy the “Perhaps, this could be a silver lining but with its margins on products sold rights again – or more rights – if you for the Premier League.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 21 Television’s biggest fan

Profile Jane Turton, CEO of All3Media and the new Chair of the RTS, tells Steve Clarke why she lives and breathes TV

rom her first days work- something back,” she says with barely ing in television as a a trace of her native Edinburgh accent. founder member of We are speaking in her 10th-floor Meridian, the South of All3Media eyrie situated in London’s England regional ITV West End. The CEO is softly spoken company, Jane Turton and discretely immaculate in a dark knewF that she’d landed in exactly the business suit. Her compact, modest right place professionally. office – tasteful and cosy in a contem- “I’ve always loved being in TV. It’s porary way – provides stunning views full of interesting people,” she says. “TV of the capital. As we talk, the light is always exciting. The product – if begins to fade on a moonlit, late we’re allowed to call it that – is fasci- autumn afternoon. nating – part manufacturing business, Turton read French at St Andrew’s talent.… What I think is amazing, what part creative, part art, part commerce. (spending some time in Paris, which is we’ve tried to do, and I hope we’ve TV brings all that stuff together in a way perhaps where she acquired her char- achieved, is introduce some incredibly that is challenging and interesting.” acteristic chicness) before working in exciting people to this business,” she That was in the early 1990s when, the paper industry. Her father owned explains, reeling off names such as prior to consolidation, separate ITV a local printing company, Tullis Neill. Pippa Harris of Neal Street Productions franchises were sold to the highest An MBA led her to PwC (one of her (maker of Call the Midwife) and Harry bidder after clearing a quality hurdle. jobs involved crunching some BBC and Jack Williams of Two Brothers, Today, Turton runs All3Media, the Lon- numbers relating to the licence fee and the company responsible for Fleabag. don-based production powerhouse that what was then BBC Worldwide) and Turton describes Fleabag as “a phe- owns a spread of independent produc- on into the TV industry with Meridian. nomenal success. It opens doors. In ers across the UK, Germany and the US. She held various roles at United itself, it’s valuable, but the knock-on The range of content All3 is respon- Productions and Granada Television, effect of having a show like that is sible for is, putting it mildly, eclectic. before becoming director of commer- incredibly valuable.” Here’s a taste: Fleabag, Gogglebox, Call the cial and business affairs at ITV Studios She adds: “At All3, we have a highly Midwife, The Circle, Race Across the World, and later ITV Network. talented group of people. I think that Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, She joined All3Media in 2008 as dep- there is scope to own more companies, Hollyoaks, Drowning in Plastic, Free Rein and uty chief operating officer, becoming but I don’t know if there’s an answer to Three Identical Strangers. In other words, COO in 2011 and then CEO in 2015. how many. People always ask that. You shows that embrace a wide range of After taking over leadership of the add companies in such a way that drama, entertainment and factual. company, growth has been rapid – four you’re not creating conflict and com- In September, it was announced that years ago, All3 owned 17 companies, petition, but something that works as a Turton would succeed Tom Mockridge today it owns 40. whole within All3 and the distribution as Chair of the RTS. “I am incredibly “Weirdly, we don’t measure it like business [All3Media International], flattered and excited. I’ve got a lot out that. I don’t think of it as a collecting which we manage centrally.” of television and I’d like to give of companies, more of the people, the So what is a typical working day for

22 ‘I’VE GOT A LOT OUT OF TELEVISION AND I’D LIKE TO GIVE SOMETHING BACK’

the organisation across the length and breadth of the UK. “The nations and regions are very important to the RTS,” she notes. “With its regional centres, the Society has always been very good at that. I want to help to continue to drive that and to make sure the word gets out about what an exciting sector television is.” She adds: “In terms of RTS confer-

All3Media ences and conventions, the agenda has got bigger and broader and more Jane Turton? “The honest answer is stimulating. You saw the secretary of global. As a sector, maybe, back in the that there isn’t one. Most days, I will state speak, the people who run the day, we were a bit British-focused and talk to the production companies. I am UK broadcast platforms and the Amer- parochial. often doing shareholder stuff with our icans and all the big producers.” “There is nothing parochial about owners, Liberty and Discovery. If we’ve Having been an RTS Trustee since the RTS now. The people who speak got corporate activity going on, there’ll 2015, Turton has got to know the Soci- at RTS conferences are very global. be meetings around that.” ety from the inside and seen it There’s a huge international interest in She is a frequent traveller to the US increase its activities in outreach and what we do.” and to All3’s German HQ in Munich. education, and the expansion of the In a world of social media and con- When she is in the UK, Turton is at her student bursary scheme. stant digital connectivity, the Society’s desk by 8:00am working until the early “I think the RTS has become even ability to bring people together in the evening, when often she will attend more conscious of its educational same room across all sectors of televi- a function. remit,” she says. “[RTS CEO] Theresa sion remains unique, she argues. Twice a week, at 6:30am on Tuesdays [Wise] and her team live and breathe “There’s nothing like live, real content and Thursdays, she does a spinning that. The RTS takes very seriously with an expert or someone who’s class. She also walks a lot – “I am vio- things such as increasing diversity, going to help you get started in your lently opposed to driving in London” accessibility and making sure, as a sec- career. There’s no substitute for that.... – and is an avid golfer. “I’m a proper tor, that we’re properly representative. “I think it’s very important that these Scot,” she laughs. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve things don’t become exclusive clubs. Her introduction to the Society was made in terms of ensuring that social They have to be inclusive and that around a decade ago when, for the first inclusion is at the top of our agenda. must be part of the challenge when time, she attended the Cambridge The inclusiveness of the bursary you’ve got something that sounds like Convention. scheme is something to celebrate.” the Royal Television Society. It can “I thought it was extraordinary and She wants to see as many people sound a little bit patrician but, actually, exciting,” she recalls. “It was where all as possible participate in the Society’s it isn’t. In fact, it’s the opposite and we the grown-ups went, and intellectually educational initiatives and engage with must make that point.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 23 TIMELESS STORIES UNFORGETTABLE MUSIC

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FIND OUT MORE Naomi Koh [email protected] +44 (0)207 566 1441 OUR FRIEND IN SCOTLAND

udiences flock to In an era of Netflix Scottish population signed up as the BBC during ­registered users of STV Player, and moments of na- and Disney+, play a host of new content partners. We tional importance. to your strengths, like to think that we’ve got something That’s the received for everyone – OK, especially if you wisdom, anyway. recommends like Taggart. Think World Cup But the most exciting opportunity finals, the Queen’s Speech or big Simon Pitts lies in TV production. Scotland is full newsA days. After a career in commer- of talent, but many still feel they need cial TV, I’d become resigned to this. to go south of the border to fulfil their Until I moved to Scotland, that is. dreams. And I don’t mean Carlisle. It’s different here. Partly, that’s Big-budget, ambitious, new, net- because Scots watch more TV than work dramas such as The Cry and The anyone else in the UK, an average of Victim (that’s ours!), as well as the 25 more minutes per day last year, to forthcoming Elizabeth Is Missing (that be precise (thanks for asking). one, too) and The Nest celebrate Scot- No doubt there are cultural factors land’s creativity and its beauty. They at play, but the real reason is that it prove that our dramas can hold their rains a lot. When I swapped London own on a world stage. for Glasgow nearly two years ago, They also demonstrate the BBC’s there was lots that excited me, intent around nations and regions including the prospect of walking production, by the way, with Chan- to the office every day, rather than nel 4 hot on its heels. What we need sweating my way to work on the now are returning series. That’s the Tube. I love my 20-minute stroll in absolute key to long-term success.

the mornings – though I’m invariably STV One of the most rewarding days wet when I arrive. since joining STV was last month, Audiences also want TV they can and Disney+, you’ve got to play to when I met our crop of new bursary relate to. STV is now the most popular your strengths. And ours is unasham- students. We’ve partnered with the channel in peak time in Scotland, edly our Britishness and, yes, our RTS to offer funding, mentoring and ahead of BBC One. A lot of that is Scottishness. work placements to 10 talented down to the performance of our local The resilient performance of our TV young people from lower-income programming. Our flagship news channel means we’re still, by far, the households pursuing journalism, TV show, STV News at Six, regularly beats biggest marketing shop window in production and technology courses the BBC because it focuses on people, Scotland, which, in turn, has led to right across Scotland. their communities and their stories. more than 100 local brands advertis- There’s no other scheme like it in Ratings are up 15% in the past ing on TV for the first time in the past the country. Reading the students’ 18 months alone. Our nightly current 12 months. This is thanks to our STV CVs makes you swell with pride, as affairs strand, Scotland Tonight, goes Growth Fund. well as wonder what the hell you from strength to strength and is about I can honestly say that Grizzly Bear were doing at university, while they to be rewarded with a peak-time slot. Hot Tubs in Carnoustie would not be were writing code and making And this summer, Sean’s Scotland Scotland’s No 1 hot-tub retailer with- award-winning films.… (hosted by perennially popular STV out us. The future might be damp up here, weatherman Seán Batty) beat Love In digital, as have other broadcast- but it’s bright, too. ■ Island and EastEnders on the same night. ers, we’ve had to embrace the neces- What does this tell us? Not that you sity of cannibalising our old business Simon Pitts is CEO of STV, Vice-Chair of need to be parochial or clichéd to to build a new one. the RTS and Chair of the RTS Technol- succeed, but that, in a world of Netflix We now have more than 70% of the ogy Bursary Scheme.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 25 why we love… quiz shows 2 December 6:30pm Cavendish Conference Centre, London W1G 9DT

An entertaining and affectionate celebration with:

Anne Robinson TV presenter Jo Street Head of daytime, Channel 4 James Fox Managing Director, Remarkable Judith Keppel First UK million-pound winner of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Chair: Boyd Hilton Entertainment director, Heat magazine

#RTSevents

Booking: www.rts.org.uk TV’s tech pioneers

Careers

Anne Dawson looks at how the RTS Technology Bursary Scheme encourages young women to consider careers once seen as off limits to them

he RTS launched its Technol- subjects, with the aim of tempting For the first time, we have equal ogy Bursary Scheme in 2015. them into a career in the media numbers of male and female students. The initiative supports stu- industry when they graduate. Is this a blip, or are we moving towards dents from lower-­income Our first group of five students a more equal gender balance? householdsT studying science, technol- comprised four men and one woman. How much do students – and the ogy, engineering or maths (Stem) This year, we awarded eight bursaries. industry – think has been achieved?

“At times, I felt I shouldn’t really be studying physics,” says Kylia. “I wasn’t very good at it at first [but] I kept work- ing hard and my grades improved.” Kylia has grit and determination. Her interest in computers was not sup- ported by her school’s curriculum, which did not offer the subject at GCSE or A level. However, a (female) teacher pointed her in the direction of the Coding Academy website. This enabled her and a friend to teach themselves coding. It had never occurred to her that it could lead to a career in the TV indus- Kylia Prince-Anastasiou try, until she spotted the RTS bursary. Lea Racine BSc (Hons) Computer Science Looking at the Society’s website, she BSc (Hons) Computer Science, found videos of earlier students who with a year in industry, seemed to be having a lot of fun. University of St Andrews University of Kent She is thrilled that there may be a Lea’s first contact with computer sci- Kylia first became interested in com- career involving a subject she loves in ence was at primary school, aged 10, puters by playing games with her a creative working environment. when she was introduced to a simple three brothers. As the only girl in the “I’m interested in cyber security, coding app that allowed her and her family, she is used to being the lone among other areas, but I am really classmates to create a website. female. This helped her persevere looking forward to finding out about “It was so amazing to be able to when she found she was the lone the sort of jobs that are available,” create something,” she recalls. “At my female studying physics A level, and says Kylia. “It’s very exciting to be an secondary school there was no then one of the few women on Kent’s inspiration for future women who opportunity to study computer sci- computer science degree course. may want to follow my example.” ence, but a friend had some books �

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 27 The industry perspective ‘AT YOUVIEW, WE ACTIVELY SEEK FEMALE ENGINEERS’

not being taught in a way that piques the interest of girls.’ Research shows that the more com- puter science is presented as a way to improve lives and resolve social prob- lems, the more girls relate to the subject. ‘The second [issue] is that fundamen- tal changes need to be made in the workplace,’ she continues. ‘Technology workplaces can carry the same biases that have existed traditionally in wider society. Gender bias… is then perpetu- ated by the fact that there are few female role models in the industry. ‘To break the cycle, companies must take a proactive stance to drive tangible change.’ The CEO adds: ‘At YouView, we actively seek female engineers. We keep an eye on our recruitment processes and have adjusted accordingly to remove uncon- Susie Buckridge pace of change to lower these barriers scious bias.’ has been slow.’ Great role models in the TV industry Chief Executive, YouView Buckridge believes this gender bias include Alex Mahon, CEO of Channel 4, We asked YouView’s boss what her comes from a number of factors, includ- who previously ran post-production experience was of the gender imbalance ing female pioneers of technology being house Foundry, Mitzi Reaugh, President in tech, and what companies like hers glossed over. Charles Babbage is widely and CEO of Jaunt XR, a leader in aug- can do to boost the number of women credited with inventing the computer, mented reality, and Fani Sazaklidou, VP working in the sector. while Ada Lovelace’s role in recognising of product design at DAZN. She quotes a 2016 report* that: ‘In the and proving its potential is rarely ‘All of these women are inspirational, UK, only 5% of technology leadership mentioned. and their careers demonstrate the roles are held by women. A shocking ‘To shift the societal barrier, we need to breadth of technology roles avail­able figure given the history and status of our change two things,’ she says. ‘The first is and the heights that are possible,’ Buck- industry on the world stage. school education, where either schools ridge says. ‘The barriers to women entering tech- are not providing the opportunity to learn nology are well documented, yet the computer science or, where they are, it is *https://tcrn.ch/2CJ0FQk

28 � about [the programming language] she existed until my last year. Even at “The world is changing. People Python, so I borrowed those and taught St Andrews, the tutors are mostly male. understand that diversity is important. myself coding.” We need to explain computer science As a woman studying engineering, I Lea chose to study computer science better to girls at a younger age – and think there will be lots of career options because she loved the problem-solving that anyone can learn it if they want to.” available. The world is your oyster.” aspects. As part of her work experience over the summer, she supervised a graduate scheme coding test taken by four women and seven men. “The men all completed the test first but – you know what? – all the women did a bet- ter job and produced better solutions.” At St Andrews, she was surprised to find that around 40% of her class were female. “So far, it’s fantastic.”

Mariatu Davies Abbie Howell BEng (Hons) Mechanical Developer, Theodo Engineering, University of Abbie is the first Technology Bursary Birmingham student to graduate. When she joined Sociable and confident at school, Theodo, she discovered she was one of ­Mariatu could have chosen a number only two women developers out of 30, of different degrees to study, but she and one of eight women in a work- is very happy with her subject choice. force of around 40 employees. “My mum came here from Sierra Leone Abbie says that, for women to become Milena Stefanovic just after she had me. She was desper- confident in male-dominated environ- BSc (Hons) Computer Science, ate for me to go to university and have ments, they have to support each other. all the opportunities she never had.” She and her colleague Kamile Matule- University of St Andrews Mariatu became interested in engi- naite have set up a network, Embolden Milena was drawn into the world of neering when she got to know a Her (www.emboldenher.org), to provide computer science by playing video female friend of her mum’s who ran mutual support and mentoring for other games with her older brother. “I thought an electrical engineering business. “My women working in tech. it was so wonderful,” she says. “When mum’s friend had a really successful She is also a volunteer coach for we got to study computer science at career and she was rich.” The woman Codebar, which gives practical training high school [in Scotland], I was so explained that there were lots of and support and speaks up for women. excited.” Computer science was com- careers in engineering. Abbie believes the industry can’t wait pulsory for the first two years, so the In secondary school, Mariatu had for the gender balance of graduates to gender balance wasn’t an issue at first. work experience placements with change, and that there are many young But for her highers and advanced Crossrail and the Department for women out there who can quickly highers she was one of only a few girls Transport. She particularly liked the learn to code. in the class. latter: “Everything was planned and One route is via training companies “Computer science isn’t a skill you’re well organised. I work well in that sort such as Flatiron School (flatironschool. born with,” she says. “It’s something of environment.” com). It runs online and face-to-face you learn, like any other subject. How- Achieving a first in a foundation courses for career changers, including ever, when you walk into a room of degree in engineering at Leicester, she the initiative, Women Take Tech, which guys, you feel you shouldn’t be there.” has decided to specialise in mechani- awards scholarships and runs pro- Milena was delighted when she found cal engineering. grammes specifically for women. the gender mix at St Andrews was much “My friends think studying mechan- Abbie is concerned that many “think more equal: “Things are changing. But ical engineering means you are going it’s not possible for them to learn to code we need more women involved as to be a mechanic and work under a car or attain leadership positions in tech. We teachers. There was one [computer with oily rags,” she worries. “We need need more role models for young science] female teacher at my school, better advice on careers that are avail- women and girls, and more female who was part-time. I didn’t even know able to women. teachers in schools and universities.” n

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 29 Brands boost budgets

Advertising Advertisers are increasingly stepping in to close the funding gap, discovers Matthew Bell at an RTS early-evening event

From left: Greg Barnett, Saj Nazir, Kate Bulkley, Simon Wells, Emily Hudd Paul Hampartsoumian Paul

ith programme His channel’s brand-funded Britain by Channel 4, suggested that audiences budgets under Bike with Larry & George Lamb is sup- now “accept” branded content on TV: pressure, TV ported by pain-relief brand Voltarol, “Every other platform is full of it.” is turning to and offers a synergy between pro- Channel 4, he revealed, had “an advertisers to gramme subject and advertiser – the ambition to make prime-time enter- fund shows aches and pains caused by cycling. tainment with brands. The important directly.W And the amounts that brands But, said Barnett, the broadcaster is thing to say is that we do the editorial can bring to the table are significant in charge. “The idea started with the but we are really happy for the brand – anything up to half a million pounds broadcaster, so we retain editorial to fill its boots with the assets around for an hour of TV. control,” he explained. that show, with the extra content on This was the message from a packed Saj Nazir, head of integrated delivery social [media], advertising.… RTS early-evening event in October, at at “next generation” media agency “If you make an entertainment which a panel of leading commission- Wavemaker, argued that, for a brand, show with us, you can then take those ers, producers and advertising experts funding a programme “isn’t about assets… and create advertising, work discussed how they make branded selling more products – it’s potentially with the talent.” programming. a way for you to own a conversation For brands, the attraction of funding Greg Barnett, long-serving commis- around a topic, without having to out- entertainment shows is that “it’s a sioning editor for factual entertainment spend your competitors”. great way to engage audiences emo- at Channel 5, argued that the way pro- Simon Wells, controller of funded tionally”, he added. grammes are being made is changing. content and creative solutions at And brand funding can do much

30 more than fill holes in budgets. “We are Wells agreed: “Not every advertiser world, it offered “a global opportunity talking about shows [with] £2m-plus wants to be in your face – sometimes for local brands to capitalise on”. brand investment,” said Wells. “A lot of it’s too much and the audience will There are limits, however, as set out the time, we do bring some money to know. I think that audiences are very by media regulator Ofcom in its code, the party – [but] not always.” sophisticated now.” that rein in advertiser-funded pro- Nazir noted: “It’s such a wide scale: Technological advances are giving gramming in the UK. I’ve had brands fund shows for impetus to brand-funded program- These cover undue prominence of £150,000 an hour and then I’ve had ming, argued Nazir. products, editorial justification and brands fund shows for close to half a He identified “dual screening” – promotion. million pounds an hour, so it really watching a show on TV while interact- At his media agency, said Nazir, “one depends on the talent.” ing on their mobile – as a “great way of the first things we do with brands… Using TV talent in brand-funded programming is relatively new, said Emily Hudd, joint MD of entertain- ment and comedy indie Rumpus Media. “Some people are a bit tentative about it, she conceded. “We work a lot with comedians. We’ll meet them and talk them through the idea first, then explain and reassure them about what the brand involvement is.” When looking at potential talent, the producers of branded-content look, first and foremost, for the “reach” of a person, whether that’s on social media or traditional TV. “Most talent I’m finding nowadays are going, ‘I’ll do it because I know that show won’t happen unless brand X [pays for it]. And as long as I’m not asked to say brand X is great,’” said Wells. But the Channel 4 executive added that, if the talent does endorse brand X, “there will be more money involved”. “The option exists, if you want a deeper relationship, and you want the [talent] to be in your ads straight after the show, during the commercial break, you can [have that]. And this won’t be at an editorial rate – it [will be higher], more of an advertising rate.” Loyle Carner

Rumpus is making a documentary Timberland for MTV UK that is ad-funded by Tim- berland, a supporter of the charity for brands to create really good content is sit them down and take them through National Park City Foundation. It fea- that people can browse and share [on the Ofcom code”. tures UK hip-hop artist Loyle Carner, social media]”. “Don’t be frightened of them,” said who highlights “urban greening” pro- He added: “Making engaging content Wells. “It’s really important [to push] jects – a subject close to his heart – is great but we need to engage our these regulations, because they are in Croydon, south London. audiences via algorithms, so we make a bit outdated, frankly. This is 2019.” In addition to the MTV show, con- sure that any additional content that we Barnett added: “We’re a lot more tent will be distributed across VoD, make is topical and trending while that savvy now – across the board. We’ve digital and social platforms. programme is on, so the right people probably all had our fingers burned, “It’s the first time we’ve used talent see the content at the right time.” but it’s because of this that we are in a documentary space – normally, Digital product placement is used in where we are now. There’s greater it’s formatted entertainment,” said Australian soap Neighbours. This allows understanding.” n Hudd. “The branded part of it feels a product well known in one territory much more minimal in the way that it to be dropped into, say, a billboard ‘Branded content comes of age: How is executed. It’s not a piece of content featured in the programme. brands and broadcasters are rethinking about its clothes, it’s about [Timber- “This is a classic example of how advertising’ was an RTS early-evening land’s] values.” content that isn’t made in the UK can event held at H Club London on 21 October. Subtlety is key, she argued, adding still provide opportunities for UK It was chaired by journalist and media that the aim is to “stealthily weave clients,” said Channel 5’s Barnett. commentator Kate Bulkley, and produced in the message of the brand”. As Neighbours is shown around the by Vicky Fairclough and David Amodio.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 31 RTS NEWS en MacQuarrie in Broadcasting House, Bel- Northern Ireland packed several announced­ a new fast. In his lecture, MacQuarrie major events and its Programme BBC One crime said: “Ormeau Avenue has drama when he gave been the home of the BBC in Northern Ireland Awards into a busy November Khis Dan Gilbert Memorial Northern Ireland since 1941. Lecture. Bloodlands, starring Now we want to… transform James Nesbitt as a Northern it into a technology centre of Irish detective, will be set and excellence. BBC unveils filmed in and around Belfast “We want to do our bit, not and Strangford Lough. The just as a major investment in series is being made by HTM the heart of Belfast city cen- Television, the new drama tre, but also as an investment Nesbitt drama producer co-owned by Line of in the technological and cre- Duty creator Jed Mercurio and ative capacity of Northern Hat Trick Productions. North- Ireland as a whole.” ern Ireland Screen will give MacQuarrie highlighted a funding support. new initiative involving BBC MacQuarrie, BBC Nations Three, BBC NI and Northern and Regions director, was Ireland Screen that invites giving the RTS lecture at the local indies to submit “youth-­ 10th Belfast Media Festival. focused format ideas with He revealed that the BBC is the promise of making a making available an iPlayer factual entertainment series collection, The Troubles at 50, a for the channel”. range of documentaries on The BBC’s Nations and the Troubles and Northern Regions division aimed to be Ireland’s wider history. “the biggest champion” of He added that the BBC Northern Irish programming, would be producing content showcasing the “nation’s to “mark the centenary of the talent to the rest of the UK creation of Northern Ireland. and to the world”, he said. We want audiences… to learn The RTS lecture is given in more about Northern Ireland’s memory of former BBC radio past and how it has shaped current affairs editor Dan its present.” Gilbert, a major figure in James Nesbitt Last year, the BBC announ­ Northern Irish broadcasting.

Shutterstock ced that it was investing £77m Matthew Bell Mercurio’s starring role at careers fair

n RTS Futures Northern Ire- offered advice on how to break Corscadden and Cool FM’s University Belfast, and saw land, in partnership with into the TV and film industries, Rebecca McKinney. ‘Know your BBC Northern Ireland arts Queen’s University Belfast, ran and gave one-to-one ‘creative station, deliver and sell content broadcaster Marie-Louise Muir another successful careers fair clinics’ to hone interview skills well – and be relatable to your interview Jed Mercurio, the – including a session with and CVs. Their tips included: listener,’ said Annett. writer and creator of hit thrillers leading TV writer Jed Mercurio. ‘Never send the same CV twice Director Shelly Love offered Bodyguard and Line of Duty. More than 350 people – get to know the companies an insight into movie making, Mercurio discussed his attended a series of work- around you.’ following the success of her career, and said how much he shops, masterclasses and The second event, hosted debut feature, the Derry-set enjoyed working in Northern panel events run by industry by RTS Futures NI’s Alex comedy A Bump Along the Ireland. Police corruption professionals. BBC Studios McQuitty, covered radio and Way. She was joined on stage thriller Line of Duty is shot in talent manager Julie Forbes broadcasting. It featured by the film’s script supervisor, and around Belfast. and BBC NI senior resourcing Q Radio breakfast hosts Jordan Orla Finucane. The careers fair was part of advisor Nicola McConville ran Humphries and Ryan Annett, The final event was held BBC Digital Cities Belfast. a CV masterclass. The duo Bauer Academy’s David in the Great Hall of Queen’s Conor Finn

32 Watch the audience not the film

n Film industry data expert Stephen Follows shared his work with a full house at The MAC, Belfast. “Watching the movie watchers” explained audi- ence behaviour, trends in film consumption and meth- Derry Girls

Channel 4 ods available to analyse film data. It covered everything from audience reactions to the emotional impact of Derry Girls doubles up actors’ facial expressions on film posters, to looking at the crossover between genres. erry Girls enjoyed a home the Drama award. in the Specialist Factual cat- The event was staged by triumphant night at Unquiet Graves, which details egory, and the Current RTS Northern Ireland, Film the RTS Northern how members of the RUC Affairs award went to UTV Hub NI (part of the BFI Film Ireland Programme and UDR were involved in for Up Close: Killer Patient. Audience Network), and DAwards. The creator and the murder of more than The other awards went to: Queen’s University Belfast writer of the Channel 4 120 civilians in the 1970s, Boom Clap Play for When Film and Broadcast, as part ­sitcom, Lisa McGee, was won the Documentary award Something Happens (Interac- of the Belfast Media Festival. awarded the coveted Brian for Relapse Pictures. The tive); Sixteen South for Disney Sara Gunn-Smith Waddell Award for her out- feature documentary was Junior cartoon series Claude standing contribution to the directed by Seán Murray, (Children’s/Animation); Tele- broadcast industry. And who won the Post-graduate vision 360, Startling Televi- RTS Northern Ireland series 2 of Derry Girls, made by Craft Skills: Camerawork sion and Bighead, Littlehead Programme Awards winners Hat Trick Productions, won category at the 2016 RTS for Game of Thrones (Original Brian Waddell Award•Lisa McGee the Scripted Comedy award Student Television Awards. Music Score); and BBC News Drama•Line of Duty•World – for the second year running. “It’s very humbling to for its coverage of the murder Productions for BBC One “It’s such an exciting time receive this recognition at the of journalist Lyra McKee Scripted Comedy•Derry Girls• for the Northern Irish film end of many years of research (News Coverage). Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4 Entertainment•Flinch•Stellify Media and television industry – it’s for this vitally important “Congratulations to all our for Netflix a privilege just to be part of documentary,” said Murray. winners, who represent the Factual Entertainment/Features• it,” said McGee. “The fact that “The RTS has been cham­ very best of the exceptional The Fitting Room•Darlow Smithson Productions for RTÉ2 some of my favourite televi- pioning dedicated work by talent we are producing here Specialist Factual•Reporting History: sion shows are being made at independent film-makers in Northern Ireland. The high Mandela and a New South Africa• home just fills me with pride. within Ireland and the UK quality of this year’s entries Alleycats Films for BBC Four Documentary•Unquiet Graves• Our work is now recognised – this is vital to the continued is hugely reflective of our Relapse Pictures and respected­ all around the growth of our industry.” dynamic creative commu- News Coverage•The Murder of Lyra world – it’s such a huge Stellify Media’s Netflix nity,” said RTS Northern Ire- McKee•BBC News Current Affairs•Up Close: achievement. Well done us.” gameshow Flinch won the land Chair Kieran Doherty. Killer Patient•UTV The awards ceremony was Entertainment award, while The awards were held in Children’s/Animation•Claude: held at The Mac in Belfast in The Fitting Room (Darlow partnership with BBC North- Twinkle Toes Terry•Sixteen South for Disney Junior front of a full house of Smithson Productions for ern Ireland, Northern Ireland Interactive•When Something 330 guests and hosted by TV RTÉ2) took the Features/­ Screen, Channel 4 and UTV. Happens•Boom Clap Play presenter Vogue Williams. Factual Entertainment prize. Belfast post-production facil- Original Music Score•Game of Thrones•Television 360, Startling World Productions’ Line Reporting History: Mandela ity Ka-Boom was the head- Television and Bighead, Littlehead of Duty, which is filmed in and a New South Africa (Alley- line sponsor. for Sky Atlantic Northern Ireland, took cats Films for BBC Four) won Matthew Bell

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 33 RTS NEWS

Top talent shares jobs advice

ore than 900 young and ScreenSkills’ Trainee discussed the huge amount of people attended Kate Holman Finder scheme, which places work, across departments, that the second RTS reports from entry-level trainees on film went into creating a series. Midlands Careers and TV drama productions “Everything starts with the MFair at Birmingham’s Edg- RTS Midlands a hugely across the UK. story, which then feeds into baston Stadium in October. In the third session, Jude script, production, scheduling, Alongside Q&A panel ses- successful careers Winstanley, line producer costume, post-production… sions with top executives fair in Birmingham and MD of The Unit List, one couldn’t exist without the who work on some of the offered advice to people other,” explained Liza Mellody, country’s biggest shows, Away from the exhibition looking for their first job. EastEnders studio producer. there were practical work- hall, RTS Midlands ran six “Make sure everything that “You have to think of ‘how we shops in the exhibition hall. sessions during the day. is public [is what] you would are going to film it’ as well as These included: how to make Regional opportunities were want an employer to see,” ‘how we are going to write it’.” a drama, with BBC One’s Doc- first on the agenda, with she said. The best way to get noticed tors in a specially created Rural Media and ScreenSkills Transferrable skills were was to make the most of hospital set; filming on showcasing their national just as necessary as TV expe- opportunities, she continued. smartphones; using drones; talent schemes. rience, she added: “If you’ve “Don’t think: ‘I don’t want to and making a podcast. Attendees were encour- got no experience but you be making tea and running The major broadcasters aged to apply for the BBC/ have a driving licence or around.’ You’ve got to do the joined more than 40 exhibi- Rural Media Productions’ you speak another language, graft. Do your best in the job tors from across the industry New Creatives talent scheme chances are you will get a job that you’re in. It does get to give advice on how to in the Midlands (this offers over someone that doesn’t.” noticed.” break into television, creating commissioning opportuni- In “The soap and the glory In the fifth session, TV the perfect CV and gaining ties for new work in film, – working in continuing executives explained how professional experience. audio or interactive media) drama” session, the panel to stand out in one of the

34 TikTok: bringing Gen Z to TV

The strategic minds “Short-form content gen- behind TikTok offered erally performs the best,” an in-depth master- said Lindeman. But he added

RTS London class to an RTS London that long-form, professionally audience in late October, generated content had also calling on traditional broad- been successful on the app, casters to embrace the fast- showcasing extracts from growing, BBC One Chinese- dancing con- owned social test The Great- media app. est Dancer and “There’s a talent show huge opportu- format Got nity for news Talent Global. broadcasters to “We trans- tell the softer lated that or more inter- media experi- esting stories ence from through the [The Greatest platform – also Dancer] on to [stories] that the platform aren’t neces- and brought it sarily so time-sensitive. to life for our audience,” he That’s basically what our explained. This was accom- TV careers options for all, audience want,” said Edward plished through “a feature employing drones and phones Lindeman, TikTok’s European of [TikTok], which allows plus gore and soap galore strategy manager. [users] to create content at “I don’t really want to go on the same time that you’re industry’s most competitive The final session covered the platform and hear about watching a video”. genres, entertainment. new types of careers in [Brexit] – but I am interested Through the feature, users “There’s nothing like shiny broadcasting. in learning new things and were able to duet with the floors, when you’re moments “Local radio is a great way discovering content.” show’s dance captains, away from going live and to get in,” said Becca Bryers, a Previously known as Cheryl, Oti Mabuse and Mat- you hear the credits roll.… If podcast producer, who pro- Musical.ly – before major thew Morrison. Lindeman that’s what you want to do, duces and presents Multi rebranding – TikTok is a said: “There are literally hun- it’s the best thing ever. But Story, a selection of the best short-video platform that dreds of videos of [TikTok with it come long hours. As stories from BBC local radio. boasts a large consumer base users] going away and creat- TV execs, we look for dedica- “People sometimes see it as of 16- to 24-year-olds, often ing content around this. tion; you do need to do the a stepping stone but there labelled as Generation Z. “[Got Talent Global] goes time,” explained Ashley are great careers just within “[Gen Z and Millennials] against the idea that content Whitehouse, executive pro- local radio.” are difficult to get hold of, can only be short form. ducer on The X Factor. BBC WM’s Sunny Grewal they’re constantly jumping “If your content is really “[A TV career] comes with a and Shay Grewal broadcast in between different pieces high quality and has an event few sacrifices – it isn’t always their afternoon show, Sunny of content,” explained Ryan or a narrative that encour- glamorous,” he warned. and Shay, from the careers Martin, brand partnerships ages users to stay till the end, BBC Entertainment fair, interviewing attendees strategist at TikTok. “[The then they will.” commissioning editor and exhibitors and getting platform] is starting to be a “TikTok for broadcasters” Kalpna Patel-Knight said tips on working in TV. n place where they come and was held on 23 October. It that going far was “more spend a lot of time. The was chaired by Founders about teamwork, your per- The RTS Midlands Careers Fair premise behind TikTok… was Intelligence CEO Rob Chap- sonality, how tenacious you was held on 7 October, and this idea of making everyone man, and produced by are and how you can be a produced by Caren Davies and feel comfortable with editing Damien Ashton-Wellman. player in a massive team”. Jayne Greene. and shooting video.” James Cordell

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 35 RTS NEWS Batty: beware ‘rubbish’ forecasts

went about assembling a forecast. Anticipating future devel- opments, Batty explained how STV was embracing new technology: “I’m now looking at trying to do some sort of augmented reality within our studio. “I’m always wanting STV to be way up at the forefront of weather technology and to push it as far as I can.” But he admitted that the weather was unpredictable – and seasonal forecasting impossible. “[Because of] forecast Seán Batty

STV uncertainty,” said Batty, “you should always stay within a Seán Batty’s journey that’s what’s happened,’ the certain parts of the world. It time period of just a few days to becoming Scot- STV weatherman told an RTS is quite a challenging time, because the technology is not land’s most recognised Scotland event at STV Glas- but also very interesting, good enough [for longer]. And

Scotland Centre weather forecaster gow in October. because things are changing it will never be good enough, began with the present of a Batty, who had always and changing quite quickly.” because there’s always going weather kit – which he saw wanted to work in meteor- Before he joined STV, in to be something that will on Blue Peter – for his sev- ology, said that now was “a 2007, Batty worked at the affect what happens further enth birthday. really interesting time [to be] Met Office, ITV and the BBC. down the line. ‘This is like a dream come working in weather, with He used clips to illustrate “That’s why the next time true, doing this job. When climate change”. how the style, graphics and you read a headline such as you’re young, you want to “There’s just so much hap- technology of weather fore- ‘100 days of snow expected’… be a pop star, a footballer or pening at the moment – and casts have changed. it’s rubbish.” a rugby player… and then a lot of denial, as well, in He also showed how he Gillian Gunn BBC boss: more work for the regions

n ‘BBC iPlayer is not just a be a big sense of purpose that stories to stand out in the catch-up [service] any more – shines through,’ added Holland, schedule, more challenging we need to keep up with the who was interviewed by RTS ideas about the current issues way audiences are consuming West of England Chair Lynn facing the natural world.’ television,’ according to BBC Barlow at Bristol’s Everyman Discussing the channel’s Two controller Patrick Holland, cinema. brand, Holland said: ‘I think BBC who was speaking about his He pointed to commission- Two shows should be infused ambitions for his channel at an ing more regional indies and with a level of mischief and RTS West of England event in looking for a ‘sense of timeli- adventure. ‘BBC Two was the October. ness’, something he found in first challenger brand outside Patrick Hollland

‘We’ve seen big audience Cornwall: This Fishing Life, an Jon Craig the mainstream, so I very much demand for shows on iPlayer upcoming BBC Two series pre- want it to continue producing after their initial TV release. You viewed at the RTS event. ‘It is homes, all against the backdrop quality programming with an can’t judge numbers on the important, working with talent of Brexit,’ he said. emphasis on specialism and overnights any more. We don’t and hearing voices from across This desire for timeliness also complex subject matter – to aim for a focused demographic. all regions. It brings a broader applies to natural history: ‘I’d build on the very best program- It has to appeal to the whole audience to fishing and shines like to commission more films ming across genres.’ audience and there needs to a light on the issue of second that take on species-specific Sophie Dymond

36 Roz Laws joins the crew for a

RTS Midlands slow-motion chase: zombies vs a narrow boat

ctor Hamza Jeetooa has invented a new term in TV filming – the “reverse of Ashame”. As he told the RTS Midlands audience at the premiere of new ITV2 com- edy horror series Zomboat!, it happens when you’re shoot- ing on a narrow boat and make a mistake. Jeetooa said: “If you messed up your line, the boat team had to get on and very slowly reverse the boat back to the starting spot. That’s the reverse of shame.” Zomboat!

The 21-metre narrow boat, ITV called Dorothy, is the fifth star of Zomboat!. It plays a vital role as the very slow means of escape for sisters ITV2’s slow boat to Brum Kat and Jo and friends Sunny (Jeetooa) and Amar when the zombie apocalypse breaks surrounded by a camera rig Venice, and it felt quite “We loved the idea of see- out in Birmingham. and safety boats. The pres- important to make Zomboat! ing this genre through female Dorothy offered great sure is to say all your lines somewhere other than Lon- eyes. I felt like I hadn’t seen comedy opportunities, chug- and not crash into a wall.” don. It’s a show that moves, it before, certainly not on ging away just a little faster Another issue was filming and Birmingham is at the British TV recently. To add in than the zombies stumbling with realistic zombies on the hub of Britain, so it gives us two British Asian characters along the towpath. But film- towpath, much to the sur- a lot of opportunities. felt really organic.” ing on a narrow boat pre- prise of dog walkers and, in “I wanted to do a chase Zomboat!, which began its sented more challenges than one memorable instance, a movie on a narrow boat six-part run on ITV2 in early just the reverse of shame. primary school. The head- because it’s funny. It turns October, is a co-production Speaking in the appropri- master asked if they could out that everything is faster with Hulu, which is broad- ate canal-side setting of the hide the blood-caked than a narrow boat except casting it in the US. IET in Birmingham, Leah undead during break time. zombies.” Campbell said: “Hulu got it Brotherhead, who plays Kat, Birmingham has played Executive producer straight away and it wasn’t said: “Conditions were very host to zombies before, in Camilla Campbell, joint MD bothered about the Brummie cramped, as there were four the Glenn Close film The Girl of the indie behind the accents. The only problem of us and a crew onboard. with All the Gifts. It was also a series, Noho Film and TV, we had was that they didn’t The spaces they got into location for another post- said: “When I found out it understand ‘Marigolds’. We were impressive. We started apocalyptic film, Steven was set on a narrow boat, I considered changing it to checking cupboards and the Spielberg’s Ready Player One, thought, ‘That’s mad, in ‘rubber gloves’, but that’s not sound man really did live in but the city is usually dis- either a bad or a good way.’ I as funny, so we’ve stuck with the toilet.” guised. It’s rare to get a read the script and decided it Marigolds.” n All the actors learned how drama filmed and set in was very good. to drive the boat, if not how Birmingham that includes “ITV2 has been absolutely The RTS Midlands premiere to reverse it. iconic landmarks such as the amazing and supportive. It of ITV2’s Zomboat! was held Cara Theobold, who plays Bullring. wants shows that are vibrant at the IET in Birmingham on Jo, said: “Driving it isn’t that Writer and director Adam and fun and will appeal to 3 October. It was hosted by Ayo hard. What’s difficult is if you Miller said: “Birmingham has young people, and Zomboat! Akinwolere and produced by are also acting and are 56km of canals, more than does that. Becky Jones-Owen.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 37 RTS NEWS

motion graphics design. Former TV graphic designer Shiers rewards design Mark Craig – now a docu- mentary-maker, who made the feature film The Last Man on the Moon – will film the and Yorkshire projects interviews. “Stemming from the mid- 1950s to the present day, the As part of its 90th birth­ made programmes that were interviews will reveal the day celebrations, the viewed across the planet,” said creative processes behind RTS has doubled the producer/director Stuart Ram- the seminal work and prac-

National News prize for the Shiers say, who will make the film. tices that have now passed Trust Award 2019 to £4,000. “It was a ground-breaking into motion graphics his- This has been split between period in television history tory,” he said. two projects – a celebration – for the first time, local The Shiers Trust Award of Yorkshire Television and a news was beamed into mil- offers a grant towards work history of TV motion graph- lions of homes across the on any aspect of TV history. ics design. north. There were documen- George Shiers, a distinguished The Shiers Trust jury was taries that challenged the US TV historian and member unable to decide between status quo and changed soci- of the RTS, provided a the two projects, which were ety, there was pioneering bequest to fund the award. part of a record number of drama and shiny-floor enter­ Normally, it is worth £2,000, applicants this year. tainment series – all created but this year, to mark the The documentary feature within Yorkshire TV’s Kirk- The Shiers Trust will also 90th anniversary of the RTS, Made in Yorkshire will tell the stall Road studios. fund filmed interviews with it was raised to £4,000. story of how a group of young “Through interviews with ex-BBC motion graphics Past Shiers Trust projects men and women took over a the key protagonists from designers who worked on include an oral history of derelict trouser factory in Yorkshire TV’s past, we will many different programmes, BBC Pebble Mill and a biog- Leeds in 1968 and set about record the memories and series and campaigns for the raphy of Grace Wyndham creating TV studios. first-hand accounts of those corporation over the years. Goldie, the first head of BBC “In the decades that fol- who were there to witness, These will contribute to an TV News and Current Affairs. lowed, Yorkshire Television and help create, TV history.” archive of the history of BBC Matthew Bell

filled with whatever is play- ing out before them, cuts, Norwich mixes and zooms make no New digital category sense in this environment. peeks into The production needs to find for Journalism Awards other ways to lead them from one scene to the next. the future Sound, sensations of motion A new Digital category He succeeded Sue Inglish. and even smell and touch has been added to next Bucks, a former Sky News combine­ to draw them into year’s RTS Television executive, is CEO of Services

RTS East kicked off its an absorbing experience. The National News Journalism Awards. Sound and Vision Corpora- busy autumn season of trick is to avoid any stimulus The prize is designed to tion. He said: “I am very events with “TV that breaks the spell, either reflect changing patterns of proud to be chosen to chair

East Centre futures: Virtually there”, within the production or in news consumption, especially the RTS Television Journal- a talk by RTS Fellow Dr Nick the viewing environment. by young people, and the ism Awards – the most pres- Lodge, a former head of stra- An appreciative audience growing number of digital-­ tigious rewards for quality tegic R&D and international at the University of East only news sites. and achievement in video standards at the ITC. Anglia in Norwich in late “The introduction of the journalism.” Covering a lot of ground, October also heard about the Digital category is a new Including the new award, from the cathode-ray tube to problems of working on a departure for the Awards, the 2020 Awards will recog- the latest 8K displays, Lodge 360° film, where everything, recognising the growth of nise talent across 19 catego- explained what it takes to including the crew, is in shot, powerful and compelling ries. The ceremony will be make a production truly and how, in the near future, content on non-traditional held on 26 February 2020 at immersive – so that the scene we could be experiencing platforms,” said Simon Bucks, the London Hilton, Park Lane. feels as real as if viewers are these immersive­­ productions who was appointed Chair of All entries must be submitted seeing it with their own eyes. in our own homes. the RTS Television Journal- by 2 December 2019. When a viewer’s vision is Tony Campbell ism Awards earlier this year. Steve Clarke

38 Latif graces Leeds media week

Award-winning tele­ The latter netted him and vision presenter Amar producer, Air TV, the Single Latif gave an emotional Documentary award at this

Yorkshire Yorkshire Centre insight into his life as year’s RTS Yorkshire Awards. a globetrotting champion of The focus of his “Travelling blind travellers at an RTS- blind” session, which was sponsored event in Leeds in part of Leeds Trinity Univer- early November. sity’s Journalism and Media The Glasgow-born, York- Week, was how blindness shire-based entrepreneur, made him determined to who lost his sight at the age explore the world. of just 18, runs Traveleyes, a “When I could see, I didn’t company that takes blind see much of the world,” he and partially sighted travel- admitted. lers on action-packed holi- “If you’re blind, you days around the world. become more curious. You His pioneering work for learn to push yourself and it the company – and as a makes you stronger. Some- motivational speaker – has times, things seem impos- also brought opportunities sible but, if you just keep in a growing number of going, step by step, you’ll television shows, such as make it. The alternative is Channel 4’s The Last Leg sitting in your room, not Down Under and BBC Two’s taking any risks at all. Beyond Boundaries, as well as “If you dare to push your documentaries, including limits, the world becomes BBC One’s River Walks: bigger” Amar Latif

The Nidd. Glyn Middleton Amarlatif.com Streamers leave large footprint Indie shows its TT paces The rise of the stream- industry. They’ve realised and viewership, plus storage ers, hybrid platforms that, in order to build their and management of assets.” and cloud technology platforms, they need access Artificial intelligence (AI) Sports specialists

London Centre – and a more diverse to good content,” he said. was more in evidence this Greenlight Television roster of speakers – were The rise of hybrid platforms, year, said Adriana Whiteley, a opened its doors for a among the big trends at IBC. such as LovesTV in Spain, also director of media consultancy Isle of Man Centre tour of its facilities in Robert Ambrose, consulting featured. “Hybrid services on Bonsight. “US companies are October. Hosted by RTS Isle editor of IBC’s 2019 confer- smart TVs that allow a mix of investing heavily in AI, and of Man, the tour showed how ence, said the industry was broadcast and online content this IBC was the first time I the indie produces highlights going through a period of are seen by broadcasters as a saw AI used as a core part of of the Isle of Man TT. disruptive change, as content key strategy to maintain a platform, generating meta- Greenlight produces same- owners tried to figure out relevance and increase rev- data automatically,” she said. day, hour-long highlight new business models. He was enue, as they can start to “Data is fundamental for programmes for ITV4 during speaking at RTS London and target advertising on the digi- the discovery of content, so the fortnight of racing on the the Institution of Engineer- tal platform,” said Ambrose. the more data you can get on Isle of Man in early summer. ing and Technology’s review Cognizant digital partner the consumer, the better.” While the riders are racing of Amsterdam’s tech festival. Saleha Williams saw more Williams noted the num- around the course at up to The most popular sessions cloud technology: “The cloud ber of women speakers – up 300kph, Greenlight is recov- involved Facebook, Amazon, will be important if you want 38% this year: “It led to a ering pictures from a dozen Netflix and Google. “These to leverage data and the intel- much wider range of opin- cameras, plus kerbcams, companies are really court- ligence behind it to inform ions on offer.” more than 30 on-board cam- ing the traditional broadcast your scheduling, advertising, Nick Radlo eras and a helicopter.

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 39 NEWS Wales win is a ‘calling card’

Five RTS Cymru Wales definitely helped me get to Student Television where I am today. I learnt Awards winners about the industry, about

RTS Cymru Cymru RTS Wales revealed how they deadlines,” said Bennett. broke into TV at Cardiff’s An award was a calling Tramshed cinema in October. card for Ethan Blake Brooks, Winning an RTS award had one of the team behind opened doors. “It shows you Mathew vs Pritchard, which care about your craft and won the Factual category at MathewXxxxxxxxxx vs Pritchard

take things seriously,” said this year’s RTS Cymru Wales of SouthUniversity Wales Josh Bennett, who went on to Student Television Awards. found the Cardiff production He was accepted on to Chan- series Shane the Chef. Rod­ to make something that I company Storm & Shelter. nel 4’s Production Trainee- rigues has since moved to believed in. I knew a lot of He said the success of his ship Scheme, which led to a Bumpybox as a CG animator people who were still mak- student film, Bedroom Live, placement as a researcher on CBeebies series My Petsau- ing films and I just tried to which featured live music with Cardiff indie Boomer- rus, while Phillips is a CG prove myself again so that filmed in a student’s room, ang. He had his first director’s modeller at Wild Creations. they would want to work on led to a YouTube channel credit on the BBC Wales Tom Gatley’s award-winner, something with me.” and a series for Channel 4’s short-form doc One Last Gig. Cardiff Love Story, led to work Expiry, the story of a couple Project 4 TV. “We were pretty Catarina Rodrigues and as a camera operator at BBC whose marriage is close to much filming at most of the Christopher Phillips won the Wales and then as an editor. collapse and wake up one major universities around Animation prize at the 2018 He took a break from the morning to find they can no the UK. It involved three awards with Peach. Both industry but, five years later, longer touch, will be released of us sleeping in a van and landed jobs at Cloth Cat Ani- returned to write and direct in December. going on a whirlwind tour. It mation, working on Channel 5 his first feature film. “I wanted Judith Winnan

Bracknell demystifies IP Students inspire Scots

n RTS Thames Valley held of building and designing IP RTS Scotland launched by Marco Di Gioia, one of the a technical colloquium for infrastructures in broadcast its 2020 Student Tele- University of Stirling film- engineers and technologists facilities throughout Europe. vision Awards at STV makers behind Factual win-

cov­ering the theoretical and Martin Paskin of Techex Scotland Centre in Glasgow in October. ner The Bad Guy. “You have practical aspects of moving gave an overview of the STV presenter Laura Boyd nothing to lose… [make] an video and audio over internet standards governing IP, while hosted the evening and inter- interesting piece that shows protocol (IP) in mid-October. BBC R&D’s Peter Brightwell viewed some of the 2019 you’ve gone the extra mile.” Television is experiencing looked at interoperability winners,­ including Sedona Since winning her award, a technical revolution, with standards. May Tubbs and Kieran Howe, Tubbs has started work as a computer networks replac- Geoff Love from Axon part of the Royal Conserva- digital film production ing traditional broadcast Digital Design concentrated toire of Scotland team that teacher at the SAE Institute infrastructures to deliver on system control; Gerard won the Drama category with in Glasgow. Di Gioia and his more flexibility and scalabil- Phillips of Arista Networks What Separates Us from the team have won a BBC com- ity for programme-makers. spoke about signal switching; Beasts. “Any students think- mission for a 30-minute Hosted at Techex in and APC Time’s Rob Skinner ing about submitting their version of their winning film. Bracknell, the RTS event discussed the operation of work should not be afraid The awards ceremony will offered five speakers who system-critical timing. – and just submit and keep be held on 5 February at the discussed their experiences Tony Orme submitting,” said Tubbs. Everyman cinema, Glasgow. A similar message was sent Donald Matheson

40 Your guide to upcoming events. Book online at RTS EVENTS www.rts.org.uk NORTHERN IRELAND SOUTHERN National events Local events ■ John Mitchell ■ Stephanie Farmer ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@ ■ [email protected] RTS EARLY-EVENING EVENT DEVON AND CORNWALL btinternet.com Monday 2 December ■ Jane Hudson THAMES VALLEY Why we love… quiz shows ■ RTSDevonandCornwall@rts. REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Friday 29 November An entertaining and affec- org.uk ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 Thames Valley Winter Ball and tionate celebration. Panellists: ■ [email protected] Awards 2019 Anne Robinson, TV presenter; EAST 7:00pm-1:00am Jo Street, head of daytime, Wednesday 4 March 2020 SCOTLAND Venue: Wokefield Estate, Good­ Channel 4; James Fox, Man- RTS East Awards 2020 January 2020 (TBC) boys Lane, Mortimer RG7 3AE aging Director, Remarkable; Venue: The Assembly House, AGM ■ Tony Orme and Judith Keppel, the first UK Theatre Street, Norwich NR2 1RQ 6:00pm ■ [email protected] million-pound winner of Who ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 Venue: Glasgow Art Club, 185 Wants To Be a Millionaire? ■ [email protected] Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4HU WALES Chair: Boyd Hilton, entertain- Thursday 5 December ment director, Heat magazine. ISLE OF MAN Wednesday 5 February 2020 Christmas quiz 6:30pm for 6:45pm ■ Michael Wilson RTS Scotland Student Venue: TBC Venue: Cavendish Conference ■ [email protected] Television Awards 2020 ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 Centre, 22 Duchess Mews, Supported by STV, which will ■ [email protected] London W1G 9DT LONDON film the ceremony and show Wednesday 4 December highlights on its digital platform, WEST OF ENGLAND RTS FUTURES Christmas Lecture: along with the winning and Friday 6 December Tuesday 3 December David Abraham nominated films. Hosted by STV Christmas quiz RTS Futures Christmas quiz 6:30pm for 7:00pm presenter Laura Boyd. Recep- Venue: The Folk House, 40a Park The glitterati of broadcast and Venue: Cavendish Conference tion 6:00pm, ceremony 7:00pm Street, Bristol BS1 5JG production go head to head – Centre, 22 Duchess Mews, Venue: Everyman Cinema, ■ Suzy Lambert with you on their team. The RTS London W1G 9DT Princes Square, Buchanan Street, ■ [email protected] Futures members on the top ■ Phil Barnes Glasgow G1 3JN team win a money-can’t-buy ■ [email protected] YORKSHIRE prize. Tickets cost £10.00 and Wednesday 3 June 2020 Wednesday 4 December are non-refundable (free for full MIDLANDS RTS Scotland Television RTS Yorkshire Christmas members of the RTS, but they Friday 29 November Awards 2020 drinks must be booked in advance From Liverpool Docks to Holly­ Drinks reception 5:45pm; 6:30pm using your membership num- wood Bowl: Drama production awards ceremony 7:00pm Venue: Archive, 94 Kirkstall Road, ber). 6:30pm-9:30pm masterclass with Mal Young Venue: Glasgow Art Club, 185 Farsley, Leeds LS3 1HD Venue: Channel 4, 124–126 Horse­ With TV producer, writer Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4HU ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 ferry Road, London SW1P 2TX and showrunner Mal Young, ■ Cheryl Strong ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. now based in the US. ■ [email protected] co.uk RTS FUTURES 2:00pm-4:00pm Wednesday 12 February 2020 Venue: IET Birmingham, Austin RTS Futures Television Court, 80 Cambridge Street, RTS London Christmas Lecture Careers Fair 2020 Birmingham B1 2NP 10:00am-4:00pm Venue: Business Design Centre, Friday 29 November 52 Upper Street, London N1 0QH RTS Midlands Awards 2019 David Venue: International Convention RTS AWARDS Centre, Broad Street, Abraham Wednesday 26 February 2020 Birmingham B1 2EA CEO of Wonderhood Studios RTS Television Journalism ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 Awards 2020 ■ [email protected] and former CEO of Channel 4 Venue: London Hilton on Park Lane, London W1K 1BE NORTH EAST AND THE BORDER ■ Jill Graham 4 December RTS AWARDS ■ [email protected] www.rts.org.uk/london Tuesday 17 March 2020 RTS Programme Awards 2020 NORTH WEST Venue: Grosvenor House Hotel, ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 London W1K 7TN ■ [email protected]

Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 41 OFF M E SSAGE

great deal of atten- the impecunious Micawber, while don’t all work like that,” cautioned tion has focused on Hugh Laurie delights as the troubled Evans. “Some scripts leap out and the role of social Mr Dick, regarded by many as one of that was one of them.” media in the cur- the first portraits of mental illness in rent general elec- an English novel. ■ Some sage advice was offered to tion. But the power Due for release in the UK this Janu- the RTS bursary students attending of television to ary, The Personal History of David Cop­ the Society’s recent Patron Dinner mould the campaign was made abun- perfield should provide an antidote to by none other than ITV’s director Adantly clear in the first of two head- those dark New Year blues. of television, and noted Islamic art to-head leaders’ debates between expert, Kevin Lygo. Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson. ■ It’s that man again, the flamboy- What words of wisdom did this ITV’s programme, impressively ant Channel 5 supremo, Ben Frow. most experienced of TV executives chaired by the unflappable Julie Etch- At a glitzy London event earlier this – he’s occupied senior rules at Chan- ingham, helped to galvanise the elec- month, Frow announced 11 new nel 4 and 5, and been involved with tion. This was the first time since 2015 factual series, including a four-part key BBC shows – have to pass on to that the Conservative and Labour travel show, The Ganges with Anita Rani. the young people present? leaders had gone head-to-head live Having already signed up big “You can be a little bit lazy, a little on TV in an election debate. names, such as Michael Palin and bit stupid – but, if you’re good with Then, David Cameron and Ed Jeremy Paxman, getting the Countryfile people, you will thrive in this indus- Miliband were grilled individually by star on board looks like another try,” was Kevin’s recommendation Jeremy Paxman before facing ques- potential winner for the channel. for getting on in telly. tions from the studio audience, in a For Anita, it is a return to her roots. joint broadcast by Sky and Channel 4. She first worked at Channel 5 back in ■ And, finally, to end where In 2017, Theresa May declined an 2002 when, under RTL’s ownership, we began – the nexus between invitation to participate in a leaders’ the station was rebranded as Five. broadcasting and politics. It may debate. have escaped your attention, but Still to come is another live match ■ As every producer knows, getting 21 November marked the 30th anni- between Corbyn and Johnson, to be a speedy decision on a commission versary of live televised coverage of shown by BBC TV on 6 December. is often, to say the least, wishful Parliament. The host will be Today presenter Nick thinking. But there are exceptions, In 1989, for the first time, TV audi- Robinson. He will be determined to as comedy practitioner Nerys Evans ences were able to have a ringside seat shine in what, for him, is a career first. told an RTS Student Masterclass ear- at the House of Commons. At the time, Bring it on. lier this month. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. She recalled how Sharon Horgan’s Brexit may be driving everyone ■ Away from the dramas of the gen- idea for the genre-defining Catas­ barmy but it does mean that more eral election, Off Message was privi- trophe arrived first thing one working people are watching BBC Parliament. leged to see an advance screening of day via email. This September, the channel achieved Armando Iannucci’s latest feature The script was standout. So, later its biggest single-day audience, when film,The Personal History of David Cop­ that day, Horgan cycled over to a 1.5 million people tuned in. perfield, which is backed by Film4. meeting with Evans and head of And, during one week in January, And what a treat it is. Great period comedy Phil Clarke at Channel 4’s BBC Parliament famously attracted settings, not least the recreation of Horseferry Road HQ. Co-writer Rob more viewers than MTV. Murdstone and Grinby’s warehouse, Delaney joined by conference call If the election doesn’t resolve and a brilliantly diverse cast led by from Los Angeles. Brexit, BBC Parliament might Dev Patel as the eponymous hero. That same day a pilot was ordered. become more popular than TikTok Peter Capaldi is a joy to watch as The rest, as they say, is history. “They is among Gen Z viewers.

42 November 2019 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS PATRONS RTS Principal BBC Channel 4 ITV Sky Patrons

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Television www.rts.org.uk November 2019 43 The gift of RTS Membership for a relative or friend at Christmas is a special way to inspire their interest and passion for everything and anything to do with television, video and film

They will receive a subscription to Television, the RTS monthly magazine, free entry to events and a range of member benefits, including: n Access to private members clubs in London, Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow n Discounts on media industry publication subscriptions n Discounts on hotels, bars, restaurants and spas n And much more!

Please visit the RTS website at: https://rts.org.uk/membership/ membership-as-gift to register your interest