· Department

Cecilia COPE, Senior Producer, RAI Fiction Department Well, as others have already done, I am going to speak in my own mother tongue. I thank everyone for the invitation, which is particularly interesting for people like us from the fiction world. I work within RAI Fiction, which is the department within the Italian television responsible for producing fiction for , and , those three channels. We read about 1,500 scripts per year and we produce 750 hours or thereabouts for daytime and prime-time TV.

This seminar gives me, by quoting working within RAI Fiction, the possibility of sharing a unique experience, and it is the first time we have been in such a highly-specialised and well-represented group. So for us as producers, the storytellers, the narrators if you like, the people who tell the fairy tales, we are here with our ears flapping. We are trying to draw out some ideas so that we can then include those within possible production or co-productions.

Police fiction, from the very word go for television, is the most highly-attractive genre, if you like, with Sheridan and Maigret and then we had Octopus, which presented the break between the first stage and the second. It allowed us not only to work through the newspapers, the television news but to find out more about the Sicilian mafia situation. This has helped to bring about, I think, a growth within the perception of the public, the civil approach of the public. I apologise as I get lost in my notes every and again.

These programmes, in terms of quantity and quality, are one of the strong points for us. They go down very well with the public and critics. We produce excellent products which reach out to a very broad public and tell the tale of modern-day . We have produced some major serials, as speakers beforehand were telling us. We had the Carabinieri, Maresciallo Rocca. Sometimes, when you have a major success people pick up on that and we moved on to Commissario Montalbano, another policeman of a different type. That is drawn from an Italian writer’s books, who worked for many years producing Maigret in RAI. Those books are based in Sicily. Then we produced The Coast Guard and The Capitano, with Guarda di Financa.

We want to have a broad range of products to put to our public. We are a service, and so we have to cover the whole scope from comedy and drama right through to police series. That is our job. What is very interesting, and something the public can identify with in these people, is their human nature. We have got people who are not untouchable superheroes. It is the man on the street, someone who has got their own family, their weak and strong points. And it is indeed that which makes them very attractive for a broad-ranging audience.

In other words, any Tom, Dick or Harry could be a hero. As has been said already on various occasions during the course of this meeting, television is able to reach the broadest audience and through narrating, through the series form, obviously these programmes are really one of the ways of reaching out par excellance, towards the public.

RAI 3 broadcasts another product of ours as well. RAI 3 is not the big target channel but it has a production called La Squadra which is pretty low-budget, costing EUR 600,000 per broadcast. It has a low budget compared to other productions. It is based in the centre of Naples and deals with a group of police officers facing up to the tough reality which is Naples.

As Mr Butticé was saying this morning, a book called Gomorrah has recently been published. I do not know if it is going to be or has already been translated into other languages, but it relates the dreadfully difficult situation which exists in Naples. An awful lot of the episodes of this programme, La Squadra, have been shot in the port of Naples.

What makes a show attractive is its national nature. Commissioner Rex and Derek are a typically German series but they are very successful in Italy as well. There are constant re-runs. Our type of production, as we heard from Mr Corsetti this morning, is like Maresciallo Rocca, which has been sold across the boards. He told us once that apparently he speaks Chinese as well, the series has been translated into Chinese. Commissario Montalbano has been bought in Russian as well. They are typically national products but they are so attractive that they are capable of putting across these universal values and crossing the borders of different countries. These are values which we all share.

I do not know if there are any questions, but I can answer them if you have any. I would like to show a short video of about three minutes and then hand over to Professor Buonanno, who has done some great research into our products.

Rainer NEWALD Thank you very much indeed for that very impressive presentation. I did actually want to raise a couple of additional questions and maybe some additional points for discussion in so doing.

Personally, the way I see this is I think that themes such as the ones we are seeing now, which come from daily life, should be put across. I do not know about Maresciallo Rocca and to what extent it deals with this type of thing, but our experience, and this is where I want to pick up on the previous discussion, is that cases of fraud are largely related to questions of illegal employment and things like this. It does not have to be death and murder and things like this. This type of thing can also be dealt with by a good producer so that the argument can be put across that must have some sort of affinity for this sort of issue that comes down in the public.

Cecilia COPE I think it is possible. I think you have to look at the idea and then try to get together and work on it with the script writer because, yes, these are problems of everyday life, problems that all Europeans are having to face. So I think it can be done, if you have a good script writer. It takes a bit of time, because from the idea through to production and broadcasting, the timing, it takes about two years. It is tough work. You know, until the scenario is going to work, it is re-worked again and again. So it is highly-skilled work which is put in. It is not something which is just cooked up overnight and that is it.

Rocca, for example, is very attractive because it is a product which appeals to the entire family, from the children right through to the grandparents. The Italians love it and I think it is loved abroad as well. As I say, it has been sold all over the place, so yes, I think it is quite possible.

You just have to check out the idea, you have to see what it is going to give us in reality. You have to try to inform and you have to make it possible to bring about this social growth, put across values to your audience, universal values. I think that is all quite feasible, what you were suggesting.

You just have to try not to be frightened to stick your neck out and do something which has never been done before there, basically.