June 2018

Lennie James Keeping it real 22 June VENUE: BFI Southbank, London BOOK YOUR PLACE: www.rts.org.uk #RTSawards Journal of The Royal Television Society June 2018 l Volume 55/6

From the CEO I am so pleased to “Anatomy of a hit” strand. As we all Staying outside London, don’t miss have the incompa- top up our fake tans and reserve a our coverage of RTS Northern Ireland’s rable Lennie James, place on the sofa for the widely an- amazing evening with Deborah Riley, interviewed by An- ticipated new series of Love Island, our production designer of the global phe- drew Billen, as our second report of an “Anatomy of a hit” nomenon that is Game of Thrones. cover story. Anyone is, yes, devoted to Love Island. I was touched that Tessa Jowell’s who has seen Lennie I am indebted to Caroline Flack, former special advisor, Bill Bush, was in Save Me, which he also wrote, The Angela Jain and their fellow panellists able to write a piece for Television high- Walking Dead or Line of Duty will know for making this such a brilliant event. lighting Tessa’s huge achievements. what an amazing and very special They say that all good things come In common with so many people in talent he is. in threes. For our third “Anatomy of a our industry, I was very sad to hear of Talking of Line of Duty, I was thrilled hit” report, we shift gear from one of her recent death. Tessa’s legacy in to attend the RTS’s recent “Anatomy the honest reality shows to one of the several different policy areas, not least of a hit” event, which gave the inside very best comedies of recent times, broadcasting and content production, track on a truly great show. This Country. RTS Bristol put on an will be cherished for years to come. My thanks to panellists Jed Mercu- exceptional evening. rio, Adrian Dunbar, Simon Heath and The audience at the city’s Watershed Priscilla Parish, and to the evening’s were treated to a hilarious encounter chair, Anne Robinson. We have a great with Charlie Cooper, one half of the report of the event in this issue. two siblings who created and star in It’s been a prolific period for the this triple RTS-award-winning show. Theresa Wise Contents Huw Jones’s TV Diary An Olympic-class media minister Huw Jones contemplates a big birthday as he considers Bill Bush celebrates the many achievements of Tessa 5 the impact of the recent review of S4C 20 Jowell, Britain’s longest-serving culture secretary Universal stories from unique situations Box-set Britain Lennie James’s Save Me is one of the year’s most fêted Kate Bulkley examines how broadcasters are adapting 6 dramas. He tells Andrew Billen why, as a black man, it’s 23 to binge viewing – no longer the preserve of streaming become easier to write successfully for TV services Top of the cops ITV’s summer sensation Tara Conlan joins an RTS audience to learn how Love Island was the surprise hit of summer 2017. 9 Jed Mercurio’s Line of Duty set a new benchmark 26 Matthew Bell dons the sun cream to hear an RTS panel for the police procedural dissect the show’s appeal A look to die for Our Friend in the North West Game of Thrones production designer Deborah Riley Channel 4’s move is only a start. Cat Lewis says Ofcom 12 tells the RTS where she found inspiration for the 29 must do more to strengthen regional production blockbuster’s visual style. Steve Clarke reports Thirsty for talent The East is ready Visual effects is both a technical and a team craft, Asia’s virtual-reality market offers rich pickings for UK 30 discovers Matthew Bell. And the sector is desperate for 16 producers, says Marcus Ryder new creatives This Country: Anatomy of a hit Sarah Bancroft hears how the award-winning show 18 evolved on its long road to the screen Cover: Filip Van Roe/Eyevine

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 2018. [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 June 2018 3 Your guide to upcoming events. Book online at RTS NEWS www.rts.org.uk National events Local events STEVE HEWLETT RTS AWARDS BRISTOL Friday 22 June ■ Belinda Biggam MEMORIAL LECTURE 2018 RTS Student Television ■ [email protected] Awards 2018 Venue: BFI Southbank, Belvedere DEVON AND CORNWALL Road, London SE1 8XT ■ Jane Hudson ■ RTSDevonandCornwall@rts. RTS CONFERENCE org.uk Tuesday 18 September RTS London Conference 2018 EAST Sponsored by Viacom. Co- Thursday 20 September chaired by David Lynn, President TV quiz night Viacom International Media Quizmaster: BBC Inside Out’s Networks (VIMN) and James David Whiteley. Please email Currell, President, VIMN, UK, [email protected] for an entry Northern and Eastern Europe. form. Tickets: £10 per team of Confirmed speakers include: Bob four or five. Bakish, CEO of Viacom Inc; Tony Venue: The Lamb Inn, Lamb Yard, Hall, Director-General of the BBC; Orford Place, Norwich NR1 3RU Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV; Alex ■ Nikki O’Donnell Mahon, CEO of Channel 4; and ■ nikki.odonnell@bbc.co.uk Sharon White, CEO of Ofcom 11 October Venue: Kings Place, 90 York Way, LONDON London N1 9AG ■ Daniel Cherowbrier ■ [email protected] STEVE HEWLETT MEMORIAL Charlotte Moore LECTURE 2018 MIDLANDS Thursday 11 October Wednesday 20 June Director of Content, BBC Charlotte Moore, Director of Summer networking event Content, BBC. Please book your place in Joint RTS and Media Society advance at RTSMidlands@rts. University of Westminster 6:30pm event. Tickets £10. All net profits org.uk. 7:00pm-9:00pm A joint RTS and Media Society event will go to the Steve Hewlett Bur- Venue: The Colmore Club, 85-89 Tickets: www.rts.org.uk sary Fund. 6:30pm for 7:00pm Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2BB Venue: The University of Tuesday 20 November Westminster, 4-12 Little Titchfield RTS Midlands Awards 2018 NORTHERN IRELAND THAMES VALLEY Street, London W1W 7BY Venue: Town Hall, Victoria Thursday 15 November Friday 23 November Square, Birmingham B3 3DQ RTS NI Programme Awards 2018 Winter Ball RTS MASTERCLASSES ■ Jayne Greene 07792 776585 Venue: TBC 7:00pm till late Tuesday 13 Novermber ■ [email protected] ■ John Mitchell Venue: De Vere Wokefield Estate, RTS Student Programme ■ mitch.mvbroadcast@ Goodboys Lane Reading RG7 3AE Masterclasses NORTH EAST AND THE BORDER btinternet.com ■ Tony Orme Venue: IET London, 2 Savoy ■ Jill Graham ■ [email protected] Place, London WC2R 0BL ■ [email protected] REPUBLIC OF IRELAND ■ Charles Byrne (353) 87251 3092 WALES Wednesday 14 Novermber NORTH WEST ■ [email protected] ■ Hywel Wiliam 07980 007841 RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses Saturday 10 November ■ [email protected] Venue: IET London, 2 Savoy RTS North West Awards 2018 SCOTLAND Place, London WC2R 0BL Entries open on 25 June, and ■ Jane Muirhead YORKSHIRE close on 20 July ■ [email protected] Friday 6 July RTS AWARDS Venue: Hilton Deansgate, 303 Annual Awards Monday 26 November Deansgate, Manchester M3 4LQ SOUTHERN Venue: TBC RTS Craft & Design Awards 2018 ■ Rachel Pinkney 07966 230639 ■ Stephanie Farmer ■ Lisa Holdsworth 07790 145280 London Hilton on Park Lane ■ [email protected] ■ [email protected] ■ lisa@allonewordproductions. 22 Park Lane, London W1K 1BE co.uk

4 TV diary

Huw Jones contemplates a big birthday as he considers the impact of the recent review of S4C

t’s 7:00pm and RTS Wales is The review’s solution is that, from ■ Tomorrow, we will start discuss- hosting an open session to 2022, the whole of S4C’s funding ing our annual report. Reach on discuss the recently pub- should come from the licence fee. television, both in Wales and across lished review of S4C. It’s my The Government has made a firm the UK for 2017-18 looks to be up, job to present S4C’s response commitment to S4C’s independence, with digital audiences ­continuing ­to and, alongside our CEO, but this plan is likely to form an grow. We’ve had a great run of grip- Owen Evans, and the author important part of discussions regard- ping drama series, including Y Gwyll/ of the review, Euryn Ogwen Williams, ing the overall level of licence-fee Hinterland, Un Bore Mercher/Keeping Ito take part in Q&As. funding from 2022 onwards. Faith and Craith /Hidden (all co-pro- We’re coming to the end of what ductions with BBC Wales). has been a long road in terms of ■ The review recommends creating These have truly opened the door reviewing S4C’s remit and funding a unitary board for S4C on the BBC for UK and international viewers to needs since our fixed funding for- model, with a majority of non-execs. Welsh drama, and we’ve just heard mula was ended in 2012. Too often, in the past, there has been that Byw Celwydd – a Borgen-style a perception that S4C and the S4C take on politics in the National ■ The review has recommended Authority are separate bodies. We Assembly, entirely in Welsh – has a change to our statutory remit to will be happy to evolve the present been sold to the US and Canada. make it clear that we should be a structure to form a shadow board digital media service and not just a while awaiting legislation. ■ Sport was good for us last year, but 1982-style television service. competition for broadcasting rights We have already taken important ■ One key aspect of the review is fierce. Our joint bid with the BBC steps in this direction on digital, with amounts to a redefinition of S4C’s for rugby’s Pro14 competition lost out Cyw Tiwb for preschool children and relationship with the Welsh lan- to a new subscription service. Hansh for the 16-34s, and will now guage. A successful channel is a Our small but experienced negoti- press ahead with creating a more central component in securing the ating team reports a chance that personalised relationship with our future of the language, but the way in some Welsh-language rights may still viewers. I will be announcing the which this is done has always been be available to us. We will follow allocation of £3m over three years left undefined. developments with a keen interest. to get this strategy under way. With language policy being the Sport is a key element in enabling us preserve of the Welsh government, to keep in touch with young Welsh- ■ The review emphasises the need and broadcasting policy remaining a speakers and less-fluent viewers. to provide a stable funding environ- Westminster responsibility, the sug- ment for S4C, and uses the BBC’s gestion is that S4C should formalise ■ Finally, Friday brings a pre-­ five-year funding agreement as a tem- a partnership with the Welsh govern- recorded interview with Dewi Llwyd plate. Following a 34% (real-terms) cut ment and other agencies. on BBC Radio Cymru for his weekly from 2011, the prospect of further Building on existing efforts, the “Happy Birthday” slot. Mine comes up cuts in the DCMS element of our obvious fields will be education, lan- in a week’s time, with a big zero in it. funding has been the cause of politi- guage learning, children, young peo- cal tension. ple and skills. Huw Jones is Chair of the S4C Authority.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 5 here is a scientific way to calculate how much a The Billen profile television audience appre- ciates a show. An “appreci- ation index” involves Lennie James’s Save Me is one of the year’s panels, scores out of 10, most fêted dramas. He tells Andrew Billen and demographic weighting. Now, however,T there is another way: just why, as a black man, it’s become easier take note how quickly an audience to write successfully for TV comes back for more. When Sky released Lennie James’s drama Save Me (the possessive apostro- phe is because he created, wrote and starred in it) as a box set on the last day of February, it took a week for 700,000 viewers to watch all six episodes. Within a fortnight, more than a mil- lion had done so, each hoping to the very end that James’s wayward, yet authoritative, protagonist, Nelly, would track down the kidnapped daughter he barely knew. It was Sky’s most greedily binged box set ever – and, I hazard, will have cost it rather less than Riviera, say, or Fortitude, neither of which received Save Me’s critical appreciation. On the phone from Austin, Texas, where he is filming Fear the Walking Dead, for which millions more know him, James is chuffed. But he says that ratings are not the way he wanted to judge his show’s success. It was about whether Save Me was what he intended it to be – whether, in the actors’ phrase, they had left it in the room. “And I thought we left it all in the room.” There was something special about Save Me beyond its bingeability. It was hinted at when James publicly responded to viewers’ disappointment that Nelly’s daughter was not rescued in the final episode. That, he said, would Universal have been “the television ending”. Now, in his deep, slow, kind-yet-emphatic voice, he talks about television’s new golden age, how the plethora of quality implies its own rules and shorthand, stories and knowingly self-references them. “What was important for me,” he says, “was that it was a thriller set in a real place. It wasn’t a thriller set in a TV from version of a real place. The allowance that I was making to TV was that it was a thriller, but part of the way I wanted to tell the story was to set it in a place of reality. It wasn’t like my other day unique job, which is on The Walking Dead and its spin-offs. It wasn’t trying to tell a story of real human emotion in a fan- tastical world, or a world dealing with a fantastical event.” situations For anyone who knows London, Save Me provided two jolts of recognition. Lennie James as Nelly in Save Me One was the sight of its drizzly council

6 estates and sticky-carpeted, south- convincing people that this was possi- “I’m not saying Morgan is up there of-the-river pubs. The other realisation ble was, at that time, very hard.” with Mahatma Gandhi or Martin was that we barely see this London on Because of the colour of the leads? Luther King, but he is living and exist- our screens. “Absolutely, that was part of it. To say it ing within a violent world and he is Might the same be said of Nelly, the wasn’t part of it would be a lie. Because, trying to take a stand against it.” commanding black guy in the white at that time, it was harder for people to And the staff carries connotations of pub? “Save Me is, on one level, the clos- get their heads around that.” Christ the shepherd? “And Moses, but I est I’ve got to something that has The drama ended with Ashley Wal- don’t want to go too far down that route everything and nothing to do with ter’s character stabbed to death. Play- or it will fall apart. After all, it is zombies.” race. And if I was going to do that, then James was born in Nottingham Nelly needed to be black.” 52 years ago but he, his Trinidadian Everything and nothing? “One of the ‘SAVE ME’ IS… THE mother, Phyllis, and elder brother, things that I believe makes the piece Kester, moved to London. After a long authentic to London is that you don’t CLOSEST I’VE GOT illness, Phyllis died when her younger just know guys like Nelly, you know son was just 10, and the boys were black guys like Nelly. TO SOMETHING placed in a large, council-run home, “The particular black guy that Nelly THAT HAS filled with “vagabonds” in Tooting Bec. is, is, for me, specific to that commu- It was an experience, he has said, that nity: a first-generation black man who EVERYTHING AND was not as Dickensian as it sounds. His has grown up in London in a specific NOTHING TO DO father, he never knew, nor was his way. He is not part of a black commu- absence explained. nity. He is part of a mixed, multiracial WITH RACE And here, I say, is Nelly, an absentee community in London, where he is father, who comes back into his very much in the minority but where, daughter’s life too late. James swears as far as that is concerned, he punches wright Roy Williams’ Fallout on it is not an “itch he needs to scratch”. slightly above his weight.” Channel 4 eight years later began with “It’s a very weird thing when that kind James is surely right. You see black a stabbing of a young black man. At the of comes up. As a dad, I’m sure my actors playing doctors and lawyers in time, James, who played a detective in kids couldn’t imagine the absence of TV drama, and you certainly see them it, wrote an open letter to young knife me, but that’s partly because they playing drug-dealers and pimps, but users. It concluded: “Be a better man.” knew me and they’ve known the role have you ever seen a Nelly before? Ten years on, after a cruel winter and I’ve played in their lives. “I was trying to be as specific to time spring of knifings, things seem only to “I have no memory of my father and, and place as I possibly could in order have worsened. James is the father of genuinely, have never really felt the to tell a universal story,” he says. three girls with his wife, the sometime absence of him. I might be deluding In these interviews, I am now hear- actor and publicist Giselle Glasman, myself. I might, you know, sit down in ing the specific-universal paradox whom he met in youth theatre. All the psychiatrist’s chair and they’ll frequently enough to make me think have gone to good universities in the make everything about the absence of that it is becoming received wisdom, US, where the family live when not my dad. But I have not consciously or, but we should remember how unre- in London. I think, subconsciously – although ceived it once was. “At a time when our girls are being how would I know? – spent a huge Consider the previous drama James brought up to inhabit and take owner- amount of time in any way, shape or wrote for television, Storm Damage, a ship of the world in a way that genera- form, missing him.” one-off about the battle for a black tions before them weren’t afforded the James wrote his first play, aged 17, lad’s soul. BBC Two aired it in 2000 space and opportunities, we seem to within a year of a successful audition and it won the RTS award for Single be making that passage from boyhood at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone Drama. Yet, it took six years to reach to manhood harder and harder for our (he has said that he was pursuing a girl the screen, and only after James male children,” worries James. “It’s there). Trial and Error, about the kanga- resisted attempts to bury it in a mid- almost like we’re culling them or roo courts convened by children in night slot or amputate it to 30 minutes allowing them to be culled.” care, won a National Youth Theatre for a schools broadcast. Some, I say, might argue that the playwriting competition. He thinks it would be easier to get culture of violence is not helped by He subsequently wrote for televi- on today – Sky commissioned Save Me shows such as The Walking Dead and sion, but it was his acting career that enthusiastically. That is partly because Fear the Walking Dead, in which, off and took off. He appeared in everything James is now box-office, and partly on since 2010, James has starred as from Spooks to Cold Feet, and in 24 Hour because there have been precedents in Morgan Jones. Party People as the co-founder of Tony the meantime for black-youth crime He agrees that The Walking Dead is a Wilson’s Factory Records. However, stories, including BBC Films’ Bullet Boy violent show: “It does show violence, it was not until the 2003 Channel 4 and Channel 4’s Top Boy (both of which, but I don’t believe it’s an example of prison drama Buried, that he was like Storm Damage, featured Ashley irresponsibility. My character is front cast in a lead role, and, while it was Walters), but back then… and centre of the argument for not admired, the show was cancelled after “Storm Damage was, again, a very killing.” one series. In 2005, he left for America. specific story told about very specific Morgan carries a staff, I say, sharp- “I went because I needed a new people in a very specific world, but it ened at one end, blunt at the other. challenge, I needed to broaden my

Sky was a universal story, too, and “It’s a perfect symbol,” he agrees. ambitions,” says James. “I felt that one �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 7 � of the things that I was butting my head against, back there in the UK, was the sense that people had kind of James’s decided what my journey ambition should be. People were going, ‘You should be happy. Lennie James, actor, playwright, You’re one of the go-to screenwriter black actors in the country.’ Born 11 October 1965 “But that wasn’t Lives London and Los Angeles the limit or the Mother Phyllis James, died when pinnacle or the he was 10; brought up in London; point of my one brother ambition. I Family Married to Giselle wanted some- Glasman, actor and thing else.” then theatre PR; three He soon daughters noticed that Education Guildhall School in American of Music and Drama series – Jericho, for As a film actor Snatch, 24 Hour Party People, Blade instance Runner 2049 – he might be As a TV actor Undercover cast as a specifi- Heart, Cold Feet, Buried, cally African-­ Jericho, Spooks, The Prisoner, American character, Hung, Line of Duty, Critical, but he would not be The Walking Dead, Fear the peripheral. “The writ- Walking Dead, Save Me ers weren’t frightened As a writer Storm Damage, about writing a black Save Me character who was front and centre. And, at the Awards BFM Film and Tele­ time, that wasn’t happening vision Awards Best Male nearly enough for me back in the UK. Performance in a Film 2002, “The weird thing that happened for Lucky Break; Online Film was that, as my profile rose in Amer- and Television Association ica, I was able to be the go-to actor Awards Best Guest Actor back home in England, as opposed to in a Drama 2013, for The the go-to black actor.” Walking Dead In 2010, he was cast as the corrupt copper in the first season of Jed Mer- Watching Peaky Blinders; Real curio’s Line of Duty and was nomi- Time with Bill Maher; ‘the odd nated for an RTS award. Mercurio, episode’ of Law & Order who later made him his lead in Sky’s short-lived Critical, credits him with Reading Walter Mosley, Steven pushing the cast and director to shoot Bochco (of Hill Street Blues) a long interrogation scene in a single take, now a series trademark. James on TV ‘If this is a golden age If you hadn’t noticed, James likes of television it is happening, in the to take television to where it has not main, in the same place that the been before: places where black lives golden age of cinema happened: matter, where realism is valued and America and in Hollywood.’ where acting can hold the screen. It is never his intention to be ahead of Jed Mercurio on James ‘All the the curve, he insists – “It’s just nice [interrogation scenes in Line of when you are proved right.” Lennie James as Duty] were shot in single takes. Sky has commissioned a second Morgan Jones The actors have Lennie James to in Fear the series of Save Me. And that, he says, thank for leading the way.’ Walking Dead

was his intention for it all along. n AMC

8 Line of Duty characters Steve Arnott, Ted Hastings and Kate Fleming

Top of the cops BBC

BC One police corrup- whether the series could spawn a tion drama Line of Duty Content film. “Yes! Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” has become renowned exclaimed Dunbar, to which Mercurio for its thrilling plot shook his head: “No, we’re a TV twists and guest leads. Tara Conlan joins an programme.” So, it was no surprise to RTS audience to learn Line of Duty, which began in 2012 on seeB so many attend an RTS “Anatomy BBC Two, has been commissioned for of a hit” event to hear what writer Jed how Jed Mercurio’s two more series. Heath paid tribute to Mercurio might reveal about what’s in former BBC drama boss Ben Stephen­ store for the next series. Line of Duty set a new son for bankrolling the show. Remem­ Season 5 will feature “things we benchmark for the ber, this was before Netflix made haven’t done before” and “characters scripted so fashionable. we haven’t seen before”, said Mercurio. police procedural The premise grew out of discussions He added: “That’s part of the construc- between Mercurio and World Pro- tion of the series, the architecture that Hastings’ catchphrases). Also present ductions about him creating a police allows us to rejuvenate the format. were World Productions CEO and drama, during which the focus shifted “Possibly, we kind of arrived at that Line of Duty executive producer Simon to police corruption. He said that the accidentally. But it does appear now Heath and script executive Priscilla show – now noted for its complex that we have this situation where the Parish. lead characters – didn’t “arrive fully audience becomes intrigued about Line of Duty regularly attracts more formed. The ideas of having a guest what we’ve got to offer based on who than 7 million viewers and has won lead and having the lead investigators the guest lead is going to be, what numerous accolades, including the return were all part of a process. character they are and what the fun- 2015 RTS award for Drama Series. “If you look at the TV landscape, it damental premise is.” Robinson said that, as well as the is sometimes quite difficult to sell an The writer was joined by Adrian compelling characters and idea based [simply] on the fact that it Dunbar, who plays Superintendent “spine-chilling” drama, “what I love is important in the real world,” said Ted Hastings (“at home, we call him is the humour”. There were laughs the writer to laughs. “So many police ‘Mother of God’ now”, joked host throughout the evening, particularly series are the drama of reassurance – Anne Robinson, referring to one of when the panellists were asked where honest, tenacious cops catch �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 9 ‘SO MANY POLICE SERIES ARE THE DRAMA OF REASSURANCE – WHERE HONEST, TENACIOUS COPS CATCH BAD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS GO TO PRISON’

From left: Simon Heath, Priscilla Parish, Adrian Dunbar, Jed Mercurio and Anne Robinson

� bad guys and the bad guys go to but “if anyone’s got an iPhone in their about 3.5 million viewers, the best prison.” pocket, it might explain”. Stephenson, drama series on BBC Two for years.” One of Line of Duty’s USPs has been however, wanted it for BBC Two While the first series was shot in “the idea that we do not have out- ­ because he liked the idea of interrogat- Birmingham, the show is now filmed and-out heroes and out-and-out vil- ing an institution. in Northern Ireland. lains,” he said, emphasising that this “It wasn’t a great time for drama,” Northern Irishman Dunbar audi- had been the approach from the recalled Heath. “It was around 2008- tioned for the role of Hastings. He beginning. The first lead was Tony 2009.… We’re here talking about the thought about the character’s back- Gates, played by Lennie James, whom golden age of drama, and all these ground from his own perspective of he described as inhabiting a “moral dramas being made by Netflix and being a Catholic living in a Protestant grey area”. “The same applied to the Amazon and Sky. But then, BBC drama area: “To me, to be the head of a unit investigators: that felt like it led us into was seen, at best, as a loss leader by such as AC-12, it would probably have a more sophisticated and mature the broadcaster.” been useful to be someone who was explanation of why public servants fail Mercurio said: “We always felt we on the outside of things.” to act with integrity.” wanted it to be a thriller… so you had Which makes the whole freemason Robinson applauded the programme’s to watch the six episodes and see how plot line in Line of Duty so puzzling, said ability to make audiences feel sorry for it would resolve. As the script was Robinson, as she inquired of his char- the villain through moral relativism. developed, we were fortunate that a acter: “Are you a mason?” Mercurio replied that this was “inten- new batch of money came online for “I’m not at liberty to answer that,” tional” but, “in a way, a departure from BBC Two.” said Dunbar enigmatically. the real world”, because most corrupt Line of Duty found its natural home Dunbar also chose not to wear his people “are just greedy bastards”. on BBC Two, he thought, as it “was glasses for the role, “which means I Initially, the show was turned down allowed to grow and be itself on the have to learn the script!”. by BBC One. Mercurio declined to channel and then we were ready to Some fans play Line of Duty bingo, reveal the controller who rejected it move to BBC One. The first episode got watching the drama and crossing off

10 Hastings’ trademark colloquialisms, of research. Since then, he said, he has such as “fella” or “for the love of God”, had access to advisors who are frank, IF SOMEONE whenever Dunbar utters them. dedicated police officers who hate FEELS THAT Robinson wanted to know: “All those corruption and “bent coppers” but do expressions of yours, like ‘Mother of “not deny they exist”. SOMETHING God’, were they in the original script or When asked what surprises him IS NOT RIGHT, have you enhanced it?” about the institution, Mercurio “Jed has a great ear for street language answered: “The slackness… we had THEN WE KEEP and listening to what people are saying. a sequence in series 4 where a police TALKING IT These things creep in,” explained the officer tampered with evidence. I’d actor. “I add a little bit here and there. assumed that the evidence room had THROUGH We tease it out between us.” security cameras in it, so that coppers Robinson asked Dunbar if he was couldn’t fiddle with evidence.… No… ever worried that he would fall victim they said: ‘We’re workers entitled to to the show’s propensity for surprising our privacy.’” viewers by killing off characters played “I remember the reaction on Twit- by famous actors, such as Daniel Mays ter,” said Heath. “People said they’d and Jason Watkins – or if Hastings have cameras.” would be the next “bent copper”. “We had Adrian’s character explain “Definitely, yes, that is a worry! But I it, saying he had written a very strongly don’t think Jed is going to get rid of Ted worded letter to the Police Federation… just yet,” insisted Dunbar. that was the voice of the author!” Interrogators Switching tack, Robinson wanted to revealed Mercurio. know how women had been treated in He added that his opinion of the pile on the heat Line of Duty. “About the same as men,” police had not changed, because, “fun- Parish responded. “Lindsay [Denton] damentally, the evidence… is that the had a tough time. She was a terrific vast majority of police officers are Executive producer Simon Heath character. I loved Lindsay, because she dedicated public servants.” highlighted three elements that was so intelligent.” When asked whether season 5 or 6 contribute to the success of the Mercurio added: “As a writer, I’m not would feature as fascinating a female show: the ‘fresh and visceral’ thinking whether that is what a woman lead as Denton or Roz Huntley, Mercu- score, composed by Carly Paradis; would do, or what a man would do, I’m rio would only say “maybe”. But he did the fact that it airs weekly, which thinking about what anyone would do.” confirm that the new episodes would allows it to be built on social But is Hastings sexist, probed Robin- further explore the personal lives of media; and the amount of film that son. Mercurio explained: “There are a AC-12’s main characters – Hastings, is shot during the programme’s lot of cop shows that still do the thing Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming. lauded long interview scenes. of having an overt sexist, in a way that’s Fans hope that season 6 will not be ‘The devil is in the detail,’ he

BBC just so stupid – you’re just going to be the last. Mercurio said a lot depended added. When the show has ‘Adrian up in front of HR and then out of a job. on “how season 5 performs”. [Dunbar], Martin [Compston] and “Whereas, if you are a sexist, the way He explained: “If it does very well Vicky [McClure], and the antago- to do it is very subtly. [Hastings’ actions] and the current regime remains as nist on the other side of the table, have left room for interpretation. Again, supportive as it is, there will be oppor- we’ve got three cameras going all it goes back to that idea of grey areas: is tunities to discuss season 7. I think that the time, often turning over half- he a sexist or is he someone who has a if, for whatever reason, those situations hour takes and everybody’s word certain way of expressing himself – don’t apply, then, almost certainly, perfect. You need all those shots to [but which] means a certain discrimi- season 6 will be the last.… But we’re build the sequence in the edit.’ nation against women?” really happy that it’s ongoing. I don’t Such takes often require a day to “He’s from a different age,” put in think any of us at this point is looking shoot. ‘For us, it’s difficult – you’ve Dunbar. to wrap it up.” got to keep up the same level of One member of the audience com- Heath said: “We’ve never been pres- performance,’ explained Dunbar. mented on Mercurio’s reputation for sured to be on air every year, so we get ‘But for the crew, it’s really difficult. overseeing a collaborative approach on a break.… We can do other things and We’re in a glass box and the lights set. Had there been times where the then come back to it… it feels quite are on it. four of them had disagreed heatedly, fresh every time you sit down to ‘We have done 25-minute takes wondered Robinson? “No, Jed’s always another series.” – 30 pages of the script. You’re not right,” quipped Dunbar. Audiences will have to be patient going to get that flow [with short “It’s not how the process works. We and bide their time. The next instal- takes], so to do it in one take is discuss things and, if someone feels ment is not due to air until 2019. n much better.’ that something is not right, then we The first lengthy scene in the first keep talking it through,” said Mercurio. The RTS event ‘Anatomy of a hit: Line series was 12 minutes long. Doing it He likes to spend as much time as pos- of Duty’ was held on 15 May at Millbank ‘was a big decision’, Heath recalled. sible on set, so people can clarify what Media Centre in central London. It was ‘It was Lennie James who said we the writer’s intention was. produced by Barney Hooper and Sally should do it in one go.’ For series 1, Mercurio did quite a lot Doganis.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 11 A look to die for

he’d worked on an mad.’” Cue laughter from the enthusi- Oscar-winning movie, Design astic RTS crowd. attended the same stage Four seasons of Game of Thrones later, school as Cate Blanchett Riley’s award-winning designs (see and Mel Gibson, and, Game of Thrones box on page 13) are integral to the phe- aged 26, was responsible production designer nomenal success of the show, which forS art directing the Sydney Olympics bows out in 2019 at the end of season 8. closing ceremony. But not even the Deborah Riley tells “The universe of Game of Thrones precociously talented Deborah Riley includes many different kingdoms. It’s was prepared for her first day on set in the RTS where she the job of the art department to make blustery Northern Ireland as the new found inspiration for sure that those kingdoms are separate production designer of Game of Thrones. and different from one another,” Riley “I was absolutely petrified,” she the blockbuster’s style. explained. “When that works, the audi- recalled at a sold-out RTS event in ence accepts these different worlds as Belfast, entitled “Creating the visual Steve Clarke reports being real. In my head, Westeros is world of Game of Thrones”. The illus- about as real as anywhere else.” trated talk by this erstwhile Australian – “some of the most beautiful I’ve ever Stressing the importance of loyalty, architecture student highlighted some seen” – took place five years ago. It the production designer said: “We’d of the visual wonders of Westeros she included her first look at Castle Black never have been able to get through had helped fashion for TV’s first global (HQ of the Night’s Watch) “built on the the volume of work without all of us scripted blockbuster. windiest quarry imaginable. All the returning, year after year.” That initial experience of Game of timbers are real, the forge is a working She explained that Game of Thrones Thrones’s Northern Irish locations forge. I thought: ‘These people are (despite its reported budget of $10m an

12 Working with the top brass

Deborah Riley: ‘On Game of Thrones… there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. That’s something that I wasn’t fully prepared for when I arrived. ‘On most features, you’ll have a DoP and a director, and you might have a producer who lays in from time to time. But on Game of Thrones – this sounds terrible – the director is a gun for hire. It is the producers who hold the power and make the creative decisions. ‘There’s a very clear balance between the producers, who have the overarching vision for the show and, at the same time, assign the director for every episode, because they know exactly what imagery they are creating, moment to moment. There’s a surprising amount of politics involved in that. ‘[What I] do is bring them ref- erence. We always see what they respond to and what they’re inter- ested in. ‘The wonderful thing about Game of Thrones is that we’re working with very bright people. They know all the cultural refer- ences. They can quote all the mov- ies or the architecture or whatever. We have a language that gets us Game of Thrones season 6

Sky into the piece immediately.’ episode) involves a fast shooting advantage of that is we can’t muck schedule, unthinkable in the movie around. Decisions have to be made, we Deborah Riley’s sector, where her credits include The commit to an idea and get on with it,” Matrix and Moulin Rouge. she said. trophy cabinet “During the interview process [for Having initially studied architecture the job] I had to admit to David Benioff at the University of Queensland in [Game of Thrones executive producer Brisbane, she abandoned the idea of a For Game of Thrones: and co-creator] that I’d never worked career as an architect. (“As my grand- n Emmy for Outstanding Produc- in television before. He replied, ‘But mother said, ‘You’re drawing too many tion Design for a Narrative Contem- this isn’t television.’” straight lines.’”) Instead, she enrolled porary or Fantasy Program (One Nevertheless, when three different on a stage design course at Sydney’s Hour or More), 2014, 2015 and 2016 production units can, in theory, be famed National Institute of Dramatic n Bafta Craft Award – Best Pro- filming simultaneously in three sepa- Arts – “It accepts eight people a year duction Design, 2018 rate counties, the ability to work at and I was one of them.” n Art Directors Guild Excellence speed is essential. Croatia, Iceland However, as was clear from her talk, in Production Design Awards in and Spain are all used as locations to Riley’s passion for buildings and her Television – One-Hour Period or complement the Irish scenery of the ability to remember their details has Fantasy Single-Camera Television Causeway Coast, Cushendun Caves, inspired several set designs in Game of Series, 2015, 2016 and 2018 Murlough Bay, Bally­castle, Castle Ward, Thrones. For the Iron Bank of Braavos, For Moulin Rouge: the ruins of Inch Abbey and the surfing Nazi architect Albert Speer’s designs n Art Directors Guild Excellence in beach of Downhill Strand. for Hitler were the starting point: Production Design Awards – Period “We move very, very quickly, which “They are all about power, intimidation or Fantasy Film, 2002 can be frustrating. But the great and wealth.” �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 13 How to get a job in Westeros

Deborah Riley: ‘My agent said she had they supplied me with drawings... I a project that I should interview for, so I think they sent me material, knowing interviewed for Game of Thrones. I had that I was working at the time, to see never seen [the show]. I was working how I would cope with the stress of it. I on a terrible, tiny film in Louisiana. provided them with a lot of stuff. ‘That weekend, I watched 13 hours of ‘Then, one day, David Benioff Skyped Game of Thrones. The people in Loui- me. I did exactly what people tell you siana wouldn’t release me for an inter- not to do: I begged. I told him that, view in LA, so Game of Thrones were honestly, in every cell of my body, I kind enough to meet me on a Saturday. knew that I could do this. So they took ‘A month later, after lot of auditions, a punt on a very inexperienced person.’ Mentors get you through the door

Deborah Riley: ‘I have been very lucky an intensely competitive environment, in my career, I have worked for a lot of where there were no guarantees that female production designers. I didn’t we’d be allowed through the doors the even realise that it was a rare thing. next day. ‘I was very lucky because the set ‘That was the kind of excellence they decorator on Moulin Rouge was a required but, unfortunately, it also cre- production designer in her own right ated friction among the students. So, to in Mexico. She was an extraordinary be shown such kindness by somebody woman. She said: “Come with me, I was something I wasn’t used to. I didn’t Davos Seaworth in the ‘Battle will mentor you.” even know that existed in the industry. of the Bastards’ episode ‘I didn’t realise how rare those words ‘I am now mentoring someone in are. I went to Mexico City and worked Australia. It’s a really important thing. with her. She would share her accom- How else do you get through the door? � Frank Lloyd Wright was the inspira- modation and do everything she could, How else do you ask whether what tion for the Meereen Audience Chamber: just to have me around and teach me you’re doing is correct? “I was always very proud of the amount everything she knew. ‘I am very passionate about the of colour, pattern and texture that we ‘In the theatre school I went to, we power of people looking after one managed to put into that space.” For the were taught to hate one another. It was another. It’s as simple as that.’ House of Black and White, she thought hard about the religious buildings on the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi (“I love Sheer grit is an essential soft skill the way the stone steps rise up out of the water”), and Hong Kong’s Ten Thou- sand Buddhas Monastery, which she had Deborah Riley: ‘I cannot stress this ‘We [take] the smallest amount of visited many years earlier. enough: if you think you can do some- time that you can to actually build Riley revealed how she had been thing, and feel it in your soul that you these things. When you see them on hugely influenced by the “behaviour can do it.... Just say yes to everything. screen, you don’t think these sets were and environment studies” part of her ‘Be enthusiastic and positive.… Be built very quickly. architecture course – “essentially, the kind and people, generally… will be ‘Surround yourself with really great psychology of space” – something that kind to you. A show such as Game of people and acknowledge [them] she uses every day at work. Thrones is... obviously, not all rainbows: because, without them, we’re nothing. “Whenever we in the art department it is very, very hard work. But that’s It’s very much a team endurance sport. read any scene, we have to try and where the grit comes in. The talent, the Be a team player. figure out how it would work,” she vision and the eye are all important, but ‘Most important of all, don’t give up.… elaborated, “and how we can harness you have to be prepared to stick it out. Maybe an idea will come but, some- the subtle cues of visual storytelling to ‘Not everyone is going to be your times, you just have to force it out of better tell the story.” friend but there will be those that yourself and it’s amazing what you Her job begins when the art depart- stand by you. Those people are more come up with. ment receives an outline of the valuable than you can possibly imagine. ‘Every minute of my day for the past upcoming series, written by Benioff It is [only] through the loyalty of the art five years has been dedicated to the and the show’s co-creator, DB Weiss. department that we’ve been able to show and it’s been time well spent. I “These are an absolute joy to read,” she create so many extraordinary sets. don’t regret any of it.’ said. “It’s here that the season’s crea- tive ambitions are laid on the table.”

14 A play staged in Braavos in the episode ‘The Door’ All pictures: Sky pictures: All

She then decides, in collaboration bones of the amphitheatre were there. “To achieve the body piles, we had to with the producers, which scenes After weeks of plaster, paint and rings it bulk it out with rostrum to make it as require location filming and which can was completely transformed.” efficiently as possible. We also had to be shot on one of the stages at Belfast’s To film scenes in a frozen lake, you’d provide all the uniforms and saddlery Titanic Studios, the three-hectare site be forgiven for thinking the sequences for the battlefield, a massive and where she is based. should be shot in Iceland. Not so, thankless task. Things do not always go to plan, explained Riley: “Due to the amount of “But it was satisfying to think that though. For the climactic battle in stunt work and visual effects, the we were able to capture images like “Hardhome”, the eighth episode of sequence was brought back to Belfast. this in camera, and that visual effects season 5, Riley flew to Iceland believ- “We filmed in an abandoned quarry weren’t required.” ing “there might be the perfect location near Belfast, painted with a layer of You sense that Deborah Riley – who, waiting for us”. She saw lava forma- snow to make it look convincing.” at 45, is certain to go on to work on tions on an Icelandic beach that Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica, many more high-profile TV and film seemed ideal, and a fishing village was painted in response to the terror projects – has found working on the built – but, then, “logistics won out bombing of civilians in the Basque HBO series hugely satisfying. and we ended up bringing the entire town during the Spanish civil war, was “The experience of Game of Thrones, sequence back to Belfast”. the “perfect reference” for her design particularly in the lead-up to the end, The logistics of making Game of for the “Battle of the Bastards” (epi- leaves me absolutely speechless,” she Thrones could be challenging, she said sode 9 of season 6), because it provided said. “Creatively, it’s been full of the – until season 6, she worked simulta- “an appropriate depiction of brutality highest highs and the greatest riches neously with five different directing and darkness”, she said. “The main that you can possibly imagine. It’s also teams. thing that the art department needed kicked me to the ground a couple of Sets are not always made from to provide was the body pile.” times, as well.” n scratch, and thinking laterally helps. Even with Game of Thrones budgets, For instance, “The Mountain and the assembling such an ambitious set ‘Creating the visual world of Game Viper” episode from series 4 was filmed required careful thought. “The props of Thrones with production designer in Dubrovnik, at a hotel abandoned in department had a variety of dead Deborah Riley’ was an RTS Northern Ire- the early 1990s, during the Croatian horses. We had to estimate how many land event held on 22 May at Black Box, civil war. “It was completely covered we would need because, at £3,000 a Belfast. Hugh Odling-Smee (Film Hub in graffiti,” she recalled, “but, for us, the pop for a dead horse, we had to NI) hosted the Q&A. The producers were most important thing was that the improvise. Sarah McCaffrey and Sara Gunn-Smith.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 15 Virtual reality Asia’s VR market offers rich pickings for UK producers, says Marcus Ryder The East is ready

seasoned television producer friend of mine tells a great story about his biggest missed business opportunity. It was in theA 1980s and he was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He wandered into a small room where two young Japanese women had set up a large television set, a small PA system and two mics. The two Japanese women then turned on the TV and began to sing along, badly, to some rather cheesy Western pop songs he knew and a few Japanese songs he had never heard of, as the lyrics were shown on the TV set. When the women finished, the TV producer and the few other people in the audience filed out completely bewildered by the whole experience. He later overheard one member of the audience talking to a friend saying: “You know that is meant to be the big thing in Japan.” The other replied: “Japan is very strange, singing along badly to pop music will never catch on here.” My producer friend had, of course, just witnessed one of the first exam- ples of karaoke in the UK. A global industry now estimated to be worth $13.5bn, and he had walked away laughing at it. Even if he had thought it would never catch on in Britain, and simply invested in Japan, he would have made millions. In Japan, the industry is now several times larger than its entire movie sector. Are there modern equivalents? I moved to Beijing back in 2015 to find out. I now firmly believe that Asia in general, and China specifically, has a great deal to teach the UK, the rest of Europe and other established markets.

16 I also believe that there are huge of something you can do at home or as untapped media opportunities here: an “add on” to your mobile phone. In opportunities for media professionals places such as China and Japan, con- in China itself, and opportunities to sumers are far more likely to go to take successful Chinese media models places and pay for an AR/VR experience. and apply them in the UK. This would explain why, in 2016, One example of both is augmented Japan built a simulation airplane that reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). never takes off: people sit in their seats China is investing heavily in both and “virtually” go to their destination. these technologies. A recent report by And it is doing really well, having been Digi-Capital into the state of the fully booked since it launched. industry predicted that China, in terms China recently opened the world’s of revenue, will soon overtake the US first virtual-reality amusement park, in the AR/VR market. covering 135 hectares. All 35 rides fea- The website TechCrunch describes the ture VR experiences. business “as a golden opportunity (or But AR/VR opportunities in China threat) for domestic and international are not just at the high end. Walking players”. In just four years’ time, one around Beijing, I regularly see small out of every five dollars spent on AR/ booths and shops charging around VR will be in China, and the Asian $5-$10 for a 30-minute AR/VR experi- market will be worth more than the ence. Again, China is leading the way. rest of the world put together. There are an estimated 3,000 shops The AR/VR revolution also has the offering these. ‘CHINA IS full backing of local and central gov- China is also looking for strong cine- CURRENTLY ernment. In March this year, the Shen- matic and television AR and VR con- zhen regional government, along with tent. At this year’s International Film LAGGING IN electronics company HTC, announced & TV Program Exhibition, hosted last TERMS OF a new, $158m fund to incubate AR/VR month in Beijing for the first time in ventures. its 15-year history, VR and interactive HIGH-QUALITY So, the big question for UK and other experiences were part of the CONTENT, non-Chinese media companies is how programme. to take advantage of this opportunity. Knowing the great content that UK WHICH IS As the chief international editor for companies are able to produce for ONE OF THE China Global Television News (CGTN), conventional television and film audi- I see the primary opportunity in con- ences around the world, it is not diffi- WEST’S MAJOR tent production. In my experience, cult to imagine how it could be STRENGTHS’ Chinese media organisations excel in adapted to fulfil the ravenous Chinese hardware production and other tech- demand for AR/VR content. nological areas. But when it comes to High-quality, natural-history con- producing content, they lack creativity tent that can be turned into VR safaris and an in-depth understanding of or scuba-diving; science-fiction and what audiences want. fantasy content that can be brought to Kevin Chen, President of Shenzhen life; and even world-famous tourist State VR Ventures –the man in charge attractions and museums that people of that $158m government fund – can visit without ever having to apply ­echoed this sentiment in a recent inter- for a visa. I could go on and on. Suffice view. He said that “China is currently to say, these would all be very attrac- lagging in terms of high-quality content, tive to Chinese audiences. which is one of the West’s major From broadcasters such as CGTN, strengths”. This is also the view that an which is looking for documentary ex-Disney executive, currently work- content, to amusement parks looking ing in AR/VR production, expressed to for their next big ride, the range of me over lunch recently. He had con- opportunities is considerable. sulted on AR/VR projects in the US for I think back to my producer friend organisations such as the New York and the missed business opportunity Times but felt strongly that China, he experienced almost 40 years ago, rather than the US, was where the big when he witnessed the dawn of kara- opportunities were. oke. If I had to pick a song to sing However, the same former Disney about AR/VR in China, it would have to man also offered a word of caution that be Abba’s pop classic, The Winner Takes US and European consumers were very It All. n different to those in Asia. He believes that AR/VR experiences in the US or Marcus Ryder is chief international editor Europe are often thought of in terms of China Global Television News.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 17 Content Sarah Bancroft hears how the award-winning show evolved on its long road to the screen

This Country Anatomy of a hit

o one had heard of series – made for a sold-out RTS Bris- with the typing, he claimed to laughter, cousins Kerry and tol event last month. after he dropped out of uni (“a sports Kurtan­ Mucklowe Together with Daisy May Cooper, science degree – tragic!”). By 2014, 18 months ago. Now, Charlie’s sister, the team had snared working with a production company, BBC Three’s mocku- “the elusive under-30 audience – the they had made a pilot for ITV, but that mentary This Country audience that all broadcasters die for”, nearly put paid to the project. They lost – ostensibly about young people in noted Lynn Barlow, who chaired the control of their creation; no one liked it. modernN rural Britain – which revolves evening. This Country was “pitch-­ Fortunately, Daisy was dogged: she around them, has garnered three perfect” – how had they done it? approached Shane Allen, head of com- ­Baftas, three RTS awards, rave reviews “Because we’re incredibly childish,” edy at the BBC: he agreed to be their and a huge following. quipped Mayhew-Archer. “Or incredi- last-chance saloon. Allen commis- The second six-part series, which bly talented,” countered Barlow. sioned four episodes from the Coopers finished airing in early April, has Appropriately enough to the charac- for BBC Three and introduced them to racked up more than 12 million iPlayer ters of Kerry and Kurtan, who spend Mayhew-Archer, a comedy producer requests, and a third series is in the large amounts of time trying to make whose previous credits included Josh pipeline for next spring, along with an something out of nothing, This Country Widdicombe’s Josh. autumn “special”. came about only after a series of set- Hating the pilot but loving a You- No wonder, then, that the chance backs. In 2010, failing to get work as an Tube clip the Coopers had made of a to get the inside track on the comedy actor, Rada-trained Daisy began writing Scrabble-playing Kerry screaming to from producer Simon Mayhew-Archer, a comedy based on life around her mum “Is Dave a word?”, the pro- director Tom George and Charlie Cirencester, where the Coopers had ducer was clear: “The big thing we all Cooper – one half of the real-life grown up and still live. wanted was that it should have the ­siblings who write and star in the She roped Charlie in, initially to help appearance of reality.”

18 After working up a couple of scripts going to take,” explained the producer. with the Coopers, he was keen to get a “So all of the talking heads [in the director involved at an early stage. He series], we always like it if things inter- found Tom George, who had a mix of rupt them, or the fact that one of them comedy (including Hank Zipzer) and is never listening to the other one.” live-music experience. While the high level of trust between The four hit it off instantly. “Obvi- the core team of four – its “sweet ously, we love drama and comedy, but spot”, as Barlow called it – was crucial, we bonded over loving documentaries, a host of other factors helped shape and, right at the beginning, [Paul Wat- the award-winning production. These son’s] The Family, which was the origi- included finding the lesser-known, but nal ob doc, about 1974,” said George. highly talented, Paul Chahidi and Ash- As tight as the budget was – “and ley McGuire to play the Rev Francis the first series was as low as they Seaton and Mandy Harris, respectively. The inside come,” said the director (“Lower!” Another was getting Nick Martin, who interjected Mayhew-Archer) – they had come up through documentaries track on… were all committed to giving the ven- before working on Episodes, Peep Show ture development time. “It had always and The Thick of It, as DoP – “He’s very been my ambition to be early on a instinctive and reactive, which is really Influences production, conceiving the project important for long takes,” said George. Tom George: ‘A big influence for us together as a team, so it was an amaz- Important production decisions was [the] Vice documentary Swan- ing opportunity,” said George. included: choosing to keep the “reality” sea Love Story, which is about a The false start with ITV sharpened a of less-than-ideal natural lighting or teenage heroin epidemic. You’ve lot of things. The four agreed that they sound; guarding rehearsal time; and got these outsider characters, right had to go back to basics and keep things making room for improvisation. Above on the fringes of society, who won’t really simple. Authenticity became a all, the focus was on character, place be told where to go or what to do. watchword. After the disastrous pilot, and heart. The outcome was a comedy Obviously, it’s a very tragic story, which had included a number of well- of light and shade, which became but they’ve got this energy.’ known, small-screen faces, Daisy steadily more complex and nuanced as wanted to avoid professional actors. the two series progressed. Going back to basics The result was that three of the main The evening included five clips from Charlie Cooper: ‘The pilot became characters are untrained: Kurtan the show; the final one came from the a monster: too many characters, (Charlie Cooper); Kerry’s dad, Martin poignant closing moments of the second too many scenes. [We thought] Mucklowe (played by Paul Cooper, series, with Kerry about to confess to a we’ve got to strip it down… make Daisy and Charlie’s real-life father); crime she hadn’t committed. “Where do these two main characters cousins and “Slugs” (Michael Sleggs, a school you go from there?” asked Lynn Barlow. and they’re living in a village – you friend of the Coopers). “Fuck knows,” answered Charlie. can’t get more simple than that. But While Charlie had served an appren- Several questions from the Water- it gives you so much room for the ticeship through years of writing with shed audience queried the series’ rela- comedy to breathe and you’ve got

BBC Daisy, and knew the characters and tionship to reality. Were the characters so many places to go with that.’ inflections inside out, “our dad had no really based on people the Coopers acting experience… He’s spent 40 years knew? Where was This Country filmed? Six instead of four doing the shittiest jobs… but as soon as Where did the relationship between Simon Mayhew-Archer: ‘We were we got him on camera, he was so good, Kerry and Martin Mucklowe come only commissioned for four epi- so natural,” said Charlie. “But, credit to from? The short answers were: yes, as sodes, but we over-delivered and Simon, most producers would be, like, a starting point; Northleach, about gave them six. Because a four-­ ‘God, no, you can’t get a non-actor.’ It’s 18km from Cirencester; and from a episode series would just disap- such a risk. But he had a lot of faith.” local man with two families, each with pear: no one binges four episodes.’ The team gave themselves nearly a three children, but who only ever year together, connecting a few days acknowledged one, said Charlie. Finding the right tone each month, before formal shooting. It “Which is sort of tragic, but, sort of, Charlie Cooper: ‘[Paul Chahidi] built trust, gave them “time to get it quite funny,” he added. As either Kerry brought so much warmth to [the wrong”, as Mayhew-Archer put it – or Kurtan might have commented: role of the vicar]. We found the tone and time to make discoveries. “Harsh.” In other words – and the of the show, really, through him.’ A day intended to experiment with audience knew this well – like This equipment, looking for a grainy docu- Country, he was being clear-sighted Carrying on mentary feel that wouldn’t be “too to the point of it being hard to hear, Tom George: ‘We were really scared, crappy”, brought an insight about the strangely empathetic… and funny. The coming back to the second series…. Mucklowe cousins. As Daisy/Kerry did audience roared again. n We were like, can we repeat that?… a test piece direct to camera, a bored We never feel like it’s done and like Charlie, semi in character, began The RTS Bristol event ‘Anatomy of a hit: it’s good.’ swinging round a basketball net in the This Country’, was held on 17 May at Charlie Cooper: ‘Daisy was just background. “Those little moments, Watershed, Bristol. It was chaired by Lynn crying most of that second series!’ you go, OK, that’s a nugget that we’re Barlow and produced by Suzy Lambert.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 19 Obituary Bill Bush celebrates the many achievements of Tessa Jowell, Britain’s longest-serving culture secretary An Olympic-class media minister

essa Jowell died on This thought gained greater currency media industry in the UK had enormous 12 May 2018, a year after when, to her own embarrassment, she strengths, despite digital disruption. being diagnosed with a misunderstood a technical and obscure Her task was to keep the best of the brain tumour. Charac- question from the audience at RTS old world while preparing for the new. teristically, she spent Cambridge in September 2001 and had In her first few weeks in the Cabinet, that year campaigning to be rescued by an intervention from she was beset by iconoclasts, who told forT improvements in cancer treatment, then BBC Director-General Greg Dyke. her that linear broadcasting was about using her own experiences to make In the event, culture, media and to end and that public service broad- the case for changes to treatment sport were well served by a woman of casting was unsustainable in a world of regimes for those afflicted with this high intelligence, a capacity for hard infinite choice. terrible disease. work and the determination to get She listened to the arm-waving and Since her death, much has been results. Sport got the Wembley Sta- occasionally swivel-eyed prophets of made of her achievements as a health dium rescue, the London Olympics the new media dawn, but decided that, minister, notably introducing Sure and a step change in sporting perfor- while change was coming, the status Start, and then as the minister who mance that, at the Olympics, took the quo was working well. directed the Olympic project from the UK from amiable also-rans to hard- To prove her point, she embarked on very beginning. edged winners. relentless rounds of public and indus- The stunning success of London The arts benefited from better try consultation before launching the 2012 will always be seen as her out- investment through the lottery, but, Communications Bill as a draft. The standing political achievement. She more importantly, by being given more idea was to publicly scrutinise the bill won over a sceptical Cabinet and then freedom to pursue art for art’s sake. before it was introduced as formal spearheaded both the bid preparation This was a relief from the tedious legislation. and its successful campaign, before instrumentalism that demanded, as Seemingly endless consultation was leading for government on all aspects the arts’ first priority, that they deliver a classic Tessa tactic. Endlessly patient of delivery. However, Tessa did much educational or economic benefits. herself, and always willing to listen to more than this. The media sector got the Communi- the opinions of others, she enjoyed Her six years in Cabinet were all cations Act 2003 and a steady hand on consultations. However, its prime pur- served at DCMS, by some distance the the tiller in turbulent times. pose was more akin to Muhammad longest-serving occupant of the post Tessa’s key insight was that the Ali’s “rope a dope” strategy for winning since its creation in 1992. She was boxing matches, than a preference for perhaps the most influential media genteel talking shops. minster the sector has seen. TESSA’S… INSIGHT She let the combatants, including When her appointment was hawkish colleagues on her own side of announced in June 2001, the insular WAS THAT THE the House, punch themselves out to the worlds of the arts, media and sport MEDIA INDUSTRY point of exhaustion and then brought reacted dismissively. What could this the debates to her own conclusion. social worker from Hampstead possi- IN THE UK HAD The Communications Act deregu- bly know about their intensely impor- ENORMOUS lated the media market, enabled the tant worlds was the often-thought and creation of a single ITV and encour- occasionally expressed reflex reaction. STRENGTHS, aged innovation and investment from They, and others in politics, felt that DESPITE DIGITAL abroad, but also modernised the rights being “nice” was no qualification for and responsibilities of the BBC and the effective leadership. DISRUPTION commercial PSBs.

20 Ofcom was an inherited manifesto promise, but its final shape and scope were her work. She fought hard for it to be given the space and discretion it needed, as unimpeded by intrusive political interventions as possible. Tessa insisted that it address people as citizens as much as consumers and, after a long debate, entrenched the principles of plurality. Alongside the Act, she also oversaw a new BBC Charter and licence-fee settle- ment. She regarded it as her mission to rescue the BBC – which she regarded as a great and loved British institution – from the twin threats of its own bloated self-regard and the post-­ Gilligan, post-Hutton threats from politicians. In the event, she secured a stable future for a strong and independent corporation, properly funded, but less invasive of the private sector than before, and required to lead the UK into the online world. This did not mean giving the corporation whatever it wanted. She made it clear that the BBC’s proposed new digital services were too ambitious and intrusive. She blocked the education services, which she thought would use the plat- form of the licence fee to foreclose the market to commercial providers. Tessa asked that Radio 3 be stopped from becoming a clone of Classic FM, that 6 Music had to be differentiated from commercial radio, and that the proposal for BBC Three was not to be a vehicle for copycatting Channel 4 and Channel 5. Throughout, she stressed that the BBC should emphasise UK talent and production, and new ideas. Most dramatically, she decided that the independent production sector was treated unfairly by the commis- sioning oligopoly of the big broadcast- ers. This had to change. Lobbied by Pact’s John McVay and Eileen Gallagher, she was persuaded that forcing inde- pendent producers to hand over all their rights when they were commis- SHE WAS sioned by the major broadcasters was plain wrong. COURAGEOUSLY The terms of trade would be trans- AHEAD OF HER formed. The upshot was that inde- pendent producers were allowed to TIME ON SOCIAL keep key rights which they could then ISSUES AND exploit themselves. The result was that the UK now has perhaps the strongest UNAFRAID OF and most creative independent audio- BEING RIDICULED visual sector in the world, second only to that in the US in scale.

The Labour Party Ofcom surveys continue to confirm �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 21 � that British audiences are probably among the best-served in the world, Tessa Jowell regularly a tribute to Tessa’s clear vision. attended RTS events and conferences Being determined to bequeath a healthy media industry to her succes- sors did not mean that Tessa lost sight of her reforming zeal as a social-policy radical. She was courageously ahead of her time on social issues and ­unafraid of being ridiculed. She raised the issue of female body image and warned of the damage it was causing. She demanded that media literacy be a key part of liber- alising media regulation, so that choices and voices could proliferate, but people would still have some protection from the babble of the internet. She was lampooned on both points, but how prescient she was. If only she’d used the term “fake news”. Tessa was a true reformer, on the face of it an unlikely candidate to deregulate the country’s ridiculous alcohol licensing laws. But she felt that there would be huge benefits if drinking in pubs and bars could become more civilised and relaxed. She received a vitriolic reaction from the moralising press, but she held firm. Now, we take it for granted that pubs will serve half-decent food, that it’s no disgrace to ask for tea or coffee at the bar, and that children are welcome, no longer parked in some bleak, windswept garden and palmed off with a fizzy drink and a packet of crisps. Tessa opened the way for all that

to happen. The reforms also helped Hampartsoumian Paul reduce drunkenness, make late-night drinking less wretched, and cut and response, and reform of compen- She was always very political. Her deaths from drink-driving. Millions sation schemes. skill at bringing people together was of people’s lives were improved by The 7/7 attacks were especially not just a product of her decency. Nor these reforms. demanding for her, coming the very was it at the price of agreeing and Her personal qualities, as much as day after the London Olympic suc- nodding along just for the sake of the DCMS’s formal role as the depart- cess in Singapore. Somehow, she being nice. ment responsible for public ceremo- straddled the two worlds with enor- Tessa didn’t give an inch to the nial, meant that Tessa became mous dignity. shouters and the table-pounders but Minister for Empathy. She rescued Much has been made about her gave them the same courtesy as the Diana Memorial, at the time decency. Unlike many senior politi- everyone else. If, to achieve her something of an embarrassing joke. cians, she was inclusive and collegiate. objectives, she had to manage people This role became much more seri- However, far from being the prissy, or who were dim, obstructive, or, as she ous after 9/11 and then 7/7. Her empa- saintly, individual described by the saw it, wrong, then so be it. thy, combined with her decisiveness media, the day-to-day Tessa was tough, They would find themselves tacti- and eye for detail, meant that the resilient and, occasionally, profane. cally out-manoeuvred and charmed public mourning and tributes to the She was certainly not dainty in the into agreeing with her. They might victims, survivors, their families and way she pushed her staff. While a even go away from the encounter the emergency services were handled party loyalist, she was also intensely thinking she was their best friend. But with grace and decency. factional. Tessa seemed to operate as she would get her own way. n Typically, she did more than empa- the mother confessor for half the thise and organise: behind the scenes, Cabinet, an early career in mental Bill Bush was special adviser to Tessa she worked to secure much-needed health making her kind and support- Jowell at the DCMS from June 2001 to improvements in disaster planning ive but also utterly unshockable. May 2005.

22 Box-set Britain

Digital media Kate Bulkley examines how broadcasters are adapting to binge viewing – no longer the preserve of streaming services

Peaky Blinders BBC

ox sets and an increas- For the PSBs, the question of how advertising-based VoD and on-demand ing tendency for audi- to integrate box sets into the overall subscription services – in other words, ences to binge-view programming line-up is concentrating licensing the shows it owns to third- entire series of pro- minds. This is because competitors party platforms. grammes, especially are offering box sets as a key differ- Tom Harrington, an analyst at drama, are hardly new entiator, and many viewers expect Enders Analysis, says BBC box sets phenomena.B But binge-watching to be able to binge view as a matter at Christmas created an issue for the continues to impact on business mod- of course. corporation: “It brought a sizeable els as public service broadcasters and Last Christmas, the BBC offered a audience to the BBC portfolio and it pay-TV operators alike test new strate- wide range of box sets. These included skewed young.” But, because the BBC gies for box sets. Wolf Hall, the first three series of Peaky cannot monetise content on the Back in the day, box sets on VHS Blinders and all four series of Line of iPlayer in the way that commercial and DVD were a nice ancillary earner, Duty. The Yuletide offer was part of a broadcasters can by selling advertis- but the arrival of Netflix and its high- fight-back by the BBC against the ing or subscriptions, the extra cost of end drama series changed everything. streaming giants, principally Netflix. owning those on-demand rights can “This is new territory and there are BBC Director-General Tony Hall be justified only with long-term strat- new rules being written about live talked last year about developing egies such as brand-building. “There’s transmissions and binge viewing,” iPlayer to make it a “must-visit desti- no immediate payoff for the BBC,” says Lindsey Clay, CEO of Thinkbox. nation in its own right”, beyond being explains Harrington. “There’s great scope for experimenta- just a catch-up service. And, in April, There is also the vexed question of tion, and we don’t know everything he told MPs that the BBC wanted “to how the BBC rewards independent yet. What we do know is that fantastic strike the right balance” between the producers for extending online view- content will be watched compulsively.” iPlayer and the returns it can get from ing windows for their shows. They �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 23 � are concerned that the corporation’s Mahon told a group of independent more “aggressive position on rights” ‘YOU STILL NEED producers and journalists on 16 May will affect their revenues. THE HOOK AT that she will concentrate on young Data published in March found that people, digital and culture. The focus 16- to 24-year-olds are now spending THE END OF on digital will include increased invest- more time viewing Netflix than with EACH EPISODE, ment in the on-demand service All 4. BBC TV and iPlayer. “The iPlayer has The intention is that all future com- been plateauing and even declining HOWEVER missions will be judged by their per- on mobile devices, even as it is experi- PEOPLE WATCH’ formance on-demand, on social and encing growth on the TV set,” says on linear. It is dubbed the “one pro- Harrington. “In 2017, we had the BBC gramme, many platforms” initiative. at 32% of all consolidated TV viewing, In many ways, Channel 4 is ahead of but only 8% of total online viewing, up 31% year on year, while viewing the game, because it has been adding which is pretty low and it’s not getting hours grew to 84 million from 64 mil- to an archive of box sets over the past any higher.” lion and revenue surged by 41%. 10 years. There are some 150 series ITV is also beefing up the opportuni- ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC, in con- across all genres available on All 4. ties for its viewers to binge view. At the junction with NBCUniversal, are also On some days, there will be more beginning of the year, the broadcaster reportedly talking about a joint stream- viewing of archive box sets of Shame- expanded its 30-day catch-up window ing service that would include box-set less and Misfits than of catch-up TV, with a “series so far” offering. availability. Dubbed Kangaroo 2, after says Richard Davidson-Houston, head Via the ITV Hub (now available on the service that was rejected by regula- of All 4: “The hot topic – what is the 30 platforms), all episodes of a current tors in 2009, the idea is for the PSBs to right windowing strategy? – is because series are made available for 30 days somehow out-Netflix Netflix. of the dreaded word ‘cannibalisation’. after the final episode airs. Given that Ofcom CEO Sharon White But, actually, we’re seeing less canni- ITV has seen a 20%-30% uplift in has been making encouraging noises balisation than we feared.” VoD viewing on these shows. “More about partnerships and collaboration For example, Channel 4 released Lee people are sticking with them, safe in among UK PSBs, the potential for a and Dean, a new comedy series about the knowledge [that episodes] will be Kangaroo revival looks promising. Stevenage builders, simultaneously available from the beginning to the According to Barb, the number of on All 4 and Channel 4. According to end,” notes Paul Kanareck, ITV’s Man- UK households paying for at least one Davidson-Houston, this approach aging Director of online. “Our data also subscription VoD service grew 20%, to yielded incrementally more viewing shows that these are predominantly 10 million households, between 2016 on-demand, with no apparent canni- ‘lighter’ ITV viewers, with many Hub and 2017. balisation of the linear broadcast. user accounts being reactivated to “Content-wise, Kangaroo 2 could be While acknowledging that Channel 4 watch them.” excellent, something that Netflix surely is in a “windowing experimentation ITV has made box sets available by knows because it has so much UK PSB stage”, he believes that offering box sets raiding its archive for shows that are content in its libraries,” says Harring- from the outset gives a series “better relevant to a current show. When ton at Enders Analysis. “However, it audience retention” across the entire Trauma, starring John Simm, was on air, remains to be seen whether the PSBs series. the broadcaster released box sets of can align their interests to get it off As for any potential revival of Kan- two other shows that he starred in, Prey the ground.” garoo, Mahon will not be drawn, but and Code of a Killer. This delivered both At Channel 4, new CEO Alex Mahon she does believe that, in the era of the commercial and marketing benefits, has said that she will “rapidly acceler- Faangs, partnerships makes sense: says Kanareck. ate digital capabilities”, as part of a “Nowadays, you have to think about Drama is the big pull for box sets, but three-pronged strategy aimed at coun- the big global rivals and also about ITV’s online boss says that the first and tering the growing challenges posed what British public service is. second series of Love Island were the by Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix “My focus is on protecting PSB, most popular among ITV’s binge view- and Google. regardless of whether that might be ers last year. helping the BBC as well as Channel 4. The company’s new CEO, Carolyn For example, in terms of prominence McCall, told the broadcaster’s AGM last on smart TV sets and devices, we need month that part of her “strategy ‘WE ARE FINDING to be working together.” refresh” would involve VoD. She hinted THAT PEOPLE The recent Sky show Save Me, pro- that a Netflix-like subscription VoD duced by ITV Studios-owned World service, expanding on ITV’s current WANT TO Productions, is one of the latest exam- £3.99-a-month, ad-free version of ITV CONSUME ALL ples of how box sets can work. The Hub, may be on the cards. It might even six-part crime thriller was released as appear in conjunction with a wider OF A SERIES a box set at the same time as its initial roll-out of the BBC and ITV’s North QUICKLY WHEN transmission on Sky Atlantic. American streaming service, BritBox, The results were impressive and which launched in the US in 2017 and IT IS CONTENT surprising: 6% of the total audience recently made its Canadian debut. THAT THEY across the first 28 days of availability ITV Hub had an impressive first watched all six episodes within the quarter: it served 374 million requests, REALLY LOVE’ first 24 hours; by day seven, half of all

24 ‘WE’RE SEEING LESS CANNIBALISATION THAN WE FEARED’

Riviera Sky the viewers in that initial 28-day win- the BBC and made Save Me for Sky, world long enough yet to see how, dow had viewed all six episodes. believes that it is about understanding ultimately, we construct narratives. “The game changer for us was Riviera, the different broadcaster models. “But my hunch is that, in an SVoD or last year. We saw the same kind of “Serialised TV, where it’s about a broadcaster VoD space, you probably speed of consumption as with Save Me,” offering one episode a week, can build do have the luxury of a slower-burn says Jamie Morris, channel editor for an audience. We saw this really clearly narrative, at least more than you do in Sky Atlantic and head of scheduling for with Line of Duty,” he says. “The danger the more hostile overnight environ- all of Sky entertainment. “We’ve been with a simultaneous box-set release ment of ITV1 and BBC One. But we’re releasing content in this way for a and live transmission is that you lose still in the land of the hunches here.” while. We are finding that people want word of mouth and, if the series Some 60% of TV viewing is still to consume all of a series quickly when doesn’t land with viewers, there is occurring via linear broadcast, and this it is content that they really love.” nowhere to go. has remained fairly stable, according to Sky is less concerned about over- “But you have to understand Sky’s research by Ampere Analysis. Watch- night ratings because it values its sub- model, where it’s not about overnight ing linear broadcast TV will certainly scription income over its advertising. audiences: it’s about giving the audi- remain strong, but consumers’ behav- “The majority of Sky customers are ence what they want. In this world, the iour and expectations continue to shift. on-demand capable,” says Morris. “We definition of a hit is different.” According to Ampere, two out of merchandise across the platforms For Heath, neither the linear release three UK households expect to con- – linear, on-demand, Sky Now and model nor the linear-plus-box-set tinue watching linear broadcasts in Sky Go. We are agnostic about how release model affects the storytelling. five years’ time, but they also expect they watch it.” “You still need the hook at the end of them to be adding more catch-up and Simon Heath, CEO of World Produc- each episode, however people watch,” box sets. In other words, binge viewing tions, which produces Line of Duty for he argues. “We have not been in this is only likely to grow. n

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 25 ITV’s summer sen sation

averaged 2.5 million – a huge follow- Jain and Gould were part of a panel Reality TV ing for a niche network – as the show at an RTS early-evening event, brought made ITV2 the most popular digital together to discuss Love Island’s success channel for 16- to 34-year-olds. ahead of the reality show’s 2018 series. Love Island was the In an era when young people are Having left E4 to run ITV’s digital surprise hit of summer widely thought to shun traditional TV, channels in 2011, Angela Jain had been this was no mean feat. “It’s a show that seeking a new entertainment format. 2017. Matthew Bell dons has drawn an audience back to linear As a former commissioner of Big TV,” claimed executive producer Tom Brother, she told the capacity crowd the sun cream to hear Gould. “It’s social media, it’s being part that she understood “the value of hav- an RTS panel dissect of the conversation, that has drawn ing a really chunky show and what it people to watch it live.” does to your schedules”. the show’s appeal “This is a real case study for all of She called in a few indies to pitch those naysayers who claim that their ideas and gave the green light to ast year, UK audiences 16-to-34s don’t watch TV. That’s bol- Love Island. “I knew that, if we could get enjoyed a summer fling locks, isn’t it, because they’re watching it right, it could be ITV2’s Big Brother. with Love Island and its this,” added Angela Jain, MD of ITV cast of scantily clad young Studios Entertainment, which makes men and women looking the show in tandem with Motion Con- ‘IT FEELS for love – and a £50,000 tent Group. prize. Millions tuned in to ITV2, The critics loved it, too – Love Island AUTHENTIC – THE attractedL to a show that ran the gamut won prizes at both this year’s RTS and 16-34 AUDIENCE IS of taste, from boy-meets-girl, feel- Bafta awards. good telly to under-the-duvet sex. It should, however, be pointed out INCREDIBLY SAVVY Love Island launched in 2015 and that some commentators thought it performed respectably. But it was in exploitative: they argued that this was AND AWARE OF 2017 that the programme took off, yet another reality show setting up its ANYTHING THAT becoming one of the surprise hits of mainly working-class cast for a stiff the year. Audiences for series 3 dose of TV mockery. FEELS FAKE’

26 ITV’s summer sen sation

Angela Jain Kai Lutterodt Kai

a big ask, because it’s a really intense environment. QUESTION Angela Jain: We also go and A look for people, with targeted & ANSWER casting – we don’t solely rely on applications.… With a returning series, you’re also trying to Is there an appetite for a gay [militate] against those people QLove Island, and could you who are pitching themselves as a produce one? previous islander. Angela Jain: Anything is A possible. It’s a show that How do you avoid casting will evolve, live and breathe and Qpeople who are looking for Love Island cast 2018 change. I hope that [Love Island] is fame, not love?

ITV going to be on telly for the next Tom Gould: That’s the beauty five years at the very least… who A of the format – the viewers, And, of course, last year it actually beat knows where it will go? I hope, will… work out which Big Brother,” she said. [relationships] are real. At the heart It has been a remarkable turnaround Has the casting process of the format is the [question]: for a format that first surfaced in 2005, Qchanged? who’s there for love and who is as ITV’s Celebrity Love Island, survived Tom Gould: A lot more people playing a game. for one more series as Love Island, and A applied this year than for Angela Jain: The skill of the then sank. series 1, but it’s the same process. A casting team comes into play “When we started to think about [There’s a] conversation with the here. They have to suss out whether what the show should be in 2015, we casting team on the phone, they someone is clearly a wannabe. knew it had to be something com- come in for auditions and we And we don’t [necessarily] exclude pletely different – it is [the same] in watch the auditions if [the casters] somebody who is a wannabe – name only,” explained Gould. feel they might have someone because there might be a legitimate Caroline Flack, a hugely experienced who’s suitable.… Those that we reason for them to be on the show. presenter of shows such as I’m a Celeb- think look good on tape meet with rity… and The Xtra Factor, signed up to the execs. How do you use the games host Love Island. She also presents the Qand challenges in the show? weekly spin-off programme, Love What kind of people are you Tom Gould: We go into a Island: Aftersun. “As a host, to present Qlooking for? A [series] with a bank of ideas something you would also watch reli- Tom Gould: You need people and challenges… that we think may, giously – that’s the dream,” she said. “It A who will stand out and at some point, be the right thing to was my perfect job.” engage [the audience] and give throw in.… Ultimately, everything Nevertheless, success was elusive. “If a lot of themselves. That’s the is justified because [the show] is anyone remembers the first series, that biggest thing. about testing relationships.… was not a hit out of the park at all. It We have had people in previous We tell all the people that we cast could so easily have got cancelled,” series who…, when they’ve got in beforehand: “You will be tested. recalled Jain. Love Island survived the the villa, haven’t felt that comfort­ [The show] is not about sitting in a commissioners’ cull and began to find able being open about how they villa sunning yourselves for seven an audience. “By the end of series 2 it feel and sharing their love lives. It’s or eight weeks.” was getting there, and people came �

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 27 � back to series 3 and brought their friends,” noted Gould. Getting the show to the screen was a Herculean task, which needed a crew of 200 to complete. Some 12 edit suites ran 24 hours a day, working through the pictures captured by 70 fixed cameras. “It’s mammoth – you can’t deliver 42 episodes of the show unless you’ve got a machine making it happen,” said Jain. She denied that Love Island had become “too big” for ITV2. “It’s a perfectly formed show for ITV2. It hits its key demographic. It is the very biggest show on exactly the right channel.” However, she was unable to rule out a move to ITV’s main channel: “Where it goes and who decides what they want to do with it is out of our control. It does feel like a perfect fit at the moment.” Reflecting on Love Island’s appeal, Gould said: “The audience watches it Caroline Flack hosts Love Island

and recognises scenarios on the show ITV from their own lives – that’s a big part of it. It feels authentic – the looking for big personalities,” said more of what they’re expecting, but, 16-34 audience is incredibly savvy Gould. “You are also looking for peo- equally, you don’t want to deliver the and aware of anything that feels fake.” ple who you think are going to be same show again. Gould also pointed to the show’s open and honest about their feelings, “Having a different cast will create “unpredictability” and “constant and that’s much harder that it sounds.” different stories and, of course, we’ll stream of drama”, as well as the cast- Jain identified “wit, humour and have some tricks up our sleeves.” n ing of its contestants, who are com- Iain [Stirling’s] voiceover” as other peting to be the last couple left in the key elements in the show’s success. ‘Love Island: Anatomy of a hit’ was held villa in Majorca. Ahead of the launch of series 4 in in the Auditorium at Foyles in central “At the back of your mind, you have early June, Jain said: “We all feel con- London on 23 May. The RTS event was to be thinking, ‘We are matchmaking.’ fident – we sort of know what we’re chaired by Ria Hebden and produced And, as with any reality show, you are doing.… We want to give the viewers by Vicky Fairclough and Sarah Booth.

us as a group of execs and producers is everyone,’ claimed ITV Studios head of Love Island’s so valuable.’ format support Ella Umansky. The programme’s app, through which A clip from the German version was digital strategy the public has its say about the com- shown at the RTS event. It featured peting couples on the show, is another much the same tattooed beefcakes Love Island has invested heavily in ‘huge part of the series’, said England. and tanned babes as the original, and social media to engage and build audi- ‘When you’re working in social media, demonstrated how easily the format ences. So much so that, during series 3, there’s so much noise,’ he said. The could travel. it received more than 2 billion Twitter app, however, puts the show in contact ‘It’s what you know and love about impressions. with its ‘super fans, who can consume Love Island, but in German,’ said Uman- The digital team – led by senior dig- everything [about the show] in the one sky. ‘It can be translated, it can be done ital producer Kenny England – and the place, undistracted, [and] vote.’ in different locations to different budg- TV production team ran side-by-side ets. It’s a very flexible format. on Love Island. ‘I’ve never worked on a ‘We’re so lucky to have a format like show where the digital team has been this. It’s really important for ITV as a so firmly embedded,’ said executive Destined to be whole because, as a brand, it’s some- producer Tom Gould. thing that can really define us. ‘[They] approach [programme-­ a global brand? ‘A show like this can become your making] from a different point of view, calling card. and that’s not a point of view that I The Love Island format has been sold ‘This is the year when we’re really have that much experience of. That around the world, including to Aus- going to see it, hopefully, become that dialogue between Kenny’s team and tralia and Germany. ‘It can [work] for global brand.’

28 OUR FRIEND IN THE NORTH WEST

Channel 4’s move here is excitement in is only a start. hundreds of pounds a week. Pro- the air outside Lon- grammes made in this way leave no don. Channel 4’s Cat Lewis says legacy outside London. And, crucially, new leadership they make a mockery of claims by team, Alex Mahon Ofcom must do broadcasters that more money is and Ian Katz, have more to strengthen being spent on shows in the nations announced the and regions. shortlist of 13 cities and city regions regional production I and many others believe this forT their new HQ and creative hubs. breaks the spirit of the 2003 Commu- Three hundred jobs are to be nications Act. That states clearly the moved from London to three new need for public service broadcasters to: bases. Decision day is 1 October, a) make a percentage of programmes when we will learn the locations. outside London; b) ensure these pro- In the interim, a huge amount of grammes cover a range of genres; and work will be done by each of these c) ensure investment in these shows is places to convince Channel 4 that made in a number of different produc- they are the right choice. There’s a tion centres across the UK. real reward at stake for the politicians It’s this third requirement that is behind each bid. broken when programmes made by This is because the creative indus- London-based producers are edited tries generate more jobs than almost in London. any other sector. Designing strong This is why many of us are creative clusters outside London was ­campaigning to “improve the out- ­ the main recommendation of Sir of-London quotas”. Copies of TV job

Peter Bazalgette’s excellent Indepen- Lives Nine adverts that confirm how common- dent Review of the Creative Indus- place this way of meeting the “made tries, published last September. David Nicholls and John Thomson. outside London” definition are being The BBC’s move to MediaCity in Their careers all began in cities out- sent to me, and members of the Face- Salford seven years ago has been a side London and they want these book group “Improve the out of Lon- huge success. Seven thousand people opportunities to be available for the don quotas”, on an almost daily basis. work here today. That’s more than next generation. Why should individual programme- when the Manchester Ship Canal’s The current regulation allows all makers have to financially subsidise docks were in full swing. senior programme-makers on a show this box-ticking? Ofcom is reviewing Everyone knows that the firm grip defined as “made outside London” to its criteria. Let’s hope it agrees to of London-based companies on jobs be from London. It also permits these tackle this. is one of the biggest barriers to social shows to be edited in London. The two To help resolve this situation, I am mobility. It prevents UK plc from often go hand in hand. Once all the launching a new national TV trade becoming a creative meritocracy. senior production staff are from Lon- body, based outside London, called Channel 4’s opening of bases out- don, economically, it makes sense for the Indie Club (www.indieclub.tv). side London is eagerly anticipated. post-production to be done there, too. Alongside this, TV legend Phil Red- However, if we seriously expect to see Junior people from outside the M25 mond, creator of Grange Hill and Brook- decision makers start to reverse how are employed on shoots in the side, has come up with a brilliant idea. London-centric TV has become over nations and regions. To ensure that He wants the Government to move the past two decades, Ofcom’s defini- 50% of a production’s staff are from Ofcom out of London. This would help tion of “made outside London” needs the nations and regions, these people, create more jobs outside the capital tightening up. including editors who live outside the and, with luck, encourage the regula- Many of TV’s most talented writers M25, are often employed to work in tor to end the present loopholes in the have signed my recent submission to the capital on the programmes. “made outside London” rules. n Ofcom. They include Paul Abbott, They are also usually expected to Jimmy McGovern, Sally Wainwright, pay for their own accommodation Cat Lewis is CEO and executive producer Nicola Shindler, Russell T Davies, and travel costs, which adds up to of Nine Lives Media.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 29 Thirsty for talent

Sky’s Britannia

elevision can be fiendishly keep these guys going – they rely on difficult to break into, RTS Futures work out of London.” particularly if you nurse Louise Hastings, VFX producer at Milk presenting, producing or Visual Effects, whose credits include writing ambitions. Learn a Visual effects is both BBC One’s Doctor Who and ITV historical technical skill, however, a technical and a drama Victoria, matched Frame’s opti- and opportunities open up. Visual mism: “It’s a growth industry – there effectsT (VFX) and motion graphics are team craft, discovers should be lots of jobs to go around. booming. “Netflix and Amazon are creating There’s a huge breadth to the sector, Matthew Bell. And the more and more content, with bigger which runs from animation for promos sector is desperate and bigger budgets – we can’t keep up and ads, through TV, to the stunning with the amount of work we’re asked to digitally created effects on Hollywood for new creatives bid for at the moment,” she continued. superhero films. Many Marvel movies “TV is going to keep Soho very busy. are so reliant on VFX, that, without on Sky Atlantic’s historical fantasy We’re also getting a lot of the American them, there would be little for audi- Britannia. “There are so many ways in.” films [shooting at Warner Bros Studios ences to watch. Over the same period, VFX kit has Leavesden, such as Fantastic Beasts].” TV and film VFX producer and super- plummeted in price, which gives new- As a drama specialist in the VFX visor Simon Frame told an RTS Futures comers the opportunity to learn on the field, Frame is in the right place at the event at the end of May, “U & VFX”, that, latest technology. “Software is super right time. He accepted that the TV when he first started working in the VFX cheap,” said Frame. “What really mat- drama boom is “a bubble” that could field in 1997, there were just 350 people ters now is talent.” burst but, because of the length of time working in Soho – then, as now, the But new VFX artists would be well it takes to make series, “we are still centre of the industry. advised to move to London. “The talent looking at another four years of boom Two decades later, numbers have is in the capital because that’s where the in production terms”. risen almost 20-fold, to around 6,500. industry fertilises,” said Frame. There Moreover, there is no indication that “The market has become huge,” said are small VFX outfits outside London, the boom is ending. The order books Frame, who has recently been working “but there isn’t enough local work to of the large effects houses were full,

30 What do VFX artists do all day?

‘There are two sides to what we do: the big planning mix – why we need it, one is in the back room, the guys on how we are going to make and shoot it. workstations in basements with low ‘We do the pre-production and then lighting, making the shots; the other go on set. We shoot it, which is like side of it is making the film,’ explained pulling teeth, and… then we spend VFX producer and supervisor Simon months putting the VFX together… and Frame. ‘Ultimately, though, we’re all deliver it. film-makers. If you don’t like film – or ‘I started on [Sky Atlantic’s] Bri- image-making – you’re not going to tannia in November 2015. We started last long, because it’s really hard [work]. pre-­production in February 2016 and ‘I have to physically go and make wrapped on Christmas Eve, in temper- the film, which requires enthusiasm, atures of -12°C in a field. We delivered energy and a massive liver; the ability the series on 28 July 2017. to [survive] being cold, wet and hungry; ‘If I can be candid, a lot of people being shouted at by people who are interested in VFX are the more geeky, really stressed. It’s hard work, and it’s computer-literate kids. Trying to drag not what most people think VFX is people out of the bedroom on to the SOFTWARE IS going to be. set is hard. SUPER CHEAP. ‘I’m there from the very first meeting ‘But, whether you’re sitting at your in Soho House over beers, when you workstation in a dark basement, doing WHAT REALLY get the script, right to the wire, when motion graphics and VFX, or sitting on they’re screaming for it [to be ready] a wet hillside with Roman soldiers, they MATTERS NOW for broadcast. are both team games. You can have IS TALENT ‘I have to break the scripts down, with an introverted guy who’s really good at my VFX producer and supervisor heads particle animation, but, if he can’t work on, working out where effects are with anyone else in his team, he’s going needed. I make a list and that goes into to be largely useless.’

Frame revealed, which has led to hun- dreds of new start-up outfits entering the marketplace. “Boutique [companies] Top tips from the panellists on… are a much, much better place to start and develop than the bigger compa- nies,” he advised. Making contact money. That… will give them a good “TV is still strong, but there is a defi- Simon Frame: ‘I say to people, “Hassle look at what we do.’ nite shift to YouTube and the digital me gently.” Don’t give up; if you don’t Louise Hastings: ‘It’s very rare that area,” said Anthony Scott, studio opera- hear back from me the first time, put a we take on people unpaid – if we do, tions manager at creative agency Fall polite reminder in.… Nine times out of it’s for a week, two maximum, to give of the Wall. It makes commercials and 10, people in my position will respond people a window into the [job]. People promos for clients that include Sky. positively, because we will all need wouldn’t do any work in that week; it’s Scott completed the panel at the someone sooner or later.’ more of a shadowing [exercise]. It’s not Futures event, which was held at Anthony Scott: ‘The least impressive unpaid labour.’ Channel 4’s headquarters. [situations are] when someone comes Anthony Scott: ‘It’s about getting a Frame sounded one note of caution. in and claims to know everything and taste of what studio life is about.’ “Brexit is a problem,” he admitted, starts to talk over you.… The people because, despite lobbying, there is that impress are those that have done Showing initiative “no special dispensation for overseas research, and understand the company Simon Frame: ‘Say yes to everything.… employees. There are an awful lot of and the work we do.’ There’s nothing worse than sitting in European artists in town and I don’t your bedroom, hoping that someone’s know if they can stay. It’s going to be Working for free going to ring you. a real problem for our business.” n Simon Frame: ‘I’ll bring someone along ‘Get out there and make stuff, work who’s really keen and pay for their for student films. Someone’s going to The RTS Futures event, ‘U & VFX’, was travel, and they can be with me for a get a break and, when they do, they chaired and produced by Alex Lawrence, couple of weeks. I’m not going to pay tend to bring people with them. the founder of digital content producer them, but I won’t have them lose any ‘Never say no.’ Clearhead.

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 31 RTS NEWS Keeping The Welsh drama Pictures. Explaining how the Faith/ series Keeping Faith/Un co-commission came about, Un Bore Bore Mercher (left) was Bate said that he first

Mercher Wales Centre the very timely subject approached S4C, which of an RTS Wales panel dis- commissioned scripts. BBC cussion at the Celtic Media Wales was then invited to Festival in Llanelli in May. co-fund the series and air its The series, which stars own English version. Eve Myles as a lawyer and Discussing the criteria for mother of three whose hus- a successful co-commission, band goes missing, has been Rees said that, above all, making headlines as the there have to be elements most downloaded non- that are both universal and network programme on local, while maintaining BBC iPlayer, with more than authenticity. 9 million requests, and has Back-to-back productions developed a cult following are nothing new in Wales. across the UK. Scourfield, who previously The S4C and BBC Wales produced two series of the Thriller co-commission was made in BBC Wales/S4C hit Hinterland/ English and Welsh, and the Y Gwyll, said that, although discussion focused on the filming takes longer, the shooting of scenes in the two greater complexity comes in breaks languages “back-to-back”. post-production, with mul- The panel comprised four tiple edits and different ver- of the key creatives: Amanda sions being delivered to language Rees, creative content director varying deadlines. for S4C; Maggie Russell, exec- Reflecting on the process, utive producer for BBC Wales; Bate said that, if he could do S4C executive producer anything differently, it would barrier Gethin Scourfield; and Adrian be to have more time in the Bate, executive producer for edit suite.

BBC the production company, Vox Judith Winnan Digital history shows way forward

n The Search for Little Flan- tells the story of two effigies To tell the story of the ders offered a ‘perfect example’ in St Jerome’s Church in the Flemish settlement in a small of digital content, argued Euryn south Pembrokeshire village of medieval church without Ogwen Williams at the Car- Llangwm, connected to King exhibition boards or touch marthen Bay Film Festival in Henry I’s expulsion of Flemings screens, the project commis- Llanelli, where he chaired an from England to the area in 1100. sioned a tapestry from illus- RTS Wales event on the project. The project was led by Pam trator Fran Evans, based on As the author of a recent Hunt, a former RTS Wales drawings by local schoolchil- review of S4C for the Depart- committee member and TV dren, with six specific images ment for Digital, Culture, Media producer, who retired to the that trigger different aspects and Sport, Ogwen Williams area in 2006. ‘After writing of the story using an app. recommended that the broad- two books, my low boredom The DVD, produced by Hunt, Search for Little Flanders

caster develop a digital content threshold dragged me into the Brace Graham tells the story of the research hub. ‘This is a perfect example project,’ she said. and includes material shot in of a community being digital Joining her on the panel and producer Heather Pay- Flanders. ‘It has proved very and using all aspects of dig- were Graham Stephens, one ton, who recorded a series of popular and continues to ital technology to create and of the presenters of a DVD English podcasts. These were sell well to visitors, as well as deliver its mission,’ he said. documentary made as part of also translated into Welsh further afield,’ she said. The digital content project the project, and ex-BBC editor and Flemish. Hywel Wiliam

32 Matthew Bell

London Centre hears how TV has rebooted its old games consoles

o many people game – it’s not this weird, niche thing any more,” claimed Julia Hardy at ‘San RTS London event in early May – the first London ses- sion to be streamed live on YouTube – devoted to gam- ing on television. “It feels like there’s a huge lack of respect for gaming; [TV thinks] it’s Dara Ó Briain’s Go 8 Bit

still nerds in their bedrooms UKTV covered in crisps,” added the gaming presenter. Television has had a che- quered history with video TV is back in the game games. In the 1990s, Chan- nel 4’s GamesMaster became the first UK TV show dedi- according to McNeil, who, “A big part of it was getting mainstream show on TV: cated to video games. Other with Pamphilon, devised the Dara on board,” he added. “It “There are enough gamers out shows followed, including format for the 2013 Edin- was a great fit because Dara is there who are interested in CITV’s Bad Influence! and T.I.G.S burgh Festival Fringe. the best at hosting panel Red Dead Redemption, God of War (Totally Interactive Game Show), “It’s about getting hope- shows and he’s a massive or FIFA. Stick [a programme] and Sky One’s Games World. fully funny people together, gamer.” on at 2:00am, they will find it “There was this big gap but through the prism of Julia Hardy hosts BBC or watch it on catch-up [TV].” afterwards,” said journalist games,” said Pamphilon. Radio 1’s The Gaming Show, “They are desperate for TV and comic Ellie Gibson, who “We’re not trying to go into which airs on iPlayer. She to say it’s OK to be a gamer, chaired the London event. because they have been mar- “Nothing really took off in ginalised for such a long time. the same way as GamesMaster ‘IT WAS VERY HARD TO This is why YouTube and and then nothing was made Twitch have taken over, for about a decade.” CONVINCE TELEVISION THAT because gamers went out and One of the few current made their own content.” shows that features gaming VIDEO GAMES WOULD BE OK’ McNeil argued that TV was well represented on the could be “braver in repre- panel in the shape of comedi- any huge amount of detail or explained the premise of her senting games. Film 2018 for ans Steve McNeil and Sam depth [about games], so we show. “We can’t go too deep games could exist. There Pamphilon, who created Dave [don’t] push people away.” into [the subject] because that could be things on BBC comedy panel show Dara Ó “It was very hard to con- kind of specialist coverage is Three or E4 where YouTu- Briain’s Go 8 Bit, and Gibson, the vince television that video available elsewhere. We tend bers and pro-gamers mess games expert on the show. games would be OK [in a to look at trending stories and about;­ there could be a thing “Dara Ó Briain’s Go 8 Bit has show],” recalled McNeil, who the biggest titles as our starting for kids on CBBC. There are been one of the most suc- reflected on the three years it point. I would really love to go lots of shows about games cessful marriages of TV and took to get it green-lit. DLT super nerdy but I have to that TV isn’t making and it’s games in recent years. I Entertainment picked up the hold myself back.” a shame it’s not, because would argue that because I TV rights and hired producer Hardy argued that “hard- there is an audience for it.” am in it,” said Gibson. Rohan Acharya to develop the core” gamers are catered for “Whether you play video The show, which has racked format for TV. “[Rohan] could on YouTube, and video game games or sports, people like up three series since its 2016 have got it made quicker if and eSports on live streaming to win. It’s about finding the debut, features “comedians he’d sacked us. He very platform Twitch. But she said right game for your channel playing video games”, kindly didn’t,” said McNeil. there was “a space” for a or show,” added Hardy. n

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 33 RTS NEWS Students learn the ropes in Upbeat verdict on NAB

Bournemouth services director at technol- ogy platform The Broadcast In late April, Southern Bridge, was concerned that Centre welcomed more vendors’ IP knowledge than 200 students from ranged from outstanding to

Southern Centre local universities to its poor, with no one vendor 10th annual “Meet the profes- supplying the whole produc- sionals” event at Bourne­ tion chain. He queried: “How mouth University. The do customers choose a range immediate outcome for one of vendors with the correct student was that Athena Films skills? And who can help offered to pay her to develop then transition to IP? If, some of her ideas – and to indeed, they should?” employ her on the project if Before looking back at NAB, it was commissioned. the Thames Valley Centre Eighteen professionals hosted a “Diversity in the from a wide range of back- workplace” session. Kayte grounds and career stages Burns from NEP, EditShare’s Las Vegas were on hand to meet infor- domain Public Danielle Hay and Sara Shep- mally with students from herd captured the attention of Bournemouth, Solent, Ports- Attendance at NAB fell influencers to their booths,” a mostly male audience. mouth and Winchester by 10% this year, but a advised Jennie Marwick- Chaired by Sadie Groom, MD universities, to discuss panel assembled for Evans, MD of broadcasting of Bubble Agency, the all- current TV issues and career Thames Valley RTS Thames Valley’s PR specialist Manor Market- women panel spoke of their development. May event was largely upbeat ing. “Gone are the days when experiences of working in the Many were alumni from in its assessment of the Las vendors can just stand and broadcast industry. those institutions, which Vegas media technology show. wait for passing trade.” The overall narrative was provided an extra resonance Neil Maycock, VP of global BBC Newsgathering opera- positive, but one story made for those attending. Some marketing at broadcasting tions manager Sara Shepherd the audience gasp. At a recent had only just graduated, solutions outfit Grass Valley, reinforced the idea of plan- trade show, the female mar- while others were in senior said clients were more inter- ning visits efficiently, and keting director of a leading editorial roles. ested in speaking to problem struck a positive tone on the company approached a group The TV professionals dis- solvers in his company than benefits to the BBC as an of men to attend a meeting, cussed the impact of chang- looking at racks of kit. innovator of working with only for one of them to tell ing formats and fragmenting “Vendors need to prepare small companies, as well as her that they already had viewing patterns on pro- well in advance to get prom- blue-chip organisations. their badges scanned. gramme-makers, as well as inent decision-makers and Norman Rouse, client Tony Orme more vocational issues, such as how to continue develop- ing skills in the workplace. This session was followed by two hours of informal con- Indies drop in on Birmingham tact between the profession- als and students. Commenting on the event, RTS Midlands held a “We wanted to get a real celebrate and showcase the Southern Centre Chair “drop-in” day for inde- insight into everything that is rich diversity of the pro- Stephanie Farmer said: pendent producers happening in the indepen- grammes that are made

“Every year, [the event] pro- Midlands Centre from across the region dent sector in the Midlands, here,” she added. vides an amazing opportu- in early May at the Colmore so the RTS can work out how Production companies nity for students to practise Club in Birmingham. best to serve the sector,” attending included Full Fat their networking skills, and The networking event explained RTS Midlands TV, North One and Ragdoll. make contacts for place- gave the RTS Centre the Chair Caren Davies. Other guests included Joe ments and career develop- perfect opportunity to bring “We’re aiming to boost the Godwin, the head of BBC ment. It’s become the itself up to date on the prog- profile of television produc- Midlands, and representa- essential ‘go-to’ event for ress of the many projects tion here in the Midlands tives from the Producers’ students in the South.” currently in production in and to provide more oppor- Forum. Gordon Cooper the Midlands. tunities where we can Becky Jones-Owen

34 BBC Scotland enjoyed Productions’ documentary a successful evening about a family of 17 siblings at the RTS Scotland scattered across Scotland, A

Scotland Centre Awards in early May, Family Divided. taking home four of the top The RTS Scotland Award, production prizes on offer. which recognises an out- Trust Me, I’m A Doctor: Mental standing contribution to Health Special was named television in Scotland, was Science and Natural History presented to Ewan Angus, winner; Queers: The Man on the until recently BBC Scotland’s Platform won the Drama commissioning chief. award; Football Abuse: The Ugly Over more than two Side of the Beautiful Game tri- decades at the BBC, Angus umphed in the Current worked on shows that Affairs category; and CBBC’s included Still Game and comedy panel show The Dog Mrs Brown’s Boys. Ate My Homework was The Student Award – awarded the Comedy prize. chosen from the winners of Iain Stirling also took the main categories at Janu- home the On-screen Per- ary’s Scotland Student sonality award for his pre- Television Awards – went to senting role on the CBBC the drama Antonio, by Alison panel show. Still of the Royal Conserva- Raise the Roof Produc- toire of Scotland. tions’ Phil Spencer: Find Me “Congratulations to our a Home triumphed in the winners and nominees – the Factual Entertainment and range and breadth of entries Features category, while for this year’s awards was Darren Hercher Films’ truly impressive and reflec- Sighthill won the overall tive of Scotland’s vibrant Documentary and Specialist production community,” said Factual award. BBC Scotland Lisa Hazlehurst, chair of the Other factual prizes went judges for the RTS Scotland to Hopscotch Films’ Brian Awards 2018. Cox’s Russia (History), in STV presenter Jennifer which the actor travels to earns its Reoch and stand-up come- Russia to discover stories of dian and radio presenter Des fellow Scots who made the Clarke hosted the awards country their own, and ceremony, which was held stripes Queers: Pacific Quay Productions’ at the Old Fruitmarket in The Man on Terry Pratchett: Back in Black Glasgow. the Platform

(Arts), a docu-drama in BBC Matthew Bell which Paul Kaye plays the late author of the Discworld RTS Scotland winners – History•Brian Cox’s Russia• Sport – Programme•Glasgow 1967: The series of books. Hopscotch Films for BBC Scotland Lisbon Lions•IMG Productions Scotland STV News’s Ben Philip Documentary and Specialist Factual – for BBC Scotland RTS Scotland Award•Ewan Angus, Arts•Terry Pratchett: Back in Black• Professional Excellence – Camera• won the Young Journalist BBC Scotland Pacific Quay Productions for Glen Milner, Handmade in Hull• award, which is presented Drama•Queers: The Man on the Plat- BBC Scotland BBC Scotland for BBC Four form•BBC Scotland for BBC Four in memory of BBC Scotland Documentary and Specialist Factual – Professional Excellence – Sound•Kahl Comedy•The Dog Ate My Homework• Science and Natural History•Trust Me, Henderson, Accidental Anarchist• news and current affairs BBC Scotland for CBBC I’m a Doctor: Mental Health Special• Hopscotch Films for BBC Four editor George MacFarlane Children•Gudrun: The Viking BBC Scotland for BBC Two Post-production – Editing•David Arthur, Princess Maramedia for CBeebies Sinclair. The category is open • Factual – Daytime•Live at Five• Sighthill•Darren Hercher Films for BBC On-screen Personality•Iain Stirling, STV for STV2 Two Scotland to journalists up to the age of The Dog Ate My Homework• News and Current Affairs – News Post-production – Graphics and 30 and comes with a prize of BBC Scotland for CBBC Programme•STV News at 6: North• Titling•Playdead, Trust Me, I’m a Director•Biança Barker, A Family STV News for STV Doctor•BBC Scotland for BBC Two £1,000, donated by the Sin- Divided•Steadipix Productions for BBC Young Journalist, presented in memory Innovation•Kidder•BBC Scotland for clair family trust. Two Scotland of George Sinclair•Ben Philip•STV News BBC The Social STV also enjoyed success Factual Entertainment and Features• for STV Short Form Content•Taking Stock• Phil Spencer: Find Me a Home•Raise Current Affairs•Football Abuse: The Relative Films for Channel 4 in the News Programme the Roof Productions for Channel 4 Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game•BBC Animation and VFX•League of category, where the award Documentary and Specialist Factual• Scotland for BBC One Scotland Legends•Axis Animation, online went to STV News at 6: North. Sighthill•Darren Hercher Films for BBC Sport – Live Event•Sky Sports: Student Television Award• Two Scotland Scotland v England•Sky Sports for Antonio•Alison Still, Royal Biança Barker won the Documentary and Specialist Factual Sky Sports Conservatoire of Scotland Director award for Steadipix

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 35 RTS NEWS

ONLINE A brave at the RTS new n It’s been a hectic month on the digital desk. Kate Holman has been up to her neck in the world? archives as she reviewed the past year in the life of the RTS RTS London’s final for its annual general meeting session at ITV Studios at the end of May. And what a on the South Bank year it was! A Royal visit, our London Centre looked at how artificial most glittering awards to date intelligence (AI) could shape and a glut of star-spangled the future of broadcasting. events capturing the very best Very broadly, AI is teaching of UK television (www.rts.org.uk/ computers to “learn” from bestof2017). data without being program­ med (rather as humans do) – Intelligent enough to schedule programmes? n We have also had a look so-called “machine learning”. Shutterstock into the threat that social Ian Whitfield, founder of media poses to journalists Virtual AI and ex-ITV direc­ up many production pro­ real challenge,” he said. “Can working both here and abroad. tor of technology, explained cesses. “We’re analysing text, technology help us capture Orla Guerin, from BBC News, how his company’s systems audio and video to create content that represents the and Stuart Ramsay, from Sky enhance the automation of enhanced metadata and new spirit of BBC Four – the kind News, stand up to defend back-office processes that ways of presenting content. of content that our audience proper, honest journalism in an are fundamental to broadcast [There are] opportunities to will love?” era of fake news and citizen TV: “In channel scheduling, mine and monetise it, and George Wright, head of journalists (www.rts.org.uk/ many of the repetitive and service the content more internet research and future socialmediajourno). time-consuming tasks can effectively,” he said. services at BBC R&D, added: be done by robots.” BBC Four channel editor “We’re working on using AI n And we have some lighter With a low cost of entry, he Cassian Harrison revealed to make better programmes fare. Comedian and writer Tom claimed that payback for a a current project with BBC – the current project will ask, Davis, the co-creator of Murder straightforward system could Research & Development ‘What could an evening of in Successville, sat down for a take less than a year. (R&D) to use machine learn­ BBC Four chosen by AI look chat about his hit (and RTS IBM global cognitive solu­ ing to make the most of the like?’ And, ‘Can AI be dynamic award-nominated) BBC Three tions leader Doug Clark said BBC’s vast archive of audio- enough to respond in real show. From working as a scaf- that Watson – IBM’s AI brand visual content. time to audience feedback?’” folder, via a stint as a Little ­– is already helping to speed “Finding the best of it is a Nick Radlo Mermaid-inspired drag queen, to winning a Bafta, it’s been an unlikely route to fame for the upmarket 14th floor of LWT, 39-year-old Croydonite (www. Farewell to ITV Studios which was now called the rts.org.uk/TomDavis). Embankment Room. n After 17 years, ‘AI in broad- BBC, Granada, Channel 4 and ‘In 2010, we moved to the n And to round off a busy casting’ was the last RTS other digital broadcasters. old bar area, where we have month online, we spoke to London event to be held at ‘The review theatre was been ever since, attracting up Sinéad Keenan about her RTS ITV Studios, which are due to limited to about 60 seats, to 200-plus audiences to our award-winning role in ITV’s be demolished later this year. so, at several events, we events, which have ranged moving and harrowing Little Former London Chair Norman had people sitting on the across the disciplines that Boy Blue. In that Liverpool-set Green looks back at the cen- windowsills and the stairs to make up the TV industry. drama, she starred as Melanie tre’s long relationship with the the projection room, but we ‘It is with great sadness that Jones, the mother of Rhys Jones, South Bank building. stayed at LWT until spring we have to leave the LWT/ITV who was murdered, aged 11, in ‘On 8 February 2001, we 2007, when ITV carried out a Studios. We wish to say a big 2007. Keenan’s co-star, Stephen held our first event, “Inter- revamp of the 14th floor. thank you for their generosity Graham, also picked up an RTS active education”, at London ‘We took up residence at the over almost two decades, dur- award for his performance in Weekend Television’s (LWT) Moving Picture Company for ing which time they have pro- the production (www.rts.org.uk/ 14th-floor review theatre, with nine months, before moving vided the London Centre with SineadKeenan). a panel of experts from the back to the newly revamped, superb facilities at no charge.’ Ed Gove

36 This year’s RTS Young received support from People’s Media Festival industry professionals. The Border attracted 140 people to field was smaller this year, the

North East & the University of Sun­ with no entries in the Enter­ derland’s David Puttnam tainment category, but the Media Centre in May. The standard remained high. winners received awards and Tyneside Cinema, in col­ certificates from the North laboration with BFI Fiction East and the Border Centre. Film Academy and Northern ITV Tyne Tees content Stars Documentary Academy, editor Alex Watson hosted collected both Drama and the festival, which included Factual awards. industry networking and a Body Burying, by Anna mini-masterclass in camera­ Emmerson Robinson, Phoebe work. Kia Pegg and Connor Hay, Patrick Bell, Finn Smith Lawson from CBBC show Ogg and Eva Sykes, triumphed The Dumping Ground, which in Drama. Still Life, directed is filmed in the North East, by Amy Jobe, with Freya were special guests. Tarn-Chapman, Rebecca The festival has been run­ From left: Victoria Griffin, Burgess and Rowan Hodg­ Francesca Colpitts-Swaby, ning for more than 20 years son, won the Factual award. Kia Pegg and Connor Lawson and celebrates work from Dvileviciute Aine “The festival is a fantastic students, schools and colleges. opportunity to celebrate and In total, this year, there were encourage the young talent in 49 entries from young film- the region. I’m very proud of makers, from 13 institutions Festival backs the effort, enthusiasm and or on an individual basis. passion the students show,” Stratford-upon-Avon Col­ said Victoria Griffin, who took lege won the Drama award over from Tony Edwards as for God Save Us All and Fran­ young talent festival director this year. cesca Colpitts-Swaby was She added: “It is a great commended for Secrets. Carlisle College’s Josh Doggart, Factual entry Cardiac Arrest privilege to be able to bring In Entertainment, Durham Richard Dent, Hayden Leeks, in the Workplace. together the next generation Sixth Form Centre’s Emily Grant Lywood, Dean Brown The Professionally Sup­ of professionals with the Taylor won for her music and Luke Davidson received a ported category is for entries current industry.” video What Makes You Beautiful. commendation for the where young people have Matthew Bell The filming of Ryan’s Daughter remembered

At the end of May, RTS Cronin got permission

Republic of Ireland from Lean himself to shoot a celebrated the late RTÉ documentary for RTÉ about

Republic of Ireland producer/director the film. Graham was the Adrian Cronin’s documen­ lighting cameraman on the tary on the making of Ryan’s doc, which went behind the Daughter, with the help of scenes to observe how the Godfrey Graham, who local community reacted to worked on Cronin’s film. the arrival of the Hollywood The arrival in 1970 of the stars and to talk to those Oscar-winning director David with ringside seats at the Lean (The Bridge on the River biggest show in town. Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia) Gay Byrne, the host of in Dingle, Co Kerry, to make RTÉ’s The Late Late Show, Ryan’s Daughter was big news. described Cronin, a former The movie, set in the years RTÉ head of light entertain­ after the 1916 Easter Rising, ment, as the “best and sharp­ starred Robert Mitchum, est and most tasteful director Trevor Howard, John Mills of a live show”. Filming Ryan's Daughter (David Lean at the front) and Sarah Miles. Charles Byrne MGM

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 37 OFF M E SSAGE

here was a time presented screenwriter Andrew authoritative reporters. His exclu- when the long, light Davies with a challenge – how to sive interviews with members of the days of the merry make him less offensive to women. medical team who, remarkably, saved month of May her- Thankfully, the production, made the Skripals at Salisbury District Hos- alded a decline in by Lookout Point, has a female script pital were a genuine scoop. It gave the viewing opportuni- editor on board. current-affairs flagship some posi- ties, especially of Davies recently told the Hay Festi- tive publicity just as new editor Esme potentially award-winning drama. val: “We have a script editor in her Wren prepares to take over. NotT any more. In rapid succession, mid-twenties and she’s had some Urban, a prolific author on military audiences have been given a trio of problems with bits of Rabbit, Run.” He matters, is writing a book on the utterly brilliant shows: Sky Atlantic’s added: “We do want people, if not to Russians’ poisoning in Salisbury, Patrick Melrose, BBC One’s A Very Eng- love Rabbit, at least to understand which could pave the way for further lish Scandal and BBC Two’s King Lear. him.” Quite. Newsnight exclusives. The Times, not the BBC’s loudest cheerleader, gave Richard Eyre’s Lear ■ By the time you read this, the ■ Discovery is moving its Chiswick- the rare accolade of a full five-star World Cup will have kicked off. We based playout centre to the US, but, review. won’t know if England manages to a few miles further west, in Osterley, Sky has invested heavily in scripted reach the knockout stage of the tour- Sky has announced plans to build a in recent years, without always hitting nament until the end of the month. 6,500m2 innovation centre. the dizzy heights that rivals scale. For the BBC, the World Cup is the The building will house a growing Patrick Melrose surely represents the first time it officially broadcasts in number of engineers and software satellite broadcaster’s coming of age 4K and HDR. Via the iPlayer, the Beeb developers, with around 500 staff in drama. Benedict Cumberbatch’s is preparing to stream dozens of expected to be based there. It will performance is astonishing, notably matches on what is being described become Sky’s third technology site, in episode 1, which is, in effect, a one- as “a first-come, first-served basis”. operating alongside the existing bases man show. His depiction of the epon- A separate BBC World Cup virtual- in Leeds and Milan. ymous hero as upper-class junkie is reality experience is also in the Admirably, in common with the destined to concentrate the minds of ­pipeline. rest of Sky’s Osterley campus, the awards juries. Whatever the outcome of these new centre will be run entirely on But it must be said that Hugh Grant trials, it is significant that a major electricity from renewable sources. and Anthony Hopkins gave acting sporting event is once again the launch masterclasses, too. Let’s hope that pad for technological innovation at the ■ And, finally, this edition of Televi- ITV’s upcoming seven-part adapta- BBC. As readers will know, the combi- sion contains a report from an event tion of Vanity Fair, starring Olivia Cooke nation of 4K and HDR gives even more staged by the RTS’s Northern Ireland as Becky Sharp, matches the high vivid colour reproduction than HD. Centre, with Game of Thrones pro- standards set by these shows. Having said that, Off Message sin- duction designer Deborah Riley. cerely hopes that Gareth Southgate’s It was a memorable evening, not ■ Staying with TV drama based on young team isn’t given too many red least for the Thrones-styled pizzas great works of literature, Off Message cards, however bright they appear served following Deborah’s talk. is a fan of John Updike’s Rabbit books. on screen. Check out the pictures on Twitter In the age of #MeToo, the novels’ @RTS_NI. notorious lead character, womanis- ■ Mark Urban has long been London hipsters may never want ing Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, has regarded as one of Newsnight’s most to eat pizza at Franco Manca again.

38 June 2018 www.rts.org.uk Television RTS PATRONS RTS Principal BBC Channel 4 ITV Sky Patrons

RTS A+E Networks International NBCUniversal International International Akamai The Walt Disney Company Patrons CGTN Turner Broadcasting System Inc Discovery Networks Viacom International Media Networks Facebook YouTube Liberty Global

RTS Accenture Deloitte ITN STV Group Major Amazon Video EndemolShine KPMG TalkTalk Patrons Atos Enders Analysis McKinsey and Co UKTV Audio Network Entertainment One OC&C Vice Boston Consulting Finecast Pinewood Studios Virgin Media Group FremantleMedia S4C YouView BT IBM Sargent-Disc Channel 5 IMG Studios Sony

RTS Alvarez & Marsal LLP Lumina Search Snell Advanced Media Patrons Autocue PricewaterhouseCoopers UTV Television Digital Television Group Raidió Teilifís Éireann Vinten Broadcast

Who’s who Patron Chair of RTS Trustees CENTRES COUNCIL RTS Futures at the RTS HRH The Prince of Wales Tom Mockridge Lynn Barlow Alex Wootten Charles Byrne Vice-Presidents Honorary Secretary Dan Cherowbrier IBC Conference Liaison David Abraham David Lowen Caren Davies Terry Marsh Dawn Airey Kieran Doherty Sir David Attenborough OM Honorary Treasurer Stephanie Farmer RTS Technology Bursaries CH CVO CBE FRS Mike Green Cat Lewis Simon Pitts Baroness Floella Kingsley Marshall Benjamin OBE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jane Muirhead AWARDS COMMITTEE Dame Colette Bowe OBE Lynn Barlow Will Nicholson CHAIRS Lord Bragg of Wigton Tim Davie Nikki O’Donnell Awards & Fellowship John Cresswell Mike Green Tony Orme Policy Adam Crozier David Lowen Fiona Thompson David Lowen Mike Darcey Graham McWilliam Judith Winnan Greg Dyke Tom Mockridge Craft & Design Awards Lord Hall of Birkenhead Simon Pitts SPECIALIST GROUP Lee Connolly Lorraine Heggessey Jane Turton CHAIRS Ashley Highfield Rob Woodward Archives Programme Awards Armando Iannucci OBE Dale Grayson Wayne Garvie Ian Jones EXECUTIVE Baroness Lawrence of Chief Executive Diversity Student Television Clarendon OBE Theresa Wise Angela Ferreira Awards David Lynn Phil Edgar-Jones Sir Trevor McDonald OBE Early Evening Events Ken MacQuarrie Dan Brooke Television Journalism Gavin Patterson Awards Trevor Phillips OBE Education Sue Inglish Stewart Purvis CBE Graeme Thompson Sir Howard Stringer

Television www.rts.org.uk June 2018 39 RTS_ADVERTISING_MASTER_OUTLINE.pdf 1 25/05/2018 16:51

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