It was nice to see Bruce Forsyth in "Who Do You Think You Are?"
Is the sun setting on the golden age of the British independent television producer? If you were one of those fortunate baby boomers we keep reading about at the moment and you went into television production, you were doubly blessed. Anyone born in the 1950s or early 1960s was just getting into their professional stride when the three big opportunities came along. The first was in 1982, when Channel 4 was established to commission shows only from independent producers. Many people started their first company then, among them Alex Graham with his outfit Wall to Wall—more of him in a minute.
Then in 1988 Margaret Thatcher’s government forced the BBC and ITV to outsource a quarter of their programming, something many of us producers set up shop to exploit. Finally, the Communications Act of 2003 allowed producers to own the rights in the shows they made. Their aggressive exploitation of these rights has led to an extraordinary achievement—when last analysed, Britain had captured more than half of the worldwide trade in television entertainment formats. One of the most successful of these has been Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ITV paid for the pilot and took the risk airing the first series. And, as the monies flowed into its independent producer Celador from the 100-odd countries it sold to, how much did the channel get? Zero. The answer to the question: “Who wants to be a millionaire?” in the Cole Porter song is, “I don’t.” ITV apparently didn’t either—but it does now. The channel is determined that this shouldn’t happen again and is just one of the parties intent on dismantling the regime favourable to the indies.
On BBC1, another of the independent sector’s format juggernauts rolled on through August and September: the eighth series of Who Do You Think You Are? I invented Who Do You Think You Are?, but unfortunately not this one. About ten years ago I sensed genealogy might have some mileage and pitched a show to BBC2. It involved tracing the family of a member of the public and introducing them to relatives they never knew they had. It didn’t really work. Ordinary folk = not very interesting. And they were even less interesting when they were being introduced to distant cousins who left them cold. Shortly afterwards, Alex Graham of Wall to Wall also pitched Who Do You Think You Are? to the BBC—but in a simpler format and involving celebrities. The rest is (in this case, literally) history.
The latest series has seen Bruce Forsyth discover a bigamist in his family tree. Brucie, it turns out, does moral distaste well. Then comedian Alexander Armstrong traced his line back to royalty (there had to be an explanation for his fruity voice). Those editions worked because the narratives were surprising and both subjects were articulate in their reactions. Later we had Rupert Penry-Jones and Jason Donovan discover, respectively, a bloodthirsty Indian army officer and a Jewish convict. Both Rupert and Jason are thesps and not so comfortable in unscripted situations. But their’s were still good yarns—this is a wonderful way to explore history. The format has sold well abroad. Most lucratively of all it has also been launched in the US. And in the past few weeks the production group of which Wall to Wall is a part has been sold for a tidy sum to Time Warner. Much of the value, of course, was in the sort of intellectual property that Alex Graham had been able to retain.
September also saw a one-off on Channel 4, Who Do You Think You Were? In it fireman Neil Clarke (“I’m a bloke from Stoke”) was hypnotised by one Trevor Roberts, a past-life regressionist. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Trevor apparently gets people to remember their—ahem—previous life. Neil thought he had been a murderous 19th-century landowner in Glossop called Peter John Hawksworth. Enquiries subsequently revealed no such person had ever existed and as Neil passed a pile of manure he mused, “A big pile of shit, a metaphor for this documentary.” We’re with you, Neil. But at least the producers, Century Films, maintained a sceptical tone throughout.
On the eve of the August bank holiday Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, gave the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival. His criticisms of the Murdoch family were widely reported. Less remarked upon were his words supporting those who wish to rewrite the business terms for independent producers. It seems that Alex Graham and a number of us who were born in the right decade have enjoyed the best era of independent television production. Today’s younger practitioners may ask, “Who do I think I will be?” And the answer may be: an independent producer—but not nearly as rich a one as those lucky baby boomers.
Is the sun setting on the golden age of the British independent television producer? If you were one of those fortunate baby boomers we keep reading about at the moment and you went into television production, you were doubly blessed. Anyone born in the 1950s or early 1960s was just getting into their professional stride when the three big opportunities came along. The first was in 1982, when Channel 4 was established to commission shows only from independent producers. Many people started their first company then, among them Alex Graham with his outfit Wall to Wall—more of him in a minute.
Then in 1988 Margaret Thatcher’s government forced the BBC and ITV to outsource a quarter of their programming, something many of us producers set up shop to exploit. Finally, the Communications Act of 2003 allowed producers to own the rights in the shows they made. Their aggressive exploitation of these rights has led to an extraordinary achievement—when last analysed, Britain had captured more than half of the worldwide trade in television entertainment formats. One of the most successful of these has been Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ITV paid for the pilot and took the risk airing the first series. And, as the monies flowed into its independent producer Celador from the 100-odd countries it sold to, how much did the channel get? Zero. The answer to the question: “Who wants to be a millionaire?” in the Cole Porter song is, “I don’t.” ITV apparently didn’t either—but it does now. The channel is determined that this shouldn’t happen again and is just one of the parties intent on dismantling the regime favourable to the indies.
On BBC1, another of the independent sector’s format juggernauts rolled on through August and September: the eighth series of Who Do You Think You Are? I invented Who Do You Think You Are?, but unfortunately not this one. About ten years ago I sensed genealogy might have some mileage and pitched a show to BBC2. It involved tracing the family of a member of the public and introducing them to relatives they never knew they had. It didn’t really work. Ordinary folk = not very interesting. And they were even less interesting when they were being introduced to distant cousins who left them cold. Shortly afterwards, Alex Graham of Wall to Wall also pitched Who Do You Think You Are? to the BBC—but in a simpler format and involving celebrities. The rest is (in this case, literally) history.
The latest series has seen Bruce Forsyth discover a bigamist in his family tree. Brucie, it turns out, does moral distaste well. Then comedian Alexander Armstrong traced his line back to royalty (there had to be an explanation for his fruity voice). Those editions worked because the narratives were surprising and both subjects were articulate in their reactions. Later we had Rupert Penry-Jones and Jason Donovan discover, respectively, a bloodthirsty Indian army officer and a Jewish convict. Both Rupert and Jason are thesps and not so comfortable in unscripted situations. But their’s were still good yarns—this is a wonderful way to explore history. The format has sold well abroad. Most lucratively of all it has also been launched in the US. And in the past few weeks the production group of which Wall to Wall is a part has been sold for a tidy sum to Time Warner. Much of the value, of course, was in the sort of intellectual property that Alex Graham had been able to retain.
September also saw a one-off on Channel 4, Who Do You Think You Were? In it fireman Neil Clarke (“I’m a bloke from Stoke”) was hypnotised by one Trevor Roberts, a past-life regressionist. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Trevor apparently gets people to remember their—ahem—previous life. Neil thought he had been a murderous 19th-century landowner in Glossop called Peter John Hawksworth. Enquiries subsequently revealed no such person had ever existed and as Neil passed a pile of manure he mused, “A big pile of shit, a metaphor for this documentary.” We’re with you, Neil. But at least the producers, Century Films, maintained a sceptical tone throughout.
On the eve of the August bank holiday Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, gave the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival. His criticisms of the Murdoch family were widely reported. Less remarked upon were his words supporting those who wish to rewrite the business terms for independent producers. It seems that Alex Graham and a number of us who were born in the right decade have enjoyed the best era of independent television production. Today’s younger practitioners may ask, “Who do I think I will be?” And the answer may be: an independent producer—but not nearly as rich a one as those lucky baby boomers.
