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quality control
Maggie Brown reflects on this year’s Edinburgh International Television Festival
“ITV is like two men fighting over an ice cream in the sun, with David Liddiment turning up the air conditioning.”
From Mark Thompson’s MacTaggart Memorial Lecture onwards, it was effi- cient – everything ran to time, it covered most of the ground – but not vintage.
There’s even a suggestion from independent producer Jane Hewland that it’s time to “knock it on the head.”
The truth is that, in confer- ences as in television, it is hard to keep up quality across fifty sessions packed into two and a half days. Some were brilliant, others – weak debates on drama, tame discussions on the BBC – extremely disappointing.
Often five events ran against each other, meaning good stuff such as a cogent speech on the value of foreign investment from Anne Sweeney, president Disney Channel Worldwide and ABC Cable Networks, was easy to miss.
That’s the first time anyone of substance from the US studios has put the case, yet it sank without trace at insular Edinburgh. Next year’s organisers must address the
issue: would it be better to do fewer sessions around key themes?
They might also ponder why the, ITV’s Rocky Road: Where Next? worked so well.
The answers are preparation and casting, an introductory tape, setting up the discussion, and a panel, including Stewart Prebble and David Elstein, pre- pared to have a frank debate about the collapse of ITV Digital and ITV’s agonies.
Prebble produced the quote of the festival: “ITV is like two men fighting over an ice cream in the sun, with David Liddiment turning up the air conditioning.”
In contrast, too many Meet
the Controllers sessions, prefaced with show reels selected by inter- viewees, degenerated into soft conversations rather than revela- tory questions and answers. But then delegates, often independ- ent producers. seem scared to put tough questions from the floor.
Mark Thompson’s first major outing as Channel 4’s chief exec- utive – he’s now sporting an auburn beard – began with the confession he’d been confined to home on gardening leave by Greg Dyke, and had had the first chance for years to watch televi- sion in his own time, as a viewer.
“Well, all I can say is I wish someone had warned me... much of it just feels so dull, mechanical and samey”. This was an insight indeed from the BBC’s former director of television!
His conclusion was that there needed to be more risk, and that Channel 4 would fill this “creative deficit”. The pledge – to make it more experimental, reinvent entertainment, back drama “with attitude” and refocus on the main channel rather than brand extensions – was certainly one the Government wants to hear, though it must have annoyed Tim Gardam, programme director, and team. It forms part of Channel 4’s current pitch to seek special protection from the Communications Bill.
Thompson also pledged to slash overheads by a massive one third, which suggests he’s inherited a very plump organisa- tion, releasing £30 million extra funds for programme.
But there is no plan to retreat from its digital channels. The one deliberately muddling bit was a plea for Government “underpin- ning” for its programme budget in the long term. No-one is sure what concessions Channel 4 is seeking: this plea was an outward sign of a very tense debate tak- ing place within the company’s board room.
While Thompson’s speech hardly pinned delegates to their seats, the atmosphere was totally different at the packed Chris Evans session, where he was interviewed by Channel 5’s mischievous Kevin Lygo.
Evans explained the key role for live television, what he’d learned in Los Angeles, what he hoped to do here in new strands for C5 and C4, and why ITV should bring back Richard & Judy. Determined to build a new production company, you were left thinking Evans should be on screen.
There was also this same surge of energy and passion for the medium from two quite different speakers: Geraldo Rivera, on why he’d gone as a Fox News war correspondent to Afghanistan, carrying a gun, and Orla Guerin, the BBC’s Middle East correspon- dent in the session: They Shoot Reporters Don’t They?
Guerin pointed out how restric- tive conditions had become for reporters in Israel, and that while she would never carry a gun, she appreciated being able to call up security minders.
Lord Puttnam, delivering the World View winding up Edinburgh, gave a valuable critique of Britain’s long history of caving in to powerful media magnates such as Rupert Murdoch.
He also had words of advice for Greg Dyke: “Be more Mandela than Murdoch, more Blair than Bush”. Don’t turn “Auntie BBC” into an “abusive Uncle”. His was the speech from Edinburgh we’ll keep returning to.
Photo: Mark Thompson
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