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behind tv
torn from the headlines
When history turns into current affairs... Matthew Bell reports on the challenge facing programme makers
Photos l-r: Director/Producer Tom Roberts and a scene from his documentary Kill ‘em All - American War Crimes in Korea; The Siege Of Bethlehem; Slobodan Milosevic in Brook Lapping’s series, The Fall of Milosevic
With much of the world’s population afflicted by war, terror or poverty, the 21st century is already shaping up to be quite as horrible as the pre- vious, bloody 100 years.
It’s a tough task for the coun- try’s current affairs programme- makers to keep the British public informed about the big stories from around the globe. Are they up to the challenge?
One thing is for certain, since the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon the TV audi- ence is more interested in inter- national current affairs than for many years.
“The most dramatic thing about September 11 was that it served, probably for the first time ever, to make the wider public aware that what happens a long way away can impact in the most dramatic way on all our lives,” says James Goldston, edi- tor of ITV1’s current affairs pro-
gramme, Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
September 11 and British involvement in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq have allowed programmes like Tonight to increase their coverage of for- eign current affairs.
“We can bring an audience to international stories in a way that it was hard to do before because people, in the most horrible way imaginable, now understand why they matter. People are scared. When there are terror drills on the Underground and we’re being told a terror attack is inevitable, people take [the threat] serious- ly,” says Goldston.
Indeed, one of Tonight’s pro- grammes last month, Are We Losing The War On Terror?, investi- gated fears that a terrorist attack in Britain may be inevitable.
Tom Roberts, the managing director of factual programme- maker October Films, is an
award-winning director/producer of hard-hitting documentaries such as Kill ‘em All – American War Crimes in Korea for BBC2’s Timewatch and Channel 4’s The Death Train about Stalin’s deter- mination to build a railway through the Arctic Circle that cost 100,000 lives.
“They’re all really positive and upbeat titles. If there was torture, blood or mayhem I was there,” he says. Reflecting the current turmoil – and consequent interest – in the region, Roberts is working on his fourth programme on the Middle East in two years.
“There’s a war on terror being fought by Bush, there’s the pene- tration of America into the Middle East on a much bigger scale and there’s the localised conflict of the Palestinians and Israelis which has a much wider implication for international policy,” he explains.
“For Chrissakes,” adds Roberts, “the Americans have put forward
“They’re
all really positive and upbeat titles. If there was torture, blood or mayhem I was there...”
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