Scrutable

Plans to protect “distinctively British” shows and broadcasters have been set out by the Media Minister today at the Royal Television Society Convention.

Media Minister John Whittingdale announced the new rules for public service broadcasters (PSBs) to make “iconic, not generic” British shows in a bid to help them compete with US streaming giants. ... Shows like Dr Who, Downton Abbey, Great British Bake Off, Top Gear, The Bodyguard and Planet Earth were given as examples of popular British TV shows which “reflect Britain and British values”.

Hhm. No mention of shows like Goodness Gracious Me, I Will Destroy You, Small Axe, Fleabag, Detectorists, A House Through Time ... add your own list here.

If they'd framed it as 'let's do what we do best and not try to compete with US TV's huge budgets' along with less obviously white middle class examples that would have been a different matter.

https://www.cityam.com/new-britishness- ... um=twitter

To answer the headline question: Yes and I was.

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:46 pm

Plans to protect “distinctively British” shows and broadcasters have been set out by the Media Minister today at the Royal Television Society Convention.

Media Minister John Whittingdale announced the new rules for public service broadcasters (PSBs) to make “iconic, not generic” British shows in a bid to help them compete with US streaming giants. ... Shows like Dr Who, Downton Abbey, Great British Bake Off, Top Gear, The Bodyguard and Planet Earth were given as examples of popular British TV shows which “reflect Britain and British values”.

Hhm. No mention of shows like Goodness Gracious Me, I Will Destroy You, Small Axe, Fleabag, Detectorists, A House Through Time ... add your own list here.

If they'd framed it as 'let's do what we do best and not try to compete with US TV's huge budgets' along with less obviously white middle class examples that would have been a different matter.

https://www.cityam.com/new-britishness- ... um=twitter

4 of those are made by the BBC. The same BBC that those pricks want to destroy.
Having their cake and eating it runs through the heart of this worthless shower of c.nts

Also Man Like Mobeen and We Are Lady Parts. And Worzel Gummidge - I've never seen the Bill Pertwee version but the Mackenzie Crook series is magical.

Reading his speech you can tell he really wants to say that TV today is generic rubbish but can't because even he has to admit there's great stuff being produced. Instead he has to put in qualifiers which reduce the power of his words considerably,

"Contrast that with some of the programmes you can get on demand today.

They can be brilliantly entertaining - but many of them have no real identity, no genuine sense of place. Some of them look like they’ve been cleverly generated by a streaming algorithm to maximise their target audience globally." [my emphasis]

Some shows are generic garbage but that's always been the case. The fact he refers to shows still in production (Derry Girls, Googlebox, GBBO, Dr Who) also undermines his argument. Personally, I'd argue that we're in a real golden age for British TV that isn't just being made for the mass audience but instead is trying new things and appealing to new more niche audiences. We are seeing a much greater slice of British life making it to the screen. It's just that slice includes people that Whittingdale and his colleagues would really rather weren't part of the British experience.

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:46 pm

Plans to protect “distinctively British” shows and broadcasters have been set out by the Media Minister today at the Royal Television Society Convention.

Media Minister John Whittingdale announced the new rules for public service broadcasters (PSBs) to make “iconic, not generic” British shows in a bid to help them compete with US streaming giants. ... Shows like Dr Who, Downton Abbey, Great British Bake Off, Top Gear, The Bodyguard and Planet Earth were given as examples of popular British TV shows which “reflect Britain and British values”.

Hhm. No mention of shows like Goodness Gracious Me, I Will Destroy You, Small Axe, Fleabag, Detectorists, A House Through Time ... add your own list here.

If they'd framed it as 'let's do what we do best and not try to compete with US TV's huge budgets' along with less obviously white middle class examples that would have been a different matter.

https://www.cityam.com/new-britishness- ... um=twitter

Was there any mention of examples that weren't good/british enough? That may be more enlightening than the positives.

I'd like to see a definition of these "British values" to which he refers - 'cos I don't see much that I'd count as good or decent values from the current government.

Lew Dolby wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:41 pm

I'd like to see a definition of these "British values" to which he refers - 'cos I don't see much that I'd count as good or decent values from the current government.

They're working on it, apparently.

tom p wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:58 pm

Having their cake and eating it runs through the heart of this worthless shower of c.nts

That is why I now routinely call them the Cakeist party. As that trashy scandal-rag the Financial Times said quite some time ago now, they have abandoned the signature policies of the Conservative Party for the last century or two - sound economics and the union - and become a populist nationalist party instead. Cakeism is common among populist nationalists. You can find plenty of politicians who promised the electorate they'd what give them what they wanted without raising taxes (very much), and then discovered there was nowhere near enough money to pay for it. Pure eat cake and have it. Or, as they say in Kazakhstan, eat horse and ride it.

But this is one of their common tactics of making a fuss about something where there's no issue anyway. They try to get points for patriotism, preferably without actually having to do anything of much practical effect that might annoy anyone. A large proportion of the content on British television is distinctively British anyway. It's not small abroad countries, where a lot of what is shown is foreign and dubbed. My late mother-in-law used to watch endless British detective shows dubbed into Czech. When did a Czech drama get shown on British TV?

Just to turn this around, as a British person who makes telly for a living I spend at least half of each year making American programmes (or al least programmes that are funded by and first broadcast in the US before being sold to broadcasters around the world).

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:46 pm

Plans to protect “distinctively British” shows and broadcasters have been set out by the Media Minister today at the Royal Television Society Convention.

Media Minister John Whittingdale announced the new rules for public service broadcasters (PSBs) to make “iconic, not generic” British shows in a bid to help them compete with US streaming giants. ... Shows like Dr Who, Downton Abbey, Great British Bake Off, Top Gear, The Bodyguard and Planet Earth were given as examples of popular British TV shows which “reflect Britain and British values”.

Hhm. No mention of shows like Goodness Gracious Me, I Will Destroy You, Small Axe, Fleabag, Detectorists, A House Through Time ... add your own list here.

If they'd framed it as 'let's do what we do best and not try to compete with US TV's huge budgets' along with less obviously white middle class examples that would have been a different matter.

https://www.cityam.com/new-britishness- ... um=twitter

Be fair, he did mention the Carry On films...

individualmember wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:16 pm

Just to turn this around, as a British person who makes telly for a living I spend at least half of each year making American programmes (or al least programmes that are funded by and first broadcast in the US before being sold to broadcasters around the world).

It really doesn't matter where the funding comes from as long as the talent and style is British. Anyone who has ever tried to get a film made in this country will tell you they will take money from anywhere.

individualmember wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:16 pm

Just to turn this around, as a British person who makes telly for a living I spend at least half of each year making American programmes (or al least programmes that are funded by and first broadcast in the US before being sold to broadcasters around the world).

That's called exporting. It increases the value of the export if the foreigner pays in full for it, rather than just buying a licence to air a programme funded and broadcast locally first.

May you get even more such business, despite the failure of the government to support this one of our most valuable export industries.

So looking forward to the likes of Triangle making a comeback...

FlammableFlower wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:13 pm

So looking forward to the likes of Triangle making a comeback...

And Love Thy Neighbour.

Boustrophedon wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:51 pm

To answer the headline question: Yes and I was.

I was a contestant on Al Murray's straight-to-Dave pub-quiz format Compete for the Meat. I think it's impossible to be more British than that.

IvanV wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:15 pm

individualmember wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:16 pm

Just to turn this around, as a British person who makes telly for a living I spend at least half of each year making American programmes (or al least programmes that are funded by and first broadcast in the US before being sold to broadcasters around the world).

That's called exporting. It increases the value of the export if the foreigner pays in full for it, rather than just buying a licence to air a programme funded and broadcast locally first.

May you get even more such business, despite the failure of the government to support this one of our most valuable export industries.

Thanks, I’m doing that kind of thing now, which keeps me employed until the end on November. No work arranged after that but I’ve just had an enquiry to do another (true crime doc) in probably January/February. I think we do have a particular style that we can bend towards the American market fairly easily. Not that we’re taught to do it in a British style (ffs I never studied this in any formal way, although you might think I had if you looked at my bookshelves), it’s more that we’ve grown up watching the kind of ‘landmark series’ tv shows that have production values different from most US tv.