The Trouble with TV Drama

[smittims]

I'd be glad to see other people's views on this.

I've seen many a TV drama well-filmed, well-acted, but spoilt by a poor script. I suupose they are prey to interference by managers who worry that it isn't going to sell unless it's altered to reflect this, or that.

It seems to happen to long-running series, which seem to me to be doing very well indeed until someone comes along and introduces changes which deter me from watching. 'Wycliffe' is a good example, currently being repeated on ITV3. The later series became quite unpleasantly violent and unbelievable.

I'm relieved that 'Doc Martin' has resisted the temptation to change; the last series is , I think, as good as the first.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Yes, I see your point.

I'm continually setting aside actions / decisions that no investigator / policeman would make - unnecessary risks, disclosure of information to those outside the investigation. I'm sure its quite deliberate as they surely have knowledgeable advisors - I tell myself "its all entertainment".

I wonder why I still bother reading newsmedia - whenever a story appeared in relation to my specialism, they inevitably got it wrong, and sometimes because it made a better story. How reliable is a lot of it?

(Well - Private Eye has long exposed the grubby back scratching and sucking up practises of the media - papers in particular. I'm not sure if it was (once) linked from here, but the Blog by brokenbottleboy extends the swamp of collusion and corruption even more:

https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/

(Have to say, this being a very civilised and at times genteel corner of the web, I have refrained, so far, from mentioning this "Conquest of the Useless" site).

Added on Edit: I haven't been expecially anti-Monarchy as I have even less confidence in an alternative and can only hope Charles really does slim it all down and cut down the whole show. Really, any election is subject to the manipulation of the media barons - the electorate keep letting us (well me) down; and why would I want someone installed by the likes of our MPs?

The latest post on the blog "Saluting an empty train" does highlight the contrast with faultless pomp and ceremony, as against our public services have failed and are unlikely to get better, multiple problems too numerous to list face us after years of wanton neglect or harm. Our younger generations live a disadvantaged life and are expected to accept sustaining very elderley cohorts and, handed down, a terrible burden of debt repayment (financial crash, Covid, now Truss'onomics - all added to the long term debt (meaning not being repaid by all of us any time soon, it seems). Finally, mentioning one particular - in general those in their 20s and 30s (and a fair few above the age of 60) have to accept excruciating rents, their sole option, often for substandard accommodation. Surely the electorate are not going to accept this much longer?

[smittims]

Hmm, thanks for that thought-provoking pst. Not sure how close to the topic it was, but, hey, it's Friday.

[LHC]

Getting back to the thread, I think one of the problems with these long-running drama series (and particularly those involving detectives) is that they are often based on books, with the early series all being adaptations of the stories created by the original writer. However, they pretty quickly run out of books to adapt, and then have to turn to TV script writers to come up with new stories for an existing set of characters.

This is certainly the case with Wycliffe, and also I think Shetland, Vera etc. The first few seasons were all (more or less) of existing books, but the later, and often less successful seasons have been written by writers for hire (and probably with a tight schedule dictated by the TV company).

[smittims]

Ah yes: 'based on characters created by...' and so on. It raises the questionof how much say the original author has over their work.

I was struck by the total absence of Zoe Heller's name in any of the documentation accompanying the film of her novel 'Notes on a Scandal' and I wondered if it was because they altered the plot so drastically at the end (to its detriment, I thought) , and it was

'You cant do that.'

'Can't we? Read yer contract'.

'In that case count me out'.

[eighthobstruction]

I'm relieved that 'Doc Martin' has resisted the temptation to change; the last series is , I think, as good as the first.

....Ah yes a successful writing team who meet and say "Shall we run the same script again, and just change a few things around"

... ....[I watch it]

[Mal]

I'm relieved that 'Doc Martin' has resisted the temptation to change...

Dominic Minghella is a star turn on twitter! Really laying into Johnson and his band of eejits. I think he'd eat alive any manager who tried to alter his artistic vision.

I'm currently ploughing through all back episodes of Silent Witness. It's becoming a bit of a hard slog through *not* changing. Another day at the morgue. Another helicopter crash...

[Serial_Apologist]

What irritates me about so much contemporary TV drama is both the improbability of so many of its story lines and their depressing irrelevance to current needs. Constantly grooming people's feelings of powerlessness is demeaning and demoralising!

I say we should crowdfund Loach for a series, or at least a serial. Or to go towards establishing a new conservatoire for radical alternative approaches to theatre and film, like there was back in the 1950s. Let's see people thinking through the consequences of the world's present predicament and organising practicable alternatives for some encouragement and nourishment, whether it's a utopian figment of some surviving optimist's imagination, or even focussed at a "think globally, act locally" level.

[smittims]

Amen re Ken Loach! 'Spirit of 45' was a light in the gloom.