What has happened to British TV drama?

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  • aeolium
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 3992

    What has happened to British TV drama?

    Amid the general enthusiasm for foreign TV drama, especially crime series, there doesn't seem to be much discussion about the state of the local product. After all, it wasn't so long ago (well, from the late 1960s to the 1990s mainly) that there was a kind of conveyor belt of interesting, varied British drama on TV: Alan Plater, Dennis Potter, Mike Leigh, Alan Bleasdale, Troy Kennedy Martin, Andrew Davies (A Very Peculiar Practice), Peter Flannery, Tony Marchant among others.

    It's not as though we aren't living in extraordinarily dramatic times. We have recently experienced one of the worst global economic crashes in history; there is revolution and civil war across much of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as a clash of ideas within religions and between fundamentalists and secularism; the world is riven by intense climate extremes with ice storms, floods and drought; there are constant revolutions in communication with the rise of social media and global awareness; there is an unprecedented degree of sexual freedom at least in predominantly secular countries, at the same time clashing with a conservative reaction to that freedom; and a continuing change in our understanding of almost every area of scientific inquiry (which itself has given rise to some excellent plays by Frayn and Stoppard).

    Yet how are these changes represented in British TV drama: there is a long-running children's series revamped for the C21; a series on 1950s midwifery; Sherlock Holmes re-imagined for the modern age; and a series written by a Lord about the days when the classes knew their places Has the curse of the marketing man suffocated TV drama, eliminating the controversial and the subversive and leaving only the bland and the formulaic?
  • Honoured Guest

    #2
    I haven't watched it yet, but last weekend the Sunday night primetime Channel 4 programme was Babylon, a feature length original comedy drama directed by Danny Boyle about the public profile and the actual practice of London's Met police force. Comedy and drama have blurred with the likes of Fresh Meat, Shameless and Twenty Twelve.

    In general, Channel 4 and BBC2 original tv drama now takes a serial or series form, rather than single dramas, and is often excellent. Line of Duty Series 2 begins tonight on primetime BBC2. ITV has recently beefed up its tv drama production.

    BBC and Channel 4 still have film arms which produce the sort of dramas you're pining for, and these films are broadcast on tv after their cinema and dvd releases.

    Of course, the other thing that's "happened" is the mushrooming of the continuing drama series, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Doctors, which have taken on much of the provision of social drama and situation comedy.

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    • eighthobstruction
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 6432

      #3
      Babylon very very cartoony....stereotyping cameos (in fact everybody was a cameo) + exaggerated characters....the public ; all but invisible until they needed someone shot....codswallop really....
      bong ching

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      • french frank
        Administrator/Moderator
        • Feb 2007
        • 30250

        #4
        I don't know why it's supposed that people will sit and watch a full-length feature film (even on television) but not a full-length 'play' (i.e. a written for television one-off). I suppose there will always be a balance between cost v. size of audience, so they play safe with police/detective/hospitals/doctors.

        I don't like to mention things I don't know about, but are Casualty and Holby City both still being broadcast?
        It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

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        • ferneyhoughgeliebte
          Gone fishin'
          • Sep 2011
          • 30163

          #5
          Serials - and especially crime serials - have replaced the one-off television dramas that were a staple feature of television in the '60s and '70s (Play for Today, Armchair Theatre on both BBC and ITV: any modern equivalent of Dennis Potter or David Mercer or any of the writers aeolie mentions will have to turn to novel writing if they want to communicate their ideas and talents. The cliché that "if Shakespeare was alive today he'd be writing for Eastenders" overlooks the fact that he'd probably have to - there's beggur all else on TV he could write for.
          [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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          • Honoured Guest

            #6
            All the writers mentioned by aeolium have written several tv series, except for Mike Leigh who has been able to continue making films for cinema, which was his goal all along, even when initially writing for theatre and then for tv. Last Friday, Channel 4 screened again a film drama originally given a limited cinema distribution, Weekend, which was a real pleasure to experience in the cinema, on the big screen in the company of a warmly receptive audience. In the 70s it would have been made just for tv (Channel Four 9.00 midweek or BBC2 10.00 Sunday or BBC1 9,25 midweek) but it got much more prominence by its initial film festival screenings and its cinema distribution and dvd release, and then it was shown on tv anyway, so I see it as a good thing that a lot of single drama has upscaled from tv-only to cinema and dvd first.

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            • gurnemanz
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 7381

              #7
              There is still plenty of "drama" on TV. What I used to enjoy was the one-off TV play which has more or less died. Dennis Potter, Alan Bleasdale and others then did very good serialised plays, which have become the preferred format up till today.

              I can remember the Wednesday Plays and was probably too young to appreciate some of them at the time. I think quite few of the early ones went out live which made it more like a one-off theatre performance. Stephen Poliakoff is the main one to have kept at it with one-off TV dramas. Mike Leigh and Ken Loach have gone over to the cinema. Stoppard, David Hare, Simon Gray and Alan Bennett have mainly stuck to live theatre more recently. TV is now very diffuse and the one-off play seemed to flourish more in the era of 3 channel TV.

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              • jean
                Late member
                • Nov 2010
                • 7100

                #8
                David Hare was talking about this very topic on WATO today

                (But what has happened to my bookmarked link to the Radio 4 iplayer? It used to give me an easy-to-follow list of programmes in chronological order for the whole week. I wanted to post a link to today's WATO but I can't find it! Help!)

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                • Honoured Guest

                  #9
                  I forget to mention that Sky Arts has run several short series of one-off plays specially written and produced by theatre companies and filmed as live, so quite cheap but also a revival of sorts of the live tv drama tradition Gurnemanz reminds us of. They've been quite well received on the whole. I haven't seen any of them as Sky Arts isn't in my tv bundle.

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                  • aeolium
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 3992

                    #10
                    Thanks to ferney and gurnemanz for mentioning other TV drama writers whom I should have remembered Some of David Mercer's works were excellent, Stoppard and Frayn with works like Professional Foul and Make or Break, Hare, Gray, Bennett, Peter Terson another. I just had the sense that there was a lot more unpredictable and individual work then compared with now, perhaps because of greater opportunities for new playwrights and more adventurous commissioning. Another factor perhaps was the great wealth of character acting talent in that era and while there are impressive actors and actresses around today I don't feel that they are interested in working in TV but more in film or on the stage.

                    Stillhomewardbound would perhaps know more about the reasons for these changes.

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                    • teamsaint
                      Full Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 25195

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Honoured Guest View Post
                      I forget to mention that Sky Arts has run several short series of one-off plays specially written and produced by theatre companies and filmed as live, so quite cheap but also a revival of sorts of the live tv drama tradition Gurnemanz reminds us of. They've been quite well received on the whole. I haven't seen any of them as Sky Arts isn't in my tv bundle.
                      If you get your TV via a satellite, Sky arts is available in the cheapest package.

                      If you want Sky arts , i would suggest phoning and haggling.
                      I am currently on one year, 75% discount for entertainment plus sport, cancel any time.

                      Back to terrestrial (if it still is), I find so much drama seems to be aimed at the under 35's, or to be concerned with serial killers, or other serious crime, that I long ago gave up looking for it.

                      Plenty of Dennis Potter is available on youtube, incidentally.
                      I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                      I am not a number, I am a free man.

                      Comment

                      • aeolium
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 3992

                        #12
                        Originally posted by jean View Post
                        David Hare was talking about this very topic on WATO today

                        (But what has happened to my bookmarked link to the Radio 4 iplayer? It used to give me an easy-to-follow list of programmes in chronological order for the whole week. I wanted to post a link to today's WATO but I can't find it! Help!)
                        Do you mean this, jean (the podcast)?

                        Comment

                        • french frank
                          Administrator/Moderator
                          • Feb 2007
                          • 30250

                          #13
                          Originally posted by jean View Post
                          (But what has happened to my bookmarked link to the Radio 4 iplayer? It used to give me an easy-to-follow list of programmes in chronological order for the whole week. I wanted to post a link to today's WATO but I can't find it! Help!)
                          The Radio 3 one that I used to use no longer works. I asked a question on the Facebook page two days ago but the inter- part of interactivity only works one way, apparently.

                          The point about series taking over from one-off plays doesn't answer the question about the difference between full-length (commercial) films on television and full-length plays. Is it what the broadcasters prefer or the audiences?
                          It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                          Comment

                          • aeolium
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 3992

                            #14
                            Originally posted by french frank View Post
                            The point about series taking over from one-off plays doesn't answer the question about the difference between full-length (commercial) films on television and full-length plays. Is it what the broadcasters prefer or the audiences?
                            Perhaps it's to do with management perceptions of value for money. The investment in terms of locations, sets, costumes etc might presumably be seen as more cost-effective if it produces a series over several hours rather than just a single drama especially if viewers can get "hooked" on the series and interested in the characters. Some good series (like Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff) started out with a single play and one-off plays now tend to be used to test the water and avoid costly investment in a series flop. And perhaps schedulers think that it's easier and cheaper to buy in a film to fill a single slot.

                            I'm not sure which audiences prefer though - I don't think they get asked

                            Comment

                            • Honoured Guest

                              #15
                              Actually, BBC1 and BBC2 show almost no feature films, except late at night and on public holidays. And ITV1 only shows very popular movies, such as the Harry Potter series, at peak times. The scheduling is preferred by the broacasters because feature films disrupt their preferred stripped-and-stranded schedules. Films on television in peak hours are generally only available on digital specialist movie channels or on demand. When BBC2 does show films in peak hours, usually around 10.00pm on Saturdays or very occasionally at 9.00 midweek, they are almost always BBC Films which were initially distributed in cinemas. Channel 4 shows "commercial" films in peak hours at weekends, but that's more to pad out their station because they can't now afford to produce much original programming.

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