RTS No Laughing Matter: How does comedy fight back? Highlights
Get an idea of what was discussed about comedy on television at the RTS No Laughing Matter event
Get an idea of what was discussed about comedy on television at the RTS No Laughing Matter event
Get an idea of what was discussed about comedy on television at the RTS No Laughing Matter event
Panellists BBC Comedy's Gregor Sharp, UKTV's Simon Lupton, Comedy actor Jessica Knappett, Channel 4's Nerys Evans were asked by Heat magazine's Boyd Hilton about the future of comedy.
Here they reveal the interest that remains in comedy and whether the genre will work online.
Plans to put BBC Three online could rob a new generation of comedy writers and performers of the opportunity to find an audience, said Jessica Knappett, creator of E4 sitcom Drifters.
Knappett, who writes and stars in the series said: "I feel like BBC Three going online is a door closing, it's an opportunity that's been taken away from me. I feel personally it's exactly the sort of channel I would write for and I found it difficult enough to get an audience on E4."
9pm
Television and radio presenter Alice Levine finds girls who complete computer coding in a male dominant industry. She takes Ellie, Daisy, Neelam, Tolani and Arooj to meet the UK’s most powerful women in technology. The girls are given a five-day task to invent a start up piece of technology.
8pm
One documentary, Is Britain racist?, explores whether prejudice against ethnic minorities remains. It will air in September.
Undercover journalists take to the streets of Britain to expose the reality of discrimination against skin colour.
Presenter Mona Chalabi will be putting British people on the spot to discover how racism affects their way of life including who they decide to marry.
BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh fielded harsh criticism from audience and panel alike at the RTS Futures Summer Party.
"Is TV out of touch?" asked former CBBC presenter Kirsten O’Brien, who chaired the event, "is it relevant for 16 to 34 year olds?"
With the BBC’s youth brand soon set to relinquish its linear channel, Kavanagh was told that young people were bearing the brunt of difficult BBC cuts.
In a smooth transition, the personable Polly Hill has become the BBC’s new Controller of Drama Commissioning. She takes over without so much as dropping a script from LA-bound Ben Stephenson.
Her new job is one of the most coveted and powerful positions in UK television. Hill is responsible for the wide range of drama across BBC One and BBC Two, an estimated budget of £200m annually, spiced with the challenge of devising a new online policy, principally for BBC Three. She also has oversight of EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
Jed Mercurio doesn't make it easy for himself. His current show, Sky 1's Critical, is a 13-part drama set in a state-of-the-art trauma centre. Every week, it focuses on a different and gruesome medical emergency while also telling the intertwined personal stories of its large cast. Oh, and it's told in real time, too.
"I always think that everything is achievable," he says, when I ask if he deliberately set the challenge of making this series as hard as possible for himself.
If you haven’t heard of Jimmy Mulville, the co-founder and managing director of Hat Trick, you will have heard of his shows.
Have I Got News for You, Father Ted and Outnumbered are among the slew of hits the independent production company has made since Mulville co-founded Hat Trick with his future ex-wife Denise O’Donoghue and Rory McGrath in 1986.