When The Story of Tracy Beaker was first broadcast in 2002, there was no YouTube or Netflix streaming service, let alone TikTok. Kids, it is said, do not watch traditional TV anymore, yet millions grew up enraptured by Jacqueline Wilson’s care home rebel on CBBC, and now their own children are doing the same.
Smoggie Queens – a fabulous comedy for BBC Three and iPlayer – launched late last year. It was filmed and set in Teesside, and we celebrated the launch with a spectacular “pink carpet” screening in Middlesbrough – surrounded by the local people who made the show a glamorous reality.
A gameshow like no other, The Traitors is like a mix between a murder mystery and a reality show. It has birthed some iconic pop culture moments, from Maddy trusting no one in series one, to essentially everything Diane did in series two, to host Claudia Winkleman’s knitwear collection.
Detectives turn ghostbusters in this festive special of Beyond Paradise, as Humphrey (Kris Marshall) and Esther (Zahra Ahmadi) are called to investigate a haunting.
Private detective Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) returns with another mystery to crack, alongside his assistant Robin (Holliday Grainger).
Laughter rang out and a few tears fell as hundreds of viewers, cast and crew gathered at an RTS Midlands event to bid farewell to the BBC soap Doctors.
Fans had travelled from as far afield as Essex and Wigan to celebrate the Birmingham-made daytime drama, set in a GP surgery and axed after nearly 25 years on screen. Memories were shared during an emotional evening, held the week before the final episode was broadcast.
If you can judge the success of a comedy show by the ubiquity of its catchphrases, The Fast Show was “Scorchio!”. That one was courtesy of Caroline Aherne’s weather girl on Chanel 9, the Euro telly spoof. And they kept on coming on TV’s greatest sketch show: “I freely admit I was very, very drunk” (sozzled QC Rowley Birkin, Paul Whitehouse); “Does my bum look big in this?” (Arabella Weir’s Insecure Woman); and “… which was nice” (Patrick Nice, Mark Williams).
After series two’s nail-biting finale, we’re all ready for a fresh batch of contestants to join Claudia Winkleman – and her knitwear collection – in her Scottish castle. 22 players will enter the contest and be split into ‘Traitors’ and ‘Faithfuls.’ Although they can say which side they prefer, the choice is ultimately Winkleman’s to make.
This was Cameron Roach, RTS North West Chair and founder of Rope Ladder Fiction, speaking at an October forum.
Describing the rationale behind “Finding opportunities in challenging times”, Roach said: “At the RTS, we believe it’s about coming together collectively, even if you’re out of work, because if you’re passionate about telling stories you will want to continue. Collectively, we can find the solutions to do that.”
At an RTS event last month, BBC correspondent Marianna Spring discussed being on the receiving end of abuse from trolls supporting Elon Musk – and how she deals with it.
Investigating social media, she explained, “triggers a wave of trolls and conspiracy theorists in a way that I didn’t used to experience. But I think, for me, the most positive way of dealing with that is [to think] I wouldn’t be doing my job right if... I wasn’t getting that kind of response.”
