It is the holy grail of television: launching a guaranteed, solid-gold, ratings winner. But how to do it? There were plenty of insights when Curve Media CEO Camilla Lewis questioned Andy Wilman, executive producer of Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour, and Nicola Shindler, founder of Quay Street Productions. “If anyone knows how to make a hit programme it is these two,” said Lewis.
From Happy Valley to Fool Me Once, The Grand Tour to Clarkson’s Farm, Nicola Shindler and Andy Wilman have presided over programmes which resonate hugely with their audiences.
What do they look for in new ideas, and how do they develop them?
Chaired by Camilla Lewis, CEO of Curve Media.
Predictably, Fleet Street was outraged. Queer as Folk, foamed the Daily Mail, “proves that we need censorship… we shouldn’t be at liberty to watch naked actors having relentless homosexual sex”.
Some commentators in the gay press were also critical, arguing that the series should have been less celebratory and angrier about the tragedy of Aids. But, if you are being attacked from both sides, perhaps you are doing something right. Most television viewers and critics certainly thought so as they marvelled at Russell T Davies’s breakthrough drama series.
For a show that took six years and multiple knock-backs before it hit our screens, It’s a Sin is a formidable reminder of the power of TV drama.
The series follows a group of gay friends during the Aids crisis of the 1980s, and earlier this year became All 4’s biggest ever show when it was watched by 18.9 million viewers.
Viewers were drawn in by Russell T Davies’s compelling story and his finely crafted characters, whom we couldn’t help but feel invested in.
Almost every minute of every day used to be very different. Now, what I’m doing might still vary all the time, but each day starts pretty much the same as they have done since last March: heading to my home office after wrangling the kids to start their home schooling.
