RTS

ITV expects its new multi-million-pound fantasy drama Beowulf to appeal to audiences too squeamish to watch HBO’s gory Game of Thrones. And it’s hoped that the franchise will build on the North East’s growing reputation as a drama production base.

ITV Studios MD Julian Bellamy predicted that the new 13-part action series, filmed in Weardale and on Tyneside, will also have the broader appeal of more mainstream shows, such as BBC One’s Merlin.

One of the best contributions to the issue of the public purposes of the BBC was written almost 20 years ago by a then-future Chair of the BBC Board of Governors, Gavyn Davies.

He wrote: “Some form of market failure must lie at the heart of any concept of public service broadcasting. Beyond simply using the catchphrase that public service broadcasting must ‘inform, educate and entertain’, we must add ‘inform, educate and entertain in a way that the private sector, left unregulated, would not do’. Otherwise, why not leave matters entirely to the private sector?”

The founder of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, gave a fascinating lecture to the RTS and IET at the British Museum on 4 November. Watch the full video of the event below or read our report here. 

It seems that every successful television show needs a degree of serendipity. As we discovered during the latest RTS “Anatomy of a hit” session, Channel 4’s surprise summer hit, Humans, was no exception. 

The British producer, Kudos, famous for Spooks, Life on Mars and Broadchurch, got lucky when it got into bed with AMC, the US cable channel equally famous for Mad Men and Breaking Bad.