Television Magazine

Children are the canaries in the mine, picking things up first,” obser­ved Greg Childs, director of the Children’s Media Foundation, as he introduced an RTS debate on how children’s TV and content movers and shakers are adapting to the fact that young people have migrated online.

An optimistic tone was established from the start by Alice Webb, the outgoing head of BBC Children’s and ­Education, who asserted: “Yes, the kids are absolutely fine. They have more choice than they ever had. They are exercising choice and are after things that interest them.

When he’s not in the jungle penning quips for Ant and Dec, Andy Milligan is the co-writer of Man Like Mobeen and has a running joke with the sitcom’s creator and star, Guz Khan. As they work on the hit BBC Three series together, Milligan asks him, “Can you tell me what every Muslim in Britain will think of this joke?”

This is because Khan has been dubbed “the face of British Muslims” – a result, Milligan points out, of it being far more likely for a bearded, practising Muslim to appear on our screens as a suicide bomber than as a character like Mobeen.

When George Osborne first uttered the phrase “Northern Powerhouse” back in 2014, it’s fair to say that the TV industry wasn’t at the front of his mind. But, six years on, is it time to start thinking of it as such?

Back then, the mood in the TV industry across the North of England was very different. Both Leeds and Manchester were still struggling with the impact of ITV’s retrenchment to London, while the BBC’s project as the anchor tenant of MediaCity UK was barely into its stride.

When Jeff Shell, 54, kicked off his tenure as Chief Executive of NBC­Universal last month, the avid sports fan was faced with a field of play containing many fast-moving players. This is unlikely to faze the one-time high-school basketball player, who has spent his career out-weaving and out-jumping rivals.

“I want to be in a business that needs fixing or is transitioning,” Shell told the Los Angeles Times when he was Chair of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.

Like every broadcaster, Channel 4 is feeling the heat from the streaming giants. But, at an RTS early-evening event, the network’s director of programmes stated that, despite their bigger budgets, he can offer producers the personal touch that Netflix et al lack.

Ian Katz said: “If you ask drama producers what is it like dealing with the streamers, they tend to say two things. On the plus side, you get quick answers and big budgets; on the negative side, they swallow up all your rights and you have a five-minute window.…

It’s 2010, and screenwriter and showrunner Frank Spotnitz sits in a plane at LAX ahead of a 10-hour flight, eager to begin his new life. On the strength of a deal with Sky to air his new spy thriller Hunted, he has sold up, lock, stock and barrel, in the US, and is moving his business, his family and dogs to London.

As the plane taxis to the runway for take-off, he takes a quick call from one of his producers, only to be told that Sky has cancelled the show. Suddenly, Spotnitz is unemployed; Hunted seems dead in the water, along with his European dream.

“I had got to a point before this happened where I was thinking about retraining. I’d just turned 30 and I thought, I’ve been doing this for so long and I can’t see it happening.” This frank admission by Laurie Nunn might bring some comfort to the thousands of other aspiring writers, hoping to emulate her apparently instant success and become Netflix’s next creative wunderkind.

In one way, the career of David Abraham has come full circle. He began his working life in advertising – and, in his latest role, ­running his own company, Wonderhood Studios, he is once again involved in producing TV commercials, as well as making TV programmes. With his trademark heavy-rimmed glasses and carefully judged wardrobe, Abraham still looks like he might have stepped out of the pages of ad bible Campaign at its 1980s’ peak.

RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses 2019

Editing

Editors Emma Lysaght and Matthew Gray spoke about how they had each worked with distinguished programme-­makers, Louis Theroux and Shane Meadows, respectively.

Lysaght, a documentary specialist, worked on Louis Theroux’s Altered States: Choosing Death, in which terminally ill people prepared to take their own lives.

Everyone who has ever worked in television knows that one of the essential qualities required to produce outstanding TV is the ability to collaborate.

At an RTS discussion, held in early December with key members of the production team of BBC One’s ambitious His Dark Materials, the extent to which different groups worked together to complete the series was made abundantly clear.