Yorkshire

Malpractice won favour with both critics – “intricately plotted and beautifully, leanly written”, said The Guardian – and audiences: it was ITV1’s most watched drama launch episode of 2023 when it aired last spring. Ahead of filming starting on series two, the RTS talked to some of the talent behind the show, including its creator, former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah.

She pitched an idea for a hospital-set thriller about medical malpractice to Simon Heath, CEO of World Productions, whose award-winning dramas include Line of Duty and Save Me.

Eighteen months ago, like James Herriot dolloping piccalilli on to Farmer Horner’s swiftly replenished plates of fat bacon, television decided that you can have too much of a good thing.

At the 2021 Edinburgh TV Festival, Channel 5 commissioning editor Daniel Pearl declared that he wouldn’t make “another programme about Yorkshire”. Ben Frow, the broadcaster’s content supremo, has recently followed that by announcing a reality-heavy slate, replete with a Tim Peake-fronted show exploring space.

A wartime aircraft hangar at Leeds East Airport is an unlikely setting for the next generation of out-of-London TV talent to start their careers, but that’s exactly what’s happening at Air TV.

The company – run by ex-BBC execs Matt Richards, Andy Joynson and Ian Cundall – is passionate about attracting, training and retaining young talent to work on their fast-growing slate of factual shows.

Robson Green has done it. Professor Alice Roberts has also given it a go. Darcey Bussell tried it in Scotland recently.  Kate Humble did it naked. Susannah Constantine took an axe with her when she did it. Barely a week goes by without someone from either Countryfile or The One Show doing it. And Port Talbot resident David Bryan credits it with helping to save his life.

The announcement that Channel 4 will be coming to Leeds literally lit up the city. Social media went mad. Leeds City Region’s #4Sparks campaign had prevailed, and Leeds University floodlit its iconic Parkinson Building in celebration.

Friends and neighbours with no connection to the media were talking about it as a good thing. A new wave of prosperity, jobs and creative pride was on the way.

Moreover, we had been the underdog and beaten off the challenge from the two Andies (mayors Andy Street, heading the Birmingham bid, and Andy Burnham, in Manchester).

The popular secondary school-set series, which is made by the Forge, scooped four top prizes, including the prestigious Drama award. Poppy Lee Friar, who plays feisty Missy Booth, was named Best Actor; Penny Woolcock took home the Director Fiction prize; and Tim Phillips won the Music award.

More than 350 guests attended the ceremony at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, which was hosted by Ellie and Izzi Warner, two of the stars of Channel 4 show Gogglebox.

On 7 September 1927, John Logie Baird demonstrated his “noctovision” to a room full of enthusiasts at Leeds University. Baird referred to the technology as “seeing by electricity”.

At the close of the meeting, the formation of the society was proposed. Then known as the British Association, many of the founder members were from Leeds and Yorkshire.

Roger began his career at the BBC in Leeds as a studio assistant on Look North and other regional shows. He soon moved on from floor management and graphics duties to directing, making stylish, creative films for the network with writers including Alan Ayckbourn and Peter Tinniswood.