Meta: Fandom - Sharpe no more?
The fifth horseman of the TV apocalypse - ITV chairman Michael Grade - rode in on his high horse yesterday, swung the scythe and cut another 600 jobs on top of the 1000 that were already cut last year. The Bill's been reduced from two shows to one per week, Heartbeat and The Royal have been “shelved” (polite way of saying “axed”).
"So what? It's Granny TV! Who cares for those shows, anyway?"
Hey! I like The Royal! It's sweet, harmless fun, Damian O’Hare looks neat in a leather jacket and Kari Corbett makes a cute nurse. Yes, I’m shallow. But that’s not really the point, folks. The point is that we see a cut of weekly drama from 8 to 7 hours. And that’s A Very Bad Thing.
Not according to Mr Grade, of course. “That is hardly a decimation of drama output,” he said at a news conference. Well, it’s a cut of *checks rule of proportion* 12.5% - if that’s his idea of “removal of a tenth”, then I’m not surprised ITV is in such a financial mess!
Young actors and writers don’t learn their skills in reality shows. They need the weekly drama series to stretch their legs. No decent shows, no decent artists - what will be left for us to fan geek over? Especially in niche fandoms like Age of Sail, the various costume dramas etc.
Michael Grade doesn’t think that a cut from 8 to 7 hours weekly drama matters and that the audience won’t even notice. For parts of the audience, that might be true. They won’t care if drama is replaced by yet another “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of - insert stupid location of your choice here -“reality show.
But those of us who do enjoy drama (on TV, at least) will notice. Sharpe fans - were you hoping for a return of your hero? You can very likely shelve that idea. Too expensive to produce.
And a series like “Hornblower”, critically acclaimed or not, wouldn’t get green lighted for production these days.
Or take Granada’s excellent “Titanic: Birth of a Legend” - wouldn’t stand a chance now. Instead, we’ll get even more “Dancing on Ice”. Woo fucking hoo. I can barely contain my excitement.
“Don’t be so negative! We still have the BBC!”
True, ol’ Beeb still offers some quality. “Being Human”, to name just one production. But costume drama? A lot of the BBC’s willingness to invest in costume drama was its international marketability. According to attendees at “BBC Showcase” (the annual “television sales market”), crickets were chirping when it came to purchasing BBC’s costume dramas. Tumbleweeds and a coyote howling in the distance.
British TV and movie business is shrinking and melting like the Wicked Witch of the West in the rain. This means a drain of talent - as one actor said: “There are only so many times you can appear on The Bill,” so eventually, they all head west. “Britain’s Got Talent” - true. You can see them all on US television. And we’re left with Ant and Dec. Woo fu- yes. That.
It’s time to have a realistic look at the situation. Blaming it all on the state of the economy and mismanagement is too simple. There are millions of people watching reality shows. And maybe those of us who enjoy Sharpe, Hornblower, Age of Sail in general or Jane Austen etc. are relicts - entertainment dinosaurs facing extinction.
Maybe the future does belong to reality shows, which would just prove my theory that our society is now close to the point of decadence the Roman society was before it collapsed.
Dire times mean bread and circuses for the masses. That concept worked all through history - but only up to a point. What will attract the audience of "LCD" (least common denominator) TV once it has reached the bottom? Somebody will buy a shovel...
I wonder if this development might make some parts of the audience switch off the telly, and if it might signal the start of a return to book-based-fandoms, at least where our niche-interests are concerned. Seriously - in a world dominated by ice-dancing celebrities, pig-masturbating models and Simon Cowell’s botoxed mug, places like mandc_read are gifts from the gods.
"So what? It's Granny TV! Who cares for those shows, anyway?"
Hey! I like The Royal! It's sweet, harmless fun, Damian O’Hare looks neat in a leather jacket and Kari Corbett makes a cute nurse. Yes, I’m shallow. But that’s not really the point, folks. The point is that we see a cut of weekly drama from 8 to 7 hours. And that’s A Very Bad Thing.
Not according to Mr Grade, of course. “That is hardly a decimation of drama output,” he said at a news conference. Well, it’s a cut of *checks rule of proportion* 12.5% - if that’s his idea of “removal of a tenth”, then I’m not surprised ITV is in such a financial mess!
Young actors and writers don’t learn their skills in reality shows. They need the weekly drama series to stretch their legs. No decent shows, no decent artists - what will be left for us to fan geek over? Especially in niche fandoms like Age of Sail, the various costume dramas etc.
Michael Grade doesn’t think that a cut from 8 to 7 hours weekly drama matters and that the audience won’t even notice. For parts of the audience, that might be true. They won’t care if drama is replaced by yet another “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of - insert stupid location of your choice here -“reality show.
But those of us who do enjoy drama (on TV, at least) will notice. Sharpe fans - were you hoping for a return of your hero? You can very likely shelve that idea. Too expensive to produce.
And a series like “Hornblower”, critically acclaimed or not, wouldn’t get green lighted for production these days.
Or take Granada’s excellent “Titanic: Birth of a Legend” - wouldn’t stand a chance now. Instead, we’ll get even more “Dancing on Ice”. Woo fucking hoo. I can barely contain my excitement.
“Don’t be so negative! We still have the BBC!”
True, ol’ Beeb still offers some quality. “Being Human”, to name just one production. But costume drama? A lot of the BBC’s willingness to invest in costume drama was its international marketability. According to attendees at “BBC Showcase” (the annual “television sales market”), crickets were chirping when it came to purchasing BBC’s costume dramas. Tumbleweeds and a coyote howling in the distance.
British TV and movie business is shrinking and melting like the Wicked Witch of the West in the rain. This means a drain of talent - as one actor said: “There are only so many times you can appear on The Bill,” so eventually, they all head west. “Britain’s Got Talent” - true. You can see them all on US television. And we’re left with Ant and Dec. Woo fu- yes. That.
It’s time to have a realistic look at the situation. Blaming it all on the state of the economy and mismanagement is too simple. There are millions of people watching reality shows. And maybe those of us who enjoy Sharpe, Hornblower, Age of Sail in general or Jane Austen etc. are relicts - entertainment dinosaurs facing extinction.
Maybe the future does belong to reality shows, which would just prove my theory that our society is now close to the point of decadence the Roman society was before it collapsed.
Dire times mean bread and circuses for the masses. That concept worked all through history - but only up to a point. What will attract the audience of "LCD" (least common denominator) TV once it has reached the bottom? Somebody will buy a shovel...
I wonder if this development might make some parts of the audience switch off the telly, and if it might signal the start of a return to book-based-fandoms, at least where our niche-interests are concerned. Seriously - in a world dominated by ice-dancing celebrities, pig-masturbating models and Simon Cowell’s botoxed mug, places like mandc_read are gifts from the gods.