Is drama safe at the BBC?

In The Guardian, Gareth McLean asks if BBC drama's poor performance at this year's BAFTAs is indicative of a serious malaise.

"There are so many cooks involved in any new project now that any distinctiveness is being throttled," says another, Bafta-winning writer. "Such is the lack of courage of commissioners and the climate of fear in which they operate, the commissioning process is ossifying."

The only opinion that these writers and producers say matters is that of Jane Tranter, the BBC's head of Fiction. One writer, who like the rest asked to remain anonymous, claims that trust between the BBC and writers and producers who deliver the goods has evaporated.

"They commission an episode, you write seven drafts, probably with input from four different BBC producers - all of whom contradict one another - and then, instead of making a decision, they commission a second episode and then often a third, even for a second series. They're so scared of getting it wrong, they'd rather play it safe. There is only one question in everyone's head, whether it be writer, independent producer or BBC exec - what would Jane think?"

McLean puts these concerns to BBC Ben Stephenson, head of drama commissioning.

"Ultimately the decision on what is made is made between me, Jane and the channel controller, but in terms of what's developed, there's a genuine diversity of voices which there wouldn't be if Jane and me developed things ourselves ...[Jane] isn't the taste-maker, she really isn't. My feeling is 'thank God we have a lot of commissioning editors' because that genuinely means that one person doesn't rule."

Quiet times on this blog

...but not in my household!

Apologies for the recent blog silence - a new arrival has been somewhat distracting, but in a very good way, obviously.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Moving from long running series...

Moving from long running series to taking the next step - Thursday 24 April 2008, arrive at 6.45pm for a 7pm start

Following the success of the Guild event on long running BBC series last year, we’re delighted to announce a sequel from John Yorke: 'Moving from Long Running Series to Taking The Next Step'

John Yorke is Controller of Drama Production Studios for the BBC and over the last three years, has been committed to putting writers back at the heart of EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty. He has also been responsible for introducing and implementing the new BBC Code of Conduct, in response to our members’ complaints and suggestions about long running series.

We are pleased to announce that John will be accompanied by a cornucopia of BBC production talent. Members will be able to get advice from:

Hilary Salmon - Executive Producer, Drama Production. Hilary has Exec Produced some of BBC drama's most prestigious recent dramas including Criminal Justice, House Of Saddam, Five Days, Silent Witness, Soundproof, The Line Of Beauty, The Long Firm, Babyfather, Nature Boy, Gormenghast and Madame Bovary.

Claire Armspach - Producer, Waking The Dead. Claire also helped set up the writing team for BBC Scotland's River City. Produced for Holby City and assistant produced Rough Diamond for World.

Ellen Taylor - Development Executive, Drama Production. Ellen has produced and written for Casualty and Dream Team. Currently developing two new teen dramas for BBC3.

Ben Evans - Exec Producer with special responsibility for BBC 4. Ben Exec Produced the recent BBC4 Curse of Comedy season and also produced Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than me, Most Sincerely: Hughie Green. Also produced Fear of Fanny and Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! for BBC4.

Ceri Meyrick - Producer. Ceri runs the BBC Drama Writers Academy and other Training Academies for Directors, Scripts Editors, Producers and other writers' schemes.

This is a golden opportunity to speak to the powers-that-be of the TV industry. Please come along and join us. This can be just what your career needs.

The event will once again be chaired by Gail Renard, Chair of the WGGB TV Committee.

Tickets for this event will be £5 for Guild members and £7.50 for non-members. If you would like to book for this event, please email moe@writersguild.org.uk or call the Guild office on 0207 833 0777.

South Park and the internet

In The L.A. Times, South Park co-creator Matt Stone talks to the Web Scout blog about the show's ongoing relationship with the internet.

Among "South Park's" oft-cited strengths -- and no doubt a reason for its popularity online -- is the show's perpetual relevance. "The Internet and YouTube change the way you think about your characters interacting with the world," Stone explained. "If our characters don't live in that world, all of a sudden it's like, 'What are they, in the 90s? What is this show? Is this "Happy Days"?' "

Earlier this season, Stone and Parker took on another headlining topic with their episode about the writers strike, in which a misguided Canada fights an ultimately losing battle against the rest of the world, its main demand being "more money." The Internet made another cameo here, as the most ridiculous YouTube stars (Star Wars Kid, the Chocolate Rain Guy, the Sneezing Panda, etc.) were waiting in line at the Colorado Department of Internet Money, which pays in large denominations of "theoretical dollars."

Kenneth Ewing 1927-2008

Kenneth Ewing, a leading agent with Fraser & Dunlop (later Peters, Fraser & Dunlop), died on 14 April at the age of 81. There's an obituary in The Times.

By the mid-1960s many of his clients were providing the bedrock of ITV comedy and drama. Vince Powell and Harry Driver, Roy Bottomley and Tom Brennand were the men behind such huge (and in retrospect less than politically correct) situation comedy hits as Bless This House, Love Thy Neighbour and Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width, while other clients, Peter Eckersley and John Finch, were members of the powerful Group North writing team that provided Granada Television with some its most enduring drama series, including Finch’s A Family at War and Sam.

The torrent of situation comedy classics continued into the 1970s with another Ewing-nurtured team, Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, whose many series for Thames Television included Man About the House, George and Mildred and Robin’s Nest — series that dominated the British ratings for a decade. And Ewing was instrumental in negotiations to make American versions of all three series — if not the first, certainly the biggest “format” deal of its kind and a coup that made a substantial contribution towards Thames Television’s Queen’s Award for Export.

Writers complain about crowded British Library

Leading authors are complaining that the British Library's new admissions policy - far less stringent than in the past - means that it's increasingly difficult to find peace, quiet and place to sit down, reports Dalya Alberge in The Times.

Although there are 1,480 seats in the library, the author Christopher Hawtree was last week forced to perch on a windowsill while the historians Lady Antonia Fraser and Claire Tomalin have swapped horror stories of interminable queues. Library users complain that the line to enter the new building in St Pancras, central London, has recently been extending across its enormous courtyard.

Speaking to The Times yesterday, Lady Antonia said: “I had to queue for 20 minutes to get in, in freezing weather. Then I queued to leave my coat for 20 minutes [at the compulsory check-in]. Then half an hour to get my books and another 15 minutes to get my coat. I’m told it’s due to students having access now. Why can’t they go to their university libraries?”

In The Guardian, however, Stuart Jeffries argues that things might not have been much better in the past.

Novelist AS Byatt recalls working at the library in the British Museum, which housed part of the collection until 1997. "In the afternoon, there was no oxygen. Everyone fell asleep. It was the haunt of mad old women. Angus Wilson [novelist and superintendent of the reading room] once told a woman that it was forbidden to eat oranges. 'Mr Wilson,' she replied, 'I'm not eating oranges. I'm squeezing them into the books.'"

The 50 greatest crime writers

The Times has compiled a list of the 50 greatest crime writers, with Patricia Highsmith coming in at number 1, followed by Georges Simenon, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard.

There are several articles published alongside the list, including Jeanette Winterson on why crime fiction needs a sense of morality.

Let's say there are only three endings to any story, discounting happy endings as too Hollywood: Revenge, Tragedy, and Forgiveness. Crime writing feeds our feelings for tragedy and revenge, and we can fool ourselves that there is also such a thing as justice - that the end is just or that justice has been done, or that justice has been avoided, but we know what it is.

BAFTA TV Awards winners

The official writing award might have been shifted to the lower-profile BAFTA Craft Awards, but writers were, nonetheless, very much to the fore at the BAFTA TV Awards in London last night.

Writers Peter Kosminsky (Britz - Drama Serial), Tony Marchant (The Mark Of Cain - Single Drama) , James Cordon and Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey - Audience Award), Tony McHale (Holby City - Continuing Drama), Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong ( Peep Show - Sitcom) and Jimmy McGovern (The Street - Drama Series) all accepted awards.

Ruth Jones, co-writer (with James Cordon) of Gavin & Stacey

It was a good night for Channel 4, picking up awards in categories including Single Drama, Drama Serial and Sitcom.

The full list of nominees and winners is on the BAFTA website.

Lee Mason joins Shed

Lee Mason has joined Shed productions to head up its development slate, reports Leigh Holmwood for Media Guardian.

The Shed managing director, Brian Park, said: "We are looking to expand our development slate and there are new opportunities arising all the time.

"Lee will bring experience in children's and youth drama and will be involved across the board.

"We have developed a lot in-house but we are looking to develop new relationships with writers and that is where Lee will be taking a key role."

Mason added: "My job is to come in and build on what Shed already have and develop relationships with new and establish writers."

HBO under fire

In The L.A. Times, Mary McNamara evaluates the state of pioneering cable channel, HBO.

David Milch's "John From Cincinnati" wasn't just irritating and bewildering, it was also seen as an inferior replacement for his cultishly adored "Deadwood" (and, for some, the even more abruptly discontinued "Carnivale"). Final seasons of "The Sopranos" and, on a smaller scale, "The Wire" naturally evoked doomsday predictions of a Downward Spiral. Never mind that "Big Love," though ruptured this season by the writers strike, is both a critical and ratings hit or that people still love "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Never mind that "John Adams" has done well, especially considering that it's a historical drama composed, mostly, of men in waistcoats talking politics. HBO is perceived as being in full-blown midlife crisis, with the recent decision to replace Carolyn Strauss with Sue Naegle as chief of entertainment as its attempt at marriage counseling (the inexplicably low numbers for "In Treatment" notwithstanding).

London Book Fair round-up

All the big deals and debates summaries in Publishing News.

At the end of a busy but rewarding Fair, Group Exhibition Director Alistair Burtenshaw told PN: “The last three days have been action-packed - from a hugely busy International Rights Centre to a sizzling Cookbook Corner to a fantastic seminar programme. As if that weren't enough, we were also delighted with the presence from our Arab friends celebrating our Market Focus on the Arab World this year.

Moving from long-running series: new speakers

A guest post from Gail Renard, Chair of the Guild's TV Committee:

Not only will the Guild be welcoming John Yorke, Controller of Drama Production Studios for the BBC to this event at 7pm on 24 April, but John also will accompanied by a cornucopia of BBC production talent. Members will be able to get advice from:

Hilary Salmon - Executive Producer Drama Production
Ellen Taylor - Development Executive Drama Production
Claire Armspach- Producer Silent Witness
Ben Evans - Executive Producer with special responsibility for BBC 4

This is a golden opportunity to speak to the powers-that-be of the TV industry. Please come along and join us. This could be just what your career needs.

Tickets for this event will be £5 for Guild members and £7.50 for non-members. If you would like to attend this event please send a cheque payable to the ' Writers' Guild' to, Television Event , Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JN. Or please email: moe@writersguild.org.uk or call 0207 833 0777.

Sofia's Diary bought by Five

From Chris Curtis in Broadcast (free registration required)

Teen drama Sofia's Diary will become the first major web show to air on British television after being snapped up by Five in a ground-breaking deal.

The broadcaster has bought the show from rights owner Sony Television Pictures International (SPTI) and will screen it on the soon-to-launch Fiver, formerly Five Life.

Sofia's Diary debuted on social networking site Bebo in March, racking up five million views in its first two weeks, and now averages around 500,000 views per episode.

Harry Potter copyright case

Lots of coverage of the Harry Potter copyright case this week - J.K. Rowling and her publishers are seeking to block publication of Steven Vander Ark's The Harry Potter Lexicon and are seeking damages for copyright and federal trademark infringement.

Rowling says she'd planned on writing a similar book herself, with the profits going to charity.

BBC News has a report on Vander Ark's turn in the witness box.

Update: In another high profile copyright case, BBC Worldwide has today seen off a challenge to its use of the Daleks in books, reports Paul Lewis for Media Guardian.

The Daleks, famous for their "exterminate!" catchphrase, were the creation of the late Terry Nation, who wrote the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks.

Paul Fishman, the son of one of Nation's friends, had claimed at the high court in London that his company, JHP, held the book copyright to dalek stories and that a new publication about the characters by BBC Worldwide had infringed that copyright.

But a judge ruled today that although JHP held a licence to publish several books by Terry Nation about the daleks in the 1960s, it did not own the copyright.

Hollywood and Silicon Valley

In The New York Times, Laura M. Holson wonders whether the movie business could learn lessons from the high tech industries.

A particularly salient difference, of course, is how each culture approaches failure. Silicon Valley, to a point, celebrates it, while entertainment creators in Southern California cannot distance themselves fast enough from anything that might be a bomb. And Hollywood talent likes a success story; but only if it is their own.

“If a successful director has a flop, his peers and colleagues question whether he has lost his touch,” [venture capitalist] Mr. Kvamme said. “By contrast, in the Valley, if you have a failure, that usually means that you have learned something. There are very few successful serial entrepreneurs. Failure is almost a rite of passage.”

The struggle to get published

On The Guardian Books Blog, Jean Hannah Edelstein reports from a masterclass at The London Book Fair on 'How to get published'.

The masterclass might have been more accurately entitled, "You Will Probably Not Get Your Book Published: Writing Is More Difficult Than You Think and Publishing a Capricious, Cruel Industry (Unless You Pay Author House to Do It For You, Representatives of Our Kind Sponsor Are Standing By"). Or perhaps "Publishing: A Defensive, Crumbling Industry (We Hate E-books)". But I guess that's not a brilliant way to sell tickets.

Ashley Highfield moves to Kangaroo

Ashley Highfield, one of the BBC's new media pioneers, has left his job as Director of BBC Future Media and Technology to become chief executive of Kangaroo, the working title for the new video on-demand service from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 that's set to launch in the UK later this year.

Ashley Highfield said:

"This is a fantastic opportunity. Kangaroo is a historic partnership with a combination of innovative technology and terrific content and I’m looking forward to transforming the way audiences watch television."

Armstrong & Bain

BAFTA Academy Television Screening and Q&A: PEEP SHOW followed by Q&A with writers (and Guild members) Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain

Tuesday 22 April @ 20:00
Princess Anne Theatre (BAFTA)

20:00 Drinks reception
20:30 Screening of Peep Show episode 1, Series 5 followed by Q&A

The BAFTA-nominated and critically acclaimed comedy starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb returns for a fifth series.

Mark (David Mitchell) is the conventional one seething with inner rages and desires. Jeremy (Robert Webb), the loose cannon full of expressed rages and desires, but seething with even more rage on the inside.

Series four left Mark having just gone through with a disastrous marriage ceremony to Sophie (Olivia Coleman), after all but jilting her at the altar. Now, Mark faces the horror of having to face his estranged wife at work. Meanwhile Jeremy has a rude awakening when the money he's been subsisting on finally runs out and he's forced to try and find a new source of income.

This series sees Mark and Jeremy still sharing the same flat, but both entering their 30s with failed marriages behind them, few prospects, and a sense of impending crisis. Time is running out for them to sort out their lives. Jeremy's mother appears on the scene and it soon becomes clear why he's ended up as he is. Mark goes speed dating, and discovers money can buy you love. Jeremy and Superhans (Matt King) play at a Christian Rock Festival; the flat suffers multiple burglaries and the boys endure their worst ever night out - at the theatre.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with writers Jesse Armstrong & Sam Bain, chaired by Andrew Newman, Head of Entertainment & Comedy, Channel 4.

Booking: Tickets can be booked online via www.bafta.org.

Academy Members: Free
Non Members: £10

Guild AGM

Motions for the Guild's AGM must be received by the Guild office before Friday 18 April. Motions for debate at the AGM, including proposals to amend the Guild rules, may be tabled by any two Full Members who are in benefit. Please contact Anne Hogben, the Deputy General Secretary, if you have any queries about this: anne@writersguild.org.uk.

The AGM will take place on Wednesday 4th June from 10.30 am to 5.00 pm at the Writers’ Guild Centre, 17 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JN. Closest underground station: King’s Cross. All members are welcome to attend. A light lunch will be served, free of charge. Please contact the office to let us know if you will be staying for lunch: 020 7833 0777 or email erik@writersguild.org.uk

Alan Davey interview

In The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins talks to new Arts Council England chief executive, Alan Davey.

Davey, speaking in his first major press interview, naturally denies that the winter's funding settlement, in which 185 companies lost their entire grant, was a mess - though he admits the "timing could have been better", and has asked Labour peer Genista Mackintosh to look at what lessons can be learned from the debacle. He says senior staff have been "laying bare our souls" to her. He was evidently taken aback by the force with which the arts world turned on the council. "One of the things that shocked me about that was how little credit we had in the bank [with arts practitioners]. We've got to rebuild our credit," he says. "One of the things that hurt me a bit was that we were portrayed as a lot of faceless bureaucrats."