World

“You still need substance, but nowadays people come to aprogramme because they’ll enjoy it” Peter Dale, Channel 4“The One World seasons on BBC had some goodprogrammes, but the overall quality was inconsistent andsome of it was dull. There was too much of it, and even theprogramme-makers were exhausted by it. It was hard tofollow up.” Alan Yentob, BBCDIDACTICProgrammes have been made to put over a message.“There’s a tendency to do messagey and information-leddeveloping world programmes. But most people switch onto be entertained, not to get a message” George Carey,Mentorn Barraclough Carey“People don’t want to feel hectored. Nor do they want tobe told what they already know” Jane Root, BBC“People don’t want to be lectured to” Peter McHugh,GMTVISSUE-LEDProgrammes have been based on issues rather thanstories, events or characters.“Issue-led programmes don’t work on television.Personal stories do.” Grant Mansfield, ITV“Our viewers don’t want hard social or economic issueshead-on” Nick Comer-Calder, Discovery“Our research shows us what turns people off:complicated politics, diplomatic issues, economic trendsand certain foreign stories that don’t involve violence orconflict” Chris Shaw, Channel 5“They don’t want big economic themes, they needindividual stories to get them involved” Peter McHugh,GMTVIn news the issue-led nature of much coverage of thedeveloping world is mentioned as a particular factor.Long-term developments or trends are perceived asharder to fit into the conventional news agenda.“Developing world output tends to be issue-driven andtherefore gets pushed lower down the bulletins, after the‘immediate events’” Richard Ayre, BBC News“What doesn’t work for us? Erudite issues, and the lackof conflict, famine or the ‘big event’ “ Robert Moore, ITN“What you want to tell people is not always seen as aclassic news story, today’s news, with a peg to hang it on.Certain stories, like child soldiers in Sierra Leone, go rightup to the top of the bulletin. But stories that set out toexplore the relationship between the rich world and thepoor world often end up in the ‘Drop Zone’. You feed itinto the satellite with a wish and a prayer, but if anythingmore immediate happens you know it will get dropped”George Alagiah, BBC NewsOLD-FASHIONED/POVERTY OF IDEASSome associate this area of output with tired,unimaginative programme-making.“There have been too many long, turgid documentariestrying to deal with complex issues – or at the otherextreme, wacky author pieces – and too little innovationin this area” Bill Hilary, BBC“Much of modern television is about formats: findingnew ways to bring an area of experience to an audience.In many areas – children’s programmes, youthprogrammes, leisure programmes – this has happened.What has not happened is that producers have found asuccessful format to bring international material to adecent-sized audience. This is a challenge beyond that ofmaking striking documentaries which will alwaysdemand attention.” Tim Gardam, Channel 4“There is an astonishing poverty of developing worldprogramme ideas, and a lack of invention. They all comewith the idea that, just to describe the current state ofNigeria will immediately cause the British public toswitch on their television. There’s a real paucity of peoplewho want to think about television form and how itattaches to the coverage of such issues.” David Lloyd,Channel 4“This area needs a high bench mark when it comes to newprogramme formats and approaches. People watch tofind out something new. We have to guard against beingboring” Steve Anderson, ITV“The old ‘genre’ of developing world programmesbecame seen as a simple, predictable and therefore boringarea. We need surprises and challenges.” Jane Root, BBCOne commissioning editor wonders if enoughcontemporary producers know enough about thedeveloping world to offer good new ideas.“Perhaps mainstream programme-makers don’t getenough exposure to what’s going on in this area. Maybenormal news briefings by, say, DFID should include notjust news people but documentary-makers. Are enoughprogramme-makers being engaged in this area? After all,we {commissioners} are buyers, not sellers, we respond tothe ideas that come to us” Grant Mansfield, ITV164 DFID – July 2000