Love and deceit Conversations with Friends - May 2022 - Royal Television Society
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May 2022 Conversations with Friends Love and deceit
Journal of The Royal Television Society
May 2022 l Volume 59/5
From the CEO
Whether it’s crime, show for the British and other markets. I was pleased to see so many of you
period or relationship In case you hadn’t noticed, these are at the British Museum for a lively eve-
drama, TV’s scripted interesting times for those who work ning with the brilliant Stacey Dooley,
boom continues to in Westminster, either as MPs or jour- who previewed the new series of
thrill audiences. Our nalists. Caroline Frost’s profile of the Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over. The occasion
cover story this month BBC’s new political editor, Chris was a reminder that unscripted shows
features the eagerly Mason, is a must-read. With 15-hour are also experiencing a purple patch.
awaited Conversations with Friends, an days and constant scrutiny on social Finally, do please read Graeme
adaptation of Sally Rooney’s book media, this isn’t a job for the faint- Thompson’s feature on the Gateshead-
– her first – which she wrote prior to hearted. We wish him well. based company Signpost, which has
Normal People, a huge hit for the BBC. Michael Grade will soon be taking proved itself to be a model of diversity
I, for one, can’t wait to watch it. over as the new Chair of Ofcom. Steve and inclusion by employing a high
Talking of adaptations, don’t miss Clarke surveys Michael’s extraordi- proportion of people who are deaf or
Simon Shaps’s thoughts on the ardu- nary career and considers the chal- have a disability.
ous art of the adaptation. lenges he will face in his new role.
He offers sage advice to those con- His arrival at Ofcom will coincide
sidering rebooting literary works for with a new Media Bill. Inside, we
TV – or, as is the case with Amazon present a summary of the main points
Prime’s London-based Ten Percent, of the broadcasting white paper, pub-
remodelling a Paris-based hit TV lished last month. Theresa Wise
Contents
Cover: Conversations with Friends (BBC)
5 Shaminder Nahal’s TV Diary
From red carpets to the Venice Biennale, Shaminder
Nahal admires some exceptionally talented women 16 Breaking down barriers
Signpost Productions’ employment of deaf and disabled
people is a model of diversity, says Graeme Thompson
6
Comfort Classic: Cracker
Steve Clarke is gripped by a groundbreaking crime show
that made a star of Robbie Coltrane 18 A+E’s fresh twist on true crime
Novelists Mark Billingham and Douglas Skelton offer
their take on the UK’s most notorious crimes
7 Ear Candy: Better Call Saul Insider Podcast
Harry Bennett enjoys a real film school of a podcast,
which delights in deconstructing the show’s cinematic
sequences
21 Our Friend in the North
The Government’s broadcasting reforms are not what
indies outside of London wanted, warns Andrew Sheldon
8 Working Lives: Editor
Award-winning drama editor Sarah Brewerton reveals
the highs and lows of the role with Matthew Bell
22 The art of adaptation
As Amazon Prime’s Ten Percent debuts, Simon Shaps
shares some home truths with those seeking to remake
a hit show for another market
10 Difficult conversations
A lot is riding on the new Sally Rooney adaptation
Conversations with Friends. Matthew Bell uncovers
the project’s complex genesis
24 The unlikely regulator
Steve Clarke profiles Michael Grade as he prepares to
become Ofcom’s new Chair
12 Blood, sweat and Stacey
TV natural Stacey Dooley gives RTS Futures her account
of her current series, Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over
26 Football’s darkest hour
Floodlights, pulls no punches in depicting the childhood
sexual abuse of Andy Woodward, reports Shilpa Ganatra
14 The people’s political editor
Caroline Frost finds out how Chris Mason is likely to
approach one of the toughest jobs in news journalism
28 The broadcasting white paper at a glance
New legislation will aim to create a level playing field
between the UK’s public service broadcasters and their
global rivals such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
Editor News editor and writer Production, design, advertising Sub-editor RTS, 3 Dorset Rise © Royal Television Society 2022
Steve Clarke Matthew Bell Gordon Jamieson Linda Coffey London EC4Y 8EN The views expressed in Television
smclarke_333@hotmail.com bell127@btinternet.com gordon.jamieson.01@gmail.com thelindacoffey@gmail.com T: 020 7822 2810 are not necessarily those of the RTS.
W: www.rts.org.uk Registered Charity 313 728
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 3
TV diary
N
o one can take evening, at the Navy Officers’ Club,
their eyes off an artist is being interviewed live
Olivia Colman, in the courtyard, two men holding
fabulous in a microphones and vodka cocktails.
black tuxedo and “What do you think is the sexiest
thick eyeliner. I’m period in art history? I like Ancient
at the Bafta Tele- Greece…” “That’s a very difficult
vision Craft Awards with my colleague question… I guess, if I had to pick, it
Channel 4
Ngozi Ubaka. I spot Sophie Willan, would be New York in the 1970s.”
and can’t resist telling her what a fan
I am of the RTS-award-winning ■ Might it be Birmingham? “I
Alma’s Not Normal. Gratifyingly, she always have a great time in this city
says she loves Grayson’s Art Club.
I catch a word with Jack Thorne, and
From red carpets to and suspect it may be the coolest
place in the UK.” That’s a quote by
Ruth Madeley, so brilliant in the recent the Venice Biennale, Grayson Perry on the press release
Then Barbara Met Alan. We discuss the to announce the next Grayson’s
exciting project she and I are working Shaminder Nahal Art Club exhibition, opening at the
on together, which I can’t yet reveal. admires exceptionally Midlands Arts Centre in December.
The exhibitions have been a huge
■ Director Poppy Begum is nomi- talented women success. The show at Manchester Art
nated for Emerging Talent: Factual. Gallery was one of the most popular
Also with us are Emma Lysaght of 2021, according to The Art News
and James Newton, nominated for, Arsenale with art curator Jagdip Jagpal paper. Bristol City Museum and
respectively, Editing and Director and creative director Jesse Ringham. Manchester Art Gallery attracted
for our film Grenfell: The Untold Story, Jamian, the brilliant New York artist, 52,000 visitors by the end of March.
also an RTS award nominee . arrives like a hurricane, in an over-
Accepting his Bafta, James pays sized blazer, and shows us her hair ■ Neil Crombie of Swan Films sends
tribute to the survivors, saying they extensions, unpicking them and me the first cut of Grayson’s Art Club:
still haven’t got justice. You can draping them over the man sitting Queen’s Jubilee Special. Viewing this
watch the film on All 4. Like me, you next to her. show is one of the highlights of my
probably won’t be able to forget it. I bump into her again the next night week – this episode includes Harry
“There were two really, really long at the Canada party on an island Hill’s tribute to the Queen featuring
towers,” says Mehdi El-Wahabi, then where Detroit DJ Carl Craig is playing. a surprising body part.
aged about seven, in the documen- An American artist asks me if I have
tary. Artist Constantine Gras had any Adderall or coke. A Polish curator ■ Thursday, the TX of Where Have
filmed him drawing a mural at Gren- says his museum has turned into a All the Lesbians Gone? Friday, the
fell tower two years before the fire. refugee centre for Ukrainians who launch of Richard Hammond’s Crazy
Mehdi was one of 17 children to die have fled across the border. Contraptions. Richard is on The One
– a quarter of all the children who Show with a nerve-racking demo of
lived in Grenfell. On the Westway, on ■ The Biennale is like an elite art a chain-reaction machine.
our way home in the cab, we pass the Eurovision without the TV show. Meanwhile, at the Diva Awards,
tower. I catch my breath. This year, the number of female Channel 4 wins Broadcaster of the
artists represented feels genuinely Year, with the brilliant Lesbians team
■ “Shadows left over after your eye groundbreaking. Simone Leigh is in attendance. Later, I’m at a concert
looks away” – these words, by the the first black woman to represent of new music by Mica Levi that feels
artist Jamian Juliano-Villani describ- the US, and Sonia Boyce, the first like haunting, twisted church music.
ing moments in film that inspire her, black woman to represent the UK. We await press for The Man with a
are on a card on the wall next to her Both win major prizes. Penis on His Arm.
paintings at the Venice Biennale.
I meet her there on a fleeting visit. ■ Leigh’s enormous sculptures of the Shaminder Nahal is Channel 4’s head of
I’m in a bar in a side street near the female form are breathtaking. In the specialist factual.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 5
COMFORT CLASSIC
Cracker
Steve Clarke is gripped by
a groundbreaking crime
show that made a star
of Robbie Coltrane
ITV
I
t is hard now to convey the – was truly a revelation. Incredibly, McGovern acknowledged that part
shocking originality of Cracker, Cracker’s creator, the brilliant Jimmy of his inspiration for writing Cracker
the 1990s ITV crime series McGovern, had originally envisaged was the long-running American police
that helped redefine the genre his anti-hero as a wiry man like him- show Columbo, whose eponymous
and bring some genuine unpre- self. He was overruled by the casting central character was, like Fitz, a thor-
dictability and real edge to director and vowed never again to be oughgoing slob. In one famous scene,
Monday-night, peak-time TV. involved in a casting decision. Coltrane impersonates Columbo, who
At a stroke, Cracker made a star of Cracker, one of Granada’s brightest was played by Peter Falk.
man mountain Robbie Coltrane, previ- crown jewels, was the antidote to Miss From the opening sequence of the
ously known for his work in lighter Marple, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and all first episode, initially broadcast in 1993,
fare such as the BBC Two series Tutti those other genteel Home Counties we know that Fitz is a gambler and
Frutti, in which he plays the singer in murder mysteries that provide succour a maverick. Lecturing to a group of
a Scottish rock ’n’ roll band alongside rather than sensation. The series’ ante- psychology undergraduates, he hurls
Emma Thompson and Richard Wilson. cedents perhaps go back to Z Cars, at them a succession of books written
To see this erstwhile comic actor another gritty, blue-collar Northern by famous western thinkers whose
become the scene-stealing, deeply crime show that broke down taboos speciality was the human condition.
flawed forensic psychologist, Dr and stereotypes in relation to the por- “Spinoza, Descartes, Hobbes,” Fitz
Edward Fitzgerald – Fitz to his friends trayal of fictional law enforcers on TV. snarls as each tome is thrown into the
6
Ear candy
body of the lecture theatre. “Locke…
Freud.” The message is clear; if you
really want to learn about human
behaviour, then take a close look at
the dark heart that beats within us all.
“Go and lock yourself in a room for a
couple of days, and study what is here,”
advises Fitz, tapping his heart. “The
things that you really feel, not all that
crap that you’re supposed to feel. And
when you’ve studied, when you’ve shed
a little light on the dark recesses of your
soul, that’s the time to pick up a book.”
The inference is that one reason Fitz
is so valuable in helping the Manches-
ter police to solve their most challeng-
ing and vile murders is because of his
own self-knowledge that “there but for
the grace of God go I”. Not for nothing
was McGovern raised a Catholic.
“I drink too much, I smoke too
much, I gamble too much, I am too
much,” Fitz declares, but it’s his think-
ing approach to solving crimes that
deliver results that elude conventional
police investigation. Not that Fitz
doesn’t make mistakes, too.
“You’re an emotional rapist,” DS Jane
Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville) tells
him in one of Cracker’s most famous
episodes, To Be a Somebody, in which
their boss, DCI David Bilborough
(Christopher Eccleston), is himself
murdered.
Fitz is an unlikely sex symbol but,
over the course of Cracker’s three
seasons, Fitz and Penhaligon pursue an
unlikely love affair, while his marriage
AMC
W
to the very long-suffering Judith
(Barbara Flynn) crumbles, partly due to
his alcoholism and gambling. hen Better school of a podcast. Now that the sixth
In common with so many other Call Saul and final series of Better Call Saul is
great shows, Cracker was something was spun underway, so, too, is the podcast.
of an academy for future small- and off from Director Michael Morris and produc-
big-screen talent. An early director on Breaking tion designer Denise Pizzini join the
the series was Michael Winterbottom. Bad in 2015, first episode to share their parts in
Nicola Shindler worked as a script like its the building and shooting of several
editor on Cracker before setting up predecessor, it became one of the most elaborate sequences.
Red, one of the 21st century’s most cinematic series on TV. These include that grand opening,
successful independent producers As a character study of another laden with Easter eggs, in which we
of scripted content. anti-hero in the Bad universe, crooked witness the authorities repossessing
Granada was thrilled when the US lawyer Saul Goodman (played by Bob Saul’s future “ego-house”.
agreed to adapt Cracker, but, across the Odenkirk), Better Call Saul is a firm In episode 2, the always affable co-
Atlantic, Cracker was a commercial and adherent of the “show, don’t tell” creator Vince Gilligan (also the creator
artistic flop. However, in the context of philosophy. Every shot brims with of Breaking Bad) holds court. He comes
US TV, it is worth noting the verdict of meaning and begs for deconstruction. across as a fastidious director, admitting
Den of Geek on what is unquestionably AMC’s official Better Call Saul Insider to filming 200 takes of one of the brief-
a groundbreaking British series: “It Podcast does just that, as series editors est and most subtle of movements to
shows the world that the UK was turned podcast presenters Chris sell a particularly vital shot of a charac-
capable of out-HBOing HBO even McCaleb and Kelley Dixon consult ter giving away his presence.
before HBO existed.” Too true. n the heads of the various production But sometimes that’s what it takes
departments to find out just how to direct a series that is so quietly
Cracker is available on ITV Hub and each episode came together. As one eloquent. n
Amazon Prime. reviewer on Apple put it, it’s a film Harry Bennett
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 7
Editor
Channel 4
It’s a Sin
WORKING LIVES
Sarah Brewerton took the Editor Gale-Coyne, calculated that we had of Covid. On the fine cut, I worked side
prize at the RTS Craft & Design Awards 135 hours of material, a ratio of 27 to by side with Peter, whom I’ve worked
2021 for her work on Russell T Davies’s one for the length of the series. with four times now, including on The
superlative Aids drama, It’s a Sin. More Sometimes, it feels as if you are Last Kingdom for BBC Two.
than a decade earlier, the drama editor wading through so much material
bagged the same award for Peter – you spend as much time watching Do you find you often work with the
Moffat’s hard-hitting Criminal Justice. as editing. It can feel overwhelming same directors?
and you look forward to the day when Who you work with is almost as impor-
What does the job involve? a scene has been shot in one take! tant as the show. Building relationships
I take all the material the director shoots is key and you often work with the
and figure out how to tell the story in How long did it take to edit It’s a Sin? same director again and again.
the most compelling and emotionally I started on the first day of shooting in
gripping way. There’s this misunder- October 2019 and worked from home in How did you become an editor?
standing that an editor’s job is simply London during the whole show, which I did fine art, painting and photogra-
to cut out the bad bits; it’s the opposite wrapped in January 2020. I had rushes phy at university. I answered an ad
– you’re actually building something. sent to me from the shoot in and around in the Evening Standard and got a job
Manchester, so I had four months to in a TV marketing company as an
What editing software do you use? assemble the footage by myself. office junior.
I started just after the transition from I then went to Manchester for the fine The people were nice, but I didn’t
film and I’ve always used Avid. cut, and the first episode took just under enjoy looking at things from the
four weeks to lock; the remaining four outside. I didn’t want to market it,
Do you regret missing out on film? episodes took about three weeks each. I wanted to make it!
There’s a lot of nostalgia for editing film; In total, it was around eight months. I had a friend from university who
it’s the same with photography. I see the had got a job as a runner at an editing
magic of film, but it was a slower pro- Which people do you work with company, Sam Sneade Editing, which
cess. Using Avid allows you to access so closely on a production? was looking for another runner – I got
much material in far less time. On It’s a Sin, it was director Peter Hoar, an interview and the job. Sam’s an
creator/writer Russell T Davies, execu- amazing commercial editor and
Can there sometimes be too much tive producer Nicola Shindler and I worked for him for just under a year
material? producer Phil Collinson. We did a lot of as a runner and then became a trainee
On It’s a Sin, my assistant, Daniel Zooming – we had no choice because assistant editor.
8
How did you break into TV? The route into editing drama is to I’ve talked to lots of female editors,
I moved to Todd-AO in Camden [north start as a trainee or a second assistant and we all have stories of being pat-
London] and became an Avid assistant editor (or a third assistant on a really ronised or having assumptions made
and, via various generous editors, I big production). But to even become a about us – when a male assistant or
learned how to cut programmes. I trainee, you will usually need industry someone new comes into the editing
worked with Jake Bernard, who allowed qualifications, though not necessarily suite, they have often assumed that
me to practise on Jim Henson shows The a university degree. Post-production I’m the junior. I have been mistaken
Hoobs, Mopatop’s Shop and Construction Site. houses, where I started, are a great for cast, not crew, too many times to
place to learn and gain experience. mention. I also don’t think there are
What was the first TV drama that
you edited?
An episode of Fox comedy drama Keen
Eddie with Sienna Miller and then the
Kudos crime series Hustle for BBC One.
What makes a good editor?
Aside from knowledge of Avid, which
is essential, patience and perseverance
are important. You also have to under-
stand the politics of the cutting room
and know when and how loudly to
voice your opinions.
What do you take to work with you?
Whether I’m at home or in an edit
suite, a computer with Avid software, a
phone, a big notebook and a pen – I’m
constantly writing notes and reminders.
What are the best and worst parts of
the job?
Recently, working on It’s a Sin, I could
see from the script that the story was
amazing – it doesn’t matter who you
are, what age or sexuality, it’s really
engaging and heartbreaking. It’s
brought back HIV and Aids into
people’s consciousness, and the stigma
so many people faced. The subsequent
increase in HIV testing has been
important, too.
The worst parts of the job are the
long hours and the intense nature of
the work. I really need to wind down
after a job.
What are your other favourites?
BBC One’s Life on Mars is one of the
best things I’ve worked on; I also really
Life on Mars
BBC
enjoyed BBC One’s Criminal Justice and
BBC Three’s Don’t Take My Baby.
As a woman of colour, do you think enough people from working-class
What advice would you give to some- editing is a diverse profession? backgrounds in the industry.
one wanting to become an editor? I’m afraid not, though it’s probably bet-
Everyone has a video camera on their ter than some parts of the TV industry. What genre would you love to work in?
phone, so you should really be able It’s an ongoing problem, but one that is I’d love to cut a musical – not that they
to practise editing. For drama, the being looked at more than in the past. should ever remake them, but I adore
industry standard software is Avid; There are more female editors than The Wizard of Oz and Bugsy Malone. n
for documentary and factual, Premiere before, but not much ethnic diversity.
is used a lot, and free versions of both I can count on one hand the number of Sarah Brewerton was interviewed by
are available. women of colour I’ve met in editing. Matthew Bell.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 9
Difficult
conversations
Conversations with Friends
(from left): Sasha Lane
(Bobbi), Joe Alwyn (Nick),
Alison Oliver (Frances) and
Jemima Kirke (Melissa)
BBC
N
ormal People was the have predicted that a mass television
TV hit of the first A lot is riding on the new audience would become hooked on it
Covid lockdown,
a comfort blanket of
Sally Rooney adaptation in that way.”
Guiney admits that hits such as
a series that offered Conversations with Normal People “don’t happen very
respite from what
was a new and terrifying virus.
Friends. Matthew Bell often”, although when they do, he says,
“they’re a complete joy – you [need to]
Viewers tuned into Marianne and uncovers the project’s just relish and cherish it. But neither
Connell’s love story, adapted from can you expect that everything is going
Sally Rooney’s second book, in huge complex genesis to work [as well], either.”
numbers. It became BBC Three’s Quite. But has Normal People’s success
biggest-ever series and the iPlayer’s spring of the first lockdown…. If you raised expectations of Conversations
most popular show of 2020, racking up remember, at that time, we didn’t with Friends to unrealistic levels?
more than 60 million streams in just know the world wasn’t coming to an Abrahamson replies: “We learned
eight months. Worldwide, it won end – it was crazy!” Arguably, times a lot from doing Normal People, a way
countless awards. are just as gloomy now, with the world of working that suits this kind of
Now, two years later, the same watching appalled at Russia’s invasion material… and we know there’s an
producer that made Normal People, of Ukraine and fearing where Putin’s audience that’s really open to low-key
Dublin’s Element Pictures, is bringing mania may lead next. storytelling in television.”
Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations “We’ll be here to hold your hands for Element Pictures had been develop-
with Friends, to screen this month. No all future global disasters,” chips in ing Conversations with Friends as a movie
pressure, then. Lenny Abrahamson, lead director and with the then-director of BBC Film,
The success of Normal People was executive producer of both Normal Rose Garnett, but, says Guiney:
“genuinely a complete surprise”, recalls People and Conversations with Friends. “Through making Normal People, I think
executive producer Ed Guiney. “And it “We knew [Normal People] was very we realised the way to adapt Conversa-
was very nice as well – it was the good, but I don’t think any of us would tions was as a series.”
10Abrahamson continues: “We hadn’t Joe Alwyn (Nick) was also quickly as a director, it was really interesting to
cracked the film script and it just cast in a process overseen (as with be able to mine those relationships.”
seemed to make sense – those two Normal People) by casting director Louise Welham is a huge admirer of Abra-
books [share] an immersive character Kiely. Alwyn had appeared alongside hamson’s work; in particular, his dis-
development and interpersonal rela- Olivia Colman in Yorgos Lanthimos’s turbing coming-of-age film What Richard
tionships that work so well on tele award-winning film The Favourite, and Did. “He brings a nuance and subtlety
vision. For a film, you have to conflate in Joanna Hogg’s acclaimed The Souvenir to what he does, which is in line with
and concentrate – and then I don’t Part II, both co-produced by Guiney. the way I approach things,” she says.
think you do the characters justice. The principal cast is completed by She explains why she thinks
“People [have an] ability to watch Texas-born actor Sasha Lane (Star in Conversations with Friends will echo with
[TV] novelistically. If you can pull American Honey) playing Bobbi and audiences: “When I read this book,
[them] in and they connect with the Jemima Kirke (head teacher Hope I wished I had [been able to] read it
characters, you can take them on a
very intricate journey [that] holds their
attention. That was the thing that most
surprised all of us about Normal People.”
Guiney adds: “If we’d made Normal
People in exactly the same way… but
made a film, it would have been
a festival darling, played some art
houses, got some nice reviews – and
would have made a much smaller
impact, even on its TV broadcast.
“It’s weird that you can bring all of
those sensibilities and instincts of an
art-house film-maker to a piece of tele-
vision and it becomes a mainstream hit.”
As novels, Normal People and Conversa-
tions with Friends share some character-
istics: both mine relationships and are
replete with dialogue, real and internal.
But, explains Abrahamson, Normal
People “is a love story, pure and simple”.
Conversations with Friends is a more
complex book, set in the wake of the
2008 economic crisis – “what now
Conversations with Friends
BBC
feels like the quaint, happy time of a
global financial crash,” he says, wryly.
You could describe the plot, not Haddon in Sex Education) as Melissa. when I was younger. Frances is a
entirely inaccurately, as a ménage à Alice Birch, who worked on Normal character who I really saw myself in,
quatre: Frances and Bobbi, once girl- People, returns with a new team of certainly. She doesn’t have all the
friends, are now best friends perform- adapters: Mark O’Halloran, Meadhbh answers and she makes mistakes.
ing at poetry nights in Dublin. Married McHugh and Susan Soon He Stanton. “It would have been fascinating for me
couple Melissa, a photographer, and Abrahamson directed the first five to see – and maybe helpful to under-
Nick, an actor, are a decade older than and final two episodes of the series, stand – that I wasn’t the only person…
the two students they befriend. But, which was largely shot in Belfast and not knowing what the hell I was doing
while Bobbi and Melissa flirt, Frances Dublin. Croatia, with a lower incidence when I was 21. So, I think these charac-
and Nick embark on a secret affair. of Covid, stood in for France as the ters will resonate with people.
Frances, the show’s key role, is played book’s holiday destination. “But you don’t have to have been
by newcomer Alison Oliver, who grad- Second director Leanne Welham a 21-year-old woman to understand
uated from The Lir National Academy made the highly regarded 2018 feature what Frances is going through, [it’s] a
of Dramatic Art in Dublin in 2020. “We Pili, about a Tanzanian woman strug- very human show about human emo-
saw Alison early on,” recalls Guiney. gling to feed her children, much tions and anyone can relate to that.”
“Like Paul [Mescal] from Normal People, admired by Abrahamson and Guiney. Will Conversations with Friends match
she just popped [out] from a bunch of “I was very excited as a big fan of Normal People’s success? “Normal People
tapes. It was a very quiet reading, very Rooney’s novels and I actually pre- came out [during lockdown] where,
confident in its low-keyness – it wasn’t ferred Conversations with Friends to arguably, people wanted more inti-
showy at all.” Normal People,” Welham says. “The macy,” says Abrahamson. “When we
Abrahamson takes up the story: story, characters and relationships in come out, God knows what state
“We then read her with other people Conversations feel a bit more messy things are going to be in.” n
because we were also looking at and complicated, which drew me to it.
ensemble [scenes]. We knew we were I really like stories that explore those Conversations with Friends airs on
going to cast her long before she knew, difficult areas between people. Sunday 15 May on BBC Three, with all
like Paul.” “There’s a lot going on and, for me 12 episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 11I Blood, sweat
ntrepid and armed with a fear-
some work ethic, Stacey Dooley
seems to be on a one-woman
mission to popularise current
affairs for a new generation of
and Stacey
young viewers.
Dooley made her TV debut in 2008 as
a contributor on BBC Three documen-
tary series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, one of
six fashion consumers living and work-
ing alongside Indian garment workers
making cheap clothes for the UK.
It was obvious she was a TV natural.
Within a year, she had her own BBC
TV natural Stacey Dooley gives RTS Futures
Three show, Stacey Dooley Investigates, her account of her current series,
which, for more than a decade, has
seen her travel the world: to Russia to Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over
film an exposé of domestic violence; to
Japan to report on the sexualisation of
children; and to Nigeria to talk to
young women forced to become sui-
cide bombers. She has also reported
for Panorama and made films on arms
dealers and Isis. Fearless doesn’t cover
the half of it.
There’s a softer side too: fronting
CBBC shows Show Me What You’re Made
of and The Pets Factor, judging RuPaul’s
Drag Race UK and even winning Strictly
Come Dancing.
Her current project is Stacey Dooley
Sleeps Over, now in its third series. At
an RTS Futures event at the British
Museum, Dooley spoke about the pro-
gramme and her career. “I remember
the guy who gave me my first gig – he
was so generous because I obviously
wasn’t an established journo; I was this
sort of mouthy, opinionated girl from
Luton Airport.
“It was such sound advice. He said:
‘Look, there’ll be a temptation to con-
form and feel like you need to sound
the same as everyone else and dress
the same as everyone else. There are
thousands of journos [like that] – if
that’s what I wanted, I would have gone
to them. I like that you are inquisitive
and have something to say.’ ”
A little over a decade later and
Dooley has her own production com-
pany, Little Dooley. “I’m now talking
about risk assessments and on the
phone to Blackpool council about
drone shots, which is really dull, but it’s
a good learning curve for me,” she said.
In Mum Fighting the Clock – episode 3
of the current series of Stacey Dooley
Sleeps Over, which was premiered at the
RTS event – Dooley spends time with
Jemma McGowan and her family.
McGowan, an almost impossibly upbeat
Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over:
mum from County Tyrone, is living with
UKTV
Mum Fighting the Clock
a terminal diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
12Dooley doesn’t shy away from ask- presenters have alluded to the idea will ask you the difficult questions’, so
ing difficult questions about death and that they’re staying, and [in fact] they they are aware that there isn’t going to
McGowan’s belief in alternative medi- go and stay in a five-star hotel.” be a subject that’s off limits,” explained
cine, but there are also moments of joy. Dooley is hugely grateful that families Bowden. The families also see their
“A lazy approach would be to spend open themselves up for TV. “They’re episode pre-broadcast, in the company
the entire time in an earnest manner, such good sports,” she said. “If the telly of Bowden. “People are generally happy
talking about death,” said Dooley. called me and said, ‘Stacey, we’d like to with the [final] programme,” she said.
“While those conversations are neces- come and stay around your house. A member of the RTS Futures audi-
sary, she is [a woman] in her twenties There’ll be five of use, there’ll be two ence wondered whether meeting
with lots to say. Instinctively, I think her cameras and we’ll be asking you deeply Jemma McGowan while filming Mum
natural default is that she’s an optimist, personal questions – are you up for it?’ Fighting the Clock had provoked any
so I’m delighted we showed that.” I’d be like, ‘absolutely not’, so I never, changes in Dooley’s own life. She
Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over first aired on ever, ever take it for granted.… It’s never replied: “For the last couple of years,
W in 2019 and runs to 16 episodes, all a given that [people] are going to allow I’ve been having this weird existential
available on VoD service UKTV Play. us in.” crisis where I’m terrified of dying.… I
Dooley’s personal favourites include Nevertheless, there is sometimes don’t know why because, to my
weekends spent with a Mormon family what Dooley refers to as “rub”; occa- knowledge, everything is fine.”
in Greater Manchester, and, most of all,
Rabbi Mordechai Wollenberg and his Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over:
ultra-orthodox family. “I’ve got such a Strictly Orthodox Jews
soft spot for Mordechai… [he] was such
a gent,” said Dooley.
She described Stacey Dooley Sleeps
Over as a “unique format”, adding: “I
think it’s healthy and necessary to
hang out with people who you don’t
always understand or agree with
because, increasingly, we surround
ourselves with people who nod along
at the same time as us.”
The series is shot over a long week-
end. “As film-makers, sometimes we
can [think we’re] tortured artists, [want-
ing] weeks and weeks and weeks [to
film]. Actually, we get there on a Friday,
we leave on the Monday and we’ve
never made a duff film yet,” said Dooley.
“It’s a good discipline, making a film
in 72 hours,” added executive producer
Alice Bowden, who has worked on the
UKTV
series since day one – first as series
producer, now as executive producer.
She is one of a production crew of five, sionally, “quite a lot of rub”. Two epi- In fact, she added, personally and
which includes two camera operators, sodes stand out: The British Lion King, in professionally, “things couldn’t be
in what must be a crowded house. which she stayed with a family that going better. So, spending time with
Offering proof – such as Dooley kept two lions and a puma in their back Jemma reminded me, and I don’t want
brushing her teeth or getting into bed garden and probed them about animal to sound too much of a cliché, that
– that the presenter is actually sleep- welfare; and The Family every single day, you’ve
ing over is “critical”, said UKTV’s head Without Rules, whose got to go for it. When I
of factual and factual entertainment, aversion to modern ‘THE WORST came home, I was due
Hilary Rosen, who commissions the
series for the W channel.
medicine ran up
against Dooley’s per-
THEY CAN a smear test; I made
sure I had the smear
“I always worry that there’s a large sonal experience of DO IS KICK test and asked them to
degree of cynicism among the audi-
ence and that [they] will assume that
seeing children die
from malaria. YOU OUT’ check everything else
while I was there. It’s a
these things have been manufactured “It’s my job and I bit of a predictable
to suit the people making the pro- hate the idea of getting answer, but that’s what
gramme and that corners have been in the car [to go home] and thinking, [Jemma] will do for lots of people.” n
cut. So, I always think it’s important ‘You should have asked that’. So, I
that it’s very, very clear visually to the always bite the bullet. The worst they ‘Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over screening
audience that [Stacey is] there for those can do is kick you out,” said Dooley. So and Q&A’ was held at the British Museum
72 hours.” far, they haven’t. on 21 April. The producer was Kelly
Dooley added: “I get that cynicism The families can’t say they haven’t Phelps, senior publicist at UKTV.
because we’ve heard before that been warned. “We always say, ‘Stacey n See the full video at: bit.ly/RTS-Dooley.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 13The people’s
political editor
Caroline Frost finds out
how Chris Mason is
likely to approach one
of the toughest jobs in
news journalism
I
n 2018, Chris Mason stood
outside the Houses of Parlia-
ment to give his opinion on the
never-ending Brexit negotia-
tions. He told the BBC Breakfast
audience: “To be quite honest,
looking at things right now, I haven’t
got the foggiest idea what is going to
happen in the coming weeks. Is the
Prime Minister going to get a deal with
the EU? Dunno. Is she going to be able
to get it through the Commons? Don’t
know about that either.
“I think you might as well get Mr
Blobby back on to offer his analysis,
because, frankly, I suspect his is now
as good as mine.”
For veteran political journalist and
broadcaster Iain Dale, that moment
represented the best of Mason; it was
ANL/Shutterstock
“a refreshing change to hear someone
admitting they don’t have the answer.
It’s that honesty people will admire
and relate to in his new job.”
That new job is, of course, arguably the
country’s biggest in news journalism.
Twenty years after this self-professed journalist believes Mason missed out Sky News’s political editor, Beth
“political geek” gained his first BBC job initially due to his radio and podcast- Rigby, points out that Mason’s appoint-
in Newcastle, and with more than ing skills. “That means there are some ment provides continuity at a time of
a decade at Westminster, including people at Westminster far more inter- change for the BBC: “There is a lot of
stints for BBC Radio 5 Live and ested in TV, for whom he would never change going on, people leaving, a new
Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, plus report- have been first, second or third choice,” boss [Deborah Turness] coming in.
ing from Brussels and recently hosting he says. “He goes into this job knowing Chris has been there for two decades,
Any Questions?, Mason this month steps that he has to work on some key rela- he knows how the BBC works, he’s
into Laura Kuenssberg’s shoes as the tionships internally.” a brand and a name. That is quite
BBC’s political editor. Former director of BBC News reassuring for an organisation that’s
His appointment follows a quagmire Richard Sambrook, takes a more posi- gone through a lot of change.”
of a recruitment process, which saw tive view: “We know what we read She adds: “He’s a great journalist,
two external, female candidates short- about him being invited back into the a brilliant communicator. In that role,
listed before the job was readvertised process, but that indicates how careful your first and foremost job is to distil for
and finally given to the popular BBC they were about getting the right per- the nation what’s going on in Westmin-
staffer. One BBC senior political son for the job.” ster and why it matters…. These sorts of
14jobs, and I include mine, have changed on the side of viewers and listeners.” a mouthpiece for the Government. He’ll
in the past decade – from someone Mason told Dale that he has never have to pull in stories from all around
almost detached from the viewer, had a long-term plan for his career. Westminster – with more focus on
operating in an ivory tower in this Instead, he likes to grab opportunities what Labour are doing, because they
rarefied world – to being much more when they arise. Of late, this proactive could be in power in two years’ time,”
about how politics relates to people. attitude has served him well. Not least, says a BBC News insider.
“Chris is very good at that. He’s in 2019, when he succeeded the Sambrook agrees that keeping to
down to earth, he’s relatable, he prides long-serving Jonathan Dimbleby as the an independent, middle ground has
himself on being a very real Yorkshire- chair of Radio 4’s Any Questions?. And become increasingly hard for political
man, and that’s what the BBC needs.” in 2017, with the surprise triumph of journalists. “It’s very difficult to survey
Simon Bucks, Chair of the RTS the podcast Brexitcast, the brainchild of neutral, central positions because no one
Television Journalism Awards, formerly Mason and his colleague Adam Flem- accepts the legitimacy of that,” he says.
of ITN and Sky and now CEO at BFBS,
agrees: “He is incredibly user-friendly,
a perceptive and fluent analyst. Will
he bring in stories? Don’t know. His
predecessors have all had a stable of
contacts to inform their reporting and
analysis. It depends what Tim Davie
and Deborah Turness want from the
role in the new era.”
According to a BBC colleague, this
audience-facing warmth is the genu-
ine article. “He’s collaborative, not
competitive, extremely down to earth,
and hardworking. His strength is good
political judgement and a warm and
original style, a way of looking at
stories and connecting them to the
public. And he has a great turn of
phrase that brings these stories to life.”
Dale remembers meeting Mason
on the latter’s first day at Millbank,
more than a decade ago. “He was
very self-deprecating and friendly,
Chris Mason with his predecessor as
and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t BBC political editor, Laura Kuenssberg
BBC
changed remotely.”
Much of Mason’s unique style lies
in his accent, unmistakably that of a ing. It started out small and is now the Rigby doesn’t think this is as hard as
man brought up in Grassington in the unmissable Newscast. “For awhile BBC people maintain: “As long as you know
Yorkshire Dales. Although he told Dale, management weren’t interested you’re being impartial and balanced,
in a podcast in 2020, that his early because it hadn’t been dreamed up by that’s the bread and butter. If you’re
bosses had warned him his voice suits,” says a colleague. getting it from both sides, you’re
would prohibit a career in broadcasting, “But what they did was a clever way probably doing something right.
Mason now joins those who believe it of presenting an accessible but deep “The bigger task is calling the stories,
is a cracking asset, for him and for the dive into the political minefield… that making sure in this cacophony of
BBC in its aim to reach audiences didn’t talk down to the listener. They noise to pick the things that matter to
beyond the southern bubble. He told showed management how you could your audience, and asking the right
Dale: “Radio stations needs a sound like do good podcasting.” question when you get the chance.”
the audience we’re broadcasting to. You Observers agree that the challenges So how does Mason see the job? “The
need that range. I’m a middle-aged, that lie ahead for Mason are plentiful: thing I’m most looking forward to, the
middle-class white bloke who went to political, with an ever-more polarised thing that makes the job a colossal
Oxbridge. But I just happen to have a landscape; physical, with 15-hour days privilege – and huge responsibility – is
Yorkshire accent. Whenever I go back, the norm, and an increased scrutiny, no the essence of what it is all about: being
I get ribbed the whole time: ‘You sound small thanks to social media, that Rigby a trusted guide to what is going on and
like a posh southerner.’” says knocked her off guard initially. what matters. I can’t wait.”
A BBC colleague agrees that it will Mason describes himself as “never Nobody doubts that Mason’s hunger
serve employer and employee: “It fits particularly political, and the longer I’ve for those stories remains unabated. As
in with the Director-General’s vision to done the job, the more detached I’ve Bucks says: “He undoubtedly has the
have much of the BBC based out of become from even thinking about it”. personality for the role. He’s a warm,
London. It won’t be why he got the role This will be tested in a job that involves come-hither sort of person and if he
but, if he does the job well, he can being almost umbilically attached to can use that to develop the contacts he
capitalise on the fact he’s from York- Number 10. “It’s very tribal, and the needs, he will be a very effective polit-
shire to present an everyman who’s trickiest part is to avoid sounding like ical editor.” n
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 15A
t a time when
producers and broad-
casters are working
hard to ensure diver-
sity in their workforce
as well as on screen,
the team at Signpost Productions in the
North East of England can claim to be
ahead of the curve. Eleven of the com-
pany’s 23 full-time staff are deaf or
have another disability – physical,
chronic or hidden. Between them, they
produce more than 1,000 hours of
signed British Sign Language (BSL)
translations a year for programming on
three major broadcasters, including ITV.
The company also makes original
Signing ITV News
ITV
content, such as Robson and Jim’s
Icelandic Fly Fishing Adventure (ITV4) and
Breaking
Dare Master (CITV), at Signpost’s studios
in Gateshead, next door to the ITV
Tyne Tees newsroom. Dare Master is
signed-presented by a deaf presenter
and uses a predominantly deaf crew
down
– but sits in the schedule without being
tagged as such. It is a fully accessible
programme made for, and watched by,
a mainstream audience.
Increasingly, the company is also
barriers
working for commercial non-broad-
cast clients and is much in demand to
deliver diversity training to pro-
gramme teams across the UK.
Managing Director Kenny Toal is
proud of his team: “Signpost has been
breaking down barriers for years and,
at the same time, flying the flag for the
North East. Diversity is in our DNA. We
Signpost Productions’ employment of deaf
really do stand for production without and disabled people is a model of diversity.
prejudice. It’s a privilege for all of us
working here to be the custodians of Graeme Thompson explains its success
such a unique working environment.
“Accessibility is at the heart of the of ITV’s disability network, ITV Able. with deaf awareness training. She
production office and studios – you can Gillian Harrison is another staffer recently worked as an advisor to
work effectively here whether you’re who readily shares her experience and the Coronation Street production team,
using a wheelchair or have hearing or insights with others in the sector. Until helping it develop a BSL storyline and
visual impairments. Deaf directors, eight years ago she worked for a local providing deaf awareness training to
such as Seb Cunliffe, work alongside council but, after retraining, she is now the cast and crew.
interpreters while wheelchair users, one of three on-screen presenters and “Everyone here at Signpost has
such as technician Stu Coulson, operate is the diversity lead with Signpost. talent and we make sure we put in
specially adapted equipment. Coul- Alongside her production duties, the right support to allow that talent
son’s success in the role has resulted Harrison, who is deaf, has helped to be seen,” she says. “When we’re
in him being appointed Co-chair a host of broadcasters and producers out filming, nobody questions if the
16Dare Master started coming back to the studio after
tackles industrial lockdown, the hearing staff were a bit
window cleaning rusty when it came to their own use of
BSL to converse with deaf colleagues.
“People were forgetting because they
hadn’t been using it so much,” she
recalls. “So we had to put on refresher
sessions.”
Gareth Deighan, creative director at
Signpost, believes the innovations and
workarounds achieved by the team
during the pandemic are a good illus-
tration of the company’s commitment
to access for all. “We’re surrounded by
incredibly talented people,” he says.
“Some of them require different kinds
of support to enable them to do their
job. But that’s OK because they’re
really good at what they do.
“It can take more thought at the
pre-production stage about transport,
interpreters and access issues. But the
quality on screen speaks for itself.”
Recruitment is largely from the
North East and managers ensure they
reach under-represented communities
ITV
when advertising vacancies. The result
is a multi-skilled, multi-ethnic group
director is deaf and using an interpreter. ing online and in the daytime on Film4. of programme-makers.
Everyone is treated equally. I’ve always “Not all deaf people can read Eng- “We give new starters the training,
felt included.” Being an in-vision lish,” explains Harrison. “BSL is their mentoring and experience they need to
signer isn’t without its challenges. She first language. So, without BSL transla- succeed,” says Deighan. “We’re trying to
says: “Quiz shows can be tricky. The tion, they were finding it difficult to level the playing field for people who
most difficult one for me was Winning keep up with the rules and restrictions may not otherwise get the chance.”
Combination on ITV. The questions and during the pandemic. The briefings Signpost, which is wholly owned by
answers come very fast!” from Downing Street didn’t have ITV, grew out of an access service in
There are also issues when the signer signers. When so many people at that the days when signed and subtitled
has to interpret very dramatic, intimate time were wearing masks, you couldn’t programmes were buried in the sched-
or emotional content. “I’m a mother even lip-read. ule. Now, the company sees itself as a
and I am very emotional by nature,” “The bulletins were about three mainstream commercial producer
says Harrison. “Some programme minutes long and brought viewers up with ambitions to play a key role in the
content is difficult. I’ve had to stop to date with what was happening. It expansion of the North East screen
recording on several occasions because was a worrying and confusing time for sector.
I realise I am crying. It happened to me people. We were shocked at how many “We’re very excited about the buzz in
with Long Lost Family and a documen- were accessing these bulletins. The the area right now,” says Deighan. “We
tary about conjoined twins.” numbers were eye-popping.” know the BBC and other broadcasters
The team faced one of its most Another hurdle in working from are investing heavily in content from
daunting challenges in lockdown in home was downloading the pro- here and there are plans for new film
2020. Unable to use their usual studios, grammes ready for signing. Harrison studios. We want to be part of that.” n
the signers improvised from home to relied on rural broadband, so had to
produce a daily news digest for the BSL wait up to 10 hours to access longer Graeme Thompson is Chair of the RTS
Broadcasting Trust – which can be shows such as the Emmerdale Omnibus. Education Committee and pro vice-
accessed on several platforms, includ- She remembers that, after the team chancellor of the University of Sunderland.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 17A+E’s fresh twist
on true crime
Novelists Mark Billingham and Douglas Skelton
offer their take on the UK’s most notorious crimes
Paul Hampartsoumian
From left: Dan Korn,
Mark Billingham, Douglas
Skelton and Caroline Frost
A
t an intimate RTS event crime fiction, who brings their own “We are always seeking a new way
in London’s British personality and take on the crimes into crime, we always need to find
Library, members that have inspired their most famous new angles because there is a risk of
gathered to enjoy an novels. Billingham, Skelton, Denise things becoming repetitive and sensa-
illuminating discussion Mina and Peter James are the featured tionalist,” Korn told the chair of the
between bestselling bestselling authors. RTS event, the journalist, broadcaster
crime novelists Mark Billingham and “True-crime audiences are spoilt and author Caroline Frost.
Douglas Skelton and A+E Networks for choice at the moment,” said Korn, The conversation ranged from why
executive Dan Korn. Attendees were who is executive producer and true crime fascinates and horrifies in
also treated to exclusive excerpts from vice-president for programming at A+E equal measure to the conviction that,
Crime+Investigation’s documentary Networks UK, and commissioned for the past 60 years, crime fiction has
series Once Upon a True Crime. the show from the Glasgow and been less about whodunnit than why
Hailed as a fresh approach to true- London-based factual TV production the crime was committed.
crime programming, the new four-part powerhouse IWC Media. “What Billingham’s episode tackles the
show features notorious crimes that viewers will get is a unique take, enduring mysteries of the grotesque
shocked the UK: the 1960s Moors very much an author’s take.” couple Ian Brady and Myra Hindley,
murders; the killings committed by Korn noted that he had A+E and the Yorkshire Moors murders of
Peter Manuel in Glasgow in the 1950s; Networks’ Polish team to thank for the several children, which helped inspire
the so-called “babes in the wood” Once Upon a True Crime format; it was his bestseller Their Little Secret.
murders in Brighton in 1986; and the originally produced with Polish “I wanted to look at what happened
unsolved case of Glasgow’s notorious authors talking about the true crimes after the pair were caught and con-
“ice-cream wars” in the 1980s. that inspired their fiction. He said all victed, rather than just a rehash of their
The twist on traditional true-crime four British authors had delivered on terrible crimes,” said Billingham.
shows is that each episode is delivered a promise to “tell viewers about them Skelton’s episode examines the
and presented by a popular writer of from a unique place”. infamous 1980s gangland turf war
18known as the “ice-cream wars”, which “I certainly say somewhere in my
terrorised Glasgow’s East End and film that they’ve had their moment in
culminated in the murders of six the spotlight,” said Billingham. “At the
members of one family in a horrifying same time, I’m aware that I am now
arson attack. In 1984, two men were part of that spotlight. So it’s a line you
convicted of the murders and sen- have to walk and you have to use your
tenced to life while constantly protest- best judgement.”
ing their innocence. After a 20-year For Skelton, it is because he still
battle, their convictions were over- has questions: “The only thing I know
turned. No one subsequently has been for certain that happened in 1984 was
Paul Hampartsoumian
brought to justice for the murders. The that someone lied. I would like to find
background to the case influenced out who it was and that’s why I keep
Skelton’s novel Blood City. hammering away at this idea that the
In her film, Mina examines the story authorities get up off their backsides
of Manuel, who, in 1958, became the and look into this case again to try and
Mark Billingham
second-to-last man to be hanged in find out what happened.” What drives
Glasgow, after killing at least seven men and women to commit dreadful
people during a campaign of terror
across Lanarkshire between 1956 and ‘CRIME FICTION acts is the essential question most crime
authors are wrestling with, he said.
1958. The spree included the murder of
Marion Watt, her 16-year-old daughter
HAS BEEN ABOUT “For the past 60-odd years, crime
fiction has been about the why-dunnit
and Watt’s sister. Manuel’s intriguing THE WHY-DUNNIT rather than whodunnit,” Billingham
relationship with Marion’s husband,
William Watt, provides the backdrop
RATHER THAN said. “I think it’s something we’re
always going to be fascinated by.
for Mina’s novel The Long Drop. WHODUNNIT’ Always.” After all, losing yourself in a
“He [Manuel] was the bogey man,” book or disappearing into a documen-
Skelton told the RTS. “For years after- tary is a safe way to encounter crime.
wards, mothers would say to their chil- “Some people want escapism, some
dren: get to your bed or Peter Manuel people want something else. There are
will come. He was a serial killer before a whole variety of reasons why people
they called them serial killers.” like crime drama and crime fiction,”
Peter James’s film recalls the tragedy added Billingham.
of the “babes in the wood” murders. While the show was six months in
The Brighton-born writer revisits his the making, IWC Media was able to
home city to detail a crime that has move swiftly because each novelist’s
stuck with him like no other, and the unique perspective provided a clear
gruelling, decade-long fight for justice. narrative way in to each episode.
James focuses on the killer, Russell Korn said that each film had its own
Bishop, who originally escaped con- kind of complexity. “A lot of the time, I
viction for the murder of two nine- thought I would love this to run longer,
year-old girls found strangled in woods like at 66 minutes for a 90-minute slot,
on the outskirts of Brighton because but you do have to compress it and
his girlfriend gave him an alibi. bring it down to time for 45 minutes,
Korn noted that James got very close which, sometimes, is a shame. With
to the case and to the investigating these films, they all had more to give.”
police officers and was devastated that Once Upon a True Crime began airing
Paul Hampartsoumian
they had not been able to bring Bishop on Crime+Investigation in the UK on
to justice, despite knowing he was 25 April on pay platforms and is also
guilty. It took 10 years before Bishop available on streaming services
was convicted. Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.
“There is a hook to crime – they are A good consolidated audience for
Douglas Skelton
the best stories, that’s why people come the show would be around the 200,000
to them,” suggested Korn. “They also mark, remarked Korn after the event.
provide a gripping social commentary.”
All the episodes contain a revelation
‘MOTHERS WOULD And, of course, lead to the commission-
ing of more crime – at least on TV. n
or two that surprised the authors and SAY TO THEIR
will, no doubt, provide viewers with
never-before-known nuggets. CHILDREN: GET Report by Stuart Kemp. The RTS members
event ‘Once Upon a True Crime’ was
So, how do Billingham and Skelton
feel about being a part of the big media
TO YOUR BED OR held on 20 April at the British Library,
London. It was hosted by journalist, broad-
circus that still follows these true crimes PETER MANUEL caster and author Caroline Frost and
and feeds people’s appetite for such
grisly content?
WILL COME’ produced by Barbara Pianca, senior com-
munications manager, A+E Networks UK.
Television www.rts.org.uk May 2022 19You can also read
