Vince's good things about London (2): telly

It is a cliché that I believe is true: British television is the best in the world. And in more than one way. The production industry is the most creative. Broadcasters are the most innovative in terms of programme commissioning, in terms of technology, in terms of business models. When like me one works in the television/media industry, it’s one the best place to be. This is where satellite television began, and where later digital terrestrial television started (as early as 1998). Freeview is the model for free-to-view digital television. UK has one of the highest penetration for digital TV in the world. BskyB, whether you like the Murdoch family or not, has been simply brilliant in building its pay TV empire from scratch, killing incompetent cable lords ; they are bloody marketing geniuses. Technology? UK is where interactive television, high definition, everything was pioneered first in European television industry.

But let's focus on programmes. The gap with France is awe striking. In France I was pretty much using my TV as a monitor for DVDs. Here, almost every evening, be it on the BBC or Channel Four, you can watch something challenging, new, brilliant. Let’s take three examples: news, comedy, documentary.

In news, it’s in-your-face and right-to-the-point. When French anchormen shamelessly flatter the president every 14-July, Jeremy Paxman notoriously asked 14 times the same question to a minister – he was not being rude; he was simply unsatisfied by the answer he was receiving. France Televisions decided to remove its reporters from Iraq because risks were too high; such an issue would simply be unimaginable in British press. No-one is obliged to go to war theatres but everyone feels that is what it takes to be a reporter.

There is an entire television genre that is nearly non-existent – or pathetic - in French television, which has by contrast a long tradition of support and excellence in Britain: Comedy.

In France what? Some good stuff on Canal+ twenty years ago, period. Today what? Camera Café and Kamelott are just about okay but to be honest we never even really tried.
Just compare with British hall of fame (just the ones I know of – I am sure there are plenty of other):
- The Monty Python Flying Circus simply revolutionised humour and television (1969-1974)
- Fawlty Towers by John Cleese in 1975
- Blackadder, by Ben Elton, Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson (1983-1989)
- A bit of Laurie and Fry, by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (1989-1995)
- Absolutely Fabulous, by Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley (1992-2004)

And to focus on recent or running shows:

- Peep Show by Mitchell and Webb since 2003 on Channel 4,
- The Smoking Room by Brian Dooley in 2004-2006 on BBC Three,
- Kombat Opera Presents on BBC Two.

So many gems in history and up to this day. In France, writers still basically despise television and broadcasters despise viewers. In Britain, the best comedians and the best writers have been working for television for 30 years, and they have been given near total freedom to experiment the dodgiest, craziest storytelling formats.

Of course they have had Benny Hill or today Little Britain and its toilet humour. Catherine Tate is one gifted comedian if not doing a very innovative show. Roman's Empire may be so mad and weird that you simply lose interest in the plot and the characters, which is a problem in a sitcom comedy. But The Office by Ricky Gervais and I’m Allan Partridge by Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, are two examples of out-of-this-world, innovative formats, based on cruelty, embarrassing taste and a very sick, very British sense of humour. The Office seems soo British in fact, and yet it was adapted for American TV, and became a critic and popular hit there too. Canal Plus adapted The Office in France too, I don’t know if it was any good. Is there one French format that ever became popular abroad – apart from, allegedly, Helene et les garcons 20 years ago in Russia?

Documentary. Well here OK, French production is okay, partly because it is heavily subsidised. But again, Brit programmes are more ambitious and more innovative. They invented and developed the docu drama, that has rejuvenated the whole genre. They are always at the world top in popular science; history and natural history documentary. Planet Earth, the most ambitious, most expensive and most awesome series ever was funded by the BBC, Japanese NHK and Discovery… and made by Brits. Coasts is great. And on a lower key, every other day, you come across remarkable factual programmes on the remotest subjects.

France does intellectual programmes for the elite (ARTE)and boring rubbish for the rest. UK does intelligent entertainment for the masses. One reason is very well known: because France Televisions has to rely on advertising revenues for about a third of its revenues, it feels obliged to compete with commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6. The BBC, by contrast, has never carried, and will never carry any advertising (on TV or radio by the way), and the much-loved beeb is entirely funded by the licence fee, that is about twice what it is in France. (Channel Four does lives on advertising but it is State-owned and therefore does not have to make profits and pay dividends and can develop long term programming strategy).

As a result, France 2’s schedule is always competing directly with that of TF1 and always losing in audience terms (the 20h news), and doing more of the same, always. The BBC does not NEED to do high audiences, so they do what they honestly feel is good, new, interesting, in every genre ; and guess what: they DO excellent audiences.