Post by Teddy Bear on May 2, 2014 20:22:43 GMT
When a left-wing comedy producer lays into the BBC you know things are serious. While I agree with much of what he says here, I don;t think he realises that the very mindset is what stifles creativity and makes the need to use reruns and copy old themes, or retreads as he calls it, to try and get by.
John Lloyd: TV comedy is a 'disaster' which could 'sink' the BBC
Television comedy is now a "train crash" says the producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image
By Hannah Furness, and Ben Lawrence
Television comedy is now a "thoroughgoing disaster" which could "sink" the BBC, the creator of some of Britain's best-loved television programmes has said, as he condemns today's inexperienced commissioners.
John Lloyd, the producer of Blackadder, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, and the creator of QI, said home-grown television comedy is no longer world-beating, with "so few people" now knowing how to do it properly.
Arguing the modern television commissioning system was a "train crash" he has now urged channels to reinstate experts and those able to learn their craft on the job, instead of unqualified executives drawn from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
Speaking of the future of the BBC, he added: "What will sink the corporation is nothing to do with whether people trust it, the licence fee. Nobody give two penny worth about the licence fee- it’s tiny.
"But they really care if the comedy isn’t funny. If it isn’t, they won’t go there anymore and that is what will sink the corporation.
“Everyone will be jolly sorry when there is no BBC anymore. I personally am going to leave the country. “
Lloyd shared his forthright opinions at the Sky Arts launch of new episodes of the South Bank Show, saying he was doing so on behalf of the many comedians who dare not speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
He told an audience he believed modern TV comedy is a "disaster", with even excellent producers with a proven track record being required to beg for new commissions along with "any w----- who’s flown in from Middlesbrough who says “I’ve got 3,000 hits on YouTube with my animation."
"TV used to be world beating," he said. "We used to be brilliant at it and we’re not anymore.
"Comedy is a disaster in television, and it is more acute in comedy than anything else because so few people know how to do it.
"Few people know how, consistently, to produce comedy."
Speaking of recent commentators "banging on in a PC way" about how few women there are on television comedy panels, he condemned the "tokenism" of putting someone on "just because she's a woman".
"It’s insulting to everybody and not good for the programming," he said, adding women were succeeding in stand-up leaving TV commissioners are lagging behind.
"Half the stand ups are now women and that is because it’s what the people want, what the audiences want, and telly as ever is miles behind what is going on in the rest of the world," he said.
"But creativity will find a way round the train crash that is the modern TV commissioning system which is a thoroughgoing disaster."
On the problems in commissioning, he complained those in charge now come from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
"There is another problem at controller level, which is frustrating," Mr Lloyd said. "The difficulty is at producer level because they are talking to a commissioner who is not an expert.
"Most comedy commissioners have never done five minutes of stand up, couldn’t write a sitcom, have never written a funny line but they are in the department and it’s their job to decide what the people will see.
"When [the commissioners] see something they like they then go to the channel controller who is suddenly expected to be an expert on arts, documenaries, drama, comedy, cookery and everything else.
"It’s like you go this person who is in charge, and he or she is expected to diagnose your illness, fix your motor car, advise on the architecture of your kitchen extension and a thousand other things.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy.
"The controllers are sitting there all day terrified because there's going to come a subject about which they do not understand and do not like and they are expected to give an opinion on it."
Mr Lloyd made the exception for Sky, who he said had learnt the lesson that "all [they] need to do is find good people at producer level and give them a chance to get it right by learning on the job".
He will now feature on one of six new episodes of the South Bank Show with Melvyn Bragg, alongside actor Daniel Radcliffe, singer Angel Blue, author Kate Atkinson, playwright Abi Morgan, and a special episode on King Lear, with Simon Russell Beale and director Sam Mendes.
Other commissioners announced a new series of digital "master classes", with leading figures in the arts including Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, and Turner Prize-winner Tracey Emin.
Mr Lloyd, who was appointed CBE in 2011 for services to broadcasting, attended the announcement alongside Lord Bragg, answering questions from the press.
When asked about rumoured remakes of Blackadder, he said he thought they would be "difficult to top", adding: "For Christ’s sake there is a whole universe out there.
"Does everything have to be a retread of something else?"
"It’s about time someone says it," he concluded of his home truths. "I am speaking for tens of thousands of people in the industry who are too frightened to speak out because their jobs depend on it."
Television comedy is now a "train crash" says the producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image
By Hannah Furness, and Ben Lawrence
Television comedy is now a "thoroughgoing disaster" which could "sink" the BBC, the creator of some of Britain's best-loved television programmes has said, as he condemns today's inexperienced commissioners.
John Lloyd, the producer of Blackadder, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, and the creator of QI, said home-grown television comedy is no longer world-beating, with "so few people" now knowing how to do it properly.
Arguing the modern television commissioning system was a "train crash" he has now urged channels to reinstate experts and those able to learn their craft on the job, instead of unqualified executives drawn from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
Speaking of the future of the BBC, he added: "What will sink the corporation is nothing to do with whether people trust it, the licence fee. Nobody give two penny worth about the licence fee- it’s tiny.
"But they really care if the comedy isn’t funny. If it isn’t, they won’t go there anymore and that is what will sink the corporation.
“Everyone will be jolly sorry when there is no BBC anymore. I personally am going to leave the country. “
Lloyd shared his forthright opinions at the Sky Arts launch of new episodes of the South Bank Show, saying he was doing so on behalf of the many comedians who dare not speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
He told an audience he believed modern TV comedy is a "disaster", with even excellent producers with a proven track record being required to beg for new commissions along with "any w----- who’s flown in from Middlesbrough who says “I’ve got 3,000 hits on YouTube with my animation."
"TV used to be world beating," he said. "We used to be brilliant at it and we’re not anymore.
"Comedy is a disaster in television, and it is more acute in comedy than anything else because so few people know how to do it.
"Few people know how, consistently, to produce comedy."
Speaking of recent commentators "banging on in a PC way" about how few women there are on television comedy panels, he condemned the "tokenism" of putting someone on "just because she's a woman".
"It’s insulting to everybody and not good for the programming," he said, adding women were succeeding in stand-up leaving TV commissioners are lagging behind.
"Half the stand ups are now women and that is because it’s what the people want, what the audiences want, and telly as ever is miles behind what is going on in the rest of the world," he said.
"But creativity will find a way round the train crash that is the modern TV commissioning system which is a thoroughgoing disaster."
On the problems in commissioning, he complained those in charge now come from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
"There is another problem at controller level, which is frustrating," Mr Lloyd said. "The difficulty is at producer level because they are talking to a commissioner who is not an expert.
"Most comedy commissioners have never done five minutes of stand up, couldn’t write a sitcom, have never written a funny line but they are in the department and it’s their job to decide what the people will see.
"When [the commissioners] see something they like they then go to the channel controller who is suddenly expected to be an expert on arts, documenaries, drama, comedy, cookery and everything else.
"It’s like you go this person who is in charge, and he or she is expected to diagnose your illness, fix your motor car, advise on the architecture of your kitchen extension and a thousand other things.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy.
"The controllers are sitting there all day terrified because there's going to come a subject about which they do not understand and do not like and they are expected to give an opinion on it."
Mr Lloyd made the exception for Sky, who he said had learnt the lesson that "all [they] need to do is find good people at producer level and give them a chance to get it right by learning on the job".
He will now feature on one of six new episodes of the South Bank Show with Melvyn Bragg, alongside actor Daniel Radcliffe, singer Angel Blue, author Kate Atkinson, playwright Abi Morgan, and a special episode on King Lear, with Simon Russell Beale and director Sam Mendes.
Other commissioners announced a new series of digital "master classes", with leading figures in the arts including Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, and Turner Prize-winner Tracey Emin.
Mr Lloyd, who was appointed CBE in 2011 for services to broadcasting, attended the announcement alongside Lord Bragg, answering questions from the press.
When asked about rumoured remakes of Blackadder, he said he thought they would be "difficult to top", adding: "For Christ’s sake there is a whole universe out there.
"Does everything have to be a retread of something else?"
"It’s about time someone says it," he concluded of his home truths. "I am speaking for tens of thousands of people in the industry who are too frightened to speak out because their jobs depend on it."
