Post by Teddy Bear on Apr 5, 2015 15:33:10 GMT
So for the BBC, gone are the days when you would hire comedians with enough common sense to self regulate their material, now the hierarchy will censor all jokes before airing. The BBC, using the left wing excuse, claim it is to prevent giving offence, but as sure as eggs are eggs, it will also make sure that any humour fits in to the BBC desired agenda. In other words, no humour that could cause Miliband embarrassment, but open season on Farage.
What a stupid country!
Only for the purposes of decorum have I spelled it correctly.
What a stupid country!
Only for the purposes of decorum have I spelled it correctly.
BBC Director General has to sign off jokes
Some jokes now have to be signed off at the highest level to get aired on the BBC as the broadcaster fears a scandal
By Hannah Furness
It has produced some of the finest comedies ever to grace British television screens, from Dad’s Army to Monty Python and Blackadder.
Viewers may be surprised to learn, then, about the lengths the BBC must now to go to get a simple joke on air, with boxes to be ticked right up to the director-general.
An editor at BBC comedy has disclosed the careful procedures adhered to at the modern-day corporation, as executives fear causing a national scandal with an off-key joke.
Saying particular jokes have to go through “quite a lot of layers” to see the light of day, he said some had to be checked personally by the director of television and even Lord Hall himself.
Speaking at a Bafta event about free speech and television, Chris Sussman, an executive editor for comedy at the BBC, said the corporation is now extra-wary of causing offence in a post-Sachsgate and Twitter world.
The levels of approval are a stark contrast to years gone by at the BBC, when comedians have been given relatively free creative rein to measure the success of their own sketches.
Sussman, who appeared in a panel discussed for the Bafta Guru series of industry events, said he had joined the BBC following the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand scandal, which saw a flood of complaints about their verbal abuse of veteran actor Andrew Sachs.
He told an audience: “At the BBC, it’s been a difficult few years and I think that is reflected internally in terms of the processes and procedures we go through when we’re making programmes.
“Certainly since I’ve been there it’s been, I would say, a tougher environment than it has been for a while.
“To get a certain joke on air, to get a joke approved, we have to go through quite a lot of layers.
“We have editorial policy advisors, we have legal advisors, we have to run jokes past the channel. In certain circumstances they’d have to run jokes past the director of television. I’ve been involved in a programme where it’s gone all the way up to the director-general.”
When asked whether editors or comedians were summoned to tell the joke in question, he added: “It’s a very good point, because with comedy it’s all about context.
“So sometimes we’ll run something past at script stage, if we’re unsure. Most of the time it’s about ‘here’s the show, have a look at it’.”
He clarified all jokes were now considered on the basis of whether they were funny enough to justify any potential offence caused.
Ceri Thomas, the editor of Panorama, said there were also concerns about causing an inadvertent scandal in news and current affairs.
“The old git’s view, the long view, would be that we’ve got more squeamish and worried about causing offence,” he said of broadcasters.
“Reports on the news in 1970s, for example, you can see images of war that we wouldn’t consider showing now.
“Similarly in sphere of causing offence, we’re much more aware.”
He added: “There are echo chambers out there now that amplify what can be quite small opinions and make them big, and we’re potentially frightened of those things.”
The insight into BBC comedy commissioning appears to echo the complaints of veteran comedians and writers in recent years.
John Lloyd, the producer of Blackadder, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, and the creator of QI, has been passionate about his criticism of the modern commissioning process, arguing un-funny comedy could come to “sink the corporation” .
He claimed scripts and ideas must now go through levels of commissioners who are not expert or experience in writing jokes.
"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," he said.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy.”
Speaking at a separate Bafta event, to celebrate his career, Michael Palin also gave an insight into the contrast in commissioning in his early days.
Saying he and his fellow Pythons were the “sole judges of our own material”, he added scripts were “mainly down to self-censorship”.
“We looked at the material and if it was really funny and we all laughed, went on one pile,” he said. “If it was quite funny and needed improvement by someone else in the writing group, the writing team, that went on another pile.
“ And we were quite a, we were quite polite to each other, but at the same time nothing really got through unless you had at least four people splitting their sides when it was first read.”
The full event can be heard at Bafta Guru, here: www.bafta.org/whats-on/the-trouble-with-free-speech
Some jokes now have to be signed off at the highest level to get aired on the BBC as the broadcaster fears a scandal
By Hannah Furness
It has produced some of the finest comedies ever to grace British television screens, from Dad’s Army to Monty Python and Blackadder.
Viewers may be surprised to learn, then, about the lengths the BBC must now to go to get a simple joke on air, with boxes to be ticked right up to the director-general.
An editor at BBC comedy has disclosed the careful procedures adhered to at the modern-day corporation, as executives fear causing a national scandal with an off-key joke.
Saying particular jokes have to go through “quite a lot of layers” to see the light of day, he said some had to be checked personally by the director of television and even Lord Hall himself.
Speaking at a Bafta event about free speech and television, Chris Sussman, an executive editor for comedy at the BBC, said the corporation is now extra-wary of causing offence in a post-Sachsgate and Twitter world.
The levels of approval are a stark contrast to years gone by at the BBC, when comedians have been given relatively free creative rein to measure the success of their own sketches.
Sussman, who appeared in a panel discussed for the Bafta Guru series of industry events, said he had joined the BBC following the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand scandal, which saw a flood of complaints about their verbal abuse of veteran actor Andrew Sachs.
He told an audience: “At the BBC, it’s been a difficult few years and I think that is reflected internally in terms of the processes and procedures we go through when we’re making programmes.
“Certainly since I’ve been there it’s been, I would say, a tougher environment than it has been for a while.
“To get a certain joke on air, to get a joke approved, we have to go through quite a lot of layers.
“We have editorial policy advisors, we have legal advisors, we have to run jokes past the channel. In certain circumstances they’d have to run jokes past the director of television. I’ve been involved in a programme where it’s gone all the way up to the director-general.”
When asked whether editors or comedians were summoned to tell the joke in question, he added: “It’s a very good point, because with comedy it’s all about context.
“So sometimes we’ll run something past at script stage, if we’re unsure. Most of the time it’s about ‘here’s the show, have a look at it’.”
He clarified all jokes were now considered on the basis of whether they were funny enough to justify any potential offence caused.
Ceri Thomas, the editor of Panorama, said there were also concerns about causing an inadvertent scandal in news and current affairs.
“The old git’s view, the long view, would be that we’ve got more squeamish and worried about causing offence,” he said of broadcasters.
“Reports on the news in 1970s, for example, you can see images of war that we wouldn’t consider showing now.
“Similarly in sphere of causing offence, we’re much more aware.”
He added: “There are echo chambers out there now that amplify what can be quite small opinions and make them big, and we’re potentially frightened of those things.”
The insight into BBC comedy commissioning appears to echo the complaints of veteran comedians and writers in recent years.
John Lloyd, the producer of Blackadder, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, and the creator of QI, has been passionate about his criticism of the modern commissioning process, arguing un-funny comedy could come to “sink the corporation” .
He claimed scripts and ideas must now go through levels of commissioners who are not expert or experience in writing jokes.
"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," he said.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy.”
Speaking at a separate Bafta event, to celebrate his career, Michael Palin also gave an insight into the contrast in commissioning in his early days.
Saying he and his fellow Pythons were the “sole judges of our own material”, he added scripts were “mainly down to self-censorship”.
“We looked at the material and if it was really funny and we all laughed, went on one pile,” he said. “If it was quite funny and needed improvement by someone else in the writing group, the writing team, that went on another pile.
“ And we were quite a, we were quite polite to each other, but at the same time nothing really got through unless you had at least four people splitting their sides when it was first read.”
The full event can be heard at Bafta Guru, here: www.bafta.org/whats-on/the-trouble-with-free-speech
