Are we being served by this nostalgia, BBC asked
WITH the BBC’s revival of Poldark starting on Sunday and a rash of sitcom remakes playing out this week, including Are You Being Served?, television viewers may be forgiven for feeling a touch of déjà vu.
While some may relish the chance to revisit old favourites, the head of Bafta has suggested that there is a “tsunami of nostalgia” spreading across the schedules, because broadcasters have “lost their nerve”.
Jane Lush, the chairman of the academy, said that television networks were being ruled by the “tyranny of audience ratings”, rather than risking “huge failure” by trying to make eradefining shows.
Writing in Radio Times, Ms Lush, a former head of the BBC’s entertainment and comedy departments, singled out the revival of Robot Wars, on BBC Two, as well as the corporation’s landmark sitcom season, which also includes new versions of Porridge and Steptoe and Son.
Ms Lush, who commissioned Strictly Come Dancing – a highly successful remake of an older format – during her time at the BBC, suggested the ageing population had led to commissioners targeting “veteran viewers”, as younger generations jumped ship to online portals such as YouTube.
She wrote: “For those of you who like to wallow in nostalgia – and let’s face it, those flared jeans come out of the back of the closet every few years – it’s TV heaven currently. Why this tsunami of nostalgia now? Of course, for those in charge of our viewing in this confusing digital world, it’s less risky to relaunch shows with familiar names. After all, it’s proven to be hugely successful with Doctor Who, and I put my hands up to originally commissioning Strictly Come Dancing.
“But as the average age of the TV viewing audience is rising year by year, are broadcasters bowing to the tastes of their veteran viewers because the younger ones are notoriously elusive? Have broadcasters lost their nerve? No pain, no gain might be a cliché, but I’d argue you have to risk huge failure to land those eradefining hit shows.”
Ms Lush singled out Big Brother and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, both of which are more than 15 years old, as examples of programmes that had broken the mould.
She wrote: “Big Brother was probably the last truly original entertainment format. Who’d have guessed that watching a bunch of complete unknowns doing nothing very much in a specially constructed house would reverberate around the world? “And it was a brave soul who blitzed the schedule on a nightly basis with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, a quiz that broke every rule but had us gripped. Who dares wins. And for goodness sake, if it doesn’t work out, it’s only telly after all.” The former BBC executive noted that online providers such as Amazon and Netflix refused to release viewing figures for shows such as House of Cards, because their business models are based upon winning new subscribers, rather than maximising viewers. She wrote: “Netflix refuses to reveal how many people watch its shows, freeing them from the tyranny of audience ratings. Is that what it takes to find TV’s next big hit, or will we soon be reading about the revival of Crossroads?” The remake of Are You Being Served? was seen by five million viewers on Sunday night, while Porridge achieved an audience of 4.4 million. Shane Allen, BBC comedy chief, said the remakes were part of a season that also included new comedies. He said: “These are great pieces of work that endure. This is a chance to try to reclaim that and say these are titles and writers and pieces of work that are proven, and hallowed, and it’s a chance to introduce them to new generation. But it’s a chance to celebrate these brilliant writers, and give them some dues and respect, as well as doing a load of new stuff too.” Meanwhile, Cold Feet is set to return to ITV next month, 13 years after its last series. A special edition of Blankety Blank is planned for Christmas.
SIR – It took a great deal of pressure to get John Reith and his senior BBC colleagues to approve the first television broadcast 80 years ago (“Britain’s very first night of television”, report, August 26). They were extremely reluctant to permit the public use of this new medium.
Seven years earlier one prominent journalist had thundered: “The attitude of the BBC in regard to this amazing British invention is absolutely incomprehensible”. Reith himself was one of the principal obstacles. He said he was “afraid of television”. He believed that programme-makers would provide too much light entertainment and not enough serious education, endangering the elevated values which his creation should, above all, seek to imbue.
He was of course quite right. Radio is so much better. Lord Lexden London SW1