Boggle-eyed
‘I believe Gogglebox gets discussed quite a lot in Westminster’
Who would have predicted that watching other people watching TV would become such a ratingsgobbling, award-grabbing phenomenon? Yet that’s precisely the pitch for Gogglebox, which returns for its ninth run this week. The Channel 4 hit won its third consecutive National Television Award last month, to add to a groaning mantlepiece that already holds a Bafta and half-a-dozen other gongs, while last year it celebrated its 100th episode.
When Gogglebox debuted in spring 2013, cynics sneered that the reality TV barrel was being scraped. Why would we want to tune in to see total strangers, sitting on their sofas, watching TV and idly commenting on it, as we all do in our own homes? “People were so rude at the start,” laughs co-creator and executive producer Tania Alexander. “We were called ‘the end of civilisation as we know it’.”
However, ratings doubled from a modest 800,000 to 1.7 million by the start of series two. Having proved a surprise success in midweek, it was promoted to the plum slot of Friday nights at 9pm and figures kept climbing – breaking the 2 million barrier, then 3 million, steadily ascending to the 4.5 million viewers it attracts today, making it Channel 4’s biggest entertainment series.
So how did Gogglebox defy the odds? Well, what the doom-mongers underestimated is the fiendish genius of its premise – originally çonceived, according to Alexander, as “The Royle
Family meets Harry Hill’s TV Burp”. First, it’s consistently one of the funniest shows on-air. “The aim was always to make people roar,” says Alexander. “Whether it’s finding witty little soundbites or those affectionate family moments when teenagers roll their eyes about their embarrassing parents, it’s designed from the base level up to be laugh-out-loud.”
The intimate filming style – via two small, remote-control cameras – appeals to the voyeur in us all, providing a rare glimpse of other people’s living rooms. Not just the size of their telly and the way they talk to each other but the telltale details: their soft furnishings, from middle-class Wiltshire couple Giles and Mary’s matching William Morris wallpaper and armchair, to sweet elderly Scouse pair Leon and June’s chintz recliners; their loungewear, be it Brighton hairdressers Stephen and Chris’s pyjamas or Rev Kat Bottley’s clerical collar and novelty slippers; and their snacks and drinks, as when we see kaftan-clad Brixton best friends Sandy and Sandra scoffing chicken shish with extra garlic sauce, washed down with orange squash from a Pot Noodle tub.
Production company Studio Lambert – which blazed a reality TV trail with Faking It and Wife Swap – has honed the art of note-perfect casting. The key with Gogglebox is rejecting show-offs desperate to be on TV and instead unearthing reluctant stars. “It took me right up to the eve of filming to persuade June to take part,” Alexander recalls. “Same with Steven [of Chris and Steven]. It’s about spotting interesting people who are unfiltered, naturally spontaneous and who have no idea how funny they are.”
Hence the show’s intoxicating cocktail of characters from across the social spectrum, ranging from caravan-dwelling Jenny and Lee in Hull, to tippling toffs Steph and Dom Parker, getting merrily sloshed in their Kent B&B while cuddling their spoilt dachshund Gigi.
“David Cameron compared [Steph and Dom] to him and Sam with slightly more booze” says Alexander. “I’ve got it on good authority that Gogglebox gets discussed quite a lot in Westminster, actually – although Boris Johnson did say he’d never heard of it.” Indeed, the former PM called
Gogglebox “a fascinating programme” for the insight it provides into public opinion. “Touching on news stories gives it that added dimension of gauging the national mood,” says Alexander. “As the show settled in, we became confident enough to say ‘This next bit might not be laugh-out-loud funny but it’s important stuff and will give you a sense of how people in Britain are feeling’.”
Filmed, edited and aired within a week, each episode is turned around fast for topicality – vital when it comes to covering everything from talent contests to Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the eclectic cast of couch potatoes – Jewish and Muslim families, gay couples, tattooed Goths, a vicar, even a prospective Ukip MP – reflects the diverse nature of Britain. “If you buried Gogglebox and dug it up in a century’s time, it would give you a perfect encapsulation of the UK in the 21st century,” says Alexander.
Equally crucial to Gogglebox’s appeal is its emotional pull. “There’s a lot of love on the show,” says Alexander. “All our families say that taking part has brought them closer. For six to eight hours’ filming per week, parents spend time with their kids without them disappearing upstairs or staring into their phones.”
Derby’s wise-cracking Siddiquis agree. “The show has definitely brought us closer together,” says son Baasit. “As me and my brothers grew up, we got our own places and drifted apart. Now we’re back round dad’s for two nights every week, eating him out of house and home.”
This family atmosphere extends to the narration, originally provided by late comedian Caroline Aherne. “Caroline was a huge inspiration for the show,” explains Alexander. “The
Royle Family wasn’t just a visual reference point but encapsulated where we wanted to pitch the humour.”
After filling in for her when she became ill with cancer, her Royle Family co-creator and co-star Craig Cash took over the voiceover role when Aherne died last summer. “It seemed a natural progression,” says Alexander. “Caroline was part of the Gogglebox family and always will be.”
Gogglebox has become one of the most talked-about, tweeted-about shows of recent years. Remake rights have been sold to 45 countries. The US version is called The People’s Couch, while the Slovenian show’s title brilliantly translates as God, Please Don’t Let The TV Die. Back in Britain, meanwhile,
Gogglebox’s success has made cult stars of its cast, notably Durham “people’s princess” Scarlett Moffatt, who last year won I’m A Celebrity... Get
Me Out Of Here!, one of the shows she used to comment on. Now a star in her own right, Moffatt is joining her fellow Geordies on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night
Takeaway this weekend and will host an upcoming revival of Nineties dating show Streetmate.
“People come up to us in Waitrose or Lidl, generally beaming with happiness,” says writer Mary Killen who, with eccentric artist husband Giles Wood, dispenses dry observations from the couple’s ramshackle cottage (aka “the grottage”). “They usually say ‘Your husband makes me laugh’. Giles complains incessantly about it but he secretly likes it – especially if it’s an attractive woman. He’s quite a recluse but now he’s got colleagues for the first time in his life. Not to mention a bigger audience for his jokes.”
Producers are wary, though, of the Goggleboxers becoming too wellknown for their own good. “Scarlett [Moffatt] left the show when she signed up for I’m A Celeb,” explains Alexander. “So did George Gilbey when he was in Celebrity Big Brother, because the show needs to retain its integrity. If the cast are constantly in the press, it won’t feel real.”
Yet for many of the participants there are much greater pleasures than fame. “It gives me an excuse to watch everything without feeling guilty because it’s a semi-job,” says Killen. “But a job where I don’t have to leave the house and can just bumble around at home like Mrs Bean.”
The success of the show also says something heartening about our culture: in this age of boxsets, Netflix, Amazon and Sky+, pundits may have been gleefully sounding the death knell for traditional “linear” viewing, but Gogglebox bucks this trend, reaffirming the joy of watching together, all at the same time. “About 20 million of us sit down to watch our televisions every evening,” says Alexander. “I’m yet to find a house without a TV in the corner. Most people still watch the big shows and sports events live. It’s old-fashioned in a good way and it’s very British.”
It feels timely too. When politics is polarising, this warmly inclusive series provides a soothing sense of unity. In a time of post-truth, alternative facts and fake news, Gogglebox is refreshingly real and authentic. Not bad for a few cameras pointing at squishy cream sofas.
‘Most people still watch the big shows and sports events live. It’s oldfashioned in a good way and it’s very British’