ARE WE REALLY LIVING IN ANOTHER GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION?
‘Fuelled by social media, we obsess about a very small number of shows’
Amid the inevitable gush that accompanied most acceptance speeches at the Baftas on Sunday night, one phrase (used on several occasions) stood out. It was the idea that we are now enjoying a “golden age of television”. Judging by the hyperbole, you could be forgiven for thinking that we have a giddy choice of brilliant dramas, documentaries and comedies at our disposal every night, but the reality is that memorable TV is the exception rather than the rule.
We tend to think of the golden age as belonging to the Sixties and Seventies – that time when the medium was relatively new and people gathered around a huge box in the corner of the living room to watch the same shows.
This was the era that saw the arrival of several programmes that still exist today – Coronation Street, Doctor Who, Gardener’s World – as well as classics such as Dad’s Army, Morecambe and
Wise and Porridge – timeless pearls that still resonate, and enjoy endless repeats that draw strong audience figures.
Clearly, this isn’t rose-tinted nostalgia. It’s easy to name-check the same old shows when talking about the good old days, but there are other brilliant programmes that are long hidden in the mists of time. Who discusses pioneering documentary series Man Alive these days? Light entertainment extravaganzas such as
Thank Your Lucky Stars? Or the great Wednesday Play, which pushed the boundaries regarding what TV drama could achieve?
A mere three channels back then could offer up infinite variety. Of course, the irony is that we now have more choice than ever – five terrestrial channels, a million more digitally and those new kids on the block, Netflix and Amazon Prime, which launch new programmes on demand with dizzying frequency. And yet very few of us have time to navigate the endless selection available and the result is that, often
fuelled by social media, we obsess about a very small number of shows.
This was the case with the coverage of the Baftas where it felt like people only really cared about those premium dramas Killing Eve, Bodyguard and A
Very English Scandal. In fact, drama is the one area where you could make a case for a golden age. Less than a decade ago, we were bemoaning the fact that Americans did it bigger and better, asking why we couldn’t make something with the scope or ambition of The Sopranos or The Wire.
But times have changed. Those comedy dramas beloved of ITV such as Doc Martin and Life Begins have been replaced by hard-hitting, cutting-edge stuff made to a standard that often borders on the cinematic. The rise of Netflix, responsible for such quality series as The Crown, means that our own broadcasters have had to raise their game, and the results (aside from the odd disaster such as Troy: Fall of a City and Hard
Sun) are obvious.
But the problem with trumpeting these big shows is that other, smaller concerns get lost amid the hype. The Bafta awards proved that there are still quality shows being made that have a tendency to fall down a black hole. This is particularly the case with documentaries.
The hard-hitting Gun No 6 (which charted the destruction caused by one deadly weapon as it passed from criminal to criminal across the UK) justly won Best Single Documentary. But it seems unlikely that people will engage with it in quite the same way they discuss those flagship dramas.
Comedy is harder to fathom. Shows such as This Country ,a mockumentary about two disaffected youngsters in the Cotswolds, or
Sally 4 ever, Julia Davis’s black humoured look at modern relationships, proves that standards are still very high. But what is lost is the communal spirit that made us love sitcoms of old. To share your humour with a parent or a loved one used to be part of the joy of watching TV. Laughing to yourself while staring into your laptop has a very different effect.
Don’t get me wrong – there is much to celebrate in British television, and the Baftas illustrated this very effectively. But a golden age? In order for that to happen, we need to change our viewing habits, and that’s not going to happen any time soon.