Why can’t BBC turn our hits into an art form?
DO you find theatre stressful? Does a 7.30pm curtain-up clash with your child’s bath time? Do you fret they might forget to include an interval? Or have you simply not been inside a theatre for years?
If the answer to any of these questions is ‘Good Lord, yes’ then congratulations – you could present the BBC’s new arts show.
Front Row made its debut on BBC2 on Saturday night, so presenters Giles Coren, Nikki Bedi and Amol Rajan gave their thoughts on the arts to the Radio Times beforehand – and boy, did they moan about live theatre.
Giles now claims he was only joking. It must be a very longrunning joke, because last year he gave an interview slamming every cultural interest except novels, saying: ‘I have no interest in poetry any more, and I have never much cared for music or painting or dance or theatre or any of that s*** you have to do.’
Not everyone is a theatre nut, but it’s surely a basic requirement when hiring arts presenters. Yet, treating drama like medicine wasn’t the most striking aspect of Front Row. T he scheduling is rubbish, too, clashing with Strictly Come Dancing as well as Radio 4’s excellent arts radio listen, Saturday Review.
It certainly hasn’t occurred to the BBC that arts fans might go to a movie, a concert or even the dreaded theatre on a Saturday night.
however, the really startling thing about Front Row is that it is made in Glasgow at Pacific Quay. Scots are keen supporters of the arts. Besides gigs and bands, Scots are the most enthusiastic movie-goers in europe. We support book events from the Borders to the Outer hebrides.
And there’s an international event in edinburgh every August that even London has to acknowledge, despite efforts to present it as a congress of stand-up comedians.
Without involving Londonbased editors and commissioners, Scotland can make successful arts shows on its own. A few years ago, STV produced a film show called Moviejuice.
It was made on a budget of buttons (I know, I was an occasional contributor), but its vivid enthusiasm for movies meant that Scotland’s audience for Moviejuice dwarfed the ratings for Claudia Winkleman’s lugubrious film show, broadcast to the whole of the UK.
So I was astonished that there was not a single Scottish voice on Front Row. Actor Luke evans sauntered across Shoreditch to interview ageing art-popsters Gilbert and George. Two english studio contributors staged a two-minute debate about harry Potter.
Film-maker Michael Winterbottom had an over-cosy chat about a year-old film. North London’s Wolf Alice played live. It was like stumbling across an Islington dinner party. even the Front Row logo was Broadcasting house, rather than BBC Scotland’s view over the SeCC or hydro.
There was no mention of the popular Wigtown Book Festival which began the same weekend, or Outlaw King, currently filming in the Central Belt, or the canine drama Faithful Ruslan: The Story of A Guard Dog, which opened at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre last week. No acknowledgement of Denise Mina’s award-winning new book The Long Drop, either.
Front Row is a fig leaf for the BBC that allows them to claim the Corporation gives work to productions in Scotland – while placing the arts scene outwith London firmly in the back seat.