Lack of ambition betrays Scottish viewers

CAN BBC Scotland really woo the 18 to 34 age group when its model seems to be the tired and tiresome Timeline? It has been struggling for some time to find a shape for its new Scottish channel.

The search began after director general Tony Hall’s surprise announcement two years ago that the corporation would be sinking £80million into a channel offering Scottish shows for a Scottish audience.

It was hailed as a canny move to derail calls for a Scottish Six by promoting an hour-long ‘Scottish Nine’ as the centrepiece of the digital channel’s schedule.

But it’s been a bumpy ride, with commissioning editor Ewan Angus stepping down a few months later, and the launch pushed back from this autumn to early next year.

Yesterday, the commissioning team claimed their new channel would offer ‘compelling, quality content’ which allows Scots to see their lives on screen.

But so far, so Timeline. With its ragbag of Scottish stories, underwhelming topical features and gingery comedy slots, Timeline is BBC Scotland’s answer to The One Show – provided the question was ‘how can we bore an audience into submission on Thursdays on BBC2’?

Certainly Timeline feels like a step-parent to The People’s News, one of the Scottish channel’s new programmes. It ‘offers ordinary Scots the chance to give their take on topical news and events’. In reality, it sounds more like old news, with the allure of a Radio Scotland phone-in crossed with Gogglebox.

Also in the line-up is an alternative tour of Scotland, where rapper Darren ‘Loki’ McGarvey traipses the country in order to meet people and communities seldom heard on TV.

And possibly still seldom heard even after the shows are broadcast, since the only voice the absurdly overexposed and narcissistic Mr Garvey really enjoys listening to is his own.

What’s missing from the new Scottish channel is any reflection of Scottish life that is creative, progressive or warmly celebratory.

There is no sign of programmes reflecting our love of books, theatre, film or dance – despite the fact that our arts scene punches well above its weight and supports a worldfamous yearly arts festival.

Nor is there any sign of Scottish filmmakers being given the chance to fashion original one-off dramas, or that the BBC is prepared to take risks with new original comedy.

INSTEAD we have a blokey car game show, hosted by Grado, a former professional wrestler with the deft comedy chops of Giant Haystacks. It’s also disappointing that the new channel has failed to respond to licence payers’ demands for more thoughtful programmes on Scottish history. Nationalists grump about the absence of any lengthy analysis of the Clearances, while the rest of us would settle for more and varied insights into our thrilling and turbulent past – yet the oldest story offered by Steve Carson yesterday is Last Breath, a documentary about a diver stranded in 2012.

It’s also striking how much of Mr Carson’s line-up is male, pale and stale. The only new female face announced yesterday was Jamie Genevieve, a 25-year-old makeup vlogger. A documentary will offer a window into three months of her dizzying whirl of applying mascara and pouting on Instagram.

With 700,000 followers on YouTube, you could argue that she’s a success story that may draw in the kind of youthful following the new channel is desperate to attract. Broadcasters across the board are struggling to hold onto young viewers, who prefer platforms such as YouTube and online streaming services like Netflix, but is a budget Kim Kardashian the answer?

And at a time when broadcasters are supposed to be actively searching for new female expertise, it’s dismaying that the first thing BBC Scotland’s new channel does is rush off to book a brand-heavy influencer who backs boob jobs and fillers.

Former BBC Aberdeen reporter Rebecca Curran will co-host the new Scottish Nine with ex-ITV man Martin Geissler.

A pity however, that at a time when broadcasters are being scrutinised for diversity, the Scottish Nine has opted for the classic sexist combination of an older male presenter and a much younger female co-host as the faces of the hour-long news show.

It’s also deeply ironic, given that BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon was tasked by Lord Hall this year with the job of sweeping away old barriers that prevent women fulfilling their ambitions in broadcasting. Could it be that one of the reasons the new channel lineup is failing to wow Scottish licence payers is because Miss MacKinnon is otherwise occupied trying to sort out what ails the BBC at national level, despite the fact that there is much that requires her attention here? Certainly the neglect of BBC Radio Scotland continues to be cause for concern.

Just a few blocks away from Pacific Quay, STV isn’t thrilled by the new channel either. The commercial channel is having an uncertain time after the closure of its digital station STV2, and the declaration by new boss Simon Pitts that he wants to abandon Scottish programming for Scottish audiences in favour of chasing more lucrative commissions from UK broadcasters.

MR Pitts has begun the task of hollowing out the local purpose of Scotland’s other national broadcaster by chasing Antiques Road Trip instead of Take the High Road, but the BBC is intensifying the STV brain-drain as staff fall over themselves to move down the road for more secure work at the BBC.

The BBC is in danger of becoming the only local broadcasting game in town, a monopoly not healthy for broadcasting or viewers.

There is still room for programmes that could surprise and impress audiences. So far, however, there seems a yawning gap between the station’s ambition to draw in younger audiences and the worthy social work stodge on offer.

Differently aged viewers may also struggle with the prospect of documentaries piled atop reality entertainments, unless they’ve been sniffing some of Grado’s car game show fumes.

The lack of range and ambition is dispiriting. The lack of faith in the appetites and intelligence of Scottish audiences is baffling.