From live news to comedy classics and reality Tv... what would Logie Baird say?
Could John Logie Baird, who died 75 years ago this week, have imagined his creation – television – would cover so many events? Brian Beacom looks at more events that define TV
Big Brother
REALITY TV had shown its potential for high audiences (with relatively low production values) and cheapness since 1974 fly-on-the-wall documentary, The Family. However, in 2000 Big Brother expanded the concept by locking ordinary people up and demanding they become performers.
This Lord Of The Flies social experimentation worked spectacularly. Yet, the series would soon spawn a clutch of freak show copycats that have since threatened the future of television comedy and drama.
Desperate Housewives
DELICIOUS heighted reality series which in 2004 focused on an allegorical look suburban life but indicated that all is never as dull as it seems. The ladies of Wisteria Lane, played by the likes of Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria, had such fun amidst the affairs with teen boys and ex-partners and Ealing-comedy like murdering.
Line of Duty
IF there’s one thing we love more than cop series’ it’s cop series’ in which the bad cops are hunted down by good cops. Of course, writer Jed Mercurio’s talent and skill was all about blurring the lines; no one was just bad. And didn’t Martin Compston’s London accent hold up really well?
River City
THE demise of High Road left a huge gaping hole in the representational Scottish landscape but River City’s arrival on BBC Scotland provided the cultural asphalt. The viewing figures for the soap – heavily reliant on low-level gangsterism and tragic romances – rarely scale the 400k mark, yet the production offers continued work for an army of actors, writers, producers and technicians.
Normal People
HAS first love ever been better analysed by television? The adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel for BBC3 managed to reveal the insecurities of Marianne and Connell, to highlight their awkwardness, their confusion and struggle to understand their place in the world that millions watching could empathise with.
Fleabag
IF Sex and the City was daring stroll through Central Park, Fleabag was a comedic dive into the shark infested waters of opprobrium with only a penknife and a set of broad shoulders to fend off attack.
Phoebe Waller-bridge’s 2016 epic comic tragedy featured a sexually demanding depressive whose mother is a sociopath and her high achieving sister. And just for good measure, Fleabag falls for a randy priest. Thankfully, the world loved it.
Twin Towers
TWO planes hijacked by Islamic terrorists flew into New York’s Twin Towers, and the world, thanks to live television, stood transfixed. It was assumed it was an accident, until the second plane crashed. The world realised America was under attack. And the consequences could only be imagined.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
THE Chris Tarrant-fronted quiz became the most talked about entertainment show in the world in September 2001, thanks to a former army major and his coughing wife. Having conned ITV out of £1 million, Charles Ingram and his wife spent time in the chokey as a result of their cheating.
But the TV company lapped up the publicity and the coughing stunt resulted in a hit play and a TV drama starring Michael Sheen.
Greta Thunberg
AFTER Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world.
Television allowed the world to watch and learn from this Swedish teenage activist, who spoke with the intensity of a seasoned politician, but with a heartfelt commitment.
Extras
RICKY Gervais had to have something special to follow on from the success of the Office and he topped it terrifically with this showbiz insight show that underlined the illness that is swollen ego. Which the writer displayed evidence of. But somehow, Gervais managed to convince great actors and Les Dennis to send themselves up, with special mention going to the late, great Gerard Kelly’s Bunny character.
Breaking Bad
WHAT an immaculate premise; upstanding chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with cancer, but his medical insurance is decrepit, indicating penury for his wife and cerebral palsy-suffering son. Desperate and lost, he and former pupil Jesse become drug dealers, which sends Walter into a tail spin of power-crazed megalomania and greed.
Mad Men
IN 2007, an American TV series set in the world of 1960s advertising featured very little dramatic content yet, thanks to its incredible character investment, proved to be compulsory viewing. And it captured perfectly the moods and mores of the period.
Still Game
THE marginalisation and economic entrapment of the elderly community was perfectly underlined in this Noughties comedy classic, created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill. Neither writer/performer could ever have anticipated the connection Jack and Victor would enjoy with the Scottish public.
Game Of Thrones
IN 2011, this Hbo-produced fantasy series managed to meld complex warring storylines (“The Sopranos in Middle-earth”) with well-defined characters and lots and lots of gratuitous sex and violence. Who knows why it was a worldwide hit?
The series would spawn a clutch of freak show copycats
Dr Who
IN 2017, the Time Lord regenerated into a woman, in the shape of actress Jodie Whittaker, which proved to be a massive talking point and a recognition of the fact women have been saving the world since time began.