House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee inquiry into the future of Channel 4
I served as producer and head storyliner on Channel 4’s Brookside from 1989-1996. It was my first job in TV – I joined in 1984 as a props runner and stayed with the company for 12 years, eventually running the show and becoming a director of the production company Mersey TV. My mentor was Sir Phil Redmond who had created the company and the show purely because of the creation of Channel 4 in 1982.
During my time as producer I conceived and oversaw many talk-about storylines which were often the first time a particular subject or topic was featured in a mainstream primetime TV drama series. One of these was the first lesbian kiss to be broadcast on British TV before the watershed which was actually featured in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Game London 2012 as one of the greatest iconic moments of British TV. We also produced ‘The Jordache Saga’ - a hard-hitting story about domestic violence and abuse which helped initiate a wider public debate about the law surrounding ‘cumulative provocation’ as a defence. Helplines attached to the show attracted more responses from women seeking help than if it was a documentary series.
Both of these storylines not only helped changed perceptions and laws, they also attracted record audience figures for Channel 4 and influenced many dramas that followed on all UK Networks. Decades later they are still cited as important turning points in the development of British TV drama.
Throughout my time running the show, the support and encouragement I received from Michael Grade & John Willis who were at C4, along with the then head of drama Peter Ansorge was unlike anything I’ve witnessed since during my career in TV drama; their one agenda being the pursuit of excellence and originality. Without that support neither story would have ever existed, both being seen as ‘difficult’ and controversial. Indeed, I would not have been able to pursue a career in television drama if it were not for that support, as I had no previous experience in TV. Since then I went on to be appointed as Head of Drama for Pearson TV (under Greg Dyke) and then BBC Controller of Drama Series from 1997-2004 where I oversaw 42 series including Eastenders, relaunching Dr. Who and creating Holby City and Doctors. I then relocated to the US where I continue to enjoy a busy career as a showrunner for the major networks. I owe all of that to my work on Brookside and C4 and still today use techniques and philosophies I learnt from that period.
I believe that the independence of C4 is vital if we are to build on that legacy of encouraging new talent from regional, working class backgrounds and tell stories that only C4 can provide a platform for, free from political, commercial or financial agenda. If C4 was to be privatised and snapped up by a major conglomerate (possibly even a US-based one), then that independence would be lost – there would ALWAYS then be an AGENDA; one that might avoid content seen as too ‘sensitive’ or questioning of society. There would also be new commercial pressures to make programming decisions purely based on shareholders’ desires, rather than those of the audience – particularly the UK viewers.
What would be the benefit or enticement to a privately-owned C4 in commissioning any independent production company, large and small, to make content for the channel when their commercial preference will always be to produce and own the content themselves or by a company they are affiliated to? A company like Mersey TV, one of the first independents and regionally based in Liverpool, who provided thousands of jobs in front of and behind the camera, most like myself new to the industry, would not be allowed or encouraged to exist under an arrangement whereby C4 was not purely a publicly-owned publisher. There would be no Jimmy McGovern, no Frank Cottrell-Boyce, no Anna Friel, Ricky Tomlinson, Amanda Burton, and countless other actors, writers, directors, crew who got their first breaks on C4 and Brookside. Such a company would simply not be encouraged or allowed to thrive as it would not make economic sense to any owner of C4. Mersey TV is only one example – there are many others who have helped the UK production sector thrive.
Channel 4, like the BBC, is in a unique position in the way it is funded and supported. We must not lose that, or we risk throwing away the very special platform it provides to not only the audience, but also to programme makers, both established and emerging. When I first began working in the US, many of the networks were very jealous of what we have in the UK – they feel like a BBC or C4 could never exist in the US and they are correct. When HBO began to emerge as a serious player in the scripted TV field with pieces like The Wire and The Sopranos, they copied the UK model of strongly-authored pieces, lower-volume series and impactful writing. They were hugely jealous of what we had and how we did it and so followed our lead. It’s a big part of why I have been able to pursue a successful career in the US, as they want what I can bring, what I learnt from C4 and BBC.
If C4 is allowed to become just another commercially-owned and run platform, then we risk destroying that legacy and losing the distinctiveness that only comes with the unique way that C4 is funded and state-owned. Once it’s gone, it can’t be brought back – it’ll be impossible to unring that bell and only then will we realise what we have lost.
16 September 2021
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