Entrenched

Will the WW1 version of "Casualty" be re-commissioned ?  BBC1's The Crimson Field has just one episode left in its current six-part run, and writer Sara Phelps believes there should be three more six-parters, taking the show to 2018. Star Oona Chaplin told the Radio Times this week she was "stunned" that the BBC had not yet committed to its return.

This series is in the 2014 top ten of dramas largely thanks to time-shifters. The first episode got 6.1m viewers overnight, which rose to 7.83m when "consolidated" with catch-up views. But last night's show was down to 4.42m overnight.

Tent true, ennit ?

The risk-taking BBC drama department has announced four new commissions. Lady Chatterley's Lover (last seen on the BBC in 1993, in a four-part adaptation written and directed by Ken Russell, starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson); The Go Between (the 1971 film starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie was last shown on BBC2 in January - a radio dramatisation was made by the BBC in 2012); An Inspector Calls (last BBC tv adaptation in 1982, starring Bernard Hepton; at least two BBC radio versions this century); and Cider With Rosie (filmed by the BBC in 1971, adapted by Hugh Whitemore, starring Rosemary Leach; Carlton TV made a version in 1998, adapted by John Mortimer, starring Juliet Stevenson)

The director of Cider With Rosie is to be Philippa Lowthorpe, who fulfilled the same role on the yet-to-be-grasped-by-many BBC version of Jamaica Inn.  Every word will be crystal-clear.

0900 Friday update: Here's a strong piece from Daily Mail columnist Ephraim Hardcastle, published just before 2.00am this morning.

The BBC TV Drama department, under fire for its barely audible Jamaica Inn adaptation, has four other projects on the go – LP Hartley’s The Go-Between, DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Each work has previously been adapted by the BBC for radio or TV. And The Go-Between, adapted by Harold Pinter, became a feature film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates in 1971. 

Has the BBC run out of original ideas? My source there says former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham – given the push in 2007 with a £500,000 payoff and subsequently leading an ITV resurgence, which included the hit Downton Abbey – is much missed.

The Mumbles

Was last night's episode of Jmaygarin (Oo-arrr-riginal Brddish Drumumble) an improvement ?  Was it really a sound issue - or perhaps the revenge of Mebyon Kernow for their slighting in W1A, as director Philippa Lowthorpe sought authentic Cornish accents ?

We'll have to wait for the audience figures later this morning to judge. Meanwhile, if you're out and about on the roads this morning, watch out for a despatch rider heading rapidly towards the set of Pllldrrk (Poldark 2015) just outside Tetbury, carrying the DG's latest pamphlet, "Valuing Diction in Drama", a follow up to the 1974 essays by John Birt and Peter Jay highlighting "The Bias Against Understanding" in television news and current affairs.

Are your sound engineers 25 ?

July last year: "I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man," Lord Hall tells the Radio Times, "but I think muttering is something we could look at."

"Actors muttering can be testing... you find you have missed a line. You are balancing people’s needs as they get older – which, as someone of my age, I completely appreciate – with the creative need of a director to put in music or sounds that help to make the drama or the programme more real and vital."

I didn't watch Jamaica Inn; already twitchy over the trailers. But those who did suggest a few letters could be heading to the DG. As far as the two basics of acting  - "Speak up and don't bumb into the furniture" - it seems Jamaica Inn achieved one. Many complained they had to switch on subtitles.

"mmmbmbmb bmbmbll mnbmbml" They don't write 'em like that any more #JamaicaInn
— Al Murray (@almurray) April 21, 2014

My favourite bit of #JamaicaInn so far was when Joss said 'mhhhppphwwwwrhhhwwh' and his mate said 'mppphtmpth'
— Chris Bennion (@PigLimbedViking) April 21, 2014

Some who saw previews and others who have watched since online suggest their versions were perfectly clear, and that last night's broadcast may have had a fault in transmission. But there was no apology for any technical problem at the end, which suggests Red Bee may not be across Twitter.

Cultural archive

Here's an idea for a season: a selection of the plays produced by Richard Broke for the BBC. Richard died this week at the age of 70.  His catalogue is immense, and reminds you how different drama was at the BBC before it became a "brand". I'm not sure it's necessarily remarkable because Richard did his job from a wheelchair, after a car crash while working as a BBC trainee. Here are a fewer nuggets...

In 1979 he produced The Serpent Son, an adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy (translated by Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish). The three parts ran at 9.25 on BBC1 on successive Wednesdays - a tad more cultural than a four-parter, say, about car parking. The cast included Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Flora Robson, Denis Quilley, Claire Bloom, Billie Whitelaw and Sian Phillips. Costumes were by Barbara Kidd, taking a break from Dr Who. There was also a follow-up mickey-take, as was a tradition in Greek drama, from Raphael and McLeish, starring Diana Dors as Helen, Freddie Jones as Menelaus, and Bob Hoskins as the servant Mr Taramasalatatopoulos.

In 1986 he produced The Monocled Mutineer, a four-part dramatisation by Alan Bleasdale of a book about the Etaples Mutiny, and the story of deserter Percy Toplis. No-one disagreed about the fact that there were mutinies in the 1914-18 war, but they did about the scale of them, and whether they mattered - particularly at the Telegraph and Mail. Here's also an early example of the BBC getting into trouble over marketing - in newspaper ads, this drama was branded a "true life story". DG Alasdair Milne blamed the agency - but it added to his woes, and he was forced out the next year.

In 1991, Richard produced a tv version of A Question of Attribution, originally a one-act stage play by Alan Bennett, starring James Fox and Prunella Scales, and directed by John Schlesinger. Schedulers can pick from more than 20 plays produced by Richard in the Screen One series that ran from 1989 to 1993 - one of the more recent attempts to bring back the great days of The Wednesday Play and Play for Today.

Builders

The BBC's plans for a new outdoor set at Elstree, for EastEnders, need a finance manager, as well as a programme manager and a programme director. It's all coded E20 (a postal code, not yet an estimate in millions). In the extra stuff about the job, we find there's an element of me-too-ism about the project:

EastEnders is one of the BBC’s most popular programmes and plays a key role in the BBC One schedule. It is also unique in connecting with audiences the BBC finds hard to reach. Furthermore, ITV have built expanded lots for Coronation Street and Emmerdale which offer significantly expanded creative and storyline opportunities.

Wasn't BBC3 connecting with audiences the BBC finds hard to reach ?

Holiday news

With one episode of The White Queen to go, Danny Cohen might be thinking it could have played better when nights are darker..

Don't tell Ma Hodge

The White Queen starts tonight...made in Belgium.

The series was commissioned by the Controller of BBC Drama Ben Stephenson. In Belgium the series is supported by BNP Paribas Fortis Film Fund who support Belgium’s Tax Shelter and by the Belgian Broadcaster VRT. An application for support has also been submitted to the Media Fund of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF).

So Bruges's Gothic Hall is the Royal Court of Westminster Palace. The Heilige Geeststraat is a medieval London street. The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk is Westminster Chapel. The Heilige Bloedkapel is the Tower of London.  Many of the smaller indoor sets were built in an old Philips factory nearby.

The Belgian deal provides 150% tax exemption for investors in audio-visual productions, provided they have a Belgian partner. David Claikens of BNP Paribas Fortis Filmfonds says “We are the only ones working with a ‘blind fund’, a system in which our clients invest without knowing what production is involved. This means the money is immediately available".  It's estimate that producing The White Queen required some 10 million euros - the highest tax shelter agreed so far.

Oooh Demelza

One of Danny Cohen's last sign-offs as Controller of BBC1 - a six part adaptation of Poldark. Yes, back from two BBC series in 1975 and 1975, and an ITV follow-up in 1996. Risk-taker Danny's version will be scripted by Debbie Horsefield, of Cutting It fame. Steeped in Cornish history, Debbie comes from Eccles, went to Newcastle University, lives in Ramsbottom and is a patron of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust.

As you can see below, much of the action in the original tv version needed no script.



A remake of Poldark (on mopeds) was forecast sometime ago by Vic and Bob.

• I can't find the scenes I want from the 70s online, but there is one where a mansion is torched by angry miners and villagers. No expense had been spared to dress the indoor set at Television Centre. There were some genuine art works on the dummy walls, and the chair usually used for the crowning of Miss World was in the room. So the extras had detailed instructions on what NOT to torch. Only one take was possible - some of the extras could be seen trying to remember which paintings were marked for destruction, which rather dissipated the dramatic tension - and the Miss World chair was burned anyway, unnoticed by the studio director.

History play

From the Evening Standard, 5th July. BBC Shakespeare trumps Jubilee to put George on top

Was it the Bard wot won it for George Entwistle? BBC Trust chief Lord Patten has revealed that Saturday night’s acclaimed BBC2 dramatisation of Shakespeare’s Richard II played a more than helpful role in securing the director-general position for George Entwistle... 


Patten said the drama effectively wiped the slate clean for Entwistle, who had been held responsible for the BBC’s disastrous Jubilee river pageant coverage. “As reviewers have said, it was probably the best televised Shakespeare there’s ever been,” said the Trust chair. “There is much more (in George’s favour) on the good side of the ledger than any criticisms.” And so George was crowned the king.


I think if Lord Patten were to dig deeper, he would find a dramatic twist Shakespeare would have been proud of. The concept of The Hollow Crown series was regularly resisted by BBC Vision, and only went ahead at the insistence of Mark Thompson, who had to "find" special funding before it was made.

Drama by numbers

Rural flight ?

I hope the Editor of The Archers, Vanessa Whitburn, counts the spoons before she goes on long-service leave from the Radio 4 Soap in July. She's been fiercely protective of the programme since taking control eleven years ago, and the BBC will embark on Delivering 25% Cuts from the beginning of the next financial year.

So it could be significant that the minder appointed by the BBC is a television grandee - John Yorke, 1st Class Honours degree from Newcastle, then theatre, before joining the BBC as a studio manager (as did Vanessa - and Jenny Abramsky and Andy Parfitt). Since then he's worked on Eastenders, Casualty and Holby City  - as well as fitting in a brief spell at Channel 4, where he commissioned Shameless and Omagh.  He came back as Controller, Drama Production and has commissioning or executive producer credits on Robin Hood, Waterloo Road, and Land Girls.

The BBC's website lists 114 actors as "current characters" in The Archers. Eastenders struggles on with around 50.  What's the betting Ambridge is in for a period of population decline ?

Lifting the roof

If you notice a little too much glistening in upcoming episodes of Casualty, there's a simple explanation - and it won't last long.

In the move from Bristol to the new BBC Drama Village at Roath Lock, Cardiff, the sets had to be rebuilt and refreshed.  The Casualty team re-erected them the way they're used to - with full ceilings. However putting a "lid" on a set in a traditional studio defeats the expensive air conditioning  - and temperatures on the new sets have been hitting 27C/80F.   Now the boxes have been opened up, and we can all breathe more easily.  There'll just be fewer shots with ceilings in...

You can't hide your pryin' eyes

Dave Hill's piece in The Guardian, on the BBC deciding against moving Eastenders east to the Olympic Park post 2012, suggests some internal defiance of the writ of Mark Thompson.

He's found an insider to the negotiations (though not, apparently, from the BBC side) to say "This had been going on for the best part of a year. They were happy with the financing. Mark Thompson really wanted it to happen. There were architect's drawings, everything. City Airport had even agreed to divert flights because they were worried about noise when they were filming scenes outside."

Hill's sources say the stumbling block was a wall. I understand it was a drama requirement for an unfeasibly high wall, of Great Chinese proportions, to keep the filming away from the eyes of occupants of tall buildings on the site.

This doesn't seem to be a problem for Coronation Street in their move to MediaCityUK.  Their new home is directly overlooked by not one, but two BBC buildings and a giant block of flats, just across the Ship Canal. That Adam Crozier gets things done, Lord Patten.

Soapy economics

The National Audit Office's report on the cost of the BBC's soaps is enjoyably mechanical, and will clearly terrify the luvvies, who like to judge their performances by the size of spreads in The Sun and OK, rather than by hard stats.

The report looks at Casualty, Doctors, Eastenders, Holby City, River City and Pobol y Cwm.  What joy to be able to calculate that Casualty and Pobol spend the lowest percentages of the six on story and script.  And that Casualty spends most on travel and subsistence - are there no actors in Bristol ?

And then there's value for money. Those made in England all come in at less than 10p per viewer hour. River City, made in Dumbarton, costs just under 50p per viewer hour.  Pobol y Cwm costs just over £2 per viewer hour.  Drop three or four episodes a year and you could buy the viewer a dvd.

They've got form/s

People I know will very much enjoy the plaintive cry from dramatist Jimmy McGovern, about the BBC's Compliance procedures. He's told the Radio Times that scenes in the BBC1 drama, The Street, fell foul of the bureacrats because it was felt they could cause offence to Manchester United fans.

"I ask, 'What is the point of this unit?' And the response is, 'It's in case you cause offence'," said McGovern. According to the Telegraph, the BBC disputes McGovern's version, saying "The BBC compliance team has never told Jimmy he can't write with an anti-Manchester United bias. In fact, no-one at the BBC has ever told Jimmy what he can and cannot write at all. Occasionally people will ask questions about why he has chosen a particular theme or subject, but that's all."

If they're asking all these questions, and the answer doesn't matter, then... ? Here's a brief reminder of the sort of cover the Compliance teams seek from outside producers. 

LEGAL ISSUES	Has a BBC lawyer been consulted?
OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE	Strong, most offensive, language?
	Other language (e.g. blasphemy) which may offend?
SEXUAL CONTENT	Sexual content, either descriptive or innuendo?
IMITATIVE BEHAVIOUR	Drug or solvent abuse?
	Suicide, self harm, hanging?
	Other potentially dangerous behaviour?
	Use of alcohol or smoking?
PORTRAYAL	Potentially contentious portrayal of disabled people, religious groups or minorities?
DISTURBING CONTENT	Images which audiences may find disturbing?
	Depictions of violence, disasters, accidents, kidnapping, exorcism, occult paranormal or horror, real or fictional?
	Violence involving children or domestic violence?
CRIME AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR	Interviews with criminals?
	Demonstration of illegal activity?
REAL PEOPLE	Public figures as contributors?
	References to public figures
PRIVACY	Does the programme contain material of a personal or private nature? Does the programme contain any secret recording?
IMPARTIALITY, ACCURACY & FAIRNESS	Does the programme deal with matters of public or political controversy?
	Is there a personal view or “authored” content which is not balanced within the programme?
	Is a balancing programme required?
	Dramatic representations of living people or people with close living relatives?
	Has any contributor required or been promised anonymity?
POLITICS	Reference to opinion polls/surveys?
	Interview or appearance by party leader?
EDITORIAL INTEGRITY	References to sponsors?
	References to commercial products/brands
	Have any actual or potential conflicts of interest arisen in respect of presenters, contributors or others involved in this production?
SENSITIVE ISSUES	Apart from the above, is there anything else in the programme which should be borne in mind ahead of tx or possible future repeat?
CONTROLLER OF EDITORIAL POLICY MANDATORY APPROVAL	Does the programme contain anything that requires the prior approval of the Controller of Editorial Policy (see bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/ referrals/))