tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/bbc-one-21584/articlesBBC One – The Conversation2018-03-02T15:15:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926282018-03-02T15:15:04Z2018-03-02T15:15:04ZWe’re seeing plenty of Welsh locations in BBC dramas – one day they may be shows about Wales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208514/original/file-20180301-152584-ipiimy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/behind-scene-film-crew-team-filming-635806040?src=P5eVUhcuA_DHfh5vNNrCcw-1-1">guruXOX/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ask a viewer about Welsh programmes on BBC channels of late and chances are they will mention <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436992/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Doctor Who</a>. And quite rightly so – it is only with Welsh intervention in the form of Swansea born showrunner Russell T Davies and a Cardiff-based crew that the “Who-niverse” was brought back to life.</p>
<p>Since 2005, and in light of Doctor Who’s success, more and more shows have been produced in Wales by the BBC. Long-running hospital drama <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8wd">Casualty</a> is now filmed in Wales, and fantasy shows such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8ln">Torchwood</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mjlxv">Merlin</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04st48f">Atlantis</a> have all been made there too.</p>
<p>It must be said that audience pride in seeing <a href="http://culture.research.southwales.ac.uk/screeningthenation/">recognisable Welsh locations</a> – even when they’re not being portrayed as Wales – cannot be overlooked when thinking about the nation on screen. Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, was set in Cardiff – albeit an alternate sci-fi reality – and continues to cement its place in Cardiff Bay. <a href="http://www.doctorwholocations.net/locations/roalddahlplass">Torchwood tower</a> and <a href="https://www.citymetric.com/horizons/ianto-shrine-cardiff-landmark-commemorates-man-who-never-was-1965">Ianto’s shrine</a> are still visited by fans, tourists and locals to this day. </p>
<p>But apart from the occasional Welsh accent in Casualty or mention of Wales in a small number of Doctor Who episodes, by and large, these dramas are set “elsewhere”. They do not directly represent a Welsh way of life. Even if Wales’s beauty is seen as an asset by BBC producers, Welsh issues have not been deemed worthy to commission shows for national audiences.</p>
<h2>Just a backdrop</h2>
<p>For a long time, representations of Wales and the Welsh people in national BBC television dramas have been few and far between. Welsh audiences have only had a handful of options insofar as seeing their nation represented on the small screen. That is even in light of the BBC’s
“<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/10_october/15/bennett.shtml">beyond the M25</a>” initiative – their way of solidifying a more sustainable production base across the nation, which the corporation felt would “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/10_october/15/bennett.shtml">bring production closer to the audiences they serve</a>”. </p>
<p>Though the country has its own channel – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-35-years-of-s4c-shouldnt-wales-have-responsibility-for-the-welsh-language-channel-86629">Welsh-language S4C</a> – as well as the regional BBC Wales, Wales has mostly been used as a stand-in for other places during production for the national network. A BBC drama that is specifically Welsh in its setting, dialogue, theme, or mode of address is yet to be green-lit. If we do happen to see drama that is set in Wales, it often has to <a href="https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/s4c-drama-hinterland-set-aired-6459483">prove its worth</a> in regional scheduling first.</p>
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<p>From the early 2000s, viewers of BBC Wales were able to tune into dramas such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254007/">Belonging</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1708951/?ref_=tt_rec_tt">Baker Boys</a>. But regionally broadcast shows such as these have been in decline in more recent years in favour of networked programming. This approach by the BBC has left its drama departments across the UK competing for main network slots. Less drama production equals less spend – an ever more pressing factor in light of the BBC’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11572171">frozen licence fee</a>.</p>
<p>Belonging represented a small Welsh community and its everyday trials and tribulations. Issues of race and sexuality were tackled and formed the main plot-lines – but the drama was not directly about Wales. It did not offer a representation of the nation that was inward looking in a rose-tinted kind of way. Instead, it focused on contemporary issues tackled from a Welsh mode of address. Belonging, like Baker Boys, was specifically made with a Welsh audience in mind and both were lighthearted and humorous in tone. But despite their popularity both dramas were withdrawn without substitution. </p>
<h2>New noir</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most promising of the BBC’s (and S4C’s) commitment to Wales and Welsh drama in recent years has come from <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-celtic-noir-27253">Hinterland/Y Gwyll</a> (2013-) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6658720/">Keeping Faith/Un Bore Mercher</a> (2017-). Both dramas are set in contemporary Wales, have been produced independently in collaboration with the BBC/S4C, and were broadcast in both English and Welsh.</p>
<p>Dramas such as these may not be fervently waving the Welsh flag, but their tackling of universal themes such as love and betrayal from a Welsh lens or through a Welsh mode of address is incredibly important. Rather than relying on comic stereotypes or bit parts, these programmes represent a modern Wales. </p>
<p>However, it hasn’t been an easy path to get to his point. Hinterland/Y Gwyll came about as part of BBC Wales’ drive to show more of Wales and the Welsh language on the mainstream BBC channels. Yet, the fact that a Welsh language version aired on S4C first, followed by bilingual versions on BBC One and BBC Four the following year, demonstrates the BBC’s reluctance to represent the regions and communities to the rest of the UK – as set out by its very <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/publicpurposes/communities.html">own public purpose remit</a>.</p>
<p>As the debate over broadcasting devolution rages on, we can only help but wonder what the future might be for dramatic representations of Wales. Welsh culture secretary Lord Elis-Thomas has announced he will not <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-43234914">pursue the devolution of broadcasting</a>. Yet powers over culture are devolved, leading many to wonder whether this asymmetrical arrangement can ever work. </p>
<p>The BBC could certainly do more to devolve its own powers over drama. As it stands, the controller of drama in London, Piers Wenger, performs an important gatekeeping function. But if we want to see Wales and other parts of the UK get the representation it sorely needs, then really these gates need to be permanently opened.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nina Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mostly seen in bit parts and stereotypes, Wales and its people are struggling for BBC screen time.Nina Jones, Lecturer in Contemporary Media, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/727642017-02-10T11:13:13Z2017-02-10T11:13:13ZTaboo: working for the East India Company could make you rich … or dead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156211/original/image-20170209-8643-3dy1ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tom Hardy in Taboo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Free Prods/Robert Viglasky</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088s45m">Taboo</a> is dark, menacing, violent and at times shocking. In episode one of the new BBC drama we see James Delaney (played by Tom Hardy at his swaggering best), thought long dead and gone, <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-21/tom-hardys-new-series-taboo-is-brilliantly-grim-viewing-for-saturday-nights">suddenly return home</a> from his travels overseas. His arrival is dramatic, to say the least. As he comes bursting through the church doors in the middle of his late father’s funeral service, the congregation is shocked to see the returned son.</p>
<p>An aura of sinister mystery surrounds him. Where has he been? Why has he stayed away for so long? What dark secrets is he hiding – and what evil deeds did he commit while in the service of the East India Company?</p>
<p>At this point in the series it’s not yet clear exactly what Delaney got up to while away (but presumably all will eventually be revealed). We know he’s been in Africa, and at some point was involved in a catastrophic shipwreck. Among those who drowned were slaves – what was his relationship to them? There are also hints of the supernatural, perhaps linked to his mysterious mother.</p>
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<p>A key player in this intriguing story is the <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/80189/tom-hardy-takes-on-the-east-india-company-in-bbcs-taboo">East India Company</a>. What started as a trading company in 1600 became a powerful imperial interest, with substantial commercial and political influence which <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-East-India-Company/">ruled over India</a> from the late 18th century. Tales of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders">misconduct, dishonest dealings and exploitation</a> abounded. The famous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-Hastings">impeachment trial of Warren Hastings</a> during the 1780s and 1790s reinforced contemporary perceptions of a corrupt and unscrupulous organisation. </p>
<p>Fuelled by concerns of mismanagement, Pitt’s India Act was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Government-of-India-Acts#ref70364">passed in 1784</a>, resulting in the British government overseeing the Company’s rule in India. What’s very clear in Taboo is that the East India Company is a dangerous force, reinforced by Jonathan Pryce’s portrayal of the ruthless chairman <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/strange-james-charles-stuart-1753-1840">Sir Stuart Strange</a>.</p>
<h2>The Company</h2>
<p>While the tale that unfolds in Taboo is pure fiction, there are certain elements of fact. East India Company men did indeed spend years overseas in its service. Though many perished under harsh conditions, some did return home. Even if their repatriation wasn’t quite as dramatic as Delaney’s, nonetheless, a great deal of intrigue surrounded the homecomings. These men were <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00333.x/abstract">mockingly nicknamed “nabobs”</a> and were seen as different. Most certainly looked different – in the same way that Delaney’s sun-scorched skin is a noticeable contrast in Taboo, returned Company men bore the mark of their time away under tropical climes.</p>
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<span class="caption">East India Company men at the surrender of Tipu Sultan in 1792.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Surrender_of_Tipu_Sultan.jpg">British Library</a></span>
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<p>Looking at the surviving memoirs, letters and diaries of returned Company men, the lasting impact of the east is a running theme. Some returned broken in health and spirits, bearing the physical and mental scars of their time abroad. Others however came back with tremendous wealth generated through imperial exploitation.</p>
<p>Indeed, entry into the service of the East India Company could be a ticket to adventure and great fortune. Through office holding, administration, trade, business or high-ranking posts in the Company’s army it was possible to secure great wealth. Other money-making opportunities, such as plundering or illegal trade, were available and huge fortunes were generated. On his death in 1774, the Company army officer and administrator Robert Clive, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2005/03/29/robert_clive_feature.shtml">known as Clive of India</a>, had amassed a substantial estate amounting to <a href="https://www.britishonlinearchives.co.uk/9781851171859.php">more than £500,000</a>.</p>
<p>The voyage to the east was almost always temporary – these men were sojourners, with a view to returning home, but in a better financial position. The records of correspondence held in estate papers and family collections reveal <a href="https://fournationshistory.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/welsh-identity-in-india-c-1804-1813/">a desire to return and a longing for home</a> in many Company men.</p>
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<span class="caption">A fleet of East India men at sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_fleet_of_East_Indiamen_at_sea.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Those who survived returned to Britain as changed men, bearing the influences of their travels. Some brought fragments of their lives in the east back with them, influenced by cultures, customs, even culinary practices – using recipes for dishes such as curry jotted down in pocket books. There were also those who were accompanied on the return voyage by their <a href="http://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/migrating-home-the-return-of-the-nabobs-of-british-india">illegitimate dual-heritage offspring</a>.</p>
<p>On their return to Britain, some Company men craved a quiet retirement, supported by their comfortable pension. Others looked to invest their new-found fortunes in <a href="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/wilkins-walter-1741-1828">local business or industrial enterprise</a>. These men ambitiously sought opportunities to further increase their personal fortunes. Some had aspirations of upward social mobility, purchasing country houses and landed estates, attempting to integrate into the local landed elite. They partook in the social round, indulged in philanthropy, undertook public duties, and <a href="http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/middleton-hall-case-study/">some even secured seats in parliament</a>.</p>
<p>We know for a fact that sojourning to the east was a risky business and there was no guarantee of going home. Though not all may have been as mysterious as Tom Hardy’s gritty portrayal of Delaney, their escapades would have been no less dangerous. Perilous voyages, disease, the unforgiving climate and even tiger attacks ended many a Company man’s life. But regardless of the danger, tales of wonderful riches enticed many an ambitious young man to join the East India Company.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lowri Ann Rees does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The East India Company offered men untold travel and riches – if they survived.Lowri Ann Rees, Lecturer in Modern History, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705432016-12-21T12:06:14Z2016-12-21T12:06:14ZHow TV channels are selling themselves this Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151002/original/image-20161220-26738-1njsw9x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">BBC One's Xmas ident. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Television <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/online-tv-viewing/">might be</a> rapidly migrating online but channels are fighting hard to stay relevant. Making the brand stand out, especially at Christmas, is still a big priority for broadcasters aiming to be part of our viewing decisions on whatever device we are watching on. Spend any time on a channel and see the festive idents – the branding sequences between programmes – and this immediately becomes obvious. </p>
<p>So how best to do this? As Andy Bryant and Charlie Mawer of TV ident veterans Red Bee <a href="https://www.koganpage.com/product/the-tv-brand-builders-9780749476687#region">put it</a> recently, the key is for a channel to look fresh, maintain a distinctive personality and break the rules of what should come between programmes. BBC One, the UK’s flagship channel <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/share-by-channel-2/">with about</a> 22% of the total audience share, is a good example this year. </p>
<p>The channel has gone for a concept branded One-ness that feels very similar to how supermarkets or department stores are advertised – not surprising when the same creative team was <a href="http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/worlds-creative-partnerships-john-lewis-adam-eve-ddb/1398507">responsible</a> for TV advertising for the likes of department store John Lewis. The BBC One advert feels less about television and more a post-Brexit hug. Set to an indie-folk version of Merry Christmas Everyone, the one-minute film includes mixed-ethnicity couples and a <a href="http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/culture/55947/sex-couple-share-kiss-bbc-ones-christmas-advert/">gay kiss</a>, following the path set earlier this year by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siBRvC9YSc4">Lloyds Bank’s</a> same-sex proposal “For Your Next Step”. </p>
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<p>The whole approach is about creating an air of authenticity with vignettes of real life coming together at Christmas time. It’s being used by advertisers around the world this festive season, though for retail not television channels – department store <a href="https://vimeo.com/190736076">David Jones</a> in Australia, for example, and Norwegian electronics chain <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFAmiKo33s">Elkjøp</a></p>
<h2>Dragons and hashtags</h2>
<p>In complete contrast is Sky 1. Sky 1 has a only fraction of BBC One’s audience, <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/share-by-channel-2/">1% of</a> the UK total. But it is backed by commercial leviathan BSkyB and plays a flagship role in the broadcaster’s pay-TV offering – arguably the main threat to the BBC in the UK. </p>
<p>It is running a fairly generic <a href="https://youtu.be/5etMwhY7YOY">40-second round-up</a> of its Christmas highlights, branded “New. Unmissable. Exclusive.” but also a separate advert dedicated to The Last Dragonslayer. This is the cinematic adaptation of <a href="http://www.jasperfforde.com/dragon/dragon.html">Jasper Fforde’s book</a> that is the <a href="https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2016/sky1-announces-brand-new-christmas-drama-the-last-dragonslayer">centrepiece</a> of Sky’s push to win the Christmas evening ratings. </p>
<p>Flanked by a logo “Sky 1 Presents”, the advert uses snowy mountain ranges and a dragon’s head to build excitement ahead of the premiere. It is an example of “day and date” marketing, <a href="https://www.koganpage.com/product/the-tv-brand-builders-9780749476687#region">one of</a> the biggest trends in global TV, and Sky clearly thinks it could have big audiences on its hands given the huge success of other fantasy dramas such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/">Game of Thrones</a>. </p>
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<p>This is about a collective family television experience with a second-screen commentary running in parallel on social media using the hashtag #SlayDay. It is part of a phenomenon that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-grinberg/superbowl-2012-breaks-soc_b_1260869.html">began with</a> the American Super Bowl in 2012, which rewrote the marketing strategies for television channels. Not to be outdone, BBC One has its own day and date event lined up for New Year’s Day with <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-12-06/when-does-the-new-series-of-sherlock-start-on-tv">Sherlock</a>. </p>
<h2>Television personalities</h2>
<p>The UK’s other terrestrial channels are approaching Christmas in roughly the way you might expect, following the personality concept I mentioned earlier. So ITV is seeking to woo its older more family-oriented audience with idents that feel like a fancily packaged but familiar box of camp sweet-smelling soaps. </p>
<p>The strapline is, “All your favourite favourites, from our family to yours”. There’s a run-down of programmes backed by jingling bells and the Twelve Days of Christmas, and a subtler nod to inclusivity in the form of a black girl playing beside a Christmas tree. </p>
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<p>Youth-leaning Channel 4 has parked its usual <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-channel-4s-new-branding-is-worthy-of-a-turner-prize-49162">avant garde idents</a> and gone for a film themed around a sharp postmodern Mrs Claus pulling up in her red sports car at C4HQ to help launch Christmas. Interestingly, this is a tie-in with retailer M&S, which used the same Mrs Claus in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK-Vv_q5OsQ">its festive advert</a> (wearing M&S clothes, naturally). </p>
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<p>BBC Two has repeated its recent trick of offsetting BBC One’s high spending by <a href="https://theident.gallery/bbc2-2015-xmas.php">reprising</a> iconic idents from the last 25 years in a long run of make-do-and-mend nostalgia. BBC Four is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P9EfWd-28E">even more modest</a>, placing a snowflake like a figleaf over the letter “o” in a suitably lo-fi way for its artier and more niche offering. </p>
<p>In short, you can tell a lot about a channel from what it does at Christmas, not to mention the state of a nation. It’s not easy to be innovative – a bit like dusting down old baubles and Christmas decorations for your tree each year – but it’s at least a reminder that there are different things on offer. If a programme gets stale or you become restless between helpings of turkey and cake, be sure to remember where you left the remote control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iain Macdonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From that gay kiss to dragon slaying, festive TV adverts speak volumes about the broadcasters.Iain Macdonald, Associate Professor of Advertising and Graphic Design, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/691702016-11-21T15:02:01Z2016-11-21T15:02:01ZThe Singing Detective at 30: never mind the modern box sets, here’s a true TV masterpiece<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146770/original/image-20161121-4518-pvu95e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Time for another viewing?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrogers/3388376575/in/photolist-6ausPJ-6aqjcp-6aqjeg-6aqjiM-6aqjhR-9waZHK-6ausUo-64qbTH-79WijU-bLY73Z-6ihLzN-mG8Jp-8nSqhy-f8EN2y-8nPfCk-8nSqjj-8nPfvn-8nSqc5-8nSq9E-9dsPvL-8nSqkU-f6EsuE-fFwvaN-3xmchn-6KrpPi-BjUGaD-AHecJr-BjUG4M-APAJJf-BhE37L-CS7FYP-CxhGsY-BhE2Um-BeqXHo-BgJGqF-CxhGH7-CVvwaN-LY2UPD-L94W4Z-LVskqd-f9o9TQ-6pymt3-Dk9kE-HbsqX-4d8DCb">Pere Ubu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monday, mid-November, 30 years ago, British newspapers <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JXi7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA351&lpg=PA351&dq=%22Every+Sunday+for+Six+Weeks:+Drama+from+Heaven%22&source=bl&ots=UHTizmN5f6&sig=TU4YwIH2817ByDym6ydIgDqMFY4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7z-fs1rnQAhXpKsAKHaSCDQkQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Every%20Sunday%20for%20Six%20Weeks%3A%20Drama%20from%20Heaven%22&f=false">were hailing</a> the first episode of a major “television drama event” that had aired the night before. “Every Sunday for Six Weeks: Drama from Heaven,” declared The Financial Times. “Stunning new serial,” wrote The Guardian. </p>
<p>Those of a certain age may be disconcerted to learn it has been three full decades since <a href="https://store.bbc.com/the-singing-detective">The Singing Detective</a>, the six-part drama by Dennis Potter, was first shown on British television on Sunday nights at 9pm. It still <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110911083558/http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/list/list.php">frequently</a> features in “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/12/guardian-50-television-dramas">greatest-ever TV</a>” polls. </p>
<p>Much <a href="https://youtu.be/WvQRDQ59q7Q">parodied</a> over the years, many will be familiar with <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/487877/">the story</a> even if they haven’t seen it. A middle-aged misanthropic writer of pulp detective stories, the appropriately named Philip E Marlow (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002091/">Michael Gambon</a>), is hospitalised with a dreadful disease that inflames the skin and cripples the joints. <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/798920714535440384">Confined to</a> his hospital bed and suffering intermittent bouts of fever, Marlow hallucinates doctors, nurses and other patients miming to the old 1940s dance band tunes from his youth. </p>
<p>In his head, he starts to rewrite one of his own old detective novels, imagining himself as its hero, The Singing Detective, striding down the shadowy mean streets of 1945 post-war London. At the same time, he delves into his own childhood memories from the same year, reliving a sexual trauma that led to his mother’s suicide. </p>
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<p>What elevates The Singing Detective is the way in which these threads gradually intersect: individuals from Marlow’s childhood memories appear in his pulp detective fantasy; characters from the detective fantasy emerge in the “real” hospital ward. Reality and imagination finally completely fuse as a gun battle takes place in the ward and the seemingly “real” Marlow is killed off and replaced with his fantasy alter ego, The Singing Detective. The writer character has used his memory and imagination to renew himself psychologically, replacing his old sick self with a more positive and open persona that can leave hospital. </p>
<p>It provides arguably the most vivid representation of the workings of the human mind ever realised on screen. “This is the piece of work I’d like to be remembered for,” Potter <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bUeGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=Detective+%22It+goes+leagues+forward+from+anything+I%E2%80%99ve+written%22&source=bl&ots=qD6136ecns&sig=bBb4fe5zAPBvk3fIwjkc-NIysIc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_-aCM2rnQAhUHAsAKHefoBIoQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Detective%20%22It%20goes%20leagues%20forward%20from%20anything%20I%E2%80%99ve%20written%22&f=false">told The Times</a> even as the drama was still being shot by its very able director, Jon Amiel. “It goes leagues forward from anything I’ve written.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Michael Gambon as Philip E Marlow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrogers/3388376575/in/photolist-6ausPJ-6aqjcp-6aqjeg-6aqjiM-6aqjhR-9waZHK-6ausUo-64qbTH-79WijU-bLY73Z-6ihLzN-mG8Jp-8nSqhy-f8EN2y-8nPfCk-8nSqjj-8nPfvn-8nSqc5-8nSq9E-9dsPvL-8nSqkU-f6EsuE-fFwvaN-3xmchn-6KrpPi-BjUGaD-AHecJr-BjUG4M-APAJJf-BhE37L-CS7FYP-CxhGsY-BhE2Um-BeqXHo-BgJGqF-CxhGH7-CVvwaN-LY2UPD-L94W4Z-LVskqd-f9o9TQ-6pymt3-Dk9kE-HbsqX-4d8DCb">Pere Ubu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Box-set generation</h2>
<p>While “quality” US TV dramas such as <a href="http://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos">The Sopranos</a>, <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/mad-men">Mad Men</a> and <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/breaking-bad">Breaking Bad</a> have taken up the baton of narratively complex and layered storytelling, arguably none have quite sustained the intense interior drama and rich metaphor of The Singing Detective. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/02/singing-detective-addictive-bbc4">According to</a> one Guardian critic writing in 2012, it makes “the best current drama look like an amateur hour”. </p>
<p>Behind this may lie the different industrial constraints of modern long-form US TV dramas. There is always a commercial incentive to keep them running for more seasons than is artistically desirable, using a soap opera-like “infinitely extended middle” of interweaving storylines and story arcs to resist the audience’s desire for resolution. Contrast this with The Singing Detective, made by the public service BBC in a very different era. The whole drive was towards final narrative closure. </p>
<p>Running for only six episodes allowed it to benefit from the intensity of a single authorial vision. Contemporary US TV dramas extol authorial vision, too, but in the form of the showrunner – the head writer-producer who creates the series and develops the main story arcs. The showrunner leads a team of writers who write individual episodes which are passed to different directors to realise on screen. </p>
<p>The experience of both creating and watching long-form TV drama is therefore very different to the traditional BBC model of one writer and one director. </p>
<h2>The best of British</h2>
<p>America’s success with long-form drama has meant British TV drama has struggled to keep up in recent years. Potter’s closest British successor is probably <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689081/">Stephen Poliakoff</a>, writer-director behind the likes of <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/523425/">Shooting the Past</a> and <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/523442/">Perfect Strangers</a>. </p>
<p>Poliakoff is given considerable freedom at the BBC to choose his own subjects and sculpt well-crafted dramas, often exploring forgotten or suppressed aspects of British history. His current drama, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082sy3q">Close to the Enemy</a> (BBC Two), is interestingly set in the same immediate post-war time period as The Singing Detective. Yet Poliakoff’s dramas tend to lack the passion that animated Potter’s best works – and do not have the same popular reach. </p>
<p>Nor is there much to recommend recent occupants of the BBC’s Sunday night 9pm drama slot. This autumn has featured season two of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07pn8mz">Poldark</a>, a ratings hit – but basically safe period fare; and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08302gm">My Mother and Other Strangers</a>, which revolves around GIs arriving in Northern Ireland during World War II. It is “an incredibly hackneyed premise”, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/nov/20/week-in-tv-planet-earth-ii-nw-my-mother-and-other-strangers-kids-on-the-edge-grand-tour-review">according to</a> The Guardian. This is typical of the reviews. Both dramas are in the tradition of escapist feel-good British drama on Sunday nights against which The Singing Detective was bucking the trend even in 1986. </p>
<p>Far more interesting is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xt09g">The Missing</a>, whose second series will shortly end on BBC One. It has gripped viewers on Wednesday nights and won praise for its depiction of detective Julien Baptiste (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001409/">Tchéky Karyo</a>) trying to solve the riddle of two missing schoolgirls in Germany a decade earlier, after one suddenly reappears. Critics <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3945140/The-Missing-fans-forget-mystery-Alice-Webster-panic-fate-Julian-Baptiste-health-dramatically-deteriorates.html">have praised</a> the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/13/the-missing-review-a-missing-persons-reboot-with-more-than-one-way-to-keep-you-awake">complexity</a> of its storytelling and the narrative’s fluid shifts between past and present. </p>
<p>Here, then, is a legacy of The Singing Detective. Potter’s experiments 30 years ago with interweaving narratives and timelines have become part of the accepted grammar of television drama today. Yet in the case of The Missing, these innovations are principally being used to refresh well-worn TV crime staples – child abduction and serial killers. </p>
<p>This is very different from how Potter escaped fixed genre to play freely with the conventions of the hospital drama, detective story, childhood drama and so on. More than 20 years after Potter’s <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dennis-potter-1421167.html">untimely death</a> at the age of 59, it is hard to find anything on British TV today that is truly the artistic peer of The Singing Detective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Cook has received funding in the past from AHRC. </span></em></p>Dennis Potter’s 1986 story of a writer in need of psychological renewal rewrote the TV drama rulebook.John Cook, Professor in Media, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/630252016-08-02T08:50:12Z2016-08-02T08:50:12ZThe Living and the Dead captures Victorian anxieties about science and the supernatural<p>From telegraphs to television sets, new technologies have often been imagined as strange or magical in the popular consciousness. It is no coincidence that developments in 19th century science and technology like the railway, the phonograph, and the photograph coincided with a deep cultural fascination with the paranormal. Discussions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-victorians-brought-famous-artists-back-from-the-dead-in-seances-62647">seances</a>, spirit mediums and purported photos of ghosts were found in the newspapers of the day, and science was used to either try to prove or repudiate the claims. These feverish times are the setting for BBC One’s supernatural drama <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wv2rl">The Living and the Dead</a>. </p>
<p>In the opening episode, pioneering photographer Charlotte Appleby (played by Charlotte Spencer) reflects in wonder that “You could be dead and buried a hundred years, and people could still hear what you sounded like” while listening to phonograph recordings of people from the Somerset village of Shepzoy. It is 1894, and she and her psychologist husband Nathan (played by Colin Morgan) have moved to the village to take charge of the family estate.</p>
<p>Her enthusiasm for this new medium is quickly dampened, however, when the voice of Nathan’s young son who tragically drowned fills the room, urging his father to join him in play. Various other paranormal events soon follow. Ghostly voices emerging from the phonograph are replicated by a young woman who claims to have been possessed by the spirit of a local man who died without having been baptised. A railway survey unleashes the unquiet souls of five boys who died in a mine collapse. The ghosts of roundhead cavalrymen descend. And there is the curious apparition of a woman with what viewers recognise as an iPad – presumably too absorbed in her screen to notice that she has wandered into the 19th century.</p>
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<h2>Gothic horrors</h2>
<p>Series creator Ashley Pharoah described the series as “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/06/28/the-living-and-the-dead-is-thomas-hardy-with-ghosts--and-time-tr/">Hardy with ghosts</a>”. In many ways, the village of Shepzoy is a new take on Thomas Hardy’s fictional county of Wessex which, modelled on the counties of England’s southwest, self-consciously captured the tensions between the city and country at the moment the transformations brought by the railways and the industrial revolution began to unfold.</p>
<p>Charlotte distinctly resembles <a href="http://www.bustle.com/articles/171552-bathsheba-everdene-is-literatures-forgotten-feminist-hero">Bathsheba Everdene</a>, the spirited young woman who inherits and manages her uncle’s farm in Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). The introduction of new machinery and farming techniques to Shepzoy is met with similar distrust and even satanic associations as they are in Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891). But ultimately the series has more in common with the Gothic tales of the same period, such as The Turn of the Screw (1898) by American writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-James-American-writer">Henry James</a> – in fact, the younger brother of William James, a leading early psychologist – or the short stories of In a Glass Darkly (1872) by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11048229/Sheridan-Le-Fanu-the-father-of-modern-horror-at-200.html">Sheridan Le Fanu</a>, in which self-consciously modern individuals find themselves powerless against dark supernatural forces.</p>
<p>The tense phonograph scene from The Living and the Dead gives an indication of its writer’s engagement with these Gothic themes. And the same motif of strange objects – technological, mystical, or ambiguously situated between the two – that allow the voices of the dead to come to life is one that recurs frequently in the fictions of the time. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/JapBox.shtml">The Japanned Box</a> (1899) by <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-conan-doyle-9278600">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a> a mysterious woman’s voice, thought to be a ghostly emanation, is revealed to have been produced by a phonograph. In <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/rudyard-kipling-9365581">Rudyard Kipling’s</a> Wireless (1902), mechanical signals inadvertently channel the creative spirit and poetry of the long-dead Keats. In <a href="http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mclandburgh_florence">Florence McLandburgh’s</a> The Automaton Ear (1873), an unnamed professor invents a device able to detect sounds beyond the limits of the human ear – only to be haunted by the now-audible cries of the dead.</p>
<p>In each instance, the scientific instrument in question establishes a threshold between life and death, offering the simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying possibility of passing between the two. The human body and mind become peculiarly vulnerable beyond that threshold, while the stories point also to the limits of scientific knowledge at the time and its capacity to explain the world. </p>
<h2>Technology or totem?</h2>
<p>Communications technologies such as the penny post, the railway, the telegraph, telephone and wireless radio receiver shrunk the distances between people in ways that seemed impossible. For those first witnessing them, they created a powerful sense of removal from the material world, permitting experiences that seemed beyond the realms of normal consciousness and corporeality.</p>
<p>At the same time, new technology provided the means to preserve the past: the phonograph could capture and replay the voices of the dead, the photograph could record their lifelike image, while the then burgeoning science of psychology provided doctors with new ways to consider past versions of the self, and access to the unconscious mind. These anxieties and tensions are invoked in The Living and the Dead in a way that those of the period would have recognised, with the past, present and future drawn together through technology and the supernatural. As the web of connections between individuals in Shepzoy deepens, it becomes increasingly unclear who is being haunted, and who is the ghost.</p>
<p>The plot device of time periods that bleed into one another is one Pharaoh has used in previous series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478942/">Life on Mars</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1008108">Ashes to Ashes</a>, but perhaps here he has found more suitable material upon which to graft it – after all, the fracturing of the laws of space and time are more comfortably explored in a Victorian ghost story than in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/14/the-sweeney-box-set">The Sweeney</a>. Having binge-watched series one, I’m living in the hope of an apparition from the future that can confirm there will be a second.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63025/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>As part of the Diseases of Modern Life team at St Anne's College, Oxford, Melissa Dickson receives funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ERC Grant Agreement number 340121.</span></em></p>BBC One’s The Living and the Dead revels in the Victorians’ obsession with the supernatural and the limits of science.Melissa Dickson, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/491622015-10-15T05:32:50Z2015-10-15T05:32:50ZWhy Channel 4’s new branding is worthy of a Turner Prize<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98409/original/image-20151014-15142-1mupec1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Take me to your sofa'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsmtfR9MP8">Channel 4</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might be forgiven for switching on Channel 4 and thinking that your programme was being interrupted by some art intervention. It is <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/arts/visual-arts/art-review-turner-prize-2015-glasgow-1-3912191">Turner Prize</a> time again, after all – and Irish video artist Duncan Campbell won in 2014 with his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PDFVAE0q7g">compelling film work</a>. But do not adjust your set, Channel 4 has introduced a new series of <a href="http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-refreshes-iconic-main-channel-brand">brand idents</a> – what the industry calls the short sequence that lets you know you are watching a particular channel. </p>
<p>After ten years of being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD0rHMMuBkk">teased by</a> flying blocks and surreal scenes before being gratified by the fleeting moment when they align into the familiar shape of the “4”, now viewers are seeing the shimmying blue-ponytailed creature in the main image; teams of men in white with head torches working in a quarry; and a red amethyst waterfall with rocks mysteriously plunging into the pool below. A radical shift it certainly is. </p>
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<p>These idents have been spearheaded by two <a href="http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-refreshes-iconic-main-channel-brand">very big hitters</a>: film director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0322242/">Jonathan Glazer</a> (Sexy Beast, Under the Skin) and typographer <a href="https://www.fontfont.com/designers/neville-brody">Neville Brody</a> (The Face magazine, Depeche Mode album covers). The nearest we get to seeing the iconic “4” numeral is its Tetris-style component block shapes, being handled by those men in white or appearing as amethyst shards or on a factory assembly line. </p>
<h2>4 your pleasure</h2>
<p>The “4” dates all the way back to when Channel 4 was born in 1982. Arriving the moment the channel first appeared on our large cathode-ray tube TV sets, design agency <a href="http://www.lambie-nairn.com">Robinson Lambie-Nairn</a>’s identity has outlived all the competition. </p>
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<p>It is worth recalling just how different the other channels looked at that time. BBC One was identified by a mechanically generated <a href="https://youtu.be/FmJVoUS-Kis">mirror globe</a> (using the Nexus Orthicon Display Device – aka “noddy”), and BBC Two had <a href="http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/mivana/mediaplayer.php?id=7f528394ff5652ea4c21da77de2c8efb&media=bbc2_ident_1983b&type=mp4">recently adopted</a> the world’s first computer-generated ident, designed by in-house BBC graphic designer Oliver Elmes. ITV was represented as regional franchises, many of which were designed by independent design studios – notably the <a href="http://www.minaletattersfield.com/en/">Minale Tattersfield</a> agency’s idents for <a href="http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/ITV_Central#1982.E2.80.931988">Central</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t45YBljCgCk">Thames</a>. </p>
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<p>Thirty-three years on, television idents are much more complex. They exist in a much larger marketplace, with many more ways in which they can be received. The Channel 4 idents are part of a full overhaul of the brand that used a consortium of collaborators in a pop-up studio: the idents were designed in-house, but with support from design and marketing specialist <a href="http://dblg.co.uk">DBLG</a>, while boutique motion designer <a href="http://www.weareseventeen.com">We Are Seventeen</a> produced the online graphics and interfaces for new on-demand brand <a href="http://www.channel4.com">All 4</a> (which replaces 4oD). </p>
<p>The “4” survives more recognisably in the channel’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsmtfR9MP8">on-screen menu</a> of programmes as elegant animations of those Tetris blocks. The graphic elements that help to navigate the programmes available on All 4 display the <a href="http://www.channel4.com/info/corporate/about">corporate “4”</a>, which remains relatively intact. Dan Brookes, the group’s chief marketing and communications officer, <a href="http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/channel-4-unveils-new-all-4-digital-brand-identity">said</a> it was about reimagining the multi-coloured logo “for the multimedia 21st century”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98403/original/image-20151014-15162-100r3qx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New blocks off the old chip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsmtfR9MP8">Channel 4</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Channel 4 is not alone in recognising the necessity for a cohesive and innovative brand identity, of course. ITV’s <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2013-01-14/new-itv-logo-rebrand-2013/">re-branding in 2013</a> introduced a “colour-picking” logo that was programmed to fill itself with five colours from the background image. This was the work of another pop-up studio that the broadcaster created in the year leading up to the launch, containing about 15 creatives and producers mainly from in-house and <a href="http://www.ruddstudio.com">Rudd Studio</a>. </p>
<p>Like any major re-branding, Rudd Studio was tasked with getting to know the brand, the content, the broadcaster’s aspirations for the future and what people thought of the network. This approach may be standard practice now, but the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Brand_Identity_for_Television.html?id=1uOAQgAACAAJ">first time it happened</a> for a TV channel was by Martin Lambie-Nairn in 1981 for the Channel 4 launch. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyIQAoi5mjQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>More than just a number</h2>
<p>Channel 4’s new insight when approaching its recent re-brand was that audiences no longer need to identify a channel by the traditional identity numeral: the electronic programme guide has made it redundant. In-house department 4Creative believed it could now establish a different approach, one perhaps more likely to be found in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9403308/The-Tanks-new-galleries-in-underground-oil-storage-tanks-at-Tate-Modern.html">The Tanks</a> room of the Tate Modern, with its dedication to performance art. </p>
<p>Did it work? The Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3256085/Channel-4-unveils-new-brand-identity-splitting-familiar-33-year-old-logo-elemental-blocks-er-s-4.html">reported that</a> the new idents had been met with “derision”. Just like criticism of the Turner Prize from such quarters, it’s the kind of comment that might suggest that the right tone has been achieved. You certainly can’t deny that Channel 4 has been daring, signing off on a creative approach that no other UK channel would risk. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98406/original/image-20151014-15137-123285p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bart Simpson, reimagined.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsmtfR9MP8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTsmtfR9MP8</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nonetheless, I’m not sure that teaming Glazer and Brody has been a good marriage. As two very independently minded creatives, their work sits uncomfortably together. They speak different visual languages: Glazer is esoteric, exotic and performative with the controlled art direction he has established in his many commercials such as the <a href="http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/close-up-live-issue-semtex-teamwork-70000-litres-paint/598516">Sony Bravia paint explosions</a>; and Brody’s Chadwick and Horseferry fonts, which are integral to the graphic blocks that (literally) resonate more with Lambie-Nairn’s original 1982 ident. </p>
<p>Will it lead to a change in the appearance of UK television channels and how they are branded? I doubt it. Channel 4 is alternative by nature – and while by removing its numeral it has pushed the boundary of channel branding, no other channel would have the stomach to break the rules of conventional marketing wisdom to the same extent. As exquisite art pieces, the films definitely stand comparison to the most groundbreaking work in this field. If that reminds you of anything else, you may not be alone: next year’s Turner Prize may have a worthy contender.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iain Macdonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it comes to branding, the UK broadcaster has always left the rest behind. But by ditching the “4” from its screen idents, it has stepped into another space entirely.Iain Macdonald, Associate Professor of Advertising and Graphic Design, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.