Posts Tagged ‘Channel 4

Heggessey Departs from Talkback Thames

Friday, June 11th, 2010
Lorraine Heggessey

Lorraine Heggessey, beginning of a new chapter after five years at Talkback Thames.

Shock waves rippled across the UK television industry with the news that Lorraine Heggessey would be leaving her post as chief executive of Talkback Thames; producer of Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor, The Apprentice and The Bill.

Heggessey - an industry heavyweight - took over from Peter Fincham in 2005 and led Talkback Thames to huge successes through some of the nation’s biggest brand shows.

A spokeswoman for Talkback Thames said, “We can confirm that Lorraine Heggessey is stepping down as the chief executive of Talkback Thames. Sara Geater will now take over as interim chief executive for Talkback Thames reporting into Tony Cohen. No further comment at this time.”

Heggessey’s TV career began in 1979 as a BBC News trainee. Highlights include the Channel 4 show Hard News, editing science series QED, and a producer of Panorama. Her posts as Head of BBC Children’s and Director of BBC Factual and Learning lead her to become controller of BBC1, the first female in the role. As controller she helped the channel successfully revive Doctor Who as well as introducing Strictly Come Dancing. And it was her controversial move of the evening news bulletin to 10pm that paved the way for 9pm drama hits including Spooks, Cutting It and Hustle.

A report in Broadcast stated, “It was known that the Talkback boss fought hard to save The Bill, and if owners Freemantle are making her the scapegoat for its loss, it is more than a little harsh.” ITV’s decision to cancel the long-running police series (26 years old) had a huge impact on the company, to which Talkback owned the rights.

Sara Geater, the company’s chief operating officer, is to take over as interim chief executive. Like Heggessey, Geater will report to Tony Cohen, chief executive of Fremantle Media, the production, distribution and rights arm of RTL, which is Talkback Thames’s parent company.

The next few months will be telling for Talkback. Replacing Heggessey will demand a new media-minded leader with a host of creative ideas to fill the void of the axed shows. With the industry coming through one of the slowest periods for commissioning, there is real emphasis on finding new creative talent. A new and successful long-running series is just what ITV - and perhaps more importantly - Talkback Thames, need.

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Wossy’s Gone: Are multi-million pound TV contracts a thing of the past?

Friday, January 8th, 2010
Jonathan Ross: a colourful personality.

Jonathan Ross: a colourful personality.

So, Jonathan Ross is set to leave the BBC. We’ll miss him. Despite his loquacious manner and entertaining wit, his last four years at the Beeb have been notable for the array of infantile pranks and borderline crude interviews. As The Daily Mail comments, “in his manner of leaving at least, he has finally attained a degree of dignity.” Ross’s announcement that he had decided not to renegotiate his contract with the BBC was uncharacteristically measured and composed.

In truth, although the BBC will probably claim to be sad to lose their highest-earning star, there are likely to be “a few executives not too bothered about losing a man whose waywardness and multi-million-pound contract had become an embarrassment.”

Days before the confirmation of his departure, sources reported that Ross was concerned by the prospect of having his yearly pay slashed by £3million. True or not, he was the BBC’s highest earner and many at the BBC were said to have cheered on hearing the news of his decision not to renew his contract. Perhaps there is now a new pot of money available to fund new talent, dramas, comedies and documentaries?

Outside his London home, Ross told reporters he “would have liked” to stay at the BBC. He continued, “It has been a great 13 years at the BBC. I think it’s not a bad time for me to move on. It’s possibly not a bad time for them either.”

Though £18 million, three-year contracts for TV personalities are now firmly in the past, what we got from Ross was brash with a cutting humour and a wonderful talent. But is that deserving of the taxpayer’s money and £18 million? There is an argument to spend the money on discovering new talent, yet, does money equal talent? Is there even a necessity for talent on television? Reality TV leads the way in the ratings and Z list celebrities (if we can still call them that) actually make their living from such reality dramas. If Ross was host for Channel 4’s Big Brother and then moved on, would the show still draw in the millions, watching, gasping and cringing? Presumably, yes?

Life after Ross then is likely to be business as usual, musical chairs as Norton, Kermode and even Evans step forward to host the chat shows, radio programmes and film reviews. And perhaps Ross will still grace the screens to present the odd BAFTA or even Children in Need? Whether the BBC will see fit to grant a similar sized contract in this age of austerity is doubtful.

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Red noses and red faces

Monday, March 16th, 2009

So I’ve been wearing my Red Nose all week, the one with the teeth, (Ouch!) celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal of course, has been wearing his red face somewhat longer. 

Heston Blumenthal's new series, Victorian FeastsChef/owner of the three Michelin starred, Fat Duck in Bray, Heston Blumenthal is the new celebrity chef on the butcher’s block.   Somewhat posher than Jamie Oliver, and in the league of Gordon Ramsay, but charming with it, his style of cooking might be described as, extreme molecular gastronomy.  His excellent series, ‘Big Chef, Little Chef’, saw him trying to beef-up the fortunes of one restaurant in the service area chain,  followed rapidly by the current curiosity, Heston’s Victorian Feast - Channel 4 - where he tries to recreate Victorian dishes with some of the most gross ingredients and secretly watches the surprise on his guests’ faces as they tuck-in.

Now when you watch cooking shows, do you really think the chef is really rustling-up a delish dish in just half an hour?  Sorry to disappoint but….take a look at this video. There’s not only a camera crew in his kitchen filming his every move, in fact it’s not even a kitchen but a set,  and getting food to look that good, needs a lot of people. Food stylists, home economics people, set dressers, prop people, other chefs, researchers, the list goes on.

But are cooking programmes still popular, computer says yes. We lap it up, from Come Dine With Me,  to the rumoured, Cooking With Coolio, they’re queuing at the broadcaster’s checkouts.  Production companies too have discovered rich and piquant pickings in the genre with Optomen leading the way as discoverer of Jamie Oliver, and producer of shows featuring Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and others. They are the cream.  And of course Fresh One, Jamie Oliver’s own production company.

red-noseI was watching the nine celebrities climb Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief and I was thinking, how did they do that? A couple of self-shooting directors with Z7’s, probably a lot of radio mics so maybe a sound recordist and assistant?  Well, I found out.  There were over 100 people on that mountain, including the celebrities.  33 climbers, two doctors, two runners, 100 porters and half a ton of broadcasting equipment,  Planned over seven months, a series of camps including medical facilities, were set-up to allow crews to leapfrog and follow the ascent of the celebs. Every day a runner had to run down the mountain with tapes for the two editing suites to cut in to the documentary. A production to rival Harry Potter’s 2nd unit in scale, Z7’s what was I thinking?!

Feed the world, feed the ITV 600.

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