North East may fade from TV screens
Jan 27 2009 by David Whetstone, The Journal
THE North East is in grave danger of fading from the nation’s television screens, warns the man charged with promoting the industry in the region.
Tom Harvey, chief executive of Northern Film & Media, the regional screen agency, said a lack of North East programmes shown nationally meant it was in danger of becoming an invisible region.
He said the number of locally-based TV professionals on the agency’s database had gone down from 300 to 200 in 18 months as work had dried up.
MPs and TV production crews have been invited to a meeting at Newcastle’s Live Theatre on February 16 where Mr Harvey will address them about the region’s problems.
Yesterday he said: “We lost Byker Grove and that meant Zenith North (the company that made it for the BBC) folded.
“We then managed to get Alistair Fury (a BBC children’s series) shot in this region, but it wasn’t re-commissioned, even though it won a Bafta and was incredibly well received.
“Then there was 55 Degrees North, another successful BBC series, which was rescheduled to Sunday night and then not re-commissioned.
“If you look at what the BBC gets in licence fees from people in the North East, it works out at about £134.5m. You could ask: what do you get for that? Local radio and regional news.
“The BBC would probably say we get EastEnders. Well, lovely. But that doesn’t say anything to us about our identity, our lives, our part of the world.
“If North East stories, actors and programmes are not appearing on network television, then you could say we have disappeared. When you are here, you have such a powerful sense of presence in the North East, of its distinctiveness and identity. But as soon as you step outside the region, you realise others don’t necessarily share that view.
“We are the region that is in the kitchen at parties and I don’t think that’s something this region fully understands.”
He said Wales, with a comparable population to the North East, had many more hours of network broadcasting because it was a nation rather than a region.
The apparent cold shouldering by the BBC comes as ITV is cutting back on regional programming.
The popular regional documentary series Dales Diary ended in December.
Peter Mitchell, who produced it for ITV Tyne Tees, states in The Journal’s Culture magazine today that the lack of North East-based network drama such as the Catherine Cookson films and Byker Grove is ‘hugely damaging’.
“Returning popular drama generates hundreds of thousands of pounds of income, maintains a talent pool of network quality and provides a picture postcard from the region to the rest of the country,” he says.
Those who once watched Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? might now ask: whatever happened to North East drama? Currently no North East company has a guaranteed network successor to the Cookson films, Byker Grove, Crocodile Shoes, Spender or When The Boat Comes In.
Only Coastal Productions, run by Sandra Jobling and Robson Green, has been a regular recent supplier of network drama. Yesterday Ms Jobling said she was optimistic a seventh series of Wire in the Blood would be commissioned by ITV.
But she echoed Mr Harvey’s concern, saying: “All the drama currently coming from the North East comes from Coastal, but that isn’t enough.
“We have to invest in companies wanting to produce drama in this region.”
The BBC issued a statement saying it had a commitment to make 50% of network output outside London by 2016.
It said: “The Corporation has made a strong commitment to better represent all regions on screen and work is currently underway to establish a major production base in the North of England, MediaCityUK (in Salford).
“Phil Roberts, head of region BBC North East and Cumbria, will work closely with Peter Salmon, director BBC North, to make sure the North East does have a strong voice and that the region benefits from MediaCityUK. Currently, BBC North East and Cumbria has strong regional output through Inside Out, Look North and The Politics Show on BBC One, BBC local radio stations and websites.”
