CHANGE is a detested word in TV culture. On the one hand, it ushers in a wave of excitement with its continuum of fresh content; on the other, it unsettles viewers who have developed a routine around the current channel’s schedule and shows. Acclimatising themselves once again, is done with much reluctance on their part, which is understandable.
But in competitive times, the need to up the ante is mandatory. Having created deep footprints in South Africa with BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle, CBeebies and BBC World News, there are a few changes afoot. However, it doesn’t affect BBC Lifestyle.
BBC Entertainment and BBC Knowledge will now be replaced by BBC Brit and BBC Earth, respectively. And, next month, viewers will find themselves further spoilt for choice with the launch of a completely new channel – BBC First.
To help clear any confusion around these changes, Tonight got three of the top dogs in BBC Worldwide to chat on three channels.
BBC FIRST
THE mandate for this channel is simple: it is the domicile of premium, original British drama. That said, certain favourites that previously resided in BBC Entertainment will now move to this channel.
Kully Kaur Bains, the Head of Programming Africa for BBC Worldwide, explains. “It’s probably about two years now where the business side took an internal look at BBC Worldwide. In South Africa, we have been in the market for about five to six years. Basically, the team looked at how we could become leaner and focus on our strengths. And we looked at global audiences and their appetite for BBC content.”
South African audiences will be privy to the content next month.
Kaur Bains says, “Some of the shows will be familiar. We have super brands like Sherlock and Dr Who. There are also favourites like Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey and a new season of Luther.”
That said, there is a slate of pioneering new shows bound to curry favour with audiences, especially when looking at the A-list actors on the bill.
She reveals, “We have fantastic storytelling, great characters and talent. We have Damian Lewis ( Homeland fame), who has crossed over in Wolf Hall, a historical drama chronicling the rise of Thomas Cromwell. We also have Esio Trot(an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer) with Dame Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman; Peaky Blinders, a great family gangster story with Cillian Murphy and Sam Neill.”
For those who enjoy a sublime thriller, The Missing with James Nesbitt as Tony Hughes is not to be missed.
Kaur Bains confirms, “BBC Worldwide has made a significant investment of over £200 million (R3.6 billion) to producing premium content over the next five years. A lot of it has gone into the drama slate. The sophistication around British storytelling is quite unique and we want to be a beacon on the landscape.”
BBC BRIT
FACTUAL entertainment of the intelligent and irreverent nature is what can be found on BBC Brit, including its flagship series Top Gear– sans Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Their void will be filled (if that is even possible) by Chris Evans.
Fiona Eastwood, the director of Brands for Global Markets, confirms, “We realised Top Gear is huge. We identified why people love Top Gear: it is informative and fun to watch. So we created a brand that has that DNA.”
Addressing concerns around the presenter, she reveals, “We are thrilled about Chris Evans and his ability to reinvigorate the show.”
Viewers will also be exposed to eccentric characters and much quirkiness – and this is not restricted to The Graham Norton Show. She offers, “We have The Wrong Mans, Royal Marines Commando School and Bad Robots.”
Other highlights include Youngers, a coming-of-age dramedy, which follows the journey of two best friends as they try to break into the music industry.
Radio producer, author and TV presenter, Karl Pilkington, is still on his quest to tackle life’s big issues while getting a crash course in cultural diversities in The Moaning of Life. On the comedy front, there is Duck Quack’s Don’t Echo with funnyman Lee Mack and Life is Toff featuring Britain’s notorious aristocrats – the Fulfords.
Eastwood confirms home-grown offerings are being looked at as possibilities for the channel, which launched at the beginning of this month.
BBC EARTH
Neil Nightingale, BBC Earth’s creative director, has been immersed in wildlife film-making for the last 30 years.
He has worked as a producer, director and executive producer. “What I do now is across television and film and it is a multi-faceted brand,” he said.
Viewers who have been catching the channel will notice it is shot in HD. And Nightingale says they are also able to take the cameras off the tripod or crane to “get close to the animal action. That gives you an intimate scene with the characters and puts the viewer at the heart of the action.”
Revisiting one of the shows that showcased at the BBC Worldwide launch over a week ago, he says, “I talked about the sequence with the cheetah sisters as they attempted to make their first kill. The cameraman got out of the car to shoot it. While you feel for them, you also feel for the impala as well. Wildlife shows play out all the drama and emotion of fictional programmes. And audiences are very demanding as they have lots of choices.
Picking out some of the flagship offerings celebrating the channel, he says: “We have Human Universe with Brian Cox. It looks at geological changes, man from ape, explores space, offers theories on our future and so on. The other big series is Life Below Zero, which looks at people who live off the grid in Alaska. It looks at their passion for that life and how they go for months without physical contact with other humans, how they go out and trap their meals.”
The other two big shows, David Attenborough meets President Obama and Life Story, are not to be missed either.
He reveals, “We have got big ambitious shows in production for the next three years. There were sequences in Life Story that have been shot in South Africa. It is jaw dropping and thrilling content.”
l BBC Brit is on DStv channel 120, BBC Earth can be found on 184 and BBC First will debut on Channel 119 Sunday, October 18.