4 XPONORTH STORYTELLING


‘We look for something where you go: Wow, I didn’t expect that’


What makes hit television? Commissioning editors at the BBC share their insights


BY WILLIAM PEAKIN


Fresh from finishing the first series of All Around to Mrs Brown’s this spring, Alan Tyler was straight into the launch of The Mash Report. Involving some of the satirical website’s writers, it is not conceived to be simply a television version. “The reference points [in the brief] were The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, Brass Eye, That Was the Week That Was, shows like that. “In all of those, there was an informed and smart wit combined with elements of surrealism and sketch, and which brought a new generation of performers to the audience.” But, added Tyler, Commissioning Editor, Entertain- ment, at the BBC: “We wanted some- thing that recognised the strengths of those shows, but didn’t ape them; was its own thing. We wanted to find a new


satirical voice, with a new generation of performers, of original voices. “How do you select the next hit


show? There is one common factor; do something different. It’s very rare that a hit show is exactly like the hit show before it. What we look for, is people working through the door with something where you go: ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that.’ And that’s where broadcasters take risks.” Tyler has been responsible for shep-


herding a slate of hits onto our screens; Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, Robot Wars, Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, Top Gear, and The Apprentice. He said the most successful


programme ideas do not come fully formed: “I don’t like for people to do an ‘all or nothing’ pitch that’s 100% fully formed for beginning to end. It’s much better for creative people to come through the door, with an idea in an area that feels right for us, and together we build it into something that really works for us as a channel.”


“There is a complex matrix of what makes a programme commissionable and ironically being a good idea is only one part” Jo Street


EARLY IN HIS career, recently gradu- ated from St Andrews with a degree in pathology (“I had duel interests at school – science and the media – and I was lucky that I had parents who believed in not confining yourself to one category of career”), Tyler and a friend had an idea for a sitcom and sent it into BBC Scotland. It landed on the desk of Ian Pattison who would go on to create Rab C Nesbitt. “Our idea didn’t make it,” said Tyler, “but it was a great start; here was someone who was prepared to say: ‘I’ll give these guys a chance’”. Tyler said he was looking forward to XpoNorth; his first time at the


10 May 2017


Alan Tyler; being turned down by the creator of Rab C Nesbitt was the start of his career


festival, where he will be joined by colleague Jo Street, Commissioning Editor, Daytime & Early Peak, at the BBC. Both are responsible for UK pro- gramming, but are based in Glasgow. Like Tyler, Street has nurtured a ros- ter of familiar names; Homes Under the Hammer, Antiques Road Trip, Eggheads and Money for Nothing. When I catch up with Street, she has found a quiet spot away from the noise of the London traffic. She is in a hotel where she is meeting Mel Giedroyc, former co-host of the Great British Bake Off, to run through a new quiz show from the minds behind The


What makes the difference?


The imagination and foresight of ‘a few remarkable people’ BY MOIRA FORSYTH


Before I was published I’d been writing for years. I might never have made it, and I certainly wouldn’t be an experienced editor and a director of a publishing company if it hadn’t been for the imagination and foresight of a few remarkable people. In the 1990s the Highlands had a number of local district councils, each with its own arts budget. In Ross & Cromarty, that money was spent on artists in residence – dancer, musician, artist, dramatist and – to my benefit – a writer. That was Brian McCabe, the third, after Thom Nairn and Aonghas Macneacail, to support creative writing in the area. New to the Highlands, unable to get a job, and writing my umpteenth


unpublished novel in the mornings when the children had gone to school, I joined Dingwall Writers’ Group, which Brian chaired, in January 1994. It changed my life. For the first time I had constructive feedback on my work; the other writ- ers were first rate so I rapidly raised my own game – you had to, to keep up. Brian introduced to me to a literary agent, who didn’t take me on but her response was enough to motivate me to write yet another novel. I began publishing poems and short stories, was awarded a Scottish Arts Council writer’s bursary, spent a week at the recently opened Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre and then, at last, got an agent and a publishing contract with Hodder, for two books. There was support in the area for publishing too: Tom Bryan, then Angus Dunn, edited Northwords magazine, providing a space for new and exciting poetry and fiction. When Angus decided to move on from edit-


ing the magazine, Robert Davidson took it over and produced a beautiful, innovative arts magazine. That was what prompted the idea of a literary publishing house, based in Highland: he went on to establish Sandstone Press. Having edited the fiction in Northwords, I developed those new skills at Sandstone. It’s been a long journey – but always an exciting one.


Sandstone Press celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this October, and we’ve recently been supported by Emergents, XpoNorth’s Writing and Publishing Network, to help us publish translations of the hugely successful German novels, Babylon Berlin and The Silent Death, to be broadcast as a major TV series this autumn by Sky Atlantic, in Germany, the UK, and across the world. XpoNorth is helping writers too.


“The other writers were first rate so I rapidly raised my own game – you had to, to keep up” Moira Forsyth


For the second year running, this June, I’ll be on the panel for a Writers’ Pitch event, where authors are given a few minutes each to sell their work to publishers. Nerve-racking for them, but worth doing if they can bring them- selves to try! Later this year Sandstone Press will publish The Whisky Diction- ary, as a direct result of the author’s pitch at XpoNorth in 2016. Ross & Cromarty District Council changed many writers’ lives. North- words continues as Northwords Now, and Sandstone Press is thriving. Fund-


ing for the arts remains tiny in relation to funding for almost everything else but well placed and well directed, it can make a huge difference. The district councils have long gone, but we’re for- tunate that Creative Scotland remains committed to writing and publishing, and in the Highlands we have XpoNorth and the Emergents Programme, which have the potential to make sure they continue to thrive in the Highlands.


Moira Forsyth is editorial director of Sandstone Press. Her fifth novel, ‘A Message from the Other Side’ (bit. ly/2qRO1aA) will be published in July 2017. Volker Kutscher’s novels, Babylon Berlin and The Silent Death can be viewed here /bit.ly/2qIdndy . The ‘Whisky Dictionary’ by Iain Hector Ross will be published by Sandstone Press in October 2017.


Writers’ Pitch to Publishers: 10am– 4pm, Wednesday 7 June, Maclean Room, Eden Court, Inverness.


Weakest Link and Eggheads, called Let- terbox, which she is fronting. “There is a complex matrix of what


makes a programme commissionable and ironically being a good idea is only one part,” she said. “Do we have something similar already off-peak, does ITV have something similar so where’s the public service value? It may make a good half-hour pro- gramme but can it sustain at least five and ideally up to 25 episodes? “The single best thing about my job is when someone quite unexpected comes up with something. So, for example, Friel Kean Films had a track record of


making gritty, observational documen- taries for BBC Scotland. When I started, they came to see me, we got to know each other, started talking about ideas, and now they make Money for Nothing, which has been an enormous break- out hit in a competitive marketplace. And it’s from a small Glasgow-based company that had never made anything for the network before. Those are the fantastic moments.”


Screen Academy Scotland presents A Guide to Network Television Commis- sioning, 2.45pm, Wednesday 7 June - Jim Love Studio, Eden Court, Inverness.


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