The BBC's new arts slate includes actual Shakespeare productions shot in a theatre setting:
"The trilogy comprised of Julius Caesar (first seen at the Donmar in 2012), Henry IV ( 2014) and a new production of The Tempest. All three plays were first performed together in a new purpose-built theatre behind King's Cross station in 2016. [...] Julius Caesar will air on BBC4 in 2018, with Henry IV and The Tempest available to watch on the iPlayer." [What's On Stage]

Romola on Measure for Measure.

TV Shakespeare Unlocked was a documentary series which ran on the BBC during the season of Stratfordian mayhem in 2012.  A later series was broadcast on Sky Arts and now a third run has been announced with the remarkable news that future Doctor Who Romola Garai will be presenting an episode about Measure for Measure (in which she played Isabella at the Young Vic in 2015):

"In addition to Hunt, Season 3 hosts and the plays they explore include F. Murray Abraham (The Merchant of Venice); Brian Cox (Julius Caesar); Simon Russell Beale (The Winter's Tale); and Romola Garai (Measure for Measure). A host has yet to be announced for an episode about Richard III."

The USA Today version of the story chooses to focus on Helen Hunt and Much Ado. It is a very good line up.

Lear Here.

TV The BBC has announced a King Lear for broadcast in 2018 starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson directed by Richard Eyre. Here are some of the other casting highlights:

"Emmy Award nominated Jim Carter (Downton Abbey, Cranford) takes the role of the Earl of Kent, Emmy Award winner Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers, Thor: The Dark World) as Oswald, and Golden Globe nominee Tobias Menzies (Outlander, The Terror), plays the Duke of Cornwall. Anthony Calf (New Tricks, Riviera) plays the Duke of Albany and Karl Johnson (Wittgenstein, Rome) is set to play Lear’s loyal jester the Fool."

Interesting the BBC's own press release fails to notice this features a Doctor Who but hey ho. So that's Lear and Hamlet next year. Not to sound churlish (perish the thought) because both projects sound extraordinary and a few years ago under you know who the idea of having any classical drama on television was zero, but the variety of productions has dwindled again hasn't it?  Are the Roman plays ala The Hollow Crown still on the books?  No chance of an As You Like It soon?

Scottish Hamlet.

TV Good grief, the BBC have announced a classic theatre broadcast for BBC Two. Oh, yes, it's Andrew Scott's recent Hamlet which is very exciting especially since it's being produced by Illuminations:

"Robert Icke, Director (and Almeida Theatre Associate Director) says: “It has been a real joy to work with such a gifted and dedicated company of actors on bringing this most-famous play to audiences in 2017. The production has been on a wonderful journey from the Almeida to the West End, and I am very much looking forward to this next step on BBC Two. To be able to offer our version of Hamlet to as wide and diverse an audience as possible has always been of paramount importance to us, and now we are thrilled to be able to bring it to people across the country.”"

The press release is a bit ambiguous about whether it's a theatre recording or a reshoot for television. I've asked Illuminations via Twitter for a confirmation.

Multi-camera recording in the theatre, done quite early in the West End run, with Juliet Stevenson as Gertrude

— Illuminations (@Illuminations) August 16, 2017

Cheek by Jowel's The Winter's Tale coming to the iPlayer.

Theatre The iPlayer's commitment to filmed Shakespeare productions continues with Cheek by Jowel's The Winter's Tale being uploaded on Shakespeare day:

"Cheek by Jowl will be livestreaming its critically acclaimed production of The Winter’s Tale at 19:30 on Wednesday 19 April, in association with The Space. Watch it live here, or on demand via BBC iPlayer from Sunday 23 April - Shakespeare Day. Find out more about the play below."

The last two weren't really to my tastes but I'm looking forward to this. The accompanying director's commentary notes the sixteen year gap in the middle of the play. I've often wondered if it would be possible to mount a production either on stage or film in which that gap could be included in actuality with the actors, director and even the audience returning after sixteen years for the second half.

Streaming Dream.

Shakespeare It's been announced that the Shakespeare's Globe production of A Midsummer's Night Dream is to be live streamed then made available on the iPlayer. These are the facts:

"Emma Rice’s inaugural production as Artistic Director at Shakespeare’s Globe is to be broadcast around the world for audiences to enjoy for free as part of Shakespeare Lives, the online digital festival co-curated by the BBC and the British Council. A Midsummer Night's Dream will be streamed live on this website on Sunday 11 September at 1830 BST.

"The final night of the Bollywood-infused A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has wowed critics and played to sold-out audiences at the Bankside theatre in London, will be streamed live on Sunday 11th September. It is the first time any production has been live streamed from Shakespeare’s Globe. Introduced by actress and comedian Meera Syal, the show will also be available on-demand on the digital platform which can be accessed anywhere in the world as well as on BBC iPlayer for viewers in the UK."

If anything I'm curious to see what the fuss has been about the artificial lighting which has been fitted to the building over and above the fill light which previously existed to mimic the conditions of watching a play during the period of the original Globes. If this Globe was created to present the plays in as close as possible to the conditions in which they were originally acted, don't spotlights and the like miss the point?

Shakespeare at the BBC: Talawa Theatre Company's King Lear.

Shakespeare Big news. Talawa Theatre Company's King Lear, recently at the Royal Exchange in Manchester with Don "Rassilon" Warrington in the title role is to appear on the BBC iPlayer for three months. BBC News has the news:

"The critically-acclaimed production also featured Philip Whitchurch, who appeared in The Bill and My Hero, and former Emmerdale actor Wil Johnson.

"The film has been funded by digital commissioning body The Space and will be made available across a range of platforms including cinema over the next year.

"The Space's chief executive Fiona Morris said the move would "ensure that the audience for this powerful production continues to grow".

"King Lear: the Film is being included on the BBC iPlayer as part of the corporation's Shakespeare Lives digital festival."

I'd add the usual grumble about why this isn't on BBC Two on a Sunday night, but since I barely watch linear television at all now it hardly matters.

"a recherché treat"

TV Screen Plays: The Theatre Plays on British Television Database has soft launched, a searchable resource collecting information about plays broadcast on television between the last thirties and mid-60s (the full data will be available by the summer). Luke McKernan has a review:

"Nowadays theatre on television is a recherché treat, generally reserved for the occasional outing on BBC Four. In the first three to four decades of British television, theatre was a mainstay of broadcast output. In part this was due to a BBC that believed that theatre was elevating, something to be transmitted to the masses because it was good for them. Television was a looking glass through which to discover the better arts."

Of course I've gone straight in and found appearance from the Doctors.

William Hartnell - Seagulls over Sorrento [excerpt] (1953)

Patrick Troughton - four whole pages worth of productions starting in 1947 with Edward II.

Jon Pertwee - Toad of Toad Hall (1946), The Wandering Jew (1947), Ranch in the Rockies [excerpts] (1952), Dick Whittington and His Cat (1958).

Tom Baker - The Millionairess (1972)

Everyone else is to young. We'll return to this when the full database has been posted.

Leonard Nimoy in Vincent.

Theatre Added to Amazon Prime yesterday was the extremely rare ($117.99 on dvd from Amazon.com) recording of Nimoy's one man show about the life of Vincent Van Gogh. The style is similar to the various Simon Cowell staged biographies of Shakespeare and Dickens.  Nimoy's approach (inspired by an earlier play) is to assume the character of the painter's brother Theo, explaining the important his sibling's work to an imagined theatre filled with his family. friends and peers, utilising the letters collected by Theo's wife after both of their deaths.

Watching it tonight, I was struck with just how gifted Nimoy was, making his wariness at become synonymous with the Vulcan, as mentioned in this textual explanation for the play, at that time somewhat understandable.  This would have been between the Motion Picture and Khan, when having reluctantly returned to the role having refused initially when Trek was going to revive as a television series, he obviously saw the potential for typecasting to continue.  Though a glance at the imdb indicates on screen at least he didn't play many more characters than Spock in this period.

If you don't have Prime you can hire the stream for £3.99 (£1.99 on YouTube) and it's definitely worth it even if you're just interested in the history of arts television.  As well as a recording of the stage production, Nimoy appears as himself inside his dressing room apparently before and after the performance to provide further exposition on Vincent and Theo of the kind which which wouldn't have worked in the context and footage of the various locations mentioned in the play such as Vincent's cell at the asylum and his final resting place, that appear to be clips from this thing.

Here's Nimoy himself just prior to his death talking about the play on the occasion of a New York revival, with clips of Jean-Michel "additional voices in Frozen" Richaud taking on the role:


Leonard Nimoy on Vincent from Jean-Michel Richaud on Vimeo.

Grease Live is on ITV2.

TV As I said yesterday, ahem, I'm not watching much television at the moment which also means I've lost track of the schedules, but luckily @illuminations drew my attention to the following this morning:

So you know where I'll be Wednesday night... @itv2 https://t.co/A46NPvWyjg

— Illuminations (@Illuminations) February 1, 2016

The Grease Live thing which was on FOX last night is screening on ITV2 on Wednesday 3rd at 8pm through to about 11pm. So I'll be watching television again, at least for an evening.  I've got chills.

The BBC Shakespeare Festival 2016.

TV Yesterday, the BBC launched The BBC Shakespeare Festival, another season of programmes dedicated to the man and his plays, four years on since the Cultural Olympiad. As ever there's quite a lot of contextual documentaries and the like, but I thought it would be worth filtering through the media pack to find what actual productions, what actual Shakespeare would be broadcast during the season.

The key word is "interpretation".  That's "interpretation".

 I'll utilise their subheadings:

Shakespeare Live! From The RSC

Not an actual play.

"On Shakespeare's birthday, the BBC and the Royal Shakespeare Company come together in an extravaganza, celebrating Shakespeare's words and his enduring influence on all performance art forms - from opera to jazz, dance to musicals."

"This unique event will be hosted by David Tennant, directed by Gregory Doran, RSC Artistic Director, and will include appearances from Dame Judi Dench, ENO, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ian Bostridge, Joseph Fiennes and Akala."

This should be pretty special to be fair, but interpretations of the plays and text does not always constitute the plays and text.

Landmark Drama

The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses – BBC Two
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – BBC One

The rump of the plays on television. The second half of The Hollow Crown but with Henry VI playing across two rather than three films then Richard III. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the Russell T Davies produced version which should be spectacular and lets face it, actual Shakespeare on BBC One, except it's only going to be ninety minutes which means you're going to be losing at least an hour of the text. So in the end what we have is adaptations of the plays rather than the actual plays as Shakespeare intended.

Across TV

Nothing.

Two comedies, an Arena about film versions of the plays, The One Show live from Stratford, Countryfile visiting the landscapes which inspired the plays and good gracious, "From 18 to 22 April 2016, each episode of Doctors across the week will be inspired by a Shakespearian Sonnet."

On Radio

King Lear
The Winter's Tale
Julius Caesar
Hamlet

The first two are Drama on 3s. Ian McDiamond as Lear. In Scotland. But yes, Lear. Again. No word on Winter's casting. Other than that it's mainly tons of classical music inspired by Shakespeare.

Julius Caesar is split across three afternoons in the Afternoon Drama slot ala Hamlet last year, which as you can see is also getting a repeat. Tim Piggott-Smith as Caesar and Robert Glenister as Brutus. Features the words "brand new interpretation" in the synopsis.

Of the contextual programmes on radio, here's my favourite:

"Building a Library: Radio 3’s review programme will be assessing Verdi’s Falstaff in Building A Library but then in a change to usual practice, Andrew McGregor will turn to speech recordings – assessing works of Shakespeare available as CDs and downloads."

Hope he includes LibriVox.

CBBC

A drama about a the making of a production of a Midsummer Night's Dream at the Everyman in Liverpool which sounds fun. Magic Hands is offering special episodes utilising Shakespeare's poetry. iWonder are producing a series of articles which should have a lot of good archive clips.

Shakespeare Down Your Way

Shakespeare On Tour sounds like it will be a useful enthralling resource about the production of his works across the country,  Synopsis says, "iconic performances from the BBC archives".  The Best Bottoms In The Land follows the RSC as they tour a special production of the play.  Does not mention if this will include broadcasting it in full.

Across The World

Shakespeare Lives is ambiguous.  The synopsis says, it "will bring a remarkable collection of interpretations of Shakespeare’s work together in one digital space, for audiences in the UK and around the world to experience. Following the live stream on April 23 this diverse collection of work will be available internationally for six months at www.bbc.co.uk/shakespearelives."

Whole plays?  Bits of plays?  Actual productions from the companies listed?  It's intriguing to say the least.

Onward:

If all of this sounds like me being a cynical sausage well, yes it is because it's me being a cynical sausage.  To have all of this Shakespeare related material again, four years after the cultural olympiad which will no doubt also include repeats on BBC Four is nothing to be sniffed at, it really isn't.

But consider:

No full productions on television.  Adaptations, presumably because of the usual considerations of wanting to make the work accessible.  Plus A Midsummer Night's Dream again.

On the radio, Lear and Caesar again.  The Winter's Tale is welcome but why not some of the even more less well known works?  Why not a King John, Timon or even into the fringier stuff like Arden of Faversham or Edward III or Sir Thomas More (which hasn't been produced for broadcast since 1983).  Radio 3 goes out of its way to play the more obscure classical music but again falls short here.

Also, why not produce some of the plays which clearly influenced Shakespeare and by his contemporaries.  Why such stolid choices?  Why ignore all of this rich source material?

Also and this is a wider point from someone who's a fan of theatre in general as well as Shakespeare:

Why is this all about freaking Shakespeare again?

Why is it whenever theatre turns up on television it's him again?  Five hundred odd years of theatre and once again all of these people are set to one side.  He was our greatest proponent, but imagine if all of the art documentaries were about Michaelangelo.  This could have been pivoted into a festival of theatre in general, yet here we are.  Shakespeare, much as I love him, again.

Oh well.  Hopefully Radio 4 Extra will have lots of archive reruns.

RSC's Volpone to be streamed by the BBC.

Theatre Beginning this weekend, the BBC's On Stage season will televise three plays, offer some more on radio and have a lot of documentaries about theatre. The quasi-film version of Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser starring Hopkins and McKellen does look marvelous based on the clips, but once again there's a sense, as is always the case with television these days, that theatre is something to be talked about rather than shown, far cry from days past when it was a Sunday night theatre.

But hidden in the press release, right at the bottom is:

RSC’s Volpone
BBC Arts Online
We’ll capture Trevor Nunn’s brilliant adaptation from Stratford as co-commissioned by The Space.

That's it. That's all it says.  The RSC's page is here.  Hopefully like the many operas and ballets it'll simply be available to stream on the BBC Arts website for six months, the first semi-televised broadcast of a Ben Jonson play on the BBC since the mid-60s (according to the BBC Genome).

Theatre on Television. Updates.

TV Having pleaded and implored for there to be more theatre on television, I was entirely remiss in highlighting the broadcast of Juliette Binoche appearance in Antigone at the Barbican on BBC Four the other week, directed by Tim Van Someren and now available on the iPlayer.

The presentation, from BBC Arts notice, not BBC Drama, was a near perfect demonstration of how theatre can work in the home, visually interesting and with performances that do translate, though it's also true that the heightened, deliberately theatrical requirements of the piece is a factor.

Also available to watch for the next week is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: From Page to Stage, a Learning Zone collaboration with the National about the making of the production featuring Nicola Walker from Spooks and Doctor Who.  That's also available as clips if you're reading this after that.

Theatre on Television. Again.

TV Well now, what's this? BBC to demonstrate renewed commitment to prime time Arts programming and partnerships. Given the riches which have turned up on the iPlayer and BBC Arts website lately, I think it's going swell but let's see what this means in terms of the thing I'm otherwise most interested in, theatre:

"Later in the year, there will be new seasons on Poetry and Theatre. The Theatre festival includes Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins starring in a new adaptation of the drama The Dresser on BBC Two and new drama strand Dialogues, bringing together exceptional writing and acting talent to BBC Four.

"In a new partnership with the Arts Council of England, we’ll be working with theatres and theatre companies to explore new ways of making and broadcasting theatre on the BBC.

"And across the English Regions, we will be following 11 local theatres over the next six months as they tackle an array of challenges - on stage and off."

Plans from the specific to the vague as ever. Might have been useful to mention that The Dresser has a playwright, Ronald Harwood, and that it's not some random choice, The Dresser is about a touring theatre company. Oh and there's already a film version with a screenplay written by Harwood himself, so this isn't like plucking Sir Thomas More off the shelf and doing a version of that.  As ever, then, this looks like a commitment to theatre within certain limits.

The poetry season (yes, again) is bags more interesting and also features some classical:

"The poetry season will include a profile of the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy; a special on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene; a drama adaptation of Simon Armitage’s long poem, Black Roses and Performance Poets In Their Own Words."

If all of this seems a touch mealy-mouthed, it looked with Malfi from the Globe like there was going to be a real transformation in the BBC's attitude to theatre.  But apart from some crumbs during Edinburgh nothing has changed that much. Drama on television is still new television work and literary adaptations. Anything filmed on a stage is an opera or ballet.  Far cry from the 70s when etc etc etc

The Oresteia on 4oD.

Theatre Further to my review of Channel 4's The Celebration, glancing through 4oD the other night, I was surprised and pleased to see that amongst their offerings, slightly randomly, is an in theatre recording of Peter Hall's production of The Oresteia from The National (with music by Harrison Birtwistle).

Click here to see all three parts although it'll also be on the various apps.

The Screenplays project has a thoroughly researched entry about this production and this television version.

"The television version of the National’s The Oresteia was prefaced, earlier in the week, by two accompanying programmes. On Tuesday 4 October, a special edition of the Today’s History series, transmitted under the title The Weight of the Past, connected the themes of the Oresteia with ‘modern instances of revenge as a route to justice’, asking ‘how a society ever emerges from feuds to the rule of law’ (Channel Four Television: Press Information, 1-7 October 1983). This programme was illustrated by extracts not only from the Channel 4 production but also from the 1977 Sicilian film Padre, Padrone (directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani), which had recently been shown on Channel 4, and the recently released Handgun (written and directed by Tony Garnett, 1982)."

"to democratise theatre"

Theatre Having been wilfully trying to narrow my interests in the hopes of some sanity, I missed this, as John Wyver suggests, game changing article from Michael Billingham about filmed theatre:

"It's not quite the same as National Theatre Live, where cinemagoers vicariously attend a single performance. Digital's Ghosts, I'm told, was shot over three successive evenings during the show's run at the Trafalgar Studios. But, whatever the process, the result is to democratise theatre. It's not just that the performance can be seen worldwide. The key point is that everyone now has the best seat in the house."

As ever there are some wilfully stupid comments from people who clearly live in London and already have access to this material and can't appreciate what it must be like for those of us everywhere else in the world who wouldn't otherwise. There is of course the extra ring of people who would also like to see blu-ray releases or streaming access to the NT Live material, now that it has been filmed and there are HD copies in the archive, but that's a different battle.

Genuine LOL and my other reactions to the BBC Arts announcement.

TV While I was in Manchester, this happened, which can't go without comment. A few choice paragraphs. Firstly from that blog post by the head of BBC Arts, Jonty Claypole, who lets face it at least has the right name. Someone called Jonty Claypole should be the heard of BBC Arts:

"Our second commitment is to do more to cover the many extraordinary cultural events across the country with a new cross-platform strand BBC ARTS at… It will launch on television in May with a Museums at Night special, theatre from The Globe and expanded coverage of the Hay Festival."

Bloody hell. Does that mean broadcasts of things which have already been recorded or live events? Will this include both theatres? Again I say, bloody hell.

"Which brings me to the maddening way I keep referring to BBC ARTS in that rather monolithic upper-case. It’s because we’re treating it as a new brand within the BBC in the way we treat NEWS or SPORT. As of today, regardless of where a piece out of output originates, if it is about the arts, it is part of something else too. BBC ARTS is a way of working together. It is, first and foremost, a recognition that we need to join up, to get acknowledgement for what we do, to think strategically about how we support and enrich culture, and keep our place at the vanguard of that globally acknowledged phenomenon: British Arts."

It's actually an interesting choice. BBC Culture or BBC Knowledge seemed like they would be the way to go with this, but BBC Arts is more direct and also creates very specific expectations as to the kinds of things it might do. BBC Culture is a breath away from Humanities which would have been a bit woolly under these circumstances and BBC Knowledge lets in science, which is wrong too.

Now for The Guardian version.

"The new season of arts will include adaptations of Shakespeare's Richard III and Henry VI, a sequel to Kenneth Clark's landmark TV series Civilisation, and live broadcasts of plays and events across the country in collaboration with the Hay festival, Glyndebourne and the Royal Academy."

The Hollow Crown season two is commissioned then.

"A new strand, "BBC Arts At ..." promises viewers a "front row seat" at arts and music events across the country, including the Duchess of Malfi, starring Gemma Arterton, the first production from the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe."

BLOODY HELL. See above. Now, please, please, please let it be a recording within the theatre and not some quasi-studio based recreation.

"Other new shows include a portrait of Dylan Thomas starring Tom Hollander, a profile of David Hockney and an adaptation of the Three Little Pigs for CBeebies in collaboration with the Northern Ballet."

Genuine LOL.  Which goes for the whole thing.  There aren't enough hours in the day.  There'll be the usual comments about elitism especially with the virtual shelving of BBC Three, but two things on that (1) I don't care and (2) elitism only exists if people assume that something isn't for them.  Up until about three weeks ago I didn't think ballet was for me.  How wrong I was.

The BBC's own press release covers the main points of the day which also includes classical music coverage on BBC Three.  Yes, indeed.

“Theatre-Broadcast Conversation”

TV On Monday, the Radio Theatre in New Broadcasting House hosted an event called “Theatre-Broadcast Conversation”, presented by Tony Hall and with writers like the brilliant Abi Morgan in attendance. Given the title, it might have given some of us hope that BBC drama head Ben Stephenson might have been overruled and that more filmed theatre would be returning to television or some such. But no.

Much of the conversation was about utilising theatre and a way of allowing writers to experiment and for new television writers to find their feet. The whole topic of actually showing any of this theatre of television only seems to have been addressed quickly then moved away from:

"The panel then moved to the subject of digital initiatives, like screenings of theatre events. Vicky Featherstone said that while she broadly felt this accessibility was a good thing, she warned of the danger to touring theatres and the wider “theatrical ecosystem” in the regions (who may lose out on bookings in favour of a screened event). Abi Morgan talked about the difficulties for writers when pieces written for the stage are filmed and screened, saying that if the writer knew their work was going to be screened they might have written it differently."

Same old, same old and theatre's fear that television will steal their thunder.  It's a bit of a straw man and actually very similar to the fear that film companies initially had for their stuff being broadcast and taking viewers away from cinemas.  Some notes:

(1)  The fees paid to theatre companies for the rights to show their work will surely offset fears of audiences not turning up except ..

(2)  Having their work on television will surely be a great promotional device causing people to turn up and watch more theatre because it breaks down barriers.  People don't stop going to concerts if they see a band performing the same music on television.  Glastonbury is still over subscribed.  More people have gone to see classical music because of the Proms.

(3)  Look back in time.  Were theatre box offices hit when loads of theatre was on television?  Have people in general stopped going to the Globe because they're releasing everything (almost) on dvd now?

(4)  Don't screen anything which is still in circulation, wait until tours are completed, have windows like the film industry where something isn't broadcast at least for a year or two.  Creatives seem to be under the misapprehension that we want theatre to be broadcast live.  No.  It's that we want any theatre to be broadcast at all.  Which it isn't.

More on television theatre and the lack thereof.

TV John Wyver provides a reliably thoughtful approach to Nicholas Hytner's comments about the lack of theatre on television and some extra news which I wasn't aware of:

"Funding, as ever, is also a factor, as we found last year when we had extensively developed a television version of Lucy Bailey’s glorious production of Uncle Vanya from The Print Room only to see it fall just before a formal commission because of budget cuts at BBC Four. Mostly, however, the absence of theatre on the BBC is a matter of will – or rather the lack of it. There is simply no deep and passionate belief that theatre on the screen can be exciting and challenging and rewarding and delightful and – and here’s the rub – have any appeal to a significant audience. That’s the ‘Downton ratings mentality’ that Nick Hytner mentions."

Yes it is and if even a television version of a critically acclaimed production Uncle Vanya can't be funded, the BBC's clearly become too blinkered to care and we're all left hoping that BBC Worldwide, Network or one of the dvd companies will be kind enough to make something available from the archives, because even these recordings are being ignored in broadcast terms.

Don't expect live theatre on BBC television any time soon.

Theatre Red rag to the bull time. National Theatre's artistic director Sir Nicholas Hytner's given an interview to a Murdoch paper about the BBC's lack of initiative when it comes to live theatre. It's excerpted in The Guardian here with some extra reporting which includes some intelligence insulting comments from the BBC. Hytner says quite rightly:

"So if a performance got a million on TV... look, they've really got to detach themselves from this Downton ratings mentality."

Hytner said he was not concerned by the switch, announced last month, of BBC2's The Review Show to BBC4, which he said was "just journalism".

"I'm interested in performance," said Hytner. I don't see why there couldn't be a closer relationship between the BBC and this vast performance network – us, the Crucible, the Royal Exchange, Opera North, Broadsides, Live Theatre, the Royal Ballet, everyone!

"Fifty-two weeks, more than 52 companies, offering something. It's low-hanging fruit, there for the taking."

Well exactly. Radio 3 broadcasts nightly concerts live with documentaries every Friday night on BBC Four as well as performances. Arguably the BBC's current offerings are somewhat similar, theatre of a sort on the radio, documentaries on television (see below).  But theatre the theatre we do get is studio based, often produced especially for that venue.  Even in radio, microphones are absent from the interior of the the Crucible, the Royal Exchange, let alone television.

"BBC insiders were puzzled by Hynter's outburst, pointing out that the corporation recently entered a partnership with the National Theatre, the fruits of which will include a BBC2 programme from the Olivier Theatre celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NT's first performance at the Old Vic. BBC4 will broadcast two, one hour specials featuring interviews with National Theatre alumni including Alan Bennett, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen."

But not an actual performance, no licensing of the NT Live recordings for showing on BBC Four which used to sporadically show theatre back in the day (back in the day in this case being about seven or eight years ago).  More documentaries, more teasing clips of old performances the rest of which are being walled off from seeing.  The puzzled BBC insiders can't apparently see the difference.

The Guardian rightly notes that Jerry Springer: The Opera was broadcast but given that it was a bit of a genre crossover, it could be just as rightly listed within the endless hours of music broadcast across the stations. The rest of the article is quotes from BBC4 controller Richard Klein who always comes across as an intelligent bloke. But hold on:

"It's very expensive in terms of performance costs and coverage costs – it requires outside broadcasting and that's expensive - and it is true to say that performance, with the possible exception of classical music, finds it very hard to get even a small audience to come to any channel," he said.

"I have to question the value to the licence fee payer of putting on whatever it happened to be at a cost of a quarter of a million pounds and getting an audience of 85,000, let's say. Those are ballpark figures."

Klein said BBC4 did do such projects and would be broadcasting George Benjamin's new opera, Written on Skin, from the Royal Opera House.

"I don't think it will do huge business personally; it's a fantastic new piece. We will be playing it because it is the right thing to do. But that is a relatively rare thing because it is expensive and I have to judge value to the licence fee and how much it costs."

Oh ok. So you'll be showing opera because it's opera and it's "the right thing to do" but something less elitist (and yes, sorry but opera is elitist in this context) like the kinds of theatre which packs houses on a nightly basis is to be ignored. What does the BBC's arts commissioning editor Mark Bell have to say about this?

"(he) said it was the BBC's job to "think about new ways of making performance work as a television experience" rather than "just pointing a camera at a stage".

"NT Live works really well because people go to the cinema and it feels like an event because it is live and they are in the cinema. If it's on in the corner of the room it feels like less of a draw. You have to give people a sense of excitement."

Which didn't seem to be a problem up until some time in the middle of the last decade when you simply stopped showing it. Also, and again I ask this, how is pointing a camera at an opera visually all that different to pointing a camera at a play other than more budget spent on costumes and sets sometimes?  Plus as we've also already discussed, NT Live stuff is already recorded.  Helen Mirren in Phiedre is already on tape/hard disc somewhere.  There's no need for the BBC's broadcast unit to go anywhere.  We continue:

"Bell also pointed to the BBC's digital collaboration with the Arts Council, The Space, as a way of bringing the arts to a wider audience."

But only for people who can afford unlimited broadband and or have access to a smart tv box. The reason to show theatre on television like much else is to serve a public which can't get out to see these things and can't afford to get out and see these things. We can't afford opera either, but the audience for theatre in generally seems to be much larger. There is a case for classical music, I agree, but again, suggesting theatre shouldn't be shown because it's less visually exciting, less of an event, is really, well, really a bit mad. Finally:

He added: "We feel it's important to do more than just lots and lots of performances reflected straight on the screen. We need to do more than that, we need to think more creatively."

Yes, but in order to do "more than that" you have to be doing that to begin with. On Saturday, Radio 4 is broadcasting a radio version of last year's Old Vic production of Hedda Gabler starring Sheridan Smith but due to the limited imagination of BBC heads and producers at the moment we won't be able to see the performance.

Why is it important the BBC do this?  Because no one else in the Freeview landscape can be bothered either.  ITV has well given up the pretence of being anything but populist and I still think the last time Channel 4 broadcast any theatre was a studio recording of Harold Pinter's Celebration which went out on More4.  In 2007.  Even that would be fine at this point.  Has Channel 5 ever done anything like this?

As I discovered in my epoch making conversation with Ben Stephenson, BBC Drama is cash strapped.  It's even poorer now thanks to the license fee settlement and they're having to make decisions based on audience size, the constituency of license fee payers.  Now it seems the other corners of the BBC within which theatre could have a home have decided to promote the usual instead too.  For goodness sake.