BAFTA Annual Television Lecture with Stephen Fry

The Dubs headed to BAFTA’s annual TV Lecture last night – delivered this year by Stephen Fry and we watched agog as he delivered his lecture entirely from old school paper notes – not an iPad in sight.

Ever eloquent, charismatic, effortlessly witty and simply delightful in the brains department, Fry’s kicked off his lecture by staying that TV, more so than film and music likes to talk about itself; whether its industry insiders or conversations over the garden fence, everyone has an opinion about TV and will eagerly offer it up.

And this it seems, according to Fry is what makes ‘owning’ an opinion on TV particularly tricky. Is TV Dead? – who knows. Stephen doesn’t, he said so and that’s OK.

Sometimes it’s best not to know all of the answers. It makes for exciting times across many, surely?

Fry continued his lecture by eulogising over his memories of TV and great programming of his youth and opinion forming years, going so far as to say he ‘loves Britain and loves TV’, before listing the problems with TV today – and the audience.

Utterly charmed and giddy in his presence, we guffawed over his comedic sound bites and his disbelief that there are people out there who, when invited via numerous 'Have Your Say' touch points, will bitch about ‘Fiona Bruce’s blusher’. We also loved his admission about power point making him want to ‘gouge out my eyes and stab my ears’ but of course there were more thought provoking sound bites; in particular the fact that Fry believes that‘self consciousness is the fear of all arts'.

This it seems is what Fry feels is the root of the problem with TV – i.e the Chicken Nugget problem. Chicken Nuggets are food for kids with under developed pallets and not discerning adults, we deserve better.

In saying that TV is ‘infantile’ and ‘food for children’ (he listed Doctor Who and Merlin as kids TV shows, which will no doubt ruffle a few feathers), Fry suggests that in fact Broadcasters and Commissioners have lost their confidence in pushing out programming that astonishes, provokes and outrages.

To be fair to Stephen, he did say that Doctor Who and Merlin were exceptionally well written, they simply weren’t adult programmes and should stop being touted as such.

So, why are we stuck with Chicken Nugget TV?

Likening the problem to Amazon online – which insists on showing how clever it is by making suggestions of things you might like, things which are similar to things you are reading and therefore within your comfort zone; Fry questions why Amazon and indeed TV are not pushing the unexpected upon us – things which might take longer for us to forge emotional connections with and  enjoy, things which are ultimately confident.

And herein lies his solution... Fry feels that TV is lacking a ‘confident producer class’, people with an opinion and big balls, willing to take a risk on something totally different for a mass audience. Whilst Fry jovially toyed with the idea of the old ‘Reithian’ reality of the BBC, in which Lord Reith had an almost dictatorial say in what the BBC broadcast, Fry seems to stand by the argument that it is down to broadcasters to surprise and delight audiences rather than broadcast exactly what the audience want.

Whilst there is a place and an audience for the likes of Gavin and Stacy and Little Britain – familiar, anecdotal TV which we can relate to on some level, Fry argues that there is also scope for ‘brighter’ programming too.

He goes on to raise an interesting point  – could we learn a lesson from American TV?

 “They give it maturity and they give it surprise and shock and adulthood” he argues and perhaps if we examine the likes of The Wire and Mad Men, he is right; these shows don’t immediately signpost  the ‘bad guy’ or the ‘complex one with issues’ to the audience - subtle character complexity can remain unsolved for two or more seasons (heavens).

We see where he is coming from; these American shows allows the narrative and characters to develop over time and they don’t insult the intelligence of the audience by stating the obviously. Perhaps the Americans are better at producing well rounded characters and narratives rather than Caricatures with an imperative to titillate for one night only?

Likening TV today to ‘central heating’; always on in many rooms and ambient, rather than the ‘nation’s fireplace’ – the hub of the home, Fry feels that disparate audiences are absorbing only a little of the warmth that TV  has to offer and very rarely gathering around a centre of ‘strength’ – well that’s how we interpret his argument and it seems to make sense.

So how did our gallant hero end his lecture?

He provoked (proposing a controversial business model for indies and broadcasters going forward), surprised (we weren’t expecting the porn reference), encouraged debate (he made it very clear he had no idea what the future holds), predicted (he envisaged today’s headlines ‘Fry slams infantile TV!’) educated (we learnt a few new words and a fact or two about QI) and most importantly he left us yearning for a weekly, appointment to view lecture we could tune into every week on TV – delivered by Stephen Fry (or other clever cloggies).

On the one hand, Stephen didn’t really shock his audience with anything 'new’ per se, but on the other hand, he commanded our attention and made a few key points really well and as a world class orator, he executed everything with charm and left us wanting more.