When people think back to 2024’s TV, what will they remember? Mr Bates vs The Post Office and the messy legal fallout. Baby Reindeer and the messy legal fall out. A heartbreaking One Day adaptation. A hilarious Rivals adaptation. For me, the highlight was Adam Brody’s “Hot Rabbi” in Nobody Wants This, and his chemistry with Kristen Bell, which reminded me how rare and how special a really good rom com can be.
There’s not much that ties these programmes together – no conclusion to draw about our tastes or what they tell us about our collective emotional state. The only real pattern is that, overwhelmingly, the best television of the year was not broadcast on the BBC.
The BBC has had an annus horribilis. To name a handful of shockers: the Huw Edwards investigation, the Strictly scandals (since recovered with a spectacular return to form), the Gregg Wallace allegations, the departure of top talent, from Gary Lineker to Mishal Husain. Their UK and US election coverage was lifeless compared to Channel 4’s star-studded, playful alternative. Even their Olympics coverage, though brilliant, was limited, after they were beaten to the full broadcast rights by Discovery.
Sadly, much of the BBC’s decline is inevitable. The survival of the state broadcaster rests on it cutting costs (it is on a brutal £24m savings drive) and this results in a less valuable product.
And that catch-22 is considerably worse now that it must compete against streamers with American money who can afford to pull off big-budget productions like Masters of the Air (Apple TV+), Ripley with Andrew Scott (Netflix), or Mr and Mrs Smith with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine (Prime Video).
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Short of turning the licence fee into a very large monthly subscription, I don’t have a solution. But I do have a few ideas about how the BBC can use the money it does have to hold on to its prestige, keep its identity, and remain valuable and unique.
We’ll start with drama, some of the most expensive TV to make. The BBC did have some successes this year – the return of Wolf Hall after nine years; the runaway cosy crime hit Ludwig, with David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin, the second series of Blue Lights. But unmissable, must-see, dare I say it, “watercooler” moments? Nada.
The thing is, you only need one or two classy dramas for a year to go from dud to standout. Churning out middling nonsense like Nightsleeper to fill the 9pm weeknight slot will get you a poor return on investment compared to putting big bucks into a handful of choice projects that have an impact on their audience.
Mr Bates went out in January and ITV have been dining out on it ever since – proof that if one programme really cuts through we are willing to forgive and forget those 10 ropey detective dramas. (Also, leave the binge-watches to the streamers. Have the conviction to broadcast programmes weekly so we can start to look forward to it and care about it – if I watch something in an afternoon, it’s usually less because it’s compulsive and more that it’s disposable).
Instead divert attention to comedy – much cheaper to make, with more scope to champion new talent of all backgrounds, much more likely to become adored and rewatched and cherished forever. About eight years ago the BBC had a run of huge “discoveries” like Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Michaela Coel, Charlie and Daisy May Cooper – but while there have been excellent original comedies since, not nearly as many stars have been born.
There are exceptions – the second series of Sophie Willan’s Alma’s Not Normal was astounding and the most moving and best-written thing I watched all year. I also really liked Daddy Issues with Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey. But the comedy pipeline has changed since TikTok took over and the Edinburgh Fringe became unaffordable, and a concerted effort to develop new talent would help shape the future of the BBC and secure our emotional attachment to it.
It also could address the BBC’s youth problem. The BBC seemed to understand young people when I was a teenager, when the original BBC Three was thriving and making programmes like Him and Her, Gavin and Stacey and Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents. However that was before YouTube and Netflix were battling for our attention, and the Beeb’s attempts to claw it back have so far been misguided.
But the way to draw young people away from those is not by trying to make TV about young people, or vlog or shortform formats that ape the content they can get elsewhere, or preaches to them, or is made by people their own age, badly. It’s the same as it’s always been: make TV that is funny and weird. That is all young people have ever been interested in, believe me.
Isn’t that, in fact, exactly why a programme like The Traitors took off? The second series at the start of the year was even better, somehow, than the first – high-stakes, thrilling, unpredictable – and had exactly the wackiness that could only be made by the BBC. That and Claudia Winkleman, who incidentally is also funny and weird.
Which brings me to my final point. Keep hold of Claudia. Top talent is the face and personality of the BBC, and we’ve lost enough. They must not let her out if their sights. Pay her double, shut down a couple of channels if that’s what it takes. If she goes, it’s curtains, and I’m not talking about the fringe.
