Broadcast Letters – 1 August 2008

Letters to the editor from Broadcast magazine dated 1 August 2008.

C4's bluster can't hide its true colours

There's been a lot of puff and bluster from Hamish Mykura, Channel 4's docs head, in the wake of the Ofcom ruling on The Great Global Warming  Swindle. Green commentators feel his bluster hides a reality that C4 is the most hostile to environmentalism of all the channels and as an indie producer who has made green shows (and many others) for all the terrestrial channels, I have to say I think they are right.

It's not that C4 doesn't commission shows that argue the environmental case - it did from Fulmar when we made a More  4 show about Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. It is that C4 gives the most promotion and prominence to the anti-green case. The Swindle was given 90 minutes of primetime and a lot of promotion for what I would say was the single most irresponsible piece of commissioning since C4 was created.

If Mykura wants to convince people that C4 is not at heart anti-green, why doesn't he commission a regular green series? My guess is he hasn't in the past because C4's heart is in consumerism and hedonism. Green shows spoil the party.

C4 hasn't had a true green series for a long time, though it's had endless property series, motoring series, holiday series, etc, etc. Time to add green to the C4 recipe, Hamish?
Jeremy Bugler
Managing director
Fulmar Television & Film

Channel 4 head of documentaries Hamish Mykura replies:
Determined to see red, Jeremy labels me a green-hating hedonist. In fact, I'm an earth scientist by training (with a PhD on the environmental impact of rainforest clearance) and I'm very proud of C4's output last year - whether Mark Dowd's God is Green, The Human Footprint, George Monbiot's Greenwash or the Great Green Debate. C4 commissions challenging programmes that genuinely address all sides of the environmental debate, without a pre-packaged green agenda.  

 
The 'for kids' label that's an online boon
So MyCBBC has attracted 100,000 registered users in its first four months. Healthy numbers for online, but reassuringly small if you're conditioned to think in Barbs - until you imagine the "audience's" total face time over its whole shelf life (and then divide by the budget).
In other words, not a bad start for the virtual den that caused a stir in the press - "It's Facebook for kids!" - and corresponding mutterings in the corridors at BBC children's - "It's not Facebook for kids!"
In an online world that's spawning new phenomena every five minutes, and pinning them down just long enough to call them social this or virtual that before they evolve into something else, it's hardly surprising that the "...for kids" label comes out. There's a tidal wave  here  and this is just the start.
Joe Elliot
Director of children's media, Magic Lantern.