In View - The Month in Television

JUNE/JULY 1996

POSTPONED DUE TO EXTENDED SPORTS COVERAGE

by Adrian E.C. Petford

The column's title says it all really. Regular followers of these scribblings may have wondered about the noticeable absence of either a June or July edition over the last couple of months. Well, I have unfortunately been forced to avoid all current television since the end of May due to the onset of the unspeakable horror that is every classic TV buff's worst nightmare, cheerily and euphemistically hyped as "a great summer of sport".

First there was the Euro 96 football championships, overlapping with this year's Wimbledon tournament, followed by the cricket season and thence to the worst offender of all, the centenary Olympics from Atlanta. And now we have the football season upon us once again. I wonder why Rupert Murdoch is even bothering to launch more dedicated sports channels as part of his Sky subscription package, considering Sky Sports 3 and 4 have been existing quite happily for several months in secret under the pseudonyms "BBC1" and "ITV". Personally, I cannot remember a time previously when so much wall-to-wall sport has been shown at the total expense of everything else. It all started with Euro 96, where on at least one occasion even the horrendously complicated dual-schedules published in the listings magazines were casually thrown aside as the channels competed head-to-head for viewers by screening the same matches. If you were following a regular series, you had to forget it during the Olympics period. Twenty-two hours a day were regularly set aside by BBC1 to cover the event (the few hours of programming that were retained were usually given over to poor sitcoms and the ongoing soap operas) and, for the short time when Atlanta junkies had to suffer withdrawal from coverage, it merely switched over to BBC2. Irrelevant programmes such as The X Files (the highest rated series on BBC2 and in the top ten on BBC1) were taken off without notice or apology, and the schedulers obviously felt that the verdict episodes of Murder One weren't especially important either. They cheerily announced that the final three episodes would have to wait until after the Olympics had finished. Thankfully, people power overcame such lunacy in that particular case (over a hundred complaints were logged by the BBC within an hour of the announcement) and they were quickly reinstated. But it has set a worrying precedent for the future.

Now don't get me wrong; I am an avowed hater of all televised sport, but I do not dispute its right as a legitimate part of any channel's broadcasting output. As a public service, the non-dedicated channels should provide a varied balance of programming to suit the whole audience. Probably the greater mass of television viewers are sports fans and these should be catered for like everyone else. But equally, those of us that choose to tune out should not be treated with such contemptuous disregard as has been evident over this summer. The BBC is quick to exploit The X Files, for example, whenever possible to increase its audience share or shift copies of the Radio Times, but does not, it seems, consider those that actually support the programme to be deserving of its respect. After the hype and fanfare that surrounded the Corporation's purchase of Murder One, its position in the prime time schedule should have been guaranteed for the entire run regardless of external pressures and events. Given the vital importance of being able to follow the storyline as it developed, this regular slot would become all the more essential towards the end of the serial as the verdict approached. There should certainly have never been even the slightest possibility of the programme being displaced at so critical a stage. I would not object to BBC1 being turned over wholesale to sports coverage during a major event as long as there was always an alternative. BBC2 should be that alternative and its most popular and highest quality programmes should never be disgarded in favour of anything else, let alone the very material that was already smothering the primary channel with blanket coverage. If such a policy was followed, it would certainly result in less complaints and probably satisfy both camps. Fortunately, we the viewers did prove to have some influence, and I hope the broadcasters heed some of the comments they received - both pro and con - when deciding how to structure the coverage of major sporting events in the future.

With my beloved BBC2 subjected to such alien influences, I had to seek sanctuary at Channel Four, and I'm pleased to report the existence of a real gem that has brightened up the usually barren summer weeks no end. I speak of a little-known and much-underrated sitcom called Dressing For Breakfast, which, like many others before it, deserves much more exposure and acclaim than it is likely to get on a supposedly "minority" channel. But there is hope. Men Behaving Badly started life as a fairly standard ITV sitcom, dropped when Thames lost their franchise, only to be resurrected a couple of years later by BBC1 in a post-watershed time-slot. The greater freedom this allowed led to the series fulfilling its full potential and with that came a string of awards and much critical acclaim. Game-On can be cited as another example of a series on a specialist channel (BBC2) that has proved to be hugely popular both with viewers and critics, despite its lack of advance publicity or hype. Both of these series are great favourites of mine and well deserving of their success, but I have to be honest in saying that Dressing For Breakfast is potentially even better, both in terms of scripting and performances, than either of the above shows. Praise indeed, but what's it all about?

Basically, it shares the familiar scenario - the lives and loves of single people - as both Men Behaving Badly and Game-On, except with a twist in that both the main characters are twenty-something women and the series is seen entirely from the female perspective. Louise, played by Beatie Edney, is the independent single type, always on the lookout for love and repeatedly having to rescue her eccentric mother Liz (Charlotte Cornwell) from the many self-inflicted disasters that make up her life. Louise's only crutch is her long-time friend Carla (enthusiastically played by Holly Aird), who's always there to dispense her own uniquely crazy brand of advice, not to mention indulge in the odd attempt at matchmaking here and there. A simple concept yes, but one executed with so much style, originality and sharp wit by writer Stephanie Calman that it can only be a winner.

Central to this success is Beatie Edney's playing of Louise; fans of the film Highlander will remember one of her earliest roles as McLeod's beloved wife Heather, and since then she's become an extremely familiar face on our screens, appearing in many well-regarded series including Thief Takers and Prime Suspect. The same could be said of Aird, who gained rave notices at a very early age for her performance as Elspeth Huxley in The Flame Trees of Thika, later making the transition to adult roles through series such as Inspector Morse, Soldier, Soldier and appearances in other dramas such as the Geoff McQueen pilot, Rules of Engagement. Both leads are extremely capable and likeable and, as Stephanie Calman was the first to admit, were heavily responsible for the way their characters finally turned out on the screen. Carla in particular was not originally conceived as a lead role, but Aird's playing so impressed the powers that be that they quickly re-thought the original concept, much to the benefit of the whole series as it turned out.

The scripts give a hilarious insight into the female psyche, which is particularly valuable and interesting for we male viewers, even if we do consider their sharp observations about men with squirming discomfort at best and sheer panic at worst! Dressing For Breakfast certainly provides plenty of food for thought about the "war of the sexes", conveyed in a frank and unreserved manner that sometimes makes your hair almost stand on end... The alternative perspective it presents makes for a pleasant contrast to so many other youth-orientated sitcoms and is largely what makes this series so daring and fresh.

Another crucial mainstay of the series is the relationship between Louise and her mother Liz, which shows what the similar relationship in Absolutely Fabulous could have been (for all the brilliant playing of Saffron by Julia Sawalha in that series) had the writing been up to a fraction of the standard in evidence here. And yet Absolutely Fabulous must be one of the most over-hyped, not to mention overrated, comedy series in television history whilst infinitely superior fare like Dressing For Breakfast continues to languish in a relative ratings backwater. A great shame, but hopefully one that won't prove permanent; with a second series currently in production, let's hope one of television's best-kept secrets finally gets discovered by a lot more people next time around.

And on that positive note, I'll sign off as I can't recall anything else notable for review in either June or July! Thank goodness the next Olympics are four years away...

Copyright © Adrian E.C. Petford 1996. All Rights Reserved.

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