Are we too cloth-cappy?

On Monday night I attended a packed event at Live Theatre in Newcastle organised by Northern Film & Media to learn more about why our regional television industry appears to be disappearing. Some of this wasn't a surprise for me but it is shocking to learn how quickly and easily the technical infrastructure for making television and film in the region is slipping away. Once the productions stop, the technical crews drift away from the region and then we aren't equipped to make programmes any more and the North East disappears off the TV.

The answers to resolve all this aren't easy, in fact, I'm not sure that in the current climate, even the old things that we thought would work (coughing up more funding to entice people here) will anymore. The BBC is moving a huge amount of staff to a new media centre in Salford and relocating Radio 5 and some TV commissioning there. But of course it takes nearly as long to get to Salford from the North East as it does to London, so we are in the North, but not the 'right' North, and will inevitably lose out. And ITV's falling advertising revenues will lead to more programme cuts (Wire in the Blood and Heartbeat just recently). When it can cost over a million quid to make a drama programme you can see why it's a hard budget to balance. I for one will miss spotting the North East locations on Wire in the Blood and I wish Tony Hill and his carrier bag a fond farewell.

There were some depressing things reported at the event and one speaker told the story of pitching an idea set in the North East to a commissioning producer in London who responded by saying that he was worried that the idea was 'too cloth-cappy". That kind of stuff is very hard to stomach, especially with Lee Hall's work doing so well in London at the National Theatre and with Billy Elliot on Broadway (which is pretty 'cloth-cappy' with all those miners dancing about). Michael Chaplin a local TV writer talked eloquently about how he felt that programme makers weren't making programmes about real people any more or about how most of us actually lived. It reminded me of a programme that had snagged my attention last week. It was a Channel 4 programme which asked teenagers what they thought about how young people were portrayed on Eastenders and Hollyoakes. The kids all said that they wished the characters had 'more ambition' and could be seen to actually study hard to get jobs and go to university (rather than work on a market stall, get pregnant etc).

Like many writers that I know I am obsessed by some of the drama coming out of the US cable channel HBO, especially The Wire (which is worth getting on DVD). It may be that we ultimately 'get the telly we deserve' - if so I'd like to know what exactly we've all done to deserve Holby City? It must have been something pretty bad. The Wire, 24, Big Love, Mad Men and Lost are all great imports and remind you just how good telly writing and production can be - dense, complex, satisfying, grown up. And have you caught the US version of The Office? Hush, don't tell anyone but it's way better than the UK version (persevere after Season One to get the best of it). And 30 Rock is a gem, hidden away on Five.