Discuss in detail how and why one comedy programme was scheduled on one or more channels.

(15 Marks)

LO: to understand the background and role of the BBC

What do you know from your homework? Feedback your fact file.

The main aim

BBC One is the UK’s most popular channel. It must continue to be competitive, high-impact, and distinguished by quality. The channel should showcase Britain's best talent and the nation's most talked-about and loved programmes.

• BBC One is the shop window for the BBC and must appeal to a broad mainstream audience.

• As the channel needs to provide much-loved content for everyone in the UK it's important that we find high impact programmes that appeal across the board.

• In an environment where audiences are fragmenting, BBC One is the place where people can come together to share great TV moments – uniting viewers across all ages.

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• BBC One is at the heart of the UK, it engages the whole country with programmes that reflect the lives of modern British people and make sense of their world. It's a channel that our audience grew up with and, put simply, to most people BBC One is the BBC. They trust it and they are proud of it so our tone should display authority, compassion and confidence but should also crackle with the energy of a nation living and breathing our channel.

• Watching great TV is a social event and our tone of voice should capture that experience for our audience. It's not them and us; we're all in it, and enjoying it, together.

• BBC One also has more live TV than any other terrestrial channel. It should always feel like it's on the pulse, reflecting and inspiring the national conversation and continually innovating to surprise and delight our heartland audience whilst reaching out to new ones.

• We are also working with BBC iPlayer and BBC online to ensure we constantly innovate in the ways people consume our content and that we continue to have a dialogue with our audience 24/7.

The audience

BBC One shows need to appeal to a broad, mainstream audience with larger than life Comedy characters and situations that warm the heart. Accessible ideas, instant laughs and upbeat tones that promote both the unity and diversity of that audience are always welcome. Familiar talent, universal themes and uncomplicated concepts will draw audiences to laugh together. Our viewers want to see their own experiences reflected and celebrated in our Comedy mix and we need to offer more pieces that bring a comic perspective on all aspects of contemporary British life to our viewers from all backgrounds and all corners of the nation.

• BBC One’s relationship with its audience is one that has been nurtured over many decades. Its history and heritage put it in a unique position to bring the nation together. It is also in touch with the “new” and is the home of the events that matter most to the British people.

• We want to continue to reach all parts of the UK and create a range of distinctive, high quality programmes bursting with creativity and modernity that feel relevant. We must continue to reflect the diversity of Britain and become part of the national conversation whilst proudly fulfilling our founding mission to inform, educate and entertain.

• The BBC One audience expects and deserves gold-standard talent, top-drawer writing and the highest production values from Comedy. We’re always looking for the right ideas and the right people on and off screen to deliver on these expectations.

• We continue to make the development of new scripted Comedy for BBC One a high priority. We want to create a mix of pre and post-watershed commissions that will appeal to a broad audience, which are also ambitious, distinctive and fresh. There's a real appetite for both studio audience (Mrs Brown's Boys, Not Going Out) and single-camera shows (Outnumbered) which demonstrate the perfect alchemy ( magic blend) of premise, writing and casting.

• Comedy remains a priority for BBC One and a crucial way of bringing the nation together. Mrs Brown's Boys and Still Open All Hours continue to hit ratings highs while Citizen Khan remains popular.

• We combine working with world class talent such as Catherine Tate, David Walliams, Lee Mack, Tracey Ullman and Peter Kay with a desire to support and nurture the next wave of Comedy talent and fresh ideas through our Comedy Playhouse strand.

• Studio sitcoms such as Outnumbered have provided BBC One with many of its biggest hit shows and remain an abiding priority. We will continue to commission broad appeal narrative Comedy such as Peter Kay's Car Share and Boomers alongside sketch shows such as The Tracey Ullman Show.

Bad Education• It stars

Jack Whitehall as young teacher Alfie Wickers – "the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system" – at the fictional Abbey Grove School, in Watford, Hertfordshire.[1] Mathew Horne played Fraser, the headmaster of the fictional school alongside him.

• At the time of the series launch in August 2012 it broke BBC Three's record for the highest-rated first episode of a comedy, which was previously held by Horne & Corden, but is now held by Cuckoo.[2][3] The second series premiered on BBC iPlayer on 27 August 2013, a week before the television air date of 3 September,[4]

as part of BBC Three's plans to premiere all its scripted comedy programmes online.[5]

This experiment proved successful, as the first episode of the second series received 1.5 million requests prior to its television airing.[6] A Christmas special aired on 17 December 2013.[7]

• The third and final series of Bad Education began transmission on 16 September 2014, and concluded on 21 October 2014. It was adapted into a movie, which was released on 21 August 2015.

Helpful links for Bad Education

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Education_(TV_series)

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01djw5m

• BBC Three was a British television channel operated by the BBC. Launching on 9 February 2003 as a replacement for BBC Choice, the service's remit was to provide "innovative" programming to a target audience of viewers between 16 and 34 years old, leveraging technology as well as new talent.[1]

• Unlike its commercial rivals, 90% of BBC Three's output was from the United Kingdom. 70% was original, covering all genres, including animation, comedy, current affairs, and drama. BBC Three had a unique 60 Seconds format for its news bulletins, adopted so that operation of the channel could be completely automated, without the complication of dealing with variable length live news broadcasts. The former controller of the station, Zai Bennett,[2] left to join Sky Atlantic in July 2014, at which point BBC Three commissioner Sam Bickley became acting controller.[3]

• Until February 2016, the network broadcast on Freeview, digital cable, IPTV and Satellite television platforms, and was on-air from 7 pm to around 4 am each night to share terrestrial television bandwidth with CBBC.[1]

In March 2014, as a result of a planned £100 million budget cut across the BBC, it was proposed that BBC Three be discontinued as a television service, and be converted to an over-the-top internet television service with a smaller programming budget and a focus on short-form productions.[4][5] Despite significant public opposition, the proposal was provisionally approved by the BBC Trust in June 2015,[6]

with a new consultation open until 30 September of that year. The closure was confirmed in November 2015, with the TV channel ceasing operations on 16 February 2016, and replaced by an internet-only incarnation of BBC Three. The BBC Three TV signal was switched off in the early hours of 31 March 2016.

BBC 3• The channel's target audience was 16–34-year-olds,[33] and it faced heavy competition from rivals

including ITV2 and E4,[34] for an audience that the BBC has traditionally had difficulty in attracting. In 2008 it reached 26.3% of 16–34-year-olds in digital homes—the channel's highest ever such reach and above that of E4, ITV2, Dave and Sky 1.[35]

• On average, nine million people watched BBC Three every week,[36] and it had a 2.6% share of the 15–34-year-old audience and 1.4% of the whole population, according to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB). These ratings by BARB, the official ratings agency, average out BBC Three's viewing figures over a 24-hour period even though the channel only broadcasts in the evening, giving a distorted sense of the channel's viewership. Despite several official complaints from the BBC, BARB continues to publish figures which the BBC argues are unrepresentative.

• BBC Three's programming consisted of comedy, drama, spin-off series and repeated episodes of series from BBC One and BBC Two, and other programmes that attempted to alert others of their actions through a series of programmes challenging common beliefs.

• An example of BBC Three's comedy output includes the award-winning comedy Little Britain, which in October 2004 broke its previous viewing record when 1.8 million viewers tuned in for a new series.[37] Little Britain was later broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial analogue channels BBC One and BBC Two. The channels longest-running comedy programme is Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. Some current programmes feature stand-up comedians performing their own take on a subject, usually the news, examples of which include Russell Howard's Good News (Now being broadcast on BBC Two, due to success and partly to BBC Three's move to online only) and Lee Nelson's Well Good Show.

BBC 3• The channel aired various comedies and dramas; one of its most popular sitcoms was

Gavin & Stacey, which first aired in May 2007 and was written by and starring James Corden and Ruth Jones alongside Mathew Horne, Joanna Page, Alison Steadman and Rob Brydon. The sitcom was an instant hit, with subsequent series being moved to other BBC channels and the show being granted a Christmas special. Another example is Being Human, a drama in which a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf share a flat, which has become a success and heralded several new series. American programming also features, with American Dad! and Family Guy being the notable examples.

• Numerous popular series were either repeated on the channel or have spin-offs created from them. In early 2003, viewers could watch episodes of popular BBC soap opera EastEnders on BBC Three before they were broadcast on BBC One. This programming decision coincided with the relaunch of the channel and helped it break the one million viewers milestone for the first time. An episode of EastEnders Revealed, which was commissioned for BBC Three and looking behind the scenes of the programme, attracted 611,000 viewers. In 2005, BBC Three commissioned the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, which was shown immediately after episodes of the new series of Doctor Who had been screened on BBC One. This was followed up in July 2005, when it began to screen repeats of both programmes.

• In October 2005, it was announced that BBC Three had commissioned a spin-off drama series from Doctor Who, Torchwood, designed as a post-watershed science fiction drama for a more adult audience. Torchwood launched with 2.4 million viewers in October 2006.[38] Torchwood is the first science fiction programme ever to have been commissioned by the channel, and its popularity led to it being broadcast on BBC Two for the second series, and on BBC One for subsequent series. In 2010, BBC Three began airing episodes of the fifth series of BBC drama series Waterloo Road after they had aired on BBC One as part of its 'catch-up' programming. From January 2015, BBC Three aired the remaining episodes of Waterloo Road before being repeated on BBC One later the same day.[39]

• Among its original programming, the channel also gave viewers the comedy-drama Pramface, which was written by Chris Reddy and comprised 19 episodes over three series, broadcast between 2012 and 2014.

What have you learned?

• What have you learned about the BBC?

• What is important about comedy shows for the BBC?

• What else do you need to revise and remember by looking at my Blog?

Homework

• Due in Monday 9th May

• Create a fact file on Channel 4