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Q and A with Only Connect's question editors

2018-02-26T07:00:00+00:00

As the thirteenth series of quiz show Only Connect reaches its climax, we ask the people with the brains behind the hieroglyphs thirteen questions about making connections and removing vowels.

On our right: David McGaughey, one of the Question Editors of Only Connect. David used to invent, and accurately notate, complete imaginary test matches and once slept with a pen-knife in his hand for a week because he was worried he was going to be attacked by a python.

On our left: Jack Waley-Cohen, the other Question Editor of Only Connect. Jack was a contestant on the first ever episode of Only Connect, and attended the Blackpool Magicians’ Convention for 10 consecutive years, despite not being a magician. He is a regular competitor in the UK Rock Paper Scissors Championships, and once beat Pat Cash at tennis.

How did you get into writing for Only Connect?

Jack Waley-Cohen: When I found out that the show’s first Question Editor David Bodycombe was standing down, I got in touch with the production team to put my name in the hat. They appointed Alan Connor to the role, but invited David McGaughey and I to join the new breed of Senior Question Writers who were contracted to provide a certain volume of questions for each series.

We’ve worked on a wide range of other programmes over the last few years, including The Code, Decimate, Child Genius, Debatable, The Wave and Codex.

What do you think makes Only Connect have such a strong following?

David McGaughey: A combination of many things. The host, Victoria Coren Mitchell is a perfect fit for the show, and you can’t underestimate the value of that. Also, people are fascinated by the contestants taking part and how their minds work. The contestant introductions are extraordinary, as is the unwritten rule that the bizarre happenings described in them are almost never mentioned again.

Victoria Coren Mitchell (right) has hosted the series since it began in 2008, it originally aired on �鶹Լ�� Four before moving to �鶹Լ�� Two in 2014

From our point of view, we think Only Connect fulfils, more than most other quizzes, the ideal balance of seeming to baffle - but then being surprisingly accessible. It is play-along mental exercise and it feels enormously good to get a question right. Because of the huge range of subjects, it’s quite possible that a viewer at home will know a question which completely bamboozles the teams.

I also think that Only Connect questions can contain something beautiful, and viewers can often see the effort and the artistry that’s gone into them, and they like that.

How many people write for the show?

JWC: There are 27 different credited writers for series 13, though well over half of the questions have been written by the Question Editors and the Senior Writers (6 people in total).

Victoria occasionally contributes entire questions, though more often her involvement is in some fine-tuning. She is particularly good at envisaging how a question might play out in studio and she often makes suggestions for how we can mitigate something potentially tricky cropping up, or increase the chances of something exciting happening.

We’re always amazed by the intellect behind the connections, but what makes a good question and do you always know when you’ve written a good one?

DM: The ideal connection brings together things that seem utterly random, from totally different areas, to all make sense in the end. We love crossover of subject matter in a question. But, equally, a great question can sometimes be something pretty simple about numbers, or songs, or people.

I’m not sure I actually do know when I’ve written a good question. I often get excited about a question idea I’ve had which, on closer inspection, is shown not to work at all. And sometimes a question which seems mundane can be elevated to a whole new level with a very minor tweak. That’s why it’s good to work on things together.

JWC: Only Connect is famous for being hard – really hard – but the very best questions, in my view, are the ones which everyone feels they could have got. In other words, much of the subject matter of the question is familiar, but it’s the making the connection which is the difficult bit. The clip below shows a good example, in a question from series 1, which asks what comes fourth after: Wheat, Sett, Cease…

What different considerations are there for each question?

DM: Order is of the utmost importance. It can be a little counterintuitive. Rather than putting the most “obscure” clue first, it often works better to start with one that gives less away, or is more ambiguous or mysterious. Something obscure, if recognised, can be a big giveaway.

Precise wording and punctuation can also make a huge difference e.g. if a clue says something like 2000 Olympics, Olympics: 2000, Olympics in 2000 etc. it’s surprising how those little differences can be vital

Changes to layout can come quite late, when we see what the questions are going to look like on the screens in the studio and at home.

Sometimes font size and colour can play a part too, even the number of lines that the clues are displayed on. We’re working on the experience being fair for the player and accessible for the viewer.

JWC: We talk quite a bit about the question answering “journey” – we want different clues to give little nudges here and there, we try very hard to avoid too many situations where it is “either you know it or you don’t”: that isn’t really what Only Connect is about.

How many questions get written in total to edit it down to the number used for each series?

JWC: Questions get pitched before they are written up in full form for the show. For series 13, we looked at pitches for about 1600 questions, of which about 550 were written up, and 444 were used (this is just for Round 1 and Round 2).

Is there much editing between writing the question and it appearing on screen?

JWC: The process is pretty detailed. Question writers send in their pitches; David and I review the pitches to form a shortlist; Jenny Hawker, the series Producer, reviews the shortlist; we send back the survivors from those initial reviews to the question writers who give them the full treatment (checking sources, finding supporting information etc.); these are then submitted for us to check again; then they are reviewed by the team of verifiers who triple check all the facts; questions come back from the verifiers and are assembled into sets for each show.

Then the fun really begins with our day long question meetings when David and I, along with Jenny and Chris Stuart, the Executive Producer, go through every question together, making tweaks, and sometimes rejecting questions that we’re not convinced about. Once all that is done, Victoria looks at every question and provides her thoughts.

Every question gets several final sets of eyes on it on studio day from the graphics team, the producers, the question editors, and the host.

What are the OC team’s favourite questions of all time?

DM: Well, my favourite question was written by someone else – one of our new writers – and is in this year’s final. I can’t give anything away, though it will involve some physical activity by a contestant.

As for my own questions, I’m very satisfied when I can use different areas of my knowledge to first bamboozle people, only for them to get there in the end.

Then again, I submitted a music question which was in the closing stages of the last series which had songs by acts featuring the four husbands of Patsy Kensit. That went down very well.

JWC: I have far too many favourite questions. One that I like from series 13, mainly because it lives up to the archetype of “four seemingly random clues” (but also because of it starting with one of the easiest clues in the history of Only Connect) is:

Answer: Milk drinkers. It starts with a clue that any human in the world of almost any age would know, then follows it with three quite specific references. So we’re inviting the team to get the points as soon as they know one of the other cultural references (because of how easy clue 1 is). And the last clue is quite amusing.

Stats please…how many contestants have competed over the show’s 13 series and what are the highest and lowest scores?

JWC: There have been 218 teams on in total. One team name – Geocachers - has been used by two separate teams, several years apart.

The highest ever score is 41, achieved by the Epicureans (the next highest score is 36). The lowest ever score was 4, by the (first) Geocachers. Honestly though, 4 is nothing to be ashamed of. Most people at home are punching the air in delight - and boasting about it on Twitter - if they get a single question correct.

Highest scorers, Epicureans in series 4

How do you decide which episode to put a question in - do you always look out for a good subject spread?

JWC: It’s an art rather than a science. We try to place less difficult questions within episodes early in the series, and the harder ones towards the end to create a difficulty gradient throughout the series. But it is important for each episode to have a bit of variation in question difficulty – though in many ways that sorts itself out by ensuring there is a wide range of subjects covered in each episode.

You want each episode to have a good balance of puzzle-type questions, fact based questions, and different types of sequences from the more straightforward to the more lateral thinking. Additionally, we try to make sure that the questions “look different” to each other within a show as well. By that we mean trying to avoid both picture questions in a show being all pictures of people, or two number questions within a round that might look quite similar on screen.

Do contestants really dislike/perform worse the music questions?

JWC: Stats time again. In the history of Only Connect, the average score across all Round 1 questions is 1.25 points. The average score for music questions only is 1.15 points, and the average for picture questions only is 1.12. Compare these two then to the average score for the plain text based questions which is 1.32.

So yes, people do slightly worse on music questions, and the picture questions, with picture questions having a tiny bit lower of an average score. I think with music questions it is more a case of either loving them or hating them, but it is definitely a “thing” to at least appear to dislike the music question.

By comparison, on Round 2, the averages are:

Overall: 1.35,
Music only: 1.52 (though bear in mind that there have only ever been 36 Round 2 Music Questions),
Pictures only: 1.27,
Text questions only: 1.35

Do you ever worry you’ll run out of new material?

DM: I believe David Bodycombe, the first Question Editor, expressed understandable concerns that we’d run out after a few series. Yet the questions keep coming. It is generally agreed that Round 2 is the hardest one to find good, original material for, but the writers keep on coming up with the goods.

As question setters, do you have to know everything about everything?

JWC: We wish. But I would say that knowing a little about a lot is very helpful in setting Only Connect questions, as it helps open up new avenues for research and finding perfect clues in unexpected places.

DM: Yes. Of course.

Uncovering 'The Galaxy Britain Built'

2017-12-18T15:41:17+00:00

Ok, I’ll get this out right now. I’m a bit of a Star Wars fan. Well, not just a bit, but a big fan. In fact, I was born on May the 4th (as in May the 4th be with you – now known as Star Wars day!) in 1977, the year the movie was released. And I have always loved the films.

Let me take you back to 1983. I was six. I was only a baby when the first one, A New Hope, was released and just 3 when the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, was in cinemas. So here I was, an excited six year old, about to see The Return of the Jedi with my dad at the flicks in Southend.

It was awesome! I sat in the third row, staring wide eyed at the screen, as my childhood heroes battled it out with Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett and Imperial Stormtroopers. On the way home, my dad bought me an Ewok action figure. It was a very special day!

Fast forward, or rather jump into Hyperspace, and I’m on a train heading home from filming for ‘Inside Out’ in London. It’s February 2016. And I’m idly flicking through my phone, as is the norm now for many of us, whiling away a tedious journey. And all of a sudden I see that Luke Skywalker, aka, Mark Hamill is doing a talk with the Cambridge Student Union, following the huge success of the franchise’s reboot, with The Force Awakens. Right! Here’s my chance to get an interview with the legendary Jedi.

To cut a long story short, it never transpired. But it fired me up. I had always wanted to make a documentary about Star Wars and maybe, just maybe, I would be able to do it.

I knew I couldn’t do it alone, so, just as he was about to studio direct the lunchtime news, I put it to one of my best friends, Matt Wildash. ‘How do you fancy making a doc about Star Wars?’ His eyes lit up! He’s just as big a nerd as me when it comes to Star Wars. It was a no brainer. He was in.

We pitched the idea to the powers-that-be. It was to be a film about the British people behind the biggest movie franchise of all time. Growing up I’d always believed it was a Hollywood blockbuster, every frame shot in LA. Turns out that’s just half the story. It was more an Anglo-American co-production.

Preview of The Galaxy Britain Built - Droids, Darth Vader and Lightsabers, �鶹Լ�� Four

The first thing we filmed was Star Wars Celebration in London in the summer of 2016. Basically a massive fan convention. We filmed and filmed. Three days solid. To be honest we didn’t know how much we’d get further down the road. So we got loads in the can.

But this was just the beginning. I managed to find an address of the Oscar winning Costume Designer, John Mollo. It was an old address, but the letter was forwarded and a few weeks later, the Director, cameraman and myself were in his study. In front of us, his original workings and sketches from the 1970s. All of which depicted what would eventually be seen on screen. As a filmmaker it was brilliant, as a fan, it was awesome!

David with costume designer John Mollo

Then, Elstree. The home of ‘Strictly’. But in the 1970s it was home to the filmmaking talents of George Lucas and his team, bringing the Galaxy to life. We filmed in the very studios which were home to ‘The Millennium Falcon’ and ‘The Death Star’. I also interviewed the Production Supervisor, Robert Watts there, a charming gentleman with many great stories to tell.

Robert Watts

Production then stalled, as the Director and I had to concentrate on our day jobs. We were doing a lot of the documentary in our own time and it soon became clear, this was fast becoming a labour of love.

In early 2017, I had my work cut out, tracking down more of the original team. After long days and nights, with many conference calls to people in California, we were up and running again.

We set about the bulk of the filming. 10 days bouncing around North America and sitting down opposite the British filmmaking talent of yesteryear. The Art Director, Les Dilley, who went on to work on Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark. A charming, modest man with an Academy Award, but who still can’t believe it happened to him. Then, Peter Beale, the Executive in Charge of Production for 20th Century Fox. He’s a man with legendary tales of ‘creative’ cast lists and battling against studio deadlines.

It was an exhausting but incredibly exciting trip. Then, back in London, we met the Set Decorator, Roger Christian, who was over in the UK from his home in Toronto. He regaled me with stories of building sets with aeroplane junk and shared with me the secrets of how he made the lightsaber itself. He calls it the ‘Excalibur’ of the film:

Well, after months in the edit suite, The Galaxy Britain Built is finished and ready for transmission. And what a privilege it has been to work on. They say never meet your heroes. But sometimes, just sometimes, they can be very wrong.

'The Galaxy Britain Built: Droids, Darth Vader and Lightsabers' airs on �鶹Լ�� Four on Thursday 21 December, and on iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge - celebrating amateur music making

2016-09-22T10:53:24+00:00

The Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra

There are moments when I watch or listen to programmes on television or radio and have a sixth sense that this programme has been made especially for me – a treat or a personal indulgence for which I can legitimately wrest control of the TV remote from my partner and make some demands. All Together Now – a four episode challenge to find the most inspiring UK amateur orchestra – is a good example.

Gemma McAusland from Stirling Orchestra, one of the groups who participated in the Final of the competition staged at the Royal Albert Hall, helped illustrate the common misunderstanding about the word ‘amateur’ during an interview a few days before.

"It’s a strange word to describe things. My perception of it is that there is this stigma that ‘you’re not quite good enough to be professional’. For me we need to define the word. For example, we have some amazingly talented musicians in our orchestra, but the expertise they’re paid for is in a different field."

Stirling Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall

I’ve written before on this blog about my love of classical music – a lifelong friend that has always delivered, never let me down, and always surprised and delighted. A lot of that appreciation comes from my experiences as a teenager playing in training orchestras and amateur groups. For some of those who learn how to play an instrument, playing in an orchestra is the next step. But the amateur scene also brings a wide range of different people together.

"Our cello section in the Stirling Orchestra has a real mix of ages," continued Gemma during the interview. "We are a group of people who just have the same sense of humour. We love music of course, but it’s more about the fun for us. We play because it is our hobby: it’s that fine balance between not wanting it to be professional or perfection. If it’s professional it’s no longer is a hobby. Amateur means you’re doing something because you love it; it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough’."

Broadcasting has a habit of insisting on the very best exponents in a particular field. It showcases professionals - audiences have come to expect that – and puts them on the screen or behind the microphone. In other cases it creates entertainment with the tantalising prize of being a professional at the end of the process.

All Together Now differed by celebrating the amateur and in the process encouraging others to do the same. That’s why seeing the North Devon Sinfonia and Stirling Orchestra join forces for a special performance of Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations when the finalists convened at the Royal Albert Hall was such a special affair.

Stirling Orchestra and North Devon Sinfonia join together to play Nimrod from Elgar's Variations

There was an egalitarian quality to the concert experience which made for an emotional interpretation. The music – seen by many as the epitome of British identity in musical form – is made all the more potent we identify with the performers. To see people like us perform in an iconic concert space like the Royal Albert Hall brought a new energy to the piece.

Something similar occurred in episode one of the series when all of the competing orchestras got the chance to perform their symphonic extracts in �鶹Լ�� Maida Vale studios – the iconic home of the �鶹Լ�� Symphony.

We weren’t listening out for the ‘best’ performance; we were experiencing a different kind of performance, one hyped-up by playing in one of many aspirational spaces for an orchestral musician. The energy from the London Gay Symphony Orchestra’s excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony was electric. The Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of a section of Rachaminov’s second symphony was similarly gripping. As a demonstration of the inclusivity of participatory music-making, the People’s Orchestra rendition of the March to the Scaffold highlighted the fun in playing classical music which is often overlooked.

These, like all of the repertoire each orchestra had to learn during the series, challenged the players. Winners North Devon Sinfonia performed an excerpt from Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

Winning amateur orchestra North Devon Sinfonia

Speaking before the final, conductor Emma Kent explained the impact having to learn what was unfamiliar repertoire for the orchestra:

"When you’re dealing with Beethoven or Mozart – you have to be clear and precise. Broad brush strokes – our specialty – is not what works. Broad brush strokes helps amateur orchestras engage emotionally with the music – it’s easier to take people on that emotional journey.

But where the music of Mozart or Beethoven is concerned for example, precision and neatness is incredibly important. That can present a real challenge for amateur musicians. So to be presented with Beethoven 5 like we were in the first episode was a really good way of forcing us to look at the detail.”

That challenge is evident in each performance too. Above all else, I appreciated the fragility evident in the playing. With fragility comes an authenticity which helps give familiar music a human angle that we miss with the standard of professional performances we’ve come to expect. It is through amateur music making that players and listeners alike come to understand a work a little better. And there are – as far as I recall – very few occasions in broadcasting where that opportunity arises.

Jon Jacob is Editor of the About the �鶹Լ�� website and blog.

Watch all four episodes of 'All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge' on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.
Read Jon Jacob's interview with the �鶹Լ�� Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor 'In Conversation with Sakari Oramo'.

Strictly on the Radio

2016-07-22T11:36:49+00:00

Last night’s Strictly Prom featuring the nimble footwork of Radio 3 presenter Katie Derham is broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Four later tonight. For some of us who slavishly work our way through the summer using the Proms brochure as a guide, the party atmosphere in last night’s concert was an early Last Night of the Proms – a little treat at the end of the first week of concert-going.

There should be more parties during the summer, I think. Sometimes, the sound of a lavish Rodgers and Hammerstein melody or the tub-thumping exuberance of 42nd Street helps turn a school night into something of an occasion.

And a sense of occasion suits classical music well. That’s why some of my most favourite spaces to sit in are concert halls. Often cathedral-like spaces, there are few other opportunities which bring thousands of people together and, at various points in time, have them sat in contemplative silence.

That is an infectious experience. There is nothing quite like it. Similarly, when you find yourself in amongst an audience who aren’t prepared for the French national anthem and, almost as one, they stand up sweeping you up at the same time. Just as we did on the First Night.

As I have got older, so I’ve come to appreciate that there is, in addition to those on the stage, another ‘artist’ in a concert hall – the audience. And when the audience moves as one entity, injecting all sorts of emotions into proceedings, so the concert hall experience is elevated.

I hear that in the Proms broadcast. It is the surge of the audience at the end of a piece which I find myself more and more attuned to. The question comes from the stage: the answer from the audience. And sometimes, there’s a palpable rush I experience that emanates from deep inside to the back of my throat. A gasp usually follows, just as it did listening to the Strictly Prom. The excitement in Katie Derham's voice is obvious, and that is reflected in the audience applause. I listen to this standing in my kitchen staring out at a garden withering after a week of intense heat, reminded of how the Proms deliciously combines so many different potent elements of summer.

The cheers in this Prom are a response to the music and the dance at the Albert Hall. I can’t see the dance, obviously, but I can sense it through the crowd who, from time to time, whoop with excitement whenever a recognisable face bounds onto stage. Completing my imaginary tableau is the music. Familiar numbers from a sequined back catalogue featuring Tchaikovsky, and Khachaturian, South American dance rhythms and musical theatre classics. All lined up back to back, they give me a much-needed lift at the end of a long day at work.

The running order also reminds me of something else. Years ago – sometime in the mid-eighties – a similar programme of classical music aired on �鶹Լ�� Radio 2. Flautist James Galway powered through a number of arrangements of classic tunes arranged for him and the �鶹Լ�� Concert Orchestra in a special concert aired in the weeks before Christmas. Mum got me to record it so she could play it on the car stereo. I enjoyed listening to it so much that the tape never made it out of my tape recorder. And there it stayed until the tape recorder, through repeat listens and rewinds, ended up chewing up the tape itself.

The music in that James Galway concert - some of which features in the Strictly Prom - is now so familiar to me that it risks suffering the same fate Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. But what reinvigorates all of these tunes are the arrangements made by expert orchestrators. Scrunchy harmonies and unexpected textures breathe new life into familiar old friends. My pulse races as a result, James Galway and the Strictly Prom now inextricably linked.

Then I imagine just one lifelong devotee reflecting on their love of classical music in thirty or so years’ time, and wonder whether that devotion might have started at the Strictly Prom.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the �鶹Լ�� Blog

Watch the Strictly Come Dancing Prom on �鶹Լ�� Four from 7.30pm on Friday 22 July 2016.
Listen to the live radio broadcast of the Strictly Prom via �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

Music Moguls: Never let the fax get in the way of a good story

2016-01-28T12:07:28+00:00

On Friday 29 January, �鶹Լ�� Four's Music Mogul's looks at the PR industry, the programme delves into the publicity plots that have helped shape some of the world’s greatest artists, and how PRs cultivate new bands, manage crises and attempt to maintain the reputation of their longstanding clients. Here Andy Saunders, who founded Velocity Communications in 2000 and is featured in the episode, gives an overview of how the role of the PR person has changed during his extensive experience of working in the music industry.

I’m old enough to remember fax machines. That’s how old I am.

Before the digital age the work of the PR professional was very different. It involved a lot of hands-on, physical effort.

To get a press release to a journalist in the mid-90’s meant printing it out and faxing it over to them or, if you were doing a mail shot, printing out dozens of them, putting them in envelopes, addressing them, franking them and putting them in a sack for the postman to collect.

It was a laborious process, suited to a physical world of newspapers and magazines.

These days at the press of a computer key that same press release can be sent to anyone, globally in an instant.

The world has changed. These days the news cycle is much faster and has a significantly wider reach. The advent of social media has helped accelerate an appetite for news and to increase the distribution outlets.

Bowie mural in Brixton, which soon became a memorial site as news of his death spread

The sad passing of David Bowie recently illustrated the speed in which a news item can dominate the agenda. From the initial announcement of his death on news outlets and social media the story gathered pace so fast that within minutes it had achieved a huge reach and become a global conversation that gathered momentum over several days.

Everyone is a journalist these days. Anyone with a Twitter or Instagram account can break a story and they frequently do. In light of that, the role of PR has evolved to cope with this new world order.

These days there is far more emphasis on a strategic approach to messaging. How we talk to a target audience and in what tone of voice is more than ever a hugely important part of the communications challenge. Media relations, the actual interface with journalists, comes much later in the PR process than it used to.

This is because once something is out in the digital ether it cannot be retracted. Or at least not erased. That’s why the messaging has to be bang on before there is any interaction with the media.

Once upon a time, if a newspaper got something wrong they would print a retraction and that would be that. Nowadays, if anything goes out to the media however inaccurate it will stay out there forever. It will become its own ‘truth’. And that truth can breed more truths until the story is distorted beyond recognition.

The migration of readers to digital news and social media is a great opportunity for PR’s. If used strategically it can help shape and control the story. But there is a flipside. If used clumsily the story can spiral out of control and take on a life of its own, one which is controlled entirely by a readership.

The Beatles

I recently wrote a piece about how, in my opinion, social media would have prevented The Beatles breaking up. In short, when John Lennon made his infamous “The Beatles are now bigger than Jesus” comment it triggered widespread protests against the band in the US. There were demonstrations at their live shows and death threats made against them. The whole episode all but ended the bands live career and saw them retreat to the studio where eventually they broke apart.

A slightly silly piece and a simplistic view of the situation I know, but in the blog I argue that social media would have allowed the band to talk to their fans directly, to correct any inaccuracies, to put forward a context for their statement or to apologise. In other words, to take control of the story. I believe that in a digital news environment the story would have burned brightly for a few days and then faded.

For bands and musicians, this ability to connect directly with their fans through social media and digital news is amazing but it comes with real challenges. This democratization of news has enabled direct-to-fan relationships to become ever more engaging but it has also created a huge amount of ‘noise,’ which can mean an increasingly overcrowded space.

It also means that the fan is being overwhelmed with ever more news through ever more channels. Having a well thought through strategy to avoid becoming part of this noise is vital and is where the real skill of the PR lies these days.

We still talk to journalists, we still apply the dark arts of spin on occasion, we still beg and plead for coverage of our bands/events/products because ultimately it is still a sales job, but it is a much more strategic role now than it ever was.

Andy Saunders is founder of PR company Velocity Communications.

Music Moguls: Myth Makers is broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Four on Friday 29 January at 10pm.
You can watch the previous two episodes Melody Makers and Money Makers on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.
Read 'Music Moguls: Masters of Pop' by series producer Francis Whately.

Music Moguls: Masters of Pop

2016-01-15T14:05:44+00:00

A new series exploring the untold history of the pop and rock worlds, told by the producers, managers and PR giants, starts tonight on �鶹Լ�� Four, 10pm. We asked series producer Francis Whately some questions about it.

Music Moguls. What’s the pitch?

"The music business is a cruel and shallow trench where thieves & pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side." Hunter S. Thompson

Where did the idea come from?

We wanted to tell the Rock Story from a different point of view. For too long it’s all been about the artists, as though they work in a vacuum. We wanted to shine a light on the unsung heroes – the men and women behind the scenes (the Svengali’s; the Melody Makers; the Puppet Masters, the Mythmakers etc.) to show the crucial role they have played in the success of the rock and pop industry. At a time when we are at saturation point with pop and rock biographies, now is the time that the stars behind the stars moved centre stage.

No-one likes a spoiler, so give us a taster of what we’ll see

The series tells the story of the music industry not from the frayed and tired yarns of the artists, but from the managers, producers and PR gurus who orchestrated their careers: the unsung heroes, and sometimes villains, behind the scenes. Where would Elvis Presley be with Colonel Tom? Where would be Led Zeppelin be without Peter Grant, or Justin Bieber without Scooter Braun.

Each film uses and expert in their field to tell the story. Episode one – Money Makers - we collaborated with Simon Napier Bell, the brilliant former manager of amongst others Mark Bolan, The Yardbirds and Wham; for Film Two – Melody Makers - the mighty Nile Rodgers, who produced everyone from Madonna to David Bowie, Diana Ross to his own band Chic; and for film Three – Mythmakers - Alan Edwards is our PR Svengali. Edwards was behind everyone from Prince to the Rolling Stones, David Bowie to the Spice Girls.

One great contributor in episode one is Adele’s manager, Jonathan Dickens. He talks about what it is to be a manager, and the music industry today:

“Managers are only as good, I believe, as the artists they manage. That is so important."

“I've never really chased the money first, and a lot of people say they never really chase the money – and most people do. The biggest thing of that is when you actually have success, when the money really starts to be significant. Opportunity to Adele presents itself by the truckload every day. Any and every opportunity to make money in non-traditional or branding exercises, we've been offered it - everything. Clothing ranges, perfumes, nail polishes ..it goes on. For us, the first thought isn't the branding opportunity, it's the music, and I want to protect what it is we do with her music and her content - absolutely I do. And that will never change.”

Episode two looks at the Melody Makers - the Music Producers. The men and women who have created the signature sounds that have defined key periods in rock and pop history. Led by the genius that is Nile Rodgers, the film discusses his work with Chic, and others, but also how he gave super Producer Mark Ronson his first Sony Walkman to start producing his own sounds.

Mark Ronson tells us: “The role of a producer really is just to take the song at hand, or the album, and make it as great as it can be for that artist.”

“The first artist that I really clicked with was probably Amy (Winehouse) when working on ‘Back to Black’. Amy had played me this stuff by The Shangri-Las, and we obviously both loved Motown and 60's and early 70's soul music.”

“I never started making music because I wanted to be in the limelight.”

The third episode concentrates on the dark arts of PR – the Myth Makers. With exclusive access to one of the biggest PR’s in the music business, Alan Edwards, we tell the extraordinary story of how PR in Britain was born in the music industry, thrived and spread like wildfire throughout all the media. Today it is reckoned that 90% of what we read is PR orchestrated. We tell the story of how you can have a hit single without PR but you can’t have a career.

On being involved with the programme, Alan Edwards said: “We all know what a significant role PR plays in British public life nowadays, but not many people realise that its roots go back five decades to the start of the Music Business as we know it now. In this film I lift the lid on the unseen, uncredited, often unappreciated and unsung PR’s that helped create an industry that now employs something like 60,000 people.”

We hear how he and other major PRs, such as Barbara Charone and Andy Saunders, cultivate new bands, manage crises and attempt to maintain the reputation of their longstanding clients. They feature alongside artists such as the Sex Pistols, Uriah Heep, Brett Anderson and Hugh Cornwell.

What surprised you making these films?

As a team we were surprised just how important managers, producers and PRs are to the whole music-making process. Managers are therapists, accountants, confidants and friends. Producers can turn what sounds like nothing into a hit and while you can have a number one without PR you can’t have a career without it.

What do you reckon we’ll think about the music industry after we’ve watched it?

We hope the audience’s eyes will be opened wide by this series as it shows the immense work and brain power that goes into the soundtrack of our lives. The story is surprising, erudite and often very amusing.

Francis Whately is series producer of Music Moguls: Masters of Pop.

Episode 1 of 'Music Moguls: Masters of Pop' will be broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Four at 10pm on Friday 15 January and available to watch on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer after that for 30 days.
Find out about the '10 most influential moguls in pop history - and what you can learn from them' on the �鶹Լ�� Music website.

Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore.

2015-12-01T12:30:00+00:00

8.27am. The Alhambra Palace. We’ve been here since dawn. We have one more piece to camera to shoot, and in three minutes the gates will open and the public will pour in.

Outside, they’re getting restless. Visitors from all over the world have forked out 50 euros a piece for a tour of Granada’s stunning 14th century Islamic palace. They are in no mood to have their enjoyment marred by a British film crew.

Two and a half million people come here every year. Not all on the same day of course, but this is still one of the most popular destinations on the planet.

"Stand by", I say, just as the first wave of tourists comes round the corner, through the massive carved entrance way, arriving in their hundreds in the Room of the Two Doors. This is one of the many ante-rooms to the main part of the palace, currently littered with film crew, presenter, lights, camera, boxes of lenses and filters, and general filming gunk.

This group is French, they’ve been queuing for hours, and they are in no mood to wait.

"Silence sur le plateau" I plead. "All quiet on set". The French stop, as one. I hear a low murmuring. "Qu-est ce qui se passe?" "What’s happening?"

It’s now or never.

"Action!" I yell, and the man in the white Panama hat strides up to the right hand door, which towers over him, turns to the camera and explains that this, contrary to appearances, is not actually a door. It's a fake.

And the reason is the Nasrids, the last Moslem dynasty in Spain and the architects of the Alhambra, feared attack so much, they created false doors and passageways leading nowhere, to confuse and repel their enemies.

The final line to camera is expertly delivered: "This tells you all you need to know about the paranoia, fear and duplicity in the Alhambra palace."

"Cut!" I yell, and that’s a wrap. We start to gather up our things. Finally, breakfast awaits. The French, as one, applaud. "Bravo!" This is better than any guided tour, they tell each other. Our presenter smiles modestly, and waves at his newfound Gallic army of fans. Just another day on location with Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Blood and Gold – The Making of Spain was my first experience of working with Simon Sebag Montefiore and what fun, and how informative it turned out to be.

There are not many presenters who so cleverly and entertainingly combine tales of preposterous popinjays with stories of beautiful concubines and scheming, venal, bloodthirsty barons. It’s like filming with the most erudite and charming of teachers and guides.

Spain was the perfect setting for the latest in Simon’s epic historical television tours, following on from Jerusalem, Istanbul and Rome.

This time the formula was opened out to encompass a country, and Spain was the ideal choice. The first two programmes are set in Andalusia. They cover the conquest of the peninsula by the Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moslems and then the re-conquest by the Christian Kings, with Spain united under Ferdinand and Isabella and the Jewish and Moslem population expelled. The final programme focuses on nationhood. Shot mainly in Madrid it tells the story from Philip II to the present day.

What makes Spain so interesting is that, as Simon explains so vividly, it is part of Europe and yet in many ways it is so very different. It’s almost entirely surrounded by water. It’s only 14km from Africa, and its position at the gateway to the Mediterranean means through its early history Spain was subject to repeated waves of invasion. Those influences live on, in the architecture, in the language, which is infused with Arabic words, in the music, in the food and in the culture.

Spain is the most visited destination of all by British travellers, though not many venture too far from the Mediterranean coast. I hope this series persuades them to explore further and soak up the incredible atmosphere of Spain’s southern cities of Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada and Seville, and of course to travel further north to Madrid.

We all learnt so much filming this series. Incredible to think there is so much history, and such exotic stories, just a short plane ride away. Who knew the story of Spain would prove to be so thrilling.

Marion Milne is Series Prodcer/ Director, Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore

Watch Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore on �鶹Լ�� Four from Tuesday 8 December at 9pm

How do we move beyond the box in the corner?

2015-09-10T12:04:02+00:00

Broadcasters need to find new ways to reach modern audiences, says Cassian in a post which first appeared on Broadcast.

It’s amazing how transformative one tiny piece of technology can be. The touchscreen smartphone has now become the most successful piece of consumer technology since the wristwatch.

More than one in four people on the planet own one. Coupled with the growth in bandwidth – data connections that allow those users to consume everything from Snapchat messages to HD video – it’s clear: we’re long past a world where the �鶹Լ�� (or any broadcaster) could leverage an old-world grip on distribution into a monopoly.

But before we become blinded by a technology tsunami, let’s look at what people most use their smartphones for. Video streaming now accounts for the majority of data used worldwide. Given the chance (and the bandwidth), there is clearly a strong appetite for it.

And that holds true for TV sets as well. Our smart TVs and IP connections turn the proverbial gogglebox into a beast of many inputs. Alongside the PVR and DVD player, we can jack directly into iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon Prime et al.

Nevertheless, long-form television is still the campfire around which we want to gather in our millions every night – in fact, the number of linear broadcast channels is expected to grow over the next five years.

The big questions remain around the industry and the market. If there’s one big shift that the growth of IP distribution brings, it’s the collapse of national borders. With easy access to both a global audience and capital of scale, SVoD players make bets on content at a level that national broadcasters find difficult to match.

Meanwhile, the ad-funded model of YouTube is encroaching from the other end, supporting a mass ecology of low-cost, self-made content.

The challenge for traditional broadcasters is how we move our story beyond the paradigm of transmitters talking to dumb boxes in the living room. Our audiences now want content that is relevant to them. The question is: how do we achieve this?

Cassian Harrison is Channel Editor, �鶹Լ�� Four. He's producing the opening panel session of this year’s RTS Cambridge Convention, which will debate the future of the television industry, on 16 September.

This post first appeared in full on Broadcast.

�鶹Լ�� Four reveal plans at Edinburgh International Television Festival

2015-08-27T15:45:47+00:00

I’ve been at the Edinburgh Television Festival this week and wanted to share the main things we at �鶹Լ�� Four are announcing. I’m pleased that the channel’s going from strength to strength; we’ve had an incredibly successful year with Slow Week, India’s Daughter from Storyville, and some very popular science programmes including Inside Sellafield with Jim Al Khalili. There’s also been strong arts programming, and the Proms have been really popular, so it’s fair to say the channel is thriving.

How are we going to keep up that momentum? Well, we are bringing back Slow TV, which proved so popular earlier this year, with a Christmas twist – The Sleigh Ride. We’re also going to do a big music competition called Britain’s Best Part-time Band. There’s also going to be the first live �鶹Լ�� broadcast from Television Centre since we moved out, in Live From Television Centre, we’ve got four regional theatre companies doing innovative theatre pieces – we are working with �鶹Լ�� Two on that as I’ll explain. There’s also good news for Scandi drama fans, we’ve three series coming this autumn: a new one called Beck, the return of Arne Dahl and the new series of The Bridge. Other Christmas treats on �鶹Լ�� Four include Frank Skinner doing a history of popular entertainment with Suzy Klein.

For me the core thing that �鶹Լ�� Four is always about is innovation: it’s about innovation in form, with seasons things like Slow TV; it’s about innovation in content; and it’s about innovation in talent which is what Britain’s Best Part Time Band is about – opening the doors of the �鶹Լ�� to new talent who don’t normally get to appear on our channels.

Over the last year I’ve been working closely with Kim Shillinglaw, Controller of �鶹Լ�� Two, building a productive, effective and, again, fiercely innovative relationship with �鶹Լ�� Two. The plan is more combined seasons, like the India season earlier this year; next we’re doing one around theatre – which is what Live from Television Centre is about and there are other things coming down the line as well. There’s now a really close and clear relationship between the two channels where �鶹Լ�� Two brings the audience the universe: big things, big subjects, and what �鶹Լ�� Four does is bring you the atom, a deep dive down into content in a way that no other channel will do.

We also want to build ever closer relationships with our audience – so what I’m very keen on, in the course of 2016, is that the audience be able to get more involved with �鶹Լ�� Four. As part of this we’ve got an exciting project around Land Art where we’re going to invite the audience to contribute to build a piece of art in the landscape. We’re also doing some interesting work around social media and music: we’re bringing back Brian Pern, who is our comedy music guru, and he’ll be tweeting and talking about our Friday night music output and building a conversation with the audience around that.

Cassian Harrison is Channel Editor, �鶹Լ�� Four.

Find out what Charlotte Moore, Controller of �鶹Լ�� One and Damian Kavanagh, Controller of �鶹Լ�� Three spoke about at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
Read the press release about upcoming programmes on �鶹Լ�� Four.
Read Cassian's blog 'Song and Dance on �鶹Լ�� Four and beyond'.
Discover more about 'Live from Television Centre' on the �鶹Լ�� Media Centre website.

Making �鶹Լ�� Four's Genius of the Ancient World

2015-08-03T09:37:08+00:00

Bettany Hughes presents Genius of the Ancient World, a three-part series about philosophy, starting on Wednesday 5 August 2015 at 9pm on �鶹Լ�� Four.

In the latest in our series of posts explaining how and why we make the programmes we do, Head of Development, Religion and Ethics, Mike Smith explains some of the challenges in making �鶹Լ�� Four's series Genius of the Ancient World.

What you do and how were you involved in the �鶹Լ�� Four TV series, Genius of the Ancient World?

I'm Mike Smith, executive producer of the series. Whilst the programme was being made I was the Head of Development for Religion and Ethics, but since them I've now become head of development for �鶹Լ�� Arts.

What attracted you to the idea to making the series?

There has been a continuing interest for most of the last of the 60 or 70 years an interest in this particular moment - approximately 5th century BC. It was a time when the way the world worked changed dramatically.

Up until that moment people had been told that the way the world worked was that the pantheon Gods were pretty much seen as being in charge of people’s lives. Gods who had sacrifices made to them or needed to be worshipped to ensure particular outcomes in daily life.

But, social and economic factors meant big change: that people were trading with each other, transacting with one another over goods. This led to them understanding that, for example, if you were trading goods with one another – you needed to be able to trust those you traded with. It was at this moment in time that trust between individuals became more potent an idea, and therefore the idea of 'human agency' became very very important. This moment in time is referred to as the 'axial age' - meaning that this pivotal moment was one when the world turned on its axis.

If you're making religion and ethics programmes then the point when the big faiths represented in the UK begin are generally regarded in storytelling terms as the 'year zeros'. But where the idea of human agency is concerned, the year 5 BC doesn't really lock on to the other more commonly regarded 'year zeros'. It’s not usually the moment of the start of the story.

So how could we illustrate this pivotal moment and tell a good story around it? We realised that the three lives that seemed to connect together - Buddha, Confucius and Socrates - helped explain this axial moment and resonated with present-day people. For example, Socrates (psychologists and others in medical science still use what is known today as Socratic questioning), Buddhism is on the rise in present-day popularity. Confucianism is also gaining interest because of the rise in China's prominence in the world. All of these things made for an interesting and new piece of storytelling. Bettany Hughes, our presenter, had written a book about one of our philosphers, Socrates, so from that point on it seemed like this was the making of a strong idea.

What were the challenges?  

One could make jokes about philosophy - just look at the Monty Python joke about philosophy - and how it isn't usually picked naturally as a subject for television. The subject is traditionally perceived to be studied by 'clever' people or academics.

But really, what does philosophy mean? It means the love of ideas. When you start examining the ideas philosophers were thinking about - like, how do you live a good life? Is money a good or a bad thing? Is democracy a good or a bad thing? - ideas that were infiltrating into society of the day, these would have been the things we were asking ourselves if we had been living at that time. They're also questions we're still asking ourselves.  

So, the challenge to begin with was communicating the enthusiasm people have for the subject. And the answer to the challenge was to take a biographical approach to how these individuals and examine how it was that they started to think about these ideas. What we realised was that as soon as you have a biography of an individual (or three) then you have a framework and the details that go with it. And that gave us an opportunity to visit the places these people lived in and illustrate the story we're telling about them and their ideas discovering quite a few things about these people as a result.

For example, the Socrates we discovered was a world away from the buff, curly haired individual we see on a pedestal. Socrates was a soldier. We started asking: what do as a teenager? Where was he hanging out? What can we learn about the real him? As a teenager he fought. He occupied the dodgier parts of Athens where the prostitutes were hanging out. There was a whole set of details which took us away from the distant figure on a pedestal and turned him into someone who had a story. At which point the ideas become much more real and relevant and make them similar as something someone might be discussing in every day life.

This seemed like a fresh approach to philosophy and it seemed like it was the love of the ideas which was at the heart of the proposition and for �鶹Լ�� Four. The channel is the place for this kind of programme. I think that makes this a unique thing. There was a sense that we wanted to do something really properly for �鶹Լ�� Four.

Why is this a programme which the �鶹Լ�� would make, do you think?

I think you need to look a little deeper and ask why would �鶹Լ�� Four make something like this? For me, the channel is a place where the audience knows that if you tune in you will get something which stretches your intellectual curiosity, isn't hard work, isn't going to feel dutiful. But, what it will do is take an entry point where you have a level of interest and it will take you intelligently and thoughtfully into making you feel that you have spent the time wisely. And that you're not going to get a superficial unpacking of something that's going to be a flash in the pan, but instead you'll get some meaningful, long lasting and memorable. I think that's quite a good definition of what �鶹Լ�� Four is.

This programme is a partnership with the Open University. What does a partnership with the OU bring to a programme maker?

It brings a number of different things. Often as a programme maker of a long-form factual programme you are aware that you have a mainstream universal audience that you are speaking to and you have a specialist or academic audience who you hope you are not making them shout at the television. The best of our programmes actually nourish and engage. As programme makers we aspire to both the general viewer and also the specialist who will know a lot about the subject. Not only does the Open University perfectly reflect that dual aspiration, but it helps realise it too.

In practical terms, the OU can provide us with editorial support. Having an academic associated with the project who can look at our scripts and finished programmes and check them, or perhaps give us advice along the way, or challenge us if we're repeating entrenched views or if our editorial is in need of further contextualisation is really valuable. In a sense the partnership gives us an opportunity to formalise the relationship between specialist teams of academics and programme makers.

The �鶹Լ�� gets OU expertise within the team of the project. Sometimes we'll get a particular brief from the OU for a particular programme, and in return we'll work to get them material which might be useful for their study courses. We'll work in such a way that the OU academics are an extension of our team. From our perspective that means we feel as though we have an extra level of support that we wouldn't normally get.

And of course, it's a co-production relationship too so on a small number of projects the OU are contributing budget to the programmes that we make. Effectively what we're doing suits what they're doing. Our common interests overlap. We can benefit one another.

Genius of the Ancient World starts on Wednesday at 9pm on �鶹Լ�� Four.

Making Slow Television

2015-05-01T13:27:17+00:00

Metal. Part of the Handmade series broadcast in the �鶹Լ�� Four Goes Slow season

�鶹Լ�� Four has a special series of unhurried programmes airing this weekend. Amongst these unrushed TV shows are three 'Handmade' films. Director Ian Denyer explains how the programmes - Glass, Metal and Wood - were produced.

When the commission for Handmade was first discussed we knew it would be ground-breaking television, in part because the ground itself was old. These films would be a celebration of programme making in a way not attempted since the single-shot interludes seen on the �鶹Լ�� in the early days of TV in the 1950s.

The brief was brief: no words, no music, long, very long held shots. I added my own restrictions to this – no shot less than ten seconds, and no movement. On the first recces I investigated the possibilities of single shots lasting five minutes. Having grown up being constantly asked to move the camera more and cut faster, this was a joy. All the action would come to the frame. This was a chance to celebrate craft on both sides of the camera.

The soundscape - recorded on location - would be of paramount importance. Film sound recordist David Harcombe came on technical recces and opted for a Neumann stereo rig for most close-ups, augmented by cardiod plant microphones. The sound was the starting point for some shots - when Bladesmith Owen Bush first appears he moves around his forge yard between an array of microphones, but is also wearing radio mics inside his shirt and taped into his turn-ups to deliver the delicate crunching of boots through drifts of steel waste.

Under time pressure, most factual directors must concern themselves with performance and narrative, and leave much of the camerawork to the Director of Photography. In this case, having broken down the process, I was free to indulge my first love, which is composition, something I share with Director of Photography Andrew Muggleton. We’ve worked together for twenty years, frequently on film. Executive Producer Richard Bright and I agreed his painterly eye and minimalistic approach to lighting would allow us to shoot as far as possible by available light.

Shooting process - breaking down sequences into their constituent parts - is one of the best ways to learn how to make films. This job took all of us back to basics. The challenges were the sheer number of elements involved, the occasional need to telescope time without losing the thread of the process, and the need to help artists see their tasks, for the first time, as a series of movements rather than a single smooth action.

So much of what they did was instinctive. The worst of working with animals is that with the honourable exception of sheepdogs, they never do the same thing twice. These craftspeople always did the same thing, but without really knowing it. To watch it once was pretty much to know how to shoot it.

My hope for the series is that viewers will quickly overcome the desire for things to move on, that the absence of so much of what modern TV attention-grabbing – fast cuts, supportive music and voice-over – will be a relief. Just observing, hearing without actively listening, understanding by watching are passive activities we all enjoy in real life.

Now that I’m back to using all the usual tools, making Handmade seems like a holiday.

The Handmade series is part of �鶹Լ�� Four Goes Slow, a selection of deliberately unrushed programmes giving audiences the chance to sit back, unwind and watch some very unhurried television.
Handmade: Glass is on Monday 4th May, 9pm. Handmade: Metal is on Monday 4th May, 9:30pm. Handmade: Wood is on Weds 6th May, 8pm.
For more information on the programmes in this series take a long look at the �鶹Լ�� Four website.

Song and Dance on �鶹Լ�� Four and beyond

2015-01-14T13:51:40+00:00

There’s nothing more terrifying than a blank sheet of paper – and that’s what I was faced with. A bit over a year ago, I had the extraordinary good fortune to be offered the job of running �鶹Լ�� Four. I was truly delighted at the prospect, but after the champagne had fizzed AND the kind emails had run dry, and I’d bought myself a �鶹Լ�� Four keyring and mug (yours for a fiver apiece from the �鶹Լ�� shop should you so desire), there I was: faced with that blank sheet of paper. There was plenty of fabulous stuff from my predecessors laid out for 2014, but 2015? Well that was a different story.

I knew I wanted to try and do something BIG. �鶹Լ�� Four might be a small channel in the grand scheme of things, but over its life it has made a name for bold and innovative programming. And I also knew I wanted the channel to embrace the Arts, and with real passion and verve. �鶹Լ�� Four is unique in British broadcasting for its commitment to celebrating the very best of British and global culture and that’s a tradition I was (and am) determined to continue.

But how? There were already some lovely ideas that Jan (Younghusband – Head of Commissioning for Music) and her team had come up with, but was there a way that we could bring them together under a bigger banner, and could that even shape our creative thinking into the year ahead?

And then I began to wonder, what are the most universal arts of all? What are the ones that everyone loves, that can stir and fire even the most hardened of souls, and, even more importantly, that we all feel we might even be able to have a go at ourselves? Under a sputtering shower-head I’m pretty sure my rendition of Life on Mars is a thing of harmonious wonder (much as family Harrison may disagree), and on the rare occasions I’m now allowed near a dancefloor - basically weddings and, er, weddings - my moves are without doubt like Jagger (although here I fear family Harrison may move from tactful disagreement to outright hilarity)...

… Perhaps, I wondered, �鶹Լ�� Four could spend 2015 making a bit of a Song and Dance?

For Song and Dance are, I think, the most democratic of arts. We have all had a go with varying degrees of success. But Song and Dance are also arts that are extraordinary to see performed, and the greater the skill, the greater that pleasure is.

And so was born �鶹Լ�� Four’s Year of Song And Dance; a year of programmes that has become not only a celebration of some of the greatest performers in the UK and worldwide, but also a fabulous opportunity for supporting a whole new generation of talent.

We’ve got the fabulous Young Dancer of the Year competition coming up this spring, which celebrates a new generation of performers across Ballet, Contemporary, Street and South Asian dance. And we’ve got Cardiff Singer of the World in the summer, an extraordinary award that celebrates the very best in new classical singing talent.

We’ve also got terrific programmes and series across the year from some of the world’s biggest names in Song and Dance. Amongst many others, we’ve got Tony Papanno, Music Director of the Royal Opera, unpacking the extraordinary story of the Classical Voice in a new three-part series The Golden Age of Singing. David Bintley, Artistic Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet will be telling the tale of the very birth of Ballet – at the court of Louis XIV - in The King Who Invented Ballet, and Alistair Spalding of Sadlers Wells and the dance group Laban will recreating an entire century’s worth of innovation in dance in The History of Contemporary Dance. We’ve even got Petula Clark telling the story of French chanson in The Story of French Music.

And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve got some extraordinary performances including pieces from The BalletBoyz – one of the most innovative dance companies working today - and Wim Wender’s award-winning film Pina, based on the life and work of German choreographer Pina Bausch.

But what’s been even more fun than making a Song and Dance on �鶹Լ�� Four is discovering how much the rest of the �鶹Լ�� has wanted to join in too. �鶹Լ�� Two are coming onside with an fascinating account of the first London performance of one of the world’s favourite operas La Traviata in La Traviata and the Women of London, Radio 3 are joining with us in our season on the Classical Voice, and Radio 1Xtra, Radio 2 and Radio 3 are helping to support Young Dancer of the Year.

But heartfelt thanks are due in turn - for one idea could never have filled that blank sheet of paper on its own. Without the work, creativity, passion and support of countless individuals, from �鶹Լ�� production and multiple independent production companies, to partners and colleagues across the �鶹Լ�� (and most particularly Jan and her team), �鶹Լ�� Four’s Year of Song and Dance would never have been able to take its first tentative step, or sing its first querulous note…

I hope you will enjoy.

Cassian Harrison is Channel Editor, �鶹Լ�� Four

Read the Song and Dance season press release on the Media Centre website

Country Nights season celebrates history of Nashville

2014-10-30T12:56:24+00:00

Al Booth is Editor, Specialist Music at Radio 2, a role which covers a range of output from the Folk Awards to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and a range of musical genres in between. The first week in November marks one of the highlights of her musical year.

This week I’m heading to Nashville for the 26th time – that amounts to a few hundred hours spent backstage at the Country Music Association Awards, a few dozen live programmes broadcast to the UK, countless sessions recorded for Bob Harris’s radio shows and several country music documentaries made for Radio 2 – not to mention the twenty five cowboy shirts and ten pairs of cowboy boots purchased on late night shopping sprees on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.

It’s a wonderful and unique city which I love, and country music, in all its guises, is its lifeblood. The fortunes of the city are mirrored by the fortunes of the country music industry – and now, more than any other time since my first visit in 1999 Nashville is flourishing. Country music’s popularity is growing, the Nashville TV series is one big advert for the city and Nashville’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the US. Right now Nashville is cool in a major way, and this month �鶹Լ�� Four and Radio 2 are celebrating the history, the culture, the people and the music of this great city with our joint Country Nights season. With TV and Radio documentaries which celebrate the life-stories of musical legends, explore the international influence of country music, discover Nashville’s alternative country scene and trace the commercial and musical history of the city, Country Nights reflects the importance of Nashville’s influence on America’s musical landscape and beyond.

The Heart of Country – How Nashville Became Music City USA on �鶹Լ�� Four gives an insight into the commercial and cultural influences which shaped the city, whilst 'The Gambler' himself, Kenny Rogers, is the subject of a new documentary - Kenny Rogers – Cards on the Table (Kenny, incidentally was a surprise guest on Patrick Kielty’s live Radio 2 show from Nashville last November – he was doing some interviews in the studio next door and we grabbed him – he’s a real country legend in every sense of the word!)

Al meets country music legend Emmylou Harris.

Unsurprisingly Radio 2’s Bob Harris crops up several times during the season. Bob has been the voice of country music on Radio 2 for the last 15 years, and he and I started visiting Nashville at the same time. Fitting then that Bob’s personal take on the city makes up one of the key TV programmes in this series. Bob Harris: My Nashville sees Bob exploring some of his favourite Nashville haunts and talking to some of the friends he’s made and artists he’s championed over the years. He talks to Emmylou Harris on the historic stage of country music’s Mother Church, the Ryman Auditorium; he joins legendary guitarist Duane Eddy at RCA studio B, home of the ‘Nashville Sound’; and the programme culminates with a special house concert at the home of Nashville based singer songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman.

I was one of the select audience who got the chance to witness Nashville’s renowned musical community coming together in a wonderfully informal and celebratory way. Filmed last November a few days after the CMA awards, this house concert brought some of the greatest songwriters and artists in the city into Beth’s front room – sharing stories and songs over some home-cooked food and cold beers. To be watching some of my favourite singers in the world like Gretchen Peters, Suzy Bogguss and Beth Nielsen Chapman performing in this environment was an incredible and uniquely ‘Nashville’ experience (you can see the whole concert on the �鶹Լ�� Red Button on 14th November).

Al Booth and Bob Harris in Nashville in 2011.

As well as his TV documentary Bob is a huge part of Radio 2’s ‘Country Night’s coverage’, starting with a programme about the history of the Ryman Auditorium (Monday 3rd November 10pm) and finishing with Bob’s highlights show from this year’s CMA awards (Saturday 8th November 6pm). Bob was also the host of an unusual concert held last March in the �鶹Լ�� Radio Theatre featuring one of country’s biggest contemporary stars Brad Paisley. Brad had been headlining the C2C: Country to Country festival at the O2 the day before with his full band in front of 14,000 fans. From one extreme to another he arrived at the Radio Theatre with just a couple of songwriter friends and some acoustic guitars and improvised his way through an evening of acoustic songs, stories and chat in front of a small invited audience. You can see and hear the results as part of ‘Country Nights’ which will feature both a Radio and TV version of this exclusive concert.

The excitement in the UK for Brad’s performances comes on the back of a growing appetite for country music generally in this country – something which Paul Sexton explores in his Radio 2 documentary Nashville: UK (Thursday 6th November 10pm). Also in this season is another chance to hear the story of one of Nashville’s most influential session guitarists Harold Bradley (Radio 2, Tuesday 4th November 10pm) and �鶹Լ�� Four will also provide viewers with a rare chance to see Robert Elfstrom’s 1969 classic film that captures Johnny Cash at his peak with Johnny Cash – The Man, His World, His Music.

As for me and my team, we’ll be clocking up some more hours backstage at the Country Music Association Awards, adding a dozen more live sessions to the Bob Harris archive and bringing the best of Nashville to the masses with a three hour Radio 2 show presented by Patrick Kielty live from Music Row (2pm Wednesday 5th November).

And then there’s the question of the cowboy shirts…

Al Booth is Editor, Specialist Music at Radio 2.

More details about the Country Nights season can be found on the Media Centre website.

Mr Blue Sky thinking: How Radio 2 persuaded Jeff Lynne's ELO to play Hyde Park

2014-10-16T11:47:37+00:00

Ahead of tomorrow's broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Four of 'Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park', Head of Music Radio 2 and 6 Music, Jeff Smith tells the story of how Radio 2 managed to convince Lynne to play their annual event.

“It’s good to remember that this is a dream job, whether you’re performing or working in broadcasting or the biz, so dream.”

Those were the words of Iggy Pop as he delivered this year’s �鶹Լ�� 6 Music John Peel lecture from the Radio Festival in Salford.

My dream as a kid was to work in music and radio. And the music that provided much of my early inspiration was that of Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra.

I’d seen them from very restricted view seats at Wembley Arena as a teenager in 1978 and was thoroughly mesmerized by them from the moment they took to the stage.

Fast forward to 2012 and in my current role of Head of Music Radio 2 and 6 Music… I was listening to new material from my old hero Jeff Lynne. His manager Craig Fruin was sitting in my office, playing me this music and wondered if there might be a place on our stations for Jeff today.

As a fan I was excited to hear what Jeff had been doing. I know Radio 2 listeners are predominantly fans of ELO too and upon hearing the great new music I had to ask that if Jeff were ever to consider performing live, it would be lovely if he’d think about appearing at our big annual event – Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park.

Knowing Jeff hadn’t been performing fully live since the mid-80s I expected a long wait.

Then last year after a brilliant TV documentary about his life, Jeff popped up on the �鶹Լ�� Children In Need Rocks event with a couple of ELO songs. It was then I knew he was warming up for potentially more.

I contacted Craig his manager and we discussed various ideas – but thankfully he had kept the Hyde Park idea firmly in his head.

The clincher for us came when Jeff appeared as a guest on Chris Evans’ Radio 2 Breakfast Show. Chris, as another huge ELO fan, was desperate to know when we might see more of Jeff and his music live on stage. Jeff hinted that we might and it was then that I started to discuss the actual practicalities of Jeff doing our Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park show in September 2014.

We had to overcome one substantial issue: ELO no longer existed as a band but we had the core of Lynne and Richard Tandy. I knew Mike Stevens as the hugely talented musical director who had used the band he formed to support Take That to back Jeff and Richard at CIN Rocks. He was also another massive ELO fan. So I contacted Mike and he was more than delighted to take on the project.

This was no mean feat. His seven piece band was supported by two backing vocalists and the �鶹Լ�� Concert Orchestra and Mike had to recreate all of the arrangements and orchestral parts for 19 of Jeff Lynne’s songs.

Following two weeks of rehearsal and a production sound check, Jeff Lynne’s ELO were live on stage in Hyde Park in front of a sell-out crowd of 50 000 people. It was a moment to remember. The crowd were in absolute awe as he took to the stage and played the first inimitable chords of All Over The World.

So there I was over thirty years later but this time watching Jeff Lynne’s ELO from a much better access point than I had in 1978. I was side of stage and had one of the best views in the whole park.

It’s a moment neither Radio 2 nor myself could have dreamed of. It also gave millions of other ELO fans prime vantage points on air. A huge radio audience tuned in and a staggering 1.19million viewers tuned in to watch on the �鶹Լ�� Red Button - almost double the audience of last year. Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park is the highlight in the Radio 2 musical calendar. Since it started, it has grown from strength to strength.

And now people can enjoy the experience all over again as �鶹Լ�� Four broadcasts the entire set – a programme of brilliant music and brilliant performance by one of the true greats.

Jeff Smith is Head of Music Radio 2 and 6Music.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Hyde Park is on �鶹Լ�� Four on Friday 17 October at 10pm

Lust for Life: Iggy Pop delivers The John Peel Lecture

2014-10-13T07:44:27+00:00

I’ll admit it. It’s been a while since I have attended a lecture. In fact, even when they were compulsory as part of my degree in Popular Music Studies (stop sniggering at the back…it is a real qualification) I think I was only present in body, not necessarily in mind and/or spirit. With all due respect to my esteemed tutors, things may have been very different had Iggy Pop been holding court in the musty halls of the music block.

Iggy Pop performing at Glastonbury in 2007

This evening at 7.30pm, ‘Mr Pop’, who confesses to having: “never given a lecture in my life” will hold his first one in Salford when he delivers the �鶹Լ�� Music John Peel Lecture as part of the Radio Festival 2014. He will tackle the subject of free music in a capitalist society and it is unlikely the ‘Godfather of Punk’ will pull any punches when discussing giving the system a shake-up.

Last year saw the first female lecturer, Charlotte Church who spoke about women and their representation in the music industry. This year Michigan born Iggy (real name James Osterberg) will be the first American to take the reins. At 67, he will also be the oldest speaker (just). Although two years Pete Townshend’s junior (who presented the first Peel Lecture) he will be one year older than Townshend was when he spoke in 2011.

Like Billy Bragg who delivered 2012’s lecture, The Stooges frontman got his first spin on UK radio courtesy of John Peel in August 1969 when the DJ played Little Doll from their debut album. Now a broadcaster himself (he hosts a show on 6Music) Pop has a great deal of respect for Peel: "I get the feeling that John was the kind of guy who would have done his job for nothing, as long as he felt great about it. So we have that in common.” This year’s lecture will have added poignancy as it marks 10 years since John Peel died in October 2004.

The annual �鶹Լ�� Music John Peel Lectures began in 2011 and were the brainchild of 6Music’s Head of Programmes, Paul Rodgers, who developed the idea with 6Music deputy editor Mike Hanson and then pitched it to the Radio Academy. Since then, each year 6Music has selected and invited a notable figure from the music industry to shape a debate and create insight around music and music-related media. The station works with the lecturer to find a subject that is current, and that the individual is able to use their personal experience working in the industry to talk authoritatively about.

On the night, Iggy Pop will be interviewed by Lauren Laverne, this along with the lecture will be broadcast live on 6Music. The event is being filmed for �鶹Լ�� Four and the broadcast of the lecture, on Sunday 19 October at 8pm, will include a Q & A session with invited guests.

So then this just leaves the burning question - will Iggy Pop deliver the lecture with his top on or off?

Jen Macro is digital content producer, About the �鶹Լ�� Blog and Website.

Iggy Pop will deliver his John Peel Lecture on Monday 13 October at 7.30pm. You can listen to it live on �鶹Լ�� 6Music and watch it on �鶹Լ�� Four on Sunday 19 October at 8pm.
His weekly radio show is broadcast on 6Music on Sundays at 4pm.
Watch Iggy talk to Kirsty Wark about the Peel Lecture on Newsnight.
For more information about the �鶹Լ�� 6Music you can visit the station’s website.
Follow @�鶹Լ��6Music on twitter.