Talkback Thames to split

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

ERA: Ending as Talkback Thames is set to split

TALKBACK Thames, one of the most prolific names in television production in recent times are to part ways as part of a major shakeup of operations at the company’s owners, Fremantle Media.  The joint-venture, responsible for many of the popular shows seen on screen today, will cease to exist from New Year’s Day next year with both companies reverting back to their original solo identities.  This is because Fremantle is aiming to broaden its programming genres and it plans to do that by launching two new production companies in the process.

     Talkback was launched in 1981 and launched the careers of many faces like Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, becoming a major player in comedy production in the 1990s with hits like I’m Alan Partridge and They Think It’s All Over.  Thames roots go back to when it was part of the ITV network, launching in 1968 and holding the London franchise of the broadcaster on weekdays until 1992.  It’s mainstay of programmes were mainly in drama like The Sweeney, Minder and The Bill.

     After Thames was ousted out of ITV, it became an independent production company and in 1996, it was taken over by Pearson Television, predecessor to Fremantle.  Both Talkback and Thames merged to form Talkback Thames in 2003 with its current onscreen name first coming into effect two years later.

      So what happens now to both companies in this production shakeup?  Talkback will now revert to its original roots of producing comedy entertainment/panel shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI and Celebrity Juice whilst Thames will now focus on just general entertainment programmes like The X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and All Star Family Fortunes.  They will also be responsible for producing an upcoming revival of the classic gameshow Blockbusters for digital channel Challenge.  The two new productions labels set up, will be known as Retort, which will be responsible for scripted comedy (PhoneShop and Richard Bacon’s Beer & Pizza Club) and Boundless, which will oversee production of factual shows (Grand Designs and The Apprentice.)

The change in direction has been requested by Fremantle Media UK chief executive Sara Geater, who said in a prepared statement: "This new label structure allows us to showcase the amazing talent within our business by enabling us to be even more creative and innovative to better respond to our customers' needs. We're committed to developing inspiring entertainment for broadcasters and audiences, and I believe that this structure of labels with big ambitions will ensure we better serve our customers with bespoke propositions that will deliver them the hits of the future."

      It’s certainly a bitter pill to swallow, having to say farewell to such an excellent provider of British television over the last few years.  Now though, it’s time to face up to the future and this change seems that it will give a new lease of life to Fremantle’s current programmes and it will certainly attract the attention of potential new investors.

F1 classic races - Brazil

FOR the final time this season and on this blog, I will be looking back at specific events from previous years of the country about to host a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship.  This time, it will be a bit different, as I charter the history of the Brazilian Grand Prix since it returned to Interlagos in 1990.

        The Brazilian Grand Prix had been staged on the Rio de Janeiro circuit in the 1980s, but returned to a shorter Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo from 1990 onwards.  To locals, it is better known as the Autodromo Carlos Pace, a Brazilian driver who won his home event in 1975.  Sao Paulo has certainly put on some special events since its return to the Grand Prix calendar.

        Alain Prost won the first event in 1990 after local hero Ayrton Senna ran into the back of backmarker Satoru Nakajima whilst leading.  Senna had never won his home race, but he ended the barren run in 1991.  He started on pole position and spent the majority of the race, fighting off a stiff challenge from the Williams of Nigel Mansell.  A wild spin for Mansell led to a gearbox failure, which was the Achilles heel of that chassis.  With three laps to go, the unpredictable Brazilian weather played its usual wildcard, with Senna waving furiously for the race to be stopped.  Aided to that, he was struggling with a misbehaving gearbox of his own.  Somehow, he finished the race with just one working gear and the McLaren beat Riccardo Patrese by just two seconds.  Cue euphoria and ecstasy in the crowd.  Senna had worked so hard for the victory; he was in intense physical pain and had to be lifted out of his car by paramedics.  He was suffering from cramp in his arms and shoulders.  Undeterred, he stood on the podium to take the top prize and achieve his remaining ambition of winning his home race.  He repeated the feat in 1993, edging out Damon Hill in another wet/dry race.

      For 1994, Ayrton switched to the all-conquering Williams team.  With Mansell away in IndyCars and Prost retired from racing, surely he was going to steamroller a mediocre field and take his fourth championship.  However, the partnership didn’t work out and as we all know, it ended tragically at Imola.  However, it was already in trouble from the outset in Brazil, with the 34-year old clearly unhappy about the nervous handling of the FW16 chassis.  He did drag the machinery to pole position, but that was more down to his brilliance behind the wheel, rather than the car’s competitiveness.  In the race, he spun off and stalled his engine whilst running second on lap 56.  As Michael Schumacher coasted to victory by a full lap, the Brazilian fans heading out of the gates in their droves, unaware that this was the last Brazilian Grand Prix Ayrton Senna had competed in.

        For years afterwards, Brazil had to largely do with pay drivers in the sport, such as Pedro Diniz, Tarso Marques and Ricardo Rosset.  Their only shining light was the talents of Rubens Barrichello and when he moved to Ferrari for the start of the 2000 season, there were high hopes that he might end their long drought for a home winner.  Sadly, Rubens Interlagos jinx continued to strike at Maranello.  Hydraulics failure twice, an accident with Ralf Schumacher in 2001 and a fuel feed problem in 2003 put him on the sidelines, part of an event that will go down as a special race.

       New tyre regulations meant both Michelin and Bridgestone had not brought a full wet tyre to Sao Paulo in 2003 and with the track soaked, the race started behind the Safety Car.  An aquaplaning river at turn three turned that corner into the car version of Beachers Brook at the Grand National.  Juan Pablo Montoya, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher were among the six victims who crashed out on this corner.  Barrichello looked set for victory, when he passed David Coulthard’s tyre hungry McLaren, but the fuel pressure issue robbed him of a certain triumph.  The incident-packed race was stopped early after almighty accidents for the Jaguar of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso’s Renault.  Both escaped unharmed, although Alonso needed precautionary checks in an ambulance, so missed the podium ceremony.  The race was initially awarded to the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen, but a countback error meant Giancarlo Fisichella was rightfully awarded his maiden success five days later in an FIA enquiry into the incidents in Paris.

      Traditionally, Brazil had been one of the early season races, but it moved to a season ending regular from 2004 onwards.  Juan Pablo Montoya secured the final victory for Williams to the present day that year, before Interlagos became the setting for some gripping championship deciders.  Fernando Alonso was crowned champion in 2005, becoming the youngest driver to achieve this in the process.  A year later, he did it again, although this was overshadowed by Michael Schumacher’s final race of his first career, which involved a storming drive back through the field to fourth, after an early puncture.  In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen pinched the championship from under the noses of McLaren’s Alonso and Lewis Hamilton with a season ending victory and in 2009, Jenson Button put in the drive of his life from 14^th on the grid to clinch the title with a stirring performance to fifth for newcomers Brawn GP. 

      However, if you want drama, try the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, which will go down as one of the most dramatic finishes of all time.  Going into the event, Lewis Hamilton had a seven point lead over local hero, Felipe Massa.  Massa did nothing wrong all weekend, starting on pole position and never looked troubled to take his sixth win of the season in changeable conditions.  Fifth place would have been good enough for Hamilton to take the title in only his second season in the sport, but when he was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso with three laps to go, Hamilton had been relegated to sixth.  For the second successive year, the championship seemed to be slipping away from Hamilton, but the wet weather intensified on the final lap and left Timo Glock’s Toyota stranded on dry tyres.  He was powerless to resist Vettel and Hamilton, who passed Glock into the final corner on the last lap of the season.  Ferrari celebrated, thinking they had won, as did McLaren.  It was the latter who had it right; Hamilton had secured the title in the most sensational fashion possible. 

      This season’s title battle may have been settled a long time ago, but let’s hope Brazil produces another special event this weekend to conclude the 2011 Formula One season.

TV classics - Brookside

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

BROOKSIDE was a soap opera that whether you loved it or hated it, it just couldn’t be ignored.  Set in Brookside Close, a fictional cul-de-sac of houses in Liverpool, it launched in November 1982, along with the arrival a brand new terrestrial channel, Channel 4.

     In its early years, it was seen as a cheap, heartless version of Coronation Street, the only other prime-time soap at the time of its launch.  It was also heavily criticised by the Mersey public itself because they felt it was a distasteful portrayal of average scouse life.  However, creator Phil Redmond vowed to win over the critics and started doing what ITV couldn’t; browsing through the real-life stories with the aim of incorporating them into Brookie in some way.  It worked and the show’s ratings went through the roof.  Brookside helped launched the careers of many actors and actresses including Ricky Tomlinson, Amanda Burton, Paul Usher, Claire Sweeney, Anna Friel and Barry Sloane.

     By 1990, with ratings increasing to over seven million, the show was rewarded with an extra episode and an extension in the set was made with the arrival of Brookside Parade.  This allowed room for an extra restaurant, a bar and in a first for British soap, a petrol station on the promenade.

STAR: Anna Friel's career took off with some juicy storylines on the Close

     February 1993 brought a change of direction in Brookside with its most famous plot in history.  The troubled Jordache family changed forever when Beth (Anna Friel) stabbed abusing dad Trevor (Bryan Murray) when attacking his wife Mandy (Sandra Maitland).  In an act of defiance, they buried his body underneath their patio and it wasn’t until little less than two years later when it was dug up.  Mandy and Beth were jailed for life and the viewing figures struck 10 million for the first (and perhaps only) time in history.  The complex plotline also brought along Britain’s first pre-watershed lesbian kiss between Beth and family friend Margaret Clemence (Nicola Stephenson) in January 1994.  With that, along with often scenes of drug abuse, alcohol addiction and grudges, many formed by perhaps Brookie’s most-known character, Jimmy Corkhill (Dean Sullivan), the soap was able to deal with hard-hitting issues in a unique way and receive critical acclaim for it.

     Phil Redmond quit the soap in 1998, to focus more on building up potential on the recently-launched Hollyoaks.  His final produced scenes centred on Brookside Parade being blown up in a gas leak, but it turned into an anti-climax with no loss of life.  The departure of Redmond was another hammer blow for the show as it had been rated by experts as having become too dramatic and intense for pre-watershed airing.  A new production team aimed to try and stem the recent flow of tough storylines but the plan instead went in the opposite direction.

     By 2000, the soap was in crisis.  Channel 4 persuaded Redmond to come back and offer Brookie a much needed lifeline.  For its 20th anniversary, Redmond decided that a fortnight-long siege plot would hopefully drum up the much-needed support.  The episodes were somewhat explosive and distressing to say the least with every cast member held captive in their own houses by escaped convict Terry ‘Psycho’ Gibson and his henchman.  It was mass carnage with two people being killed (one being pushed through a window!), two raped and others being beaten up.  The shocking events culminated with Gibson, having finally been trapped by armed police, using a machine gun to strike down a police helicopter.  It crashed into the petrol station, engulfing Brookside in a massive fireball, and claiming the life of another innocent victim.

     Needless to say, the plot failed miserably.  Though it did record the best ratings in a while (2 million compared the norm then of around 500,000), it came under attack by critics for the way it had been handled.  There are far too many similarities with the far more successful plane crash in Emmerdale in 1993.  Regulator at the time, ITC (Independent Television Commission) received thousands of complaints from viewers who had been left traumatised and physically unwell by the horrific episodes.

     With no alternatives left, Channel 4 threw in the towel and cancelled the show.  Redmond expressed his disappointment by saying: “It happens.  Life must move on and we all have to come to terms with that.”  First, Brookside was scaled down into a Saturday omnibus show, before moving in mid-2003 into a late night midnight/1am programme.

     The soap bowed out with little fanfare or mention in November 2003.  It fell to Jimmy Corkhill to utter the last words and paint a D on the street sign to read BROOKSIDE CLOSED!  Brookie’s demise was Hollyoaks gain, as a week after Brookie’s swansong, the Chester-based soap went into a weekly format, slowly starting its transition into top-quality soap.

DEMISE: Brookside got the chop from the TV schedules in 2003

     Brookside however will live on as an innovative soap to many people and is still mentioned of today.  It’s difficult to say whether it would have survived another few years than what it got if it hadn’t taken a wrong turn in direction but whatever the case, the writing was on wall already when Redmond tried to rescue the show from oblivion.  The legacy of the close will remain for years to come.