Programmes such as The Only Way Is Essex are watched by 'sophisticated' audiences, claim executives
Viewers have forgiven broadcasters for the string of deception scandals such as Queengate that so damaged their reputation just a few years ago, and happily accept a degree of fakery in shows such as The Only Way is Essex, a panel of senior documentary-makers claimed on Friday.
Speaking at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the creative director of BBC Entertainment North, Dominic Bird, said audiences are now so sophisticated and media literate that they do not feel swindled watching stage-managed segments in factual entertainment such as Sky 1's Pineapple Dance Studios or ITV2's The Only Way Is Essex.
"Of course if you are making a serious documentary then you expect it to be straight down the line but in something like Pineapple Dance Studios you need to have a bit of fun and have those unexpected bits where you don't know what's real and what's not," said Bird.
Bird, speaking as part of a panel entitled We're All Factual Entertainment Now!, added: "It's OK to entertain people ? sometimes people think of entertainment as a dirty word."
When questioned from the floor by MediaGuardian, Bird added that there was a danger of becoming "complacent" so soon after the trust in TV debate but said programmes couldn't explain all the processes of TV.
"If you are embarrassed about telling your audience about something you have done in a programme then maybe you shouldn't do it," he said.
Celia Taylor, Sky Entertainment's head of factual and features who commissioned Pineapple Dance Studios told the audience that some stage-managed dance routines ? called "secret dances" by the production team ? were inserted in to the Sky1 programme which has made a star of choreographer Louie Spence.
"Part of the fun for the viewer was to wait for when those bits would come on," she said.
She added that documentaries such as Pineapple Dance Studios cast a list of characters in search of drama, using methods not dissimilar to those employed on fictional TV drama.
"We do cast characters," added Taylor. "You are always casting your lead character and seeing who are going to be your lead characters."
While the latest comments are unlikely to fully reignite the debate over trust in TV they reflect a consensus that the industry has moved on from the debate in 2007 when TV was heavily scrutinised for a series of instances of fakery.
This includes a deception over the naming of a Blue Peter cat to instances of deception in programmes such as Children in Need and Comic Relief.
ITV controller of poplar factual Jo Clinton-Davis intimated that times have changes since then. "The audience is sophisticated, In The Only Way is Essex they know the premise, in Pineapple they know the dance isn't happening spontaneously. You have a layer of sophistication in drama and you underestimate your [factual entertainment] audience at your peril."
Taylor added the regulatory system was still strict "and you break [the rules] at your peril".
Ralph Lee, Channel 4's head of specialist factual, told the audience that recent focus groups at Channel 4 revealed an audience that was very familiar with how TV worked and members of the public were familiar with terms such as "story arc" and "jeopardy".
Taylor agreed, adding: "That is why The Only Way is Essex worked. Because the cast is so TV literate they know what is expected of them. Audiences also know and they question their motivation for being in the programme."
Lee also revealed he felt the title of Channel 4's new entertainment series Four Rooms in which expert dealers are pitched items by the public was unhelpful to the programme which he admitted had "got off to a slow start" in the ratings.
"It's a new format. I'm not sure the title does very well to describe it," he said.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/10/tv-fakery-documentary-makers
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