The influence of television

• Introduction
• News
• Magazine style
• Current affairs
• Natural history
• Historical
• Drama documentary
• Fly-on-the-wall
• Mocumentary
• Lifestyle
• Reality TV
• Digital developments

Introduction

Broadcasts from the outside world had been the mainstay of the BBC's early ventures into television broadcasting. These included the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 and the Olympic Games in 1948. However, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 is often cited as the moment when the British public really engaged with television. The broadcast, characterised by Richard Dimbleby's solemn commentary, was the benchmark for other royal or state events, including the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales.

As television evolved so too did the non-fiction genres (illustrated below).

News

The BBC Television Newsreel (1948-54), an early example of a news broadcast, followed the pattern of cinema newsreel programmes. This was replaced by BBC Television News in 1954 which aimed to be an 'illustrated summary of the news' - in the very early days this was merely a re-run of radio bulletins.

With the advent of global satellite systems and digital technology we are now presented with 24-hour rolling news services such as BBC News 24 and Sky News, which promise to give viewers news as it actually happens. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this came with the September 11 terrorist attacks in America, where viewers witnessed at first hand the collapse of the World Trade Centre towers.

Magazine style

Picture Page (1936-52) was a pioneering magazine show which was also one of the first TV programmes to receive critical acclaim. The format of topical or general interest items and interviews with popular figures of the time evolved over the years.

Horizon (1964) took the magazine format but applied it solely to scientific issues such as meteorology in the Antarctic (1966), robots replacing the workforce (1979), cancer (1983) and virtual reality (1991). Meanwhile, Whicker's World (1959-1988), featuring a roving global news reporter, Alan Whicker, presented another version of 'a window on the world'. This 'window' was opened further with Michael Palin's popular travelogue trips across the globe.

Current affairs

Panorama (1953) began life as an early magazine-style programme but was overhauled to have a more investigative approach to news items.

Meanwhile, the news was given more in-depth analysis with programmes such as Tonight (1957-1965) which gave weekly follow-ups to news items of the day. This format transmuted into a snappier Twenty Four Hours (1965-72) which looked back on the day's events from a late-night standpoint, and can be seen as a forerunner of today's Newsnight (from 1980).

World in Action (1963-98) presented hard news stories and led the way for programmes which interpreted shifts and changes in society. This included the ambitious ongoing project Seven Up (1963) where a group of seven-year-old children were interviewed - and has caught up with them every seven years since. In 2005 the seventh programme in the project, 49 Up, featured the now middle-aged participants. The programmes serve as fascinating social documents of our modern times, but also display an intimate televisual record of ordinary people's lives.

World in Action 's tradition of bringing untold stories into the public domain was continued by acclaimed journalist and broadcaster John Pilger, who uncovered outrages such as the Pol Pot regime in Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia (1979).

The British documentary film movement also influenced television programmes. Director Mike Grigsby (who made the short Tomorrow's Saturday in this pack) continued making TV documentaries, as he put it 'to give voice to the voiceless' and often featured the camera lingering on people after they have finished speaking.

Programmes such as Channel 4's Cutting Edge and Dispatches continue the documentary tradition in current affairs.

See BFI Screenonline for more information.

Natural history

Natural history programmes blossomed with the development of more intricate camera technology and David Attenborough's oft-mimicked blueprint presentation style, which has spanned the TV years with programmes such as The World About Us (1967-86), Life on Earth (1979) to Planet Earth (2006). It is interesting that Attenborough, then in charge of the fledgingly BBC2, felt the advent of colour television in 1967 would perfectly suit natural history programmes. A humorous homage to this style is the 'mocumentary' The Urban Savannah (2004), directed by Matthew Cook and Vince Lund, in this pack. This satirical take on the wildlife documentary details the behaviour of two 'herds' of youth: the predatory townies and the docile skaters.

Natural history programmes today have also used techniques used in Reality TV shows, such as the single placed observational camera, to bring viewers closer to nature with programmes such as Springwatch (2005) and to a lesser extent, Big Bear Week (2006).

Historical

Television has established a long tradition of historical programmes from outstanding series such as Civilisation (1969), in which art historian Kenneth Clark traced the events which led from the collapse of Greece and Rome to the 20th century, and The Ascent of Man (1973), featuring Dr Jacob Bronowski's study into the evolution of human thought.

The World at War (1973-74) featured 26 episodes charting the history of World War II, narrated by Laurence Olivier. The programme brought a wealth of eye-witness interviews and dramatic footage from Hitler's pre-war Germany to the end of the war.

Today the tradition of historical documentaries continues through academic studies such as Simon Schama's A History of Britain (2000-2002), to more populist programmes such as Adam Hart-Davis' What the Romans Did for Us (2000).

The advance of computer-generated graphics has also enhanced programmes such as Battlefield Britain (2005) by enabling presenters to show simulated battles and explain battle strategies.

TV has also become very good at plundering its own archives in order to present viewers with clip-based programmes such as Heroes of Comedy (1995-2003), 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches and The Story of Light Entertainment (2006).

Drama documentary

See BFI Screenonline for more information.

Sometimes known as docudramas, these typically combine elements of documentary and drama - to some extent they show real events but they often use actors to perform scenes. Fires Were Started (discussed above) was a good example of the genre being used in film.

Television produced some ground-breaking drama documentaries, of which Peter Watkins' Culloden (1964) and The War Game (1965), and Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home (1966) are powerful examples. In the latter case, Ken Loach employed a documentary style to tell his story of a homeless mother. The programme was responsible for the launch of the homelessness charity Shelter.

This genre has continued to court controversy with programmes such as Death of a Princess (1980), Hillsborough (1996), and Bloody Sunday (2001), which was released theatrically after being screened on ITV.

Fly-on-the-wall

The BBC's 1974 programme The Family was an example of the intrusive fly-on-the-wall style of documentary film-making which continues today with programmes like Airline (from 1998), giving us a view behind the scenes. The fly-on-the wall documentary style inspired the hit comedy series The Office, which turned the medium into a sit-com.

There have also been programmes that have adopted the intrusive style of fly-on-the-wall documentaries but have allowed the personality of the presenters, such as Louis Theroux, to enjoy a quirky relationship with, not only their subjects but also with the audience - typified by casual asides to the camera.

Mocumentary

Ghostwatch On Hallowe'en 1992 the BBC showed a programme called Ghostwatch , purporting to be a live broadcast investigating claims of paranormal phenomena. The programme was so elaborately staged that it gave the audience the impression that it was a genuine, thereby challenging viewers' perceptions based around feelings of trust and authenticity.

Comedy sketch shows have long plundered documentary styles for comic effect. In recent years the envelope of good taste has been pushed even further with spoof programmes like Brass Eye (1997-2001), which have duped not only their audience but also their participants.

Particpants were also duped by the characters created by Sacha Baron Cohen, notably Ali G and Borat, who conducted genuine interviews within the context of a staged persona - with hilarious results!

The mocumentary style is represented in this pack by The Urban Savannah (2004). It provides a spoof of wildlife documentary styles by providing familiar elements associated with the genre - a voice-over narrator, interviews with experts, and observational filming. Instead of witnessing a pride of lions taking on a herd of zebras, we see two youth groups (skaters and townies) vying for dominance in a city centre. As befits this style of film-making everything is presented as though it were real. However, for the joke to work the viewer needs to understand the point of reference (in this case the natural history genre - see above), otherwise the film just comes across as bizarre.

Lifestyle

By the 1990s, TV executives had latched on to 'lifestyle' programmes and ushered in an era of all manner of cooking, gardening, DIY, property and holiday programmes. As well as turning gardeners, joiners and chefs into stars, the programmes often honed in on the public's aspirational desires.

However, there was also room for more quirky looks at modern lifestyles, and the BBC commissioned a documentary series for first-time directors called 10x10 specifically to portray unusual aspects of life in Britain. I Love My Nails (2000) directed by Katherine Freeman is such a film, featuring two London nail salons and two of their most loyal customers.

Channel 4 also commissioned edgy experimental documentary programmes of which Ferment (2000), directed by Tim Macmillan, with its clever use of moving montage - using 'time-slice' techniques - is an example featured in this pack.

Reality TV

Perhaps the biggest explosion in non-fiction programmes of the last five years has been the Reality TV show. The most regular examples of these shows include Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, and Love Island. These shows often utilise the techniques of cinéma vérité.

We can watch contestants as they sleep (should we wish) and perform mundane tasks, albeit in artificial settings. Some commentators have suggested that these shows have taken over from the traditional roles performed by soap operas, of everyday folk doing everyday things. For a certain demographic, Reality TV shows are real-life dramas. The sceptics point to how clever editing and representation can make or break a contestant.

• The blurring between films depicting scenes of reality, such as documentary films, and Reality TV (which instigates artificial settings to capture real events) allows us to gauge how effective certain ideals associated with non-fiction films have become. In both cases we are still being presented with a 'window on world', but we might not always be able to recognise whose world we are observing.

Digital developments

The advent of the digital revolution and its multi-channel environment has seen many developments and strands of programming that have drawn their reference points from documentary film-makers.

• Some digital and satellite channels dedicate themselves purely to non-fiction television programming. The Discovery channel is aimed at nature and natural history programmes, whereas channels like UK History draws on audiences eager to learn about historical events, most notably World War I and World War II.

The internet too has been able to help to promote film-makers' work by presenting them online. The continued improvements to download speeds have opened the way for film-makers to present their work to a global web community. FourDocs was launched on the Channel 4 website as a resource for anyone to upload or download four minute documentaries. Channel 4 claims, 'FourDocs represents the democratisation of documentary film-making.' In it Channel 4 have created a showcase community where novices and experts alike can have their voices heard.