TV in Britain
Television is a national obsession in Britain - a constant talking point to explain where we think we are as a society (Is it the Golden Age? Is it the Dark Ages? Has it been the ruination of our children? Is our TV the best in the world?). Once ordinary people could afford to buy sets in the consumer boom of the mid-1950s, TV quickly became an established part of everyday life in Britain. The 'appointment to view' in the family living room gave us a sense of shared experience that become deeply ingrained in almost everyone who has grown up in Britain in the last half century. We measure our lives in old childhood favourites and emblematic sitcom and soap characters.
The advent of ITV in 1955 quickly established the draw of television; brash, confident, and entertaining, the new channel attracted viewers in droves and dominated ratings when they began to be collated. Popular quizzes, sitcoms, variety shows and of course soap operas (Coronation Street started in 1960) gave ITV an enormous lead over the BBC in the share of audience. Under Hugh Greene as Director General, the BBC fought back with innovative and challenging programmes -especially after the start of BBC2 in 1964 - and they could always rely on audiences for big events where viewers looked for the establishment voice of a nation.
Through the 1960s and 1970s TV became established as big, profitable business in Britain (Lord Thomson, former chairman of the IBA, suggested that owning an ITV franchise was 'a license to print money'). The duopoly of BBC and ITV had its critics but it did mean there was an established structure and deep pockets to develop good programmes. Viewers responded by watching in their millions - all the shows in the top 20 for the 1970s chart rate over 20 million for instance. TV was the leisure pursuit of choice, although it is worth recalling that competition for our time was limited in an age before home entertainment alternatives and when there were fewer diversions on the high streets. It is interesting to note that the greats we remember from this 'golden age' which have been often repeated since are frequently not the most popular shows of their time. Instead of The Good Life, Porridge and The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin in the 1970s chart for instance, we have The Cuckoo Waltz and Doctor on the Go, not to mention Love Thy Neighbour.
In the 1980s audiences remain high, the BBC overtaking ITV as the most watched channel with a raft of popular shows that caught the mood of the period. The rise of home video actually added to the TV experience - we could go out and still catch up with what everyone was talking about, and a fourth channel, Channel 4, added to the rich broadcasting mix.
It is through the 1990s that things begin to change. In the wider world there was more competition for the increasingly fewer hours when we weren't working. Computer games, a revived cinema industry and increased nightlife options grabbed our attention. For those still in front of the box the arrival of satellite TV, and eventually the multichannel digital age fragmented the audience. People continue to watch the same amount of TV but it is spread over a huge array of channels and programmes. Half of the nation glued to The Morecambe and Wise Show, an episode of Steptoe and Son, or a soap opera is not the way of our world anymore. We make individual choices and schedule our own viewing as we wish. This brings us freedom but it can also be argued that it makes us understand each other less, as we can no longer rely on having the same cultural co-ordinates, no matter what our other differences.
We are now in a new age of TV, a very different landscape with many channels for many niches, a centralised ITV that is no longer a federation of regional franchises, and a BBC questioned as to whether it can still be populist and public service. TV can still be important to Britain and its culture however and we have seen that despite these changes fabulous programmes that capture and enthuse large (just not quite as large) audiences can still be made.
Phil Wickham
bfi Information Services
