television

The Secret of the Soaps

 At last month's The Secret of the Soaps event, the masterminds behind Coronation Street revealed to RTS audiences the inside secrets of what has made the show last for 55 years

The panel starred actor Tina O'Brien, writer Debbie Oates, producer Stuart Blackburn and ITV's Creative Director of Serial Dramas John Whiston. The session was chaired by former ITV Director of Entertainment and Comedy  Paul Jackson.

The Screen Film Summit gives online discount for RTS members

Screen Film Summit

The UK film industry will come under the microscope at the Screen Film Summit on Thursday 10 December. 

The RTS has teamed up with the Summit to offer our members 15% off the standard ticket price to the day-long event at the newly opened Picturehouse Central, in London.

The conference will help attendees discover how filmmakers can access investment and the opportunities available.

BBC Three's move online: what the public thinks

BBC Three, BBC Trust, public, online, television,

"BBC Three is not closing, we are reinventing online," promised Damian Kavanagh, controller of BBC Three, after it was announced the youth-channel would be migrating from televisions to tablets and computers in the new year.

The decision, which has been mooted for several months, was met with a mixed reaction.

 

Channel 4 commissions first drama series for female writing duo

Kate Ashfield, When The Lights Went Out, Sky,

Channel 4 has commissioned the writers Tracey Malone (Silent Witness) and Kate Ashfield (Line of Duty) for their first drama series as a duo.

The psychological thriller, under working title Born to Kill, will be made by World Productions, and looks into the mind of a teenage boy who suppresses psychopathic desires.

Celtic shop props up TV industry

Natalie Rolley

A group of RTS Wales members visited Celtic Prop Hire in early October, and saw items used in top TV shows, including BBC One’s Doctor Who, for which Celtic supplied various props in the current series.

Established in 1999, the Cardiff-based company supplies productions across the UK. Other recent credits include BBC's The Coroner and Sherlock as well as Sky 1's Stella.

The company also supplies a lot of props to the BBC’s Drama Village in Cardiff Bay, including for the long-running medical series Casualty.

Welsh broadcast media at risk?

RTS Wales joined the Institute of Welsh Affairs to host a lively debate on the future of Welsh broadcasting at Glyndŵr University in Wrexham at the end of October.

In a pre-recorded video message, the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ken Skates, expressed concern about the weakening position of broadcast media in Wales.

The RTS Centre’s administrator, Hywel Wiliam, gave a brief overview of the key features of the current communications market.

Our friend in the West

Ron Jones

One of the best contributions to the issue of the public purposes of the BBC was written almost 20 years ago by a then-future Chair of the BBC Board of Governors, Gavyn Davies.

He wrote: “Some form of market failure must lie at the heart of any concept of public service broadcasting. Beyond simply using the catchphrase that public service broadcasting must ‘inform, educate and entertain’, we must add ‘inform, educate and entertain in a way that the private sector, left unregulated, would not do’. Otherwise, why not leave matters entirely to the private sector?”