News

Bafta’s sustainability organisation, Bafta albert, has appointed Ralph Lee as its first chair.

Lee was formerly CEO of BBC Studios Productions, which he left in April after six years.

The role of chair is a voluntary part-time non-executive position, with Lee also joining the Bafta board of trustees.

As Bafta albert chair, he will be responsible for recruiting non-executive directors in the coming weeks as well as communicating between Bafta albert, Bafta and the Industry Steering group. The latter supports the development and implementation of Bafta albert’s objectives, with members including the BBC and BBC Studios, ITV, Channel 4,...

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has appointed BBC executive Ian Katz as its programming boss following the departure of Jay Hunt to Apple last week. Katz, currently editor of BBC2 late-night political program Newsnight, has been named director of programmes at the Humans and Electric Dreams broadcaster. One Channel 4 insider said Katz’s hire was a "massive surprise” as he beat out front-runners including interim chief creative officer Ralph Lee, BBC3 controller Damian Kavanagh…...

Griff Rhys Jones is to host a new comedy panel show for Channel 4. The comedian will appear alongside regular team captains Marcus Brigstocke and Charlie Baker on A Short History of Everything Else. The six-part series, described by Rhys Jones as "a serious nostalgia-fest", will use archive TV clips to look back at the last few decades. "This entertaining new series will be a satirical and engaging look back at strikes, depression, unemployment figures and the faux pas of yesterday's leaders," said Channel 4's head of factual Ralph Lee. "Hopefully offering an escape from the strikes, depression (more)...

Four-letter Gill

"Wonky cock documentary" is AA Gill's term for Channel 4 shows like Embarrassing Bodies, Monkey discovered during the Sunday Times TV critic's interview with BBC's Storyville editor Nick Fraser at the Sheffield Doc/Fest. But when media journalist (and Guardian contributor) Kate Bulkley tried to defend the broadcaster for what she believed was legitimate public service broadcasting he proved a more-than-succinct debater. "Fuck off," was his only response. Monkey wasn't quite sure how Bulkley felt about this. Or indeed how this tallied with Gill's later assertion that television "at the moment is in the process of being very abusive to its audience. It used to be quizshows where people were respectable and say thank you and give them a cuddly toy. Now it's much more abusive." Unlike, say ... conference sessions chaired by Gill.

Not digging Giles

Gill wasn't a big fan of his friend Giles Coren's BBC...

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...