Telly Talk: Shakedown
Has TV become the news? It’s not a new question, but there was a time when soaps used to put out press releases when new cast members were announced. These days the information is trending on Twitter the day before it’s announced on the BBC news website. That’s proper news, not even simply cordoned to the bits that keep to themselves and chitter chatter about the latest boy band’s haircuts.
Sometimes there are even cameos. Who can forget the hype around Sir Ian McKellen’s dream come true of appearing on Coronation Street – or, for that matter Peter Kay’s failed wooing attempt of a certain Rovers’ barmaid? When did the medium of television become so important that bona fide stars would pop on it, filled with excitement, almost as if the Queen had invited them round for a slice of cake and a cuppa?
Admittedly, this tends to mostly surround the programmes that cultivate themselves around personality. Whether it’s Graham Norton cosying up to Justin Timberlake – who has a track record for being ‘game’ with his numerous appearances on Saturday Night Live and with Jimmy Fallon Stateside – or Robbie Williams raising a pint as an extra in the Queen Vic, there’s a certain kudos in being included within the timbre of these shows.
“Shame on you for cameo casting!”
And now I come to another point, aren’t actors supposed to be blank canvases for the character they’re portraying to paint an elaborate image across? I mean, surely the very task of acting is pretending to be someone else, and thus cameo casting sort of goes against the whole ethos of casting in the first place. And shows a certain lack of faith in the actors themselves to be able to play anyone apart from a larger than life version of themselves. Shame on you for cameo casting!
But that’s only the soaps and dramas. Ever since Oliver Reed made a disgrace of himself on Wogan all those years ago, insisting on singing ‘Wild Thing’ just as he proved that was exactly what he was, chat shows have also been edging their way into event television when really (with few exceptions) they are mostly showboats for stars to be wheeled out on to when they’ve got something new to promote. Five minutes of chat about the film, five minutes of banter about something frivolous, a clip from the film, and then you’re done. Next!
All I’m saying is that maybe television should be taken down a peg or two. It’s a bit up itself. With reality programmes making two bit celebrities out of airport workers and bad drivers, and then two bit celebrities being ushered into a house to be watched 24 hours a day, this self-sustaining eco-system may need some fresh blood as it stops and takes a long hard look at quite how broad its definition of ‘entertainment’ is. Let the actors act (even if you’ve heard of them and have seen every ex-wife’s version of events in the tabloids), ask a few more probing questions and get over that fear of upsetting the PR people of all the future celebrities you hope to book for your next series. Have a few more original thoughts and the spheres to follow through with a spot of risk-taking commissioning. And, as much as I enjoy Luther and Casualty, for crying out loud, make them about something other than doctors and detectives. I thank you.
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