Times a-changing

This week marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most devastating events of the 21st century, when the USA, it seemed, was not untouchable to terrorists. The planet turned in horror to see hundreds of people killed live on television as two planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York and the skyline of the Big Apple was changed forever. Unsurprisingly, television is continuing its relationship of comment and reportage on the atrocity, with more than several programmes appearing not only this week, but a few last week too, covering stories ranging from the children left behind to the firemen heroes who emerged from the rubble. But do we really need all of the new documentaries and re-enactments that have sprung up so determinedly?

I’m not dismissing the strength of the stories being told, or the need to have them heard, but simply whether a television programme pulled together to mark an anniversary is the best receptacle – or indeed archive – for them. Although relatively recent, this was an event that will go down in the history books, will be studied retrospectively from many angles, and will certainly appreciate being painstakingly chronicled. But surely that’s what books are for?

“Big ideas need time for consideration – not soundbites”

We all knew the days when we were sat crosslegged in the teachers’ lounge to watch a programme about Henry VIII were a bit of a doss, leaving an impression of the king as overweight, boisterous and with a rather too orange beard. Whereas there may well have been several historical facts thrown in there too, it was a doss compared to the task of reading two chapters from the big book that hurt your shoulder when you had to carry it in your rucksack to school. Herein lies the danger of over-documenting such a massive event as the destruction of the Twin Towers. It’s not so much the interviews themselves, or the stories, as the editorial voiceovers linking them all that can simplify a very complex issue. These may be well-intentioned but I doubt if any of this plethora of studies will be winning any BAFTAs or Emmys and they’re teaching impressions and precis, rather than simply letting the facts stand alone.

It’s true I haven’t seen them all, but this is history we’re teaching, as well as recording, and big ideas need time for consideration – not soundbites. It’s still too raw to truly be historically reported. It will be interesting to see what comes on the box when another ten years have passed.

The Twins Of The Twin Towers, BBC1, Tuesday 6 September