Radio on the telly
Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Jack Kibble-White
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo are bringing their Friday movie review from Five Live to BBC2. They’re getting their own slot on The Culture Show after that series’ producer has “often wondered why TV can’t be this good.” As a late convert to Mayo on the radio, I think the question should be why can’t certain radio properties successfully translate to telly? Jonathan Ross has always been better on the wireless than on the small screen, and similarly – I would argue – have Adam and Joe. Mayo, of course has a history of rubbish TV appearances behind him. So what’s the problem?
It seems to me nothing more than those aforementioned radio personalities just suit the kind of freewheeling format that radio offers and telly can’t.
Who knows, perhaps Mayo and Kermode will be ace on The Culture Show - somehow though I doubt it.
My favourite thing about this series of The Culture Show is its scheduling. You may recall that when it began, five years ago, it was shown at seven o’clock on a weeknight, which was supposed to make it a mainstream proposition and a real alternative to the soaps. Then a year later, they moved it to seven o’clock on a Saturday night, which was sold as some sort of promotion but, to my mind, just marginalised it more because you always get arts shows in these weekend slots when nobody’s watching. Then it was moved again to ten o’clock on a weeknight, again sold as some sort of a promotion, because it would be primetime, albeit now cut to half an hour.
Now it’s been moved to… seven o’clock on a weeknight again! Which again is being sold as a promotion, because now it’s longer – despite it being the same length it had when it started. I like the idea of The Culture Show (albeit I barely watch it) but this really hasn’t worked in any slot the Beeb have tried it in and moving it back to its original slot just seems an admission of that.
Well I guess the Beeb are getting there gradually in that they should have made Kermode, Barry Norman’s replacement rather than Jonathan Ross. Maybe I’m hankering after a form of broadcasting that no longer exists but I appreciated the fact that Norman told you about all the films being brought out in one week: from Hollywood blockbuster to Taiwanese art-house flick. Ross had neither the time, nor I would guess the inclination, to check out such diverse fare. Kermode would have maintained the standard and been more entertaining