Top producer Jimmy Mulville slams 'lazy' BBC
Jimmy Mulville, the managing director of Hat Trick Productions, the company behind some of Britain's most successful comedy shows, has publicly criticised the BBC for not being adventurous enough with its comedy output.
Mulville, the Executive Producer behind both Outnumbered and Have I Got News For You - two of BBC One's biggest hits - made the remarks during a speech at the Broadcast Comedy Forum. He was booked to speak to delegates about his experiences of transatlantic co-productions but, as he admitted at the start of his speech, he has a habit of being outspoken and getting into trouble - and, sure enough, soon went off-script to lambast the corporation.
The comedy veteran said the corporation has recently been "derelict in its duty" of helping to produce good comedy shows. He particularly attacked BBC One, saying it had "aimed low... and still missed" and was "putting stars in shit scripts and hoping the public don't notice". He also complained that despite asking for Outnumbered to be put in a 9pm weekday slot where he thinks it will perform best, Series 1 went out after 10pm, Series 2 was put on at the weekends, and Series 3 was scheduled at 9:30pm.
He also attacked the lack of publicity provided by the BBC, offering up an example with Episodes, the new comedy he has co-produced with American network Showtime. Mulville said that Showtime flew a team of publicists and a top photographer to England to meet him and plan a big marketing campaign for the US... and, months later, "a lady from the BBC popped round." He also repeated the well-known quip: "If you want to keep something a secret, give it to BBC Publicity."Mulville then returned to the topic of making comedy with partners from across the Atlantic. He explained how he made mistakes in America the 1990s after having exported Whose Line Is It Anyway? and was "seduced by the golf cart lifestyle". He admitted that in three years he didn't sell a single show, but did have "a lot of fun" and learnt things about how America's TV industry worked that he could make use of later in his career. He said he admired the speed at which decisions are made in America, the professionalism of the industry and the focus on producing great television, but admitted he didn't like the way the US networks meddled in the writing process. Costs are also much higher in America - Mulville gave one example where a pilot that cost about £200,000 to shoot in the UK, cost £3.2 million in America. He also admitted that Hat Trick's US/UK sitcom Krod Mandoon was not a big success, saying the scripts were much funnier than the end product showed. He said compromises had to be made to try and keep both the BBC and Comedy Central happy, because the two networks wanted different things from the show.
However, the veteran producer is much happier with his new show Episodes because Showtime and BBC Two are very similar in style. The sitcom follows the story of a happily married English couple (played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who are persuaded to remake their hit TV show for an American audience. But, when they get to LA, they find the show is meddled with. For example, erudite Royal Shakespeare veteran Richard Griffiths is replaced in the American version of their show by Friends star Matt LeBlanc.
Mulville says co-producing the comedy with an American network allows for a bigger budget, with £700,000 available for each episode (compared to the usual £200,000). The emergence of sophisticated 'green screen' technology has also allowed the production to look more lavish than it actually is. For example, the crew were able to make a house in England situated next to a power station look like a luxury LA mansion on screen.