This article was originally published in The Courier on 8 July 2017.
MELVYN BRAGG ON TV:
THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: Saturday, BBC Two
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GUNS FOR
HIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIDEMAN: Friday, BBC Four
It’s
no exaggeration to claim that the birth of Melvyn Bragg triggered a cultural
revolution of staggering importance.
That
much I gleaned from MELVYN BRAGG ON TV:
THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, a two-hour muse-a-thon in which the veteran
arts nabob examined the myriad ways in which British television has reflected,
challenged and transformed society over the last 60 years.
Clips
from his own - admittedly unforgettable – interviews with Dennis Potter and
Francis Bacon were included among the wealth of familiar archive material, lest
we forget that Lord Bragg has played a major role in bringing culture to the masses.
The
programme spliced a series of Bragg-narrated essays on various key areas –
news, documentary, drama, comedy – with sensible round-table discussions from
broadcasting luminaries such as Joan Bakewell, Michael Grade and Ken
Loach.
They
didn’t have to work particularly hard to support the overarching point that
television is the most important technological innovation since the Industrial
Revolution.
This
window to the world has expanded our horizons via explorations of inner and
outer space while chronicling the ways in which society has developed over the
last seven decades.
It’s
brought truth to power by making politicians more accountable. It’s challenged
lies and prejudices, broken down class, race and gender barriers, and brought
news of vital historic import into our homes with increasing speed.
However,
as Bragg observed, it’s also undermined these noble egalitarian achievements by
presenting simplified, reactionary and sometimes dangerously irresponsible
reflections of society past and present.
Most
of the points raised were sound and reasonable. But they were also blatantly
self-evident and unchallenging, especially for viewers with even a passing
interest in or knowledge of television history. Which is most of us, right?
I’m
a television critic – you may have noticed – so this is my field of so-called
expertise, but I doubt that anyone over the age of 35 learned anything new. So
who was the programme aimed at? Young media students? If that’s the case, then
a superficial overview involving dry discussions between Melvyn Bragg and the
author of Foyle’s War probably wasn’t
the ideal approach.
I’m
not suggesting that it should’ve been replaced by a dumbed-down clip show
hosted by Nick Grimshaw and a wacky talking iPad, but the comfortably
old-guard, Radio 4-ish tone of the programme was at odds with the theoretically
wide-ranging, pan-generational, democratic spirit of the medium it sought to
examine.
It
reminded me of seminal news spoof The Day
Today’s classic ‘Attitudes Night’ sketch, which so perfectly skewered the
well-meaning pomposity of these sociological TV essays over 20 years ago. I
dare say Bragg has never seen it.
Still,
I can’t thank him enough for giving us another chance to enjoy that rarely-seen
footage of Del Boy falling through the bar.
The
secret to exploring well-worn avenues of popular culture is to approach them
from a niche perspective. ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
GUNS FOR HIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIDEMEN did just that.
This
enjoyable documentary featured revealing contributions from a handful of
notable payroll musicians – those unsung heroes whose job it is to support the
vision of spotlight-hogging artists – such as Wendy and Lisa (Prince), Bernard
Fowler (The Rolling Stones) and our endearingly rock ‘n’ roll cliché of a host,
Earl Slick (David Bowie).
The
pathos and insecurity of a life spent sublimating your ego to the whims of musical
icons was sympathetically captured in this warm odyssey into the shadows of
stardom.
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