DB7

It ain't broke, so why fix it?

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 20/08/2007

BBC Films is a success story, a small unit responsible for hit movies such as Notes on a Scandal- but now the corporation is threatening to clip its wings. David Gritten reports

What links these films from the past couple of years? The History Boys, Notes on a Scandal, Red Road, Starter for Ten, A Cock and Bull Story, Millions, My Summer of Love.

All were made in the United Kingdom, and feature British locations and characters. All have some quality that marks them out: unashamed intelligence, sharp, distinctive story-telling, or just pure charm.

But specifically, each was produced, solely or jointly, by BBC Films, a small unit of some 20 people run by the BBC but with offices on London's Euston Road, well away from Television Centre HQ.

BBC Films's recent good run is no fluke: go back a bit and you find its name on any number of award-winning, acclaimed or popular films - Iris, Dirty Pretty Things, Mrs Brown, In This World, Billy Elliot.

There's more to come: Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite on screen for the first time since Titanic as an unhappy couple in Revolutionary Road, directed by Sam Mendes; David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is the first film he has shot in London; Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman join forces in The Other Boleyn Girl, adapted by Peter Morgan (The Queen) from Philippa Gregory's novel.

Remarkably, BBC Films achieves all this on a modest annual budget of £10 million. It even turns a profit: overall, its films easily make their money back, so the unit's existence is no extra burden on licence-fee payers. And it enhances the BBC's lustre abroad: its logo appears on cinema and TV screens wherever in the world these films are seen.

For the past five years BBC Films, headed by David Thompson, has enjoyed a steady, impressive run of creative and commercial success, with a degree of autonomy from the BBC. Or at least it has done till now.

This valuable if somewhat eccentric, free-wheeling unit is about to have its style cramped. Plans are afoot to relocate its offices to Television Centre, where Jane Tranter, fiction controller, is expected to take a more hands-on role in its decision-making.

Much of Tranter's empire concerns itself with various strands of drama across the BBC. Although she worked under Thompson as a script editor in the BBC's films and single drama department in the mid-1990s, she is now very much a TV executive, far removed from the different rhythms and practices of the film business.

The impending changes at BBC Films have caused a collective shudder in the ranks of Britain's film producers. Many fear the BBC will cut back on its commitment to films, especially larger-scale, ambitious ones involving joint productions with Hollywood studios such as Fox and Sony, or "mini-majors" such as Miramax and the Weinstein Company.

They are right to be fearful. Ambitious British producers with big ideas can currently get their films financed with Film4 and BBC Films - and that's about it. If the BBC reined in its commitment to film, it would close an important door to producers seeking funds.

Some of Tranter's reported comments have not helped. She was not available to be interviewed for this article, but recently in the trade publication Screen International she said the move to Television Centre would "remind everyone of the 'BBC-ness' needed for a BBC film".

What did she mean? In fairness, probably not "EastEnders: The Movie". But around Wardour Street, the hub of Britain's film industry, that sounded like small, domestic, insular British movies.

Another quote, in Variety, added fuel to the flames: Tranter said she wanted BBC Films staff "more within earshot". This was interpreted as her intention to clip their wings.

At which point, one might ask: why should anyone care? The BBC, having foolishly misrepresented the Queen and allowed itself to become embroiled in phone-in competition scandals, surely has bigger worries than its film output. Some feel the BBC should not even be in the film business at all.

Yet if we view film as an integral part of our culture, why should the BBC not nurture it, just as it supports, say, orchestras? And if it makes quality films that enhance Britain's esteem in the world, is that so different a function (on a smaller scale) from the revered World Service?

In fact, BBC Films punches above its weight without spending a fortune. When it jointly produces a film with an American studio, its contribution may be less about investing equal amounts of money than financing the development of the script.

This is cheap: often just £200,000 on a film with a $40 million budget. But crucially the script, polished and edited within the BBC, sets the entire tone of that film. Thus the corporation asserts its values for a song.

It is also influential in casting, and places dozens of able British actors (many of them veterans of BBC TV productions) into big-budget films alongside major stars. It nurtures fledgling directors such as Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love) and Andrea Arnold (Red Road). In short, BBC Films has cachet; American studios and producers looking to make quality films want to be associated with it.

So what's the problem? Partly, it's the BBC's desire to rationalise and centralise wherever possible, to prove (mainly to hostile politicians) that the licence fee remains justified. A clash of personalities may be another factor; Thompson is few people's idea of a bland, malleable executive, and his future in the new structure remains unclear.

Some people in Television Centre may have wished to see BBC Films taken down a peg.

My understanding is that Revolutionary Road was a "last straw" for those who want the unit to demonstrate a bit more "BBC-ness". Despite the participation of Winslet and Mendes, it is an American story, being overseen by the heavy-hitting US producer Scott Rudin (Notes on a Scandal, Iris).

Yet Richard Yates's book, on which it is based, is one of the great American novels of the past half century. And the screen reunion of Winslet and DiCaprio is a hugely appealing prospect.

Finally, it may be about the BBC's perpetual but tragic desire to tinker with its own systems. It's a navel-gazing organisation, and whole echelons of executives, their faces scrunched into pained expressions of public-service piety, like nothing more than agonising over the way the corporation is structured. It makes them feel important.

There's an element of control freakery at work: that a unit such as BBC Films might prosper with minimal supervision probably disappoints as many senior people at Television Centre as it delights.

Yet prosper it does - and in a way that brings credit to the corporation, employment to our film industry, and enjoyment to a wide segment of the public here and abroad. There's a lesson for the BBC here: it ain't broke. Don't fix it.

Marky B

I have said before and I'll say it again,when the BBC put their minds to it,they are the best television makers in the world and if film and television makers are left to their own devices,it would propel the organisation way beyond the dramas of ITV and Channel 4. However,the powers that be are forever looking at cost cutting,but instead of aiming to cull the ambitions of the visionaries,it should look at what is not making money.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

D Cairns

BBC and Film4 put ten million into British cinema each, while spending hundreds of millions buying American blockbusters to screen. It should be part of their remit to put a decent investment into the nation's film culture, as happens with TV in France etc.

Pye

I was originally very anti BBC films, seeing it as the loss of play for today so that the BBC could play at making films as if that's all that is worthwhile ultimately. A bundle of flop followed the public fund then pay to see. But of late its totally justified itself. Still some of those projects do sound less defendale to me

julian_craster

Why are so few of the FILM FOUR productions (from 1982 onwards) never screened on FILM 4 and the other '4' channels ?
It seems they would rather pay money to other companies
than screen the films that they own themselves....

DB7

Head of films leaves BBC to set up his own production company

Published Friday 14 September 2007 at 11:55 by Matthew Hemley

BBC head of films David Thompson is leaving the Corporation to set up his own independent production company, which will focus on producing television drama and film.
David Thompson, Head of Films at the BBC

David Thompson, Head of Films at the BBC Photo: BBC / Nicky Johnston

Thompson’s new company, which does not yet have a name, will have a first look deal with BBC Fiction.

Alan Yentob, creative director of the BBC, said Thompson has been responsible for some “remarkable British movies and television drama” during his tenure at the Corporation.

On the television side, his credits as producer and executive producer include The Gathering Storm, Shoot The Messenger and The Lost Prince.

Films he has executive produced include Notes On A Scandal and The History Boys.

Controller of BBC Fiction, Jane Tranter, said: “David Thompson leaves BBC Films with an impressive slate of international and domestic successes and an awesome contribution to the film and drama creative community in Britain.”

Thompson said: “I feel really privileged to have had the chance to work for BBC Films for many years and work with such an amazing array of talent.

“I’m delighted that my new arrangement with the BBC will enable me to build on these relationships in the years to come.”

Mr Dean

I agree with your point. Also, I'd like to see rather more imagination in the way that BBC thinks about broadcasting the films in which it invests -- often they sneak out around midnight on BBC2 when noone is looking unless they have high profile stars and a big cinema release profile. If they showcase a few in peaktime on BBC1 it would help.

Usually BBC Films only puts a maximum of around £1 million into the films in which it is a partner. This is a valuable source of funding, but it doesn't really influence the structure of the UK film industry. I suspect that the BBC's £10 million could come from somewhere else.

The reason for this change in BBC policy does seem to be about 'control' and keeping a tight grip on the purse strings. according to Screen International, David Thompson will still executive produce the BBC Films in the pipeline after he has left the BBC.