The Bookseller.com

22nd March 2010

Katie Allen is The Bookseller's Media Reporter

Books on the box

18.12.08

Tuesday (16th December) was the last in the latest series of BBC2's zeitgeisty and cool "The Culture Show", and it included a look back at "TCS" highlights throughout 2008, including an interview with late director Anthony Minghella and Andrew Graham-Dixon's campaign to save two Titian paintings for the nation, plus Tom Jones busking. There were other segments too, but I can't really remember, it was on pretty late.

And that is perhaps the problem – "The Culture Show" packs in a lot, but it's only allotted half an hour a week, and although it does feature authors (so far John Grisham, Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth George, Jacqueline Wilson, Malorie Blackman and David Mitchell to name but a few), they are never going to get more than a few minutes. Other cultural TV series, including the mighty "Imagine" and "South Bank Show" may wade deeply into their subjects' lives for a full hour of prime-time, but with a panoply of topics to choose from across the spectrum of ‘the arts' from painting to online to indie music to opera, there just isn't enough time in the TV schedules to fit in (enough) literature on the box.

I was given the opportunity to visit "behind the scenes" at Sky Arts' "The Book Show" a few weeks ago: it was an interesting experience to see how TV shows are made – and how book shows in particular can be made.

It is a simple, and presumably cheap, concept—people chatting on a sofa—but unlike the rather intimidating intellectual atmosphere of "Newsnight Review", the atmosphere was akin to friends sitting around in their living room, albeit if one was friends with Mariella Frostrup and Fay Weldon.

From behind the banks of monitors I watched Mariella spin anecdotes and opinions out of her guests, Weldon, Frank Skinner and Gavin Esler. There were also short films that included an avuncular Ken Follett ambling round a Borders store amiably introducing his choice of "Christmas Presents" for men (Lee Child, Stephen King, Devil May Care); A N Wilson rather sternly choosing his favourite line from The Subtle Knife; and Marina Lewycka in "The Write Place" being filmed in her pyjamas, in bed, discussing where she writes and what inspires her. It was not only excellent for promotion (book jackets and shopfronts filling the screen)  but for highlighting more obscure titles, such as Frank Skinner picking Goldmund from Herman Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund as his literary hero.

I cannot access Sky Arts at home, otherwise I would watch as much of this informative and entertaining show as possible—and therein lies the problem. Until Sky Arts extends its reach, arts programming needs to be on terrestrial TV to reach as many people as possible, and as wide an audience as possible, not just the "converted". And secondly, there needs to be more of it—and more about books in particular. As "R&J" has shown, there is an appetite for books and authors, and literary discussion, on TV and there is an audience that will provide the ratings—and watch the adverts, if necessary. But a segment in a half-hour show is not enough.