Is TV drama too metropolitan and middle class?
The Broadcast Interview: Ben Stephenson

Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion in relation to the quality (or otherwise) of UK television drama productions, and this has been in part triggered by the arrival of the highly-acclaimed US drama The Wire to UK terrestrial television (BBC Two); indeed all the recent talk on this subject usually manages to mention The Wire at least once.

Much of the debate has centered around a few core issues. Firstly, should the BBC concentrate on 'difficult' drama as opposed to concentrating on highly accessible productions (the latter is easily achieved by the commercial sector)?

Secondly there's the whole "US drama is generally superior to UK drama" argument - which is periodically either upheld or torn to pieces depending on people's viewpoint(s) - and again The Wire is sometimes used as an example of how American drama productions can allegedly run rings round their UK counterparts. Or not.

And thirdly, can 'middle class' writers write realistic drama that features 'lower class' characters? Should they even try? Or is this really a non-issue linked to the circular argument about drama quality (from the critics' standpoint, "why can't everything else be like The Wire")?

The argument in relation to the types of drama the BBC should produce isn't so much whether the BBC should stay away from the types of drama that the commercial sector produces, but whether the BBC should concentrate its limited resources on the type of production that the commercial sector won't produce under any circumstances.

This is where that critics' favourite The Wire looms large, since this is the sort of thing that hasn't exactly been a huge ratings smash even in its home country, although the mere thought of more of the same is enough to drive some people into apoplexy.

However as Ben Stephenson points out in an interview, different types of drama appeals to different groups of people, and something like EastEnders isn't necessarily that inferior just because it is a different style of continuing drama with a smaller budget.

Not all drama has to be 'hyper-realistic'; indeed a very realistic drama about UK policing would just show people filling in forms and answering the phone for 75% of the time as opposed to an endless spectacle of car chases, breaking down doors and arrests (which the majority of people may prefer to watch anyway).

If the BBC produced lots of 'worthy' drama instead of a broad mix of productions that appeal to a wide cross section of the audience, then it would find it increasingly difficult to justify spending the licence fee on drama productions in general. On the other hand, the BBC shouldn't altogether ignore anything that may be regarded as 'difficult'.

Of course when/if the commercial broadcasters get their way in relation to paid product placement within drama series, all BBC productions will become even more important in terms of their freedom of corruption from commercial influence, although unpaid product placement can and does subtly exist within commercially produced UK drama series.

Good drama should be well-written and well-scripted but doesn't have to be a warts-and-all portrayal of a given situation. As for the "too middle-class" argument, this may be a function of the commissioning system combined with the fact that the people who write drama scripts tend to be highly literate and well-educated.

Whether or not the 'lower classes' are properly represented in UK drama - indeed the definition of 'lower' class has shifted in recent times - is surely down to the basic quality of the script as opposed to who writes it. And it is the commissioning process that should be responsible for maintaining quality control in relation to drama productions.

Then there's the charge that the BBC farms out drama to regional outposts just to tick commissioning boxes as opposed to producing the right drama using the right people. But as the success of Doctor Who proves, there is talent outside of London that is ready and waiting to be exploited, and ignoring this would be an even greater crime.

The bottom line is that the BBC's remit should be to entertain as well as educate and inform. Plus with the commercial media industry retreating from drama production of all forms into the financially more profitable havens of reality TV and quiz shows, any form of drama series will become more valuable and cherished as a consequence.

And that includes Robin Hood.