‘Creative Commissioning’: Examining the Regional Aesthetic in the Work of Channel 4's First Commissioning Editor for Fiction, David Rose
2012; Edinburgh University Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3366/jbctv.2012.0059
ISSN1755-1714
Autores Tópico(s)Art History and Market Analysis
ResumoDavid Rose was a leading figure in British television, first at the BBC and then later at Channel 4. After working as a producer on Z-Cars, in 1970 Rose was made Head of Regional Drama at the newly formed BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham. There he had a specific brief to commission work by regional writers and to raise the profile of the regions on mainstream television. After ten years as Head of English Regions Drama, Rose was then appointed Head of Fiction at the newly formed Channel 4. Fiction was also to encompass the Film on Four strand (which later became Film Four). It was Rose and Chief Executive Jeremy Isaacs who defined the role of Film on Four within the ‘publishing house’ remit of the channel, commissioning films from independent producers for television broadcast and theatrical release. As Head of Fiction, Rose was given a budget of around £6 million to commission films of between £300,000 and £500,000, productions which could either be fully funded by the channel or co-produced with other investors (Isaacs 1989: 147). Through Film on Four, Rose also sought to provide a platform for new talent, andmany first-time writers and directors benefitted from the kudos associated with working on films for theatrical release – the writer Hanif Kureishi achieved success with My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) while the novelist Neil Jordan also made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed Angel (1982). It was a successful model which provided a significant boost to British film-making in an ailing industrial climate. Between 1981 and
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