i did a few years. so the techniques of storytelling, of making programmes, are much the same. you know, they move on a bit. but that is a constant, i would say. i think the. i still love the range of output that a mainstream broadcaster can do, from high to low culture, from silly game shows to serious dramas or whatever, and that hasn t changed. so the real change in the landscape is there is so much choice now. when i went to television, there were four channels, and you had a trapped audience, and so people were more forgiving and less critical than perhaps now. if you just think of the way you watch yourself of an evening, you give something a couple of minutes, and if you don t like it, you put something else on. everything ever made is available to watch tonight, as well as loads of new shows dropped every week, mainly from america, but also from the bbc and itv. so the choice is extraordinary, and this certainly is sharpening the wits of producers and writers and creators to me
i have a way of watching which can be infuriating and fast forwarding quite often. but you have to keep abreast of, you obviously have to be on top of everything that you are making and is going out on your own stations. we have to keep abreast of other things and then there is what you watch for pure enjoyment that might be on a streaming service or something like that. i watch a lot of television. you mentioned streaming. itv has a two pronged strategy announced in the last 12 months, one is to double the amount of scripted material, dramas mainly, and the second part is to launch a new streaming platform, itvx, and that has been released into the wild in the last few weeks. help me understand the decision to make itvx. was it a partly driven by the fact that itv hub s reputation was not quite what itv hoped for? how very dare you! no, it was, do you know the way that people watch television
finds it immediately, and is absolutely addicted, watches it every night, and it bucked all the trends, and showed that, actually, if you bring the right thing at the right time in the right way, young people will come. but it is just harder than it ever used to be. but what is the right thing? you were saying the fundamentals of making programmes haven t changed since you started on the rwo ronnies, but, surely, love island is a format that, surely, 20 years ago would not have worked? this is a tv format that has synced with a generation that lives digital lives, as if it s their normal lives, there is no distinction between digital lives and their normal lives. that s not in isolation, is it? that is connected to love island s success. i think love island probably couldn t have happened without big brother happening, and big brother was a show that revolutionised television, from the way it is watched, to what is possible, the way you tell stories, the way you deal with real people.
what it is that makes one programme cut through all of that. let s focus on love island, one of your biggest hits. why do you think that format has generated so much interest, in a way that lots of other formats don t? yeah, i wish i really knew the answer to that one. i think what s extraordinary about love island is i m so glad for everyone in television it came along when it did, because the accepted wisdom was young people don t watch terrestrial television anymore, they don t look at the schedule, they never know, they won t find these things, and so we bring along love island, which is on every single night at 9pm for six, eight weeks, on itv2, it s not even on the main channel, and the young audience
is on the line? i think if there had been a howling error, i wouldn t be talking to you now, so, yes, some of it is risky and big. but i ve been doing it a long time, i m surrounded by some very clever, talented people, that you can estimate how healthy these things are, and we can surreptitiously try a lot of things out without people particularly noticing, to see if it is working or not. you mention you ve been doing this a long time, i was saying in the introduction you started off as a trainee with the bbc in the two ronnies, and you have done an awful lot between now and then. are there things that you learnt in the early days in television that are relevant now, or is the industry, in the way that viewers and producers have changed so much, that, to some extent, it is just a different thing entirely? no, i think what you learn, and god bless the bbc for giving me a traineeship. you just didn t stay very long!