大象传媒 THREE - Winter highlights 2005
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Stuart Murphy, Controller,
大象传媒 THREE
Welcome to 大象传媒 THREE's Winter 2005 season. We think
it's going to blow your socks off.
On 9 February the channel will celebrate its second
birthday, and like any cheeky two year old we are really starting to
get into our stride and find out what's fun, what moves people, and
what we are all about.
Comedy has been the most obvious area of success with
viewers.
3 Non-Blondes burst onto the screens
on launch night and in many ways it was the gun which started our comedy
race.
Only 大象传媒 THREE could ever do anything like the multi award-winning
animated satire Monkey Dust, this
season returning for a third palm-sweaty series.
The Smoking Room, by brand new
writer Brian Dooley, brought a calmer tone to our comedy slate, as well
as big audiences when it transferred to 大象传媒 TWO.
The Mighty Boosh played to a more
surreal crowd who like their wolves to play guitars, their taxis to
travel in space and their comedy unpredictably imaginative.
Nighty Night, currently in production
with its second run, made a star of Julia Davies and was simply unlike
anything else in terms of tone and the ability to laugh at the macabre.
Where else would it make perfect sense to have someone ride a horse
down an aisle at a funeral?
But the undoubted run-away hit has been the multi award- winning Little
Britain, which returned for a second series this autumn to
rave reviews and record audiences for 大象传媒 THREE.
This season we continue our commitment to exceptional cutting edge
comedy with pieces from both Marc Wootton and Johnny
Vegas.
Over the past year 大象传媒 THREE has also built a reputation
as the place for smart drama in multi channel. No other channel is originating
the kind of pieces you find on THREE - from the critically acclaimed
medical drama Bodies, to last season's
powerful and uncompromising cop drama Conviction.
The noises people are making about our drama are very
similar to those people made about our comedy six months ago.
Audiences and critics are getting a sharper sense of
what emotional hit a 大象传媒 THREE drama gives, what a 大象传媒 THREE drama looks
like and what subjects a 大象传媒 THREE drama will tackle. With the added
bonus that they are pulling people in: Conviction delivered a record
audience for our drama, with half a million viewers coming to the first
episode alone.
This season we aim to raise the creative bar a massive
notch, with our first ever period drama. In fact more punk meets period.
We've encouraged the production team to push themselves and question
everything about how period drama is done, and we think the results
will blow people away.
We're very proud to have attracted the audacious talent
Russell T Davies to write his first 大象传媒 THREE piece,
for what we hope will be the start of a long term relationship, and
in turn talent such as David Tennant and Peter
O'Toole have come aboard.
In factual we were first to the market with parenting
programmes Little Angels and Who
Rules The Roost.
In many ways these series are just what 大象传媒 THREE should
be about - they add real practical value to viewers' lives, they are
warm, witty and were our first successes in a now established parenting
genre.
Body Hits continues
apace, with host Dr John Marsden bringing insight without
pomp, and last summer's Mind, Body And Kick
Ass Moves gave martial art expert Chris Crudelli
his TV debut. Great Chi, but don't cross him.
Elsewhere in factual Towerblock
Dreams proved that new directors and producers can bring intimacy,
style and humour to a series looking at inner city life, and this season
we are building on its success with the same people making Country
Life.
The Trouble With Black Men
was the first in what we hope will be a growing vein of provocative
polemics from 大象传媒 THREE, which resonate beyond the confines of the channel.
Look out for more in 2005.
There have of course been shows that defied convention
much more obviously.
60 Seconds is a
news update which came out of the audience's desire for a quick fix
of the latest headlines.
Sir Alex Ferguson was so touched by our 3
Investigates programme delving into his dealings with his son
at Elite Management that he has threatened never to speak to the 大象传媒
again.
We have commissioned similarly hard hitting current
affairs pieces for this season.
And of course there was Flashmob
- The Opera; untried, untested, utterly nuts, completely live,
successfully bringing Puccini to Paddington.
It was watched over successive transmissions by 650,000
people, not bad when you consider that 350,000 go to watch Opera at
The Royal Opera House every year. Makes you want to pop on a frock and
have a go yourself.
So that's where we've come from. Over the next few pages
I hope you'll get a sense that at THREE we constantly aim to make great
TV for young British adults.
Brand new British productions across all genres, with
new talent. Because at the 大象传媒 that's what we should be doing, that's
what makes us tick, that's what we love: funny, risk taking, crafted,
inspiring, utterly distinctive television.
I hope you enjoy it.
Stuart Murphy
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