Dyke's future takes a dramatic turn

IT'S the programmes, stupid, announced the BBC's director- general, Greg Dyke, during his recent MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

Blunt it may have been, but Dyke's manifesto reaffirmed his belief that programme quality, rather than internal structures, will make or break the BBC in the digital era.

"Let me remind you of my rather simple definition of the BBC," said Dyke.

"It is to make and commission great British programmes.

Everything else is secondary."

The pledge was exactly what his audience of producers wanted to hear. But as the autumn schedules kick in, the question is: will the programmes in store for viewers live up to Dyke's declaration that quality is now firmly back at the top of the corporation's agenda?

The forthcoming shows were, of course, commissioned long before Dyke arrived at Broadcasting House, but perception is everything. And by casting himself in the tradition of arguably the BBC's greatest director-general, Hugh Carlton Greene, Dyke could be making a rod for his own back.

Greene's legacy boasted such 22-carat gems as Z Cars, The Forsyte Saga, That Was The Week That Was, Till Death Do Us Part, Dr Who and Monty Python.

It would be unfair to imagine that the programmes in the pipeline could match such a distinguished list. But with the return of One Foot In The Grave (the first new series since 1995), adaptations of Kingsley Amis's Take A Girl Like You and Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Cazalet Chronicle, Dyke's war chest does contain some potential treasures.

Also returning to BBC1 this autumn is a new blue-chip natural history series from David Atten-borough, The State Of The Planet.

Younger audiences are being targeted on BBC2 with a new contemporary drama from Cathy Come

Home producer Tony Garnett, the dotcom saga, Attachments; a new series of The Royle Family, and Steve Coogan's first venture from his own production company, Baby Cow, Consenting Adults.

Then, there is BBC2's bold and hugely expensive series, A History of Britain, written by Simon Schama (see story below).

Andrew Davies, scriptwriter for Take A Girl Like You, but better known for his BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, says: "I make no secret of the fact that I haven't been thrilled by some of the BBC's recent drama series, like Harbour Lights and Sunburn, but serials are a different matter.

When the BBC commissioned Take a Girl Like You there was no talk about putting bums on seats or copying what had worked in the past.

Instead we set out to bring the production values of the classic serial to a modern classic and everything that goes with that, including clever costumes, clever hairstyles and a real sense of the period. The heroine, Sienna Guil-lory, is a brand new face and is brilliant."

ANDY Harries, executive producer of The Royle Family, predicts that Attachments will turn out to be a worthy heir to This Life. He is hoping that because audiences will be able to interact with the saga via the internet it will make the serial especially compelling. But in common with many programme-makers, Harries sees no evidence that the BBC is any closer to creating an original successor to Casualty or EastEnders.

"They're terribly weak on good, strong popular drama," he says.

"That's why they're waving their cheque books all around town."

Another failure, according to Harries, is the BBC's inability to find a huge popular hit that captures people's imagination. "It is long overdue for the BBC to have something like Big Brother or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Castaway 2000 is all right, but it's not really Event TV."

The veteran drama producer Verity Lambert (Dr Who, The Naked Civil Servant, Minder) is coproducing The Cazalet Chronicle with Joanna Lumley. She is unconvinced that the thinking at the BBC has changed sufficiently to guarantee a bright future. "It wasn't until I took this idea to Peter Salmon (then BBC1 controller) that they became interested. It isn't like everything else on TV which, I'm afraid, is becoming increasingly safe. One of the problems with the BBC's series drama is that it is not particularly original."

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