But where is the new drama?Good new drama had to be part of the plan to revive the channel which has
But where is the new drama?”Good new drama had to be part of the plan to revive the channel, which has seen its share of total viewing fall below BBC1’s for the first time since commercial television began in the 1950s, she said.”You need a couple more major entertainment hits and maybe something a [...]
But where is the new drama?”Good new drama had to be part of the plan to revive the channel, which has seen its share of total viewing fall below BBC1’s for the first time since commercial television began in the 1950s, she said.”You need a couple more major entertainment hits and maybe something a little more discerning for a later-night audience and some new drama franchises.”Should Ms Airey secure the job, made vacant by the departure of Stuart Prebble in the aftermath of the ITV Digital collapse, the staff should not despair completely.She enjoys its coverage of Formula One and Champions League football, while Pop Idol was “perfect television”. “But intelligent entertainment? I can’t find it.”Ms Airey, 41, is being courted by Carlton and Granada, the main partners in ITV, although she has not yet been offered the job.At Channel 5, she is credited with seizing a 6.5 per cent share of the audience on a budget of £149m, much smaller than her rivals’.She is known to be interested in the ITV job only on condition that she has the budget and the freedom to do what she thinks is required. She also wants compensation for what she would lose by leaving her current job where she stands to make a fortune if it were sold.Current executives at ITV may feel some of her criticisms unfair. The channel has been proudly trumpeting its more adventurous dramas such as its contemporary version of Shakespeare’s Othello and Bloody Sunday, a film about the events in Northern Ireland.Pop Idol was the most popular entertainment programme on television this year while Ant and Dec’s latest series, entitled I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, is proving a big draw.A spokeswoman said the latest figures suggested an extra £25m investment in the autumn schedule was starting to pay dividends.
Young audiences aged 16 to 34 went up 9 per cent in August and the overall audience is down only 2 per cent year on year to August, compared with a loss of 12 per cent for the year to July.. A comprehensive school has become the first to outperform all the country’s fee-paying schools after achieving the best marks per pupil at GCSE. If any other school thinks this is an easy option, I suggest they put their pupils in for a vocational award.”Another City Technology College, Brooke Weston in Corby, Northamptonshire, also had a higher point score than all the independent schools.However, it failed in the main category used to rank schools in league tables, whereby all pupils must obtain at least five top-grade A* to C grade passes.Alistair Cooke, general secretary of the Independent Schools Council, criticised ministers yesterday for failing to “extend a word of praise to the standards set by independent schools”. He added: “Our schools’ GCSE results, like the A-level statistics announced last week, underline the immensely important contribution that ISC schools make to education in Britain today.”The hard work done by all pupils in both state and independent schools should be given full recognition.”Stephen Baldock, high master of St Paul’s, said coming top of the tables was “not a priority”. He added: “I think most heads regard tables as both volatile and representative of only a small aspect of the total education a school is trying to offer. But, of course, one wants one’s pupils to do well and the fact is that, however you look at the statistics, boys here have done better than any of their preceding years at St Paul’s.”I think one of the things I’m pleased about is that every one of them has taken at least one creative or practical subject, such as art, drama, music or design and technology.
It’s not simply an academic package.”All schools in the independent table achieved 100 per cent success in getting their pupils to obtain at least five A* to C grade passes at GCSE. The point score is calculated by giving 8 points for an A* grade, 7 for an A, 6 for a B, 5 for a C, 4 for a D, 3 for an E, 2 for an F and 1 for a G. The total is then divided by the number of candidates sitting the exam.. Britain’s leading independent schools have launched an investigation into whether universities are discriminating against their pupils. Leaders of the country’s fee-paying schools say they believe the practice is growing.
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