MEDIA: ITV wakes up to the potential of literary dramas

The hunt is on in ITV for executives with English Literature degrees,

and one or two at least will surely be found eventually. After 40 years

or so of thinking literary costume dramas were something that could

safely be left to the BBC while they got on with showing James Bond

revival seasons, ITV has stumbled across Literature.

With gentle Emma from Meridian and the rumbustious Moll Flanders from

Granada already out of the way, and Jane Eyre and Far From the Madding

Crowd already commissioned, there is no mistaking the fact that a new

bandwagon has started to roll in commercial television.

The discovery that costume drama need not necessarily begin and end with

Sharpe and the Napoleonic Wars is good news for ITV, for advertisers and

for audiences. The drama premiere slot also looks like a decent deal for

the sponsor Midland Bank.

The numbers make captivating reading. Emma pulled in an audience of 11.2

million, just behind The Bill and a bit ahead of that week’s

international football. Moll Flanders did even better with 13.5 million,

ahead of just about everything apart from Coronation Street.

As Marketing goes to press, you can be sure that the ITV Network Centre

is already interviewing Cambridge dons for the new post of controller of

costume drama, with a bias in favour of those with a detailed knowledge

of filthy novels and those of the 18th century in particular.

The great joy of such literary masterpieces is that apart from adding a

bit of variety to the schedule and keeping advertisers happy with

audiences that might be expected to be a bit more up-market than normal,

is that you can sin and blaspheme to your hearts content when the action

is set a long time ago.

Virginia Bottomley can make herself ridiculous as often as she likes

pandering to Michael Howard’s obsession with sex and violence in

television. When Daniel Defoe is the author - anything goes.

Rarely have so many purposeful heaving buttocks been seen on ITV and not

long after the sacred 9pm watershed. Not even Paul Johnson could

complain about televising Defoe’s novels - at least not until Michael

Grade and Channel 4 catch up with the trend.

But it did sound a little odd to hear a preacher during a coach journey

in Moll Flanders denounce the evils of London by warning that they

practised cunnilingus there. Well indeed they do. But it was still a

surprise to be reminded of that fact by Granada before 10pm on a Sunday

evening, and did Defoe really include such a word in 1722 in his

Puritan’s tale of sin and repentance?

It is extremely sad that it has taken ITV such a long time to realise

there is a virtuous circle to be found - that spending money on quality

productions that stray beyond one more sub-variant of the cop show can

pay dividends in audiences, advertising, sponsorship and even rights to

sell around the world.

Raymond Snoddy is Financial Times media correspondent

This article was first published on Marketing