Matthew Bell

2 months ago | rts.org.uk | Roz Laws |Matthew Bell

Matthew Bell reports on the centre’s Student Awards, while, below, Roz Laws listens in at an industry roadshowA team of students from Nottingham Trent University took home the Sir Lenny Henry Award for best overall film with Chords of Conflict at the RTS Midlands Student Television Awards. Henry said: “They are all great films and I congratulate you all. You are knocking it out of the park.

2 months ago | rts.org.uk | Matthew Bell |Marcus Ryder |Paul Litchfield |Tacita Small

Marcus Ryder, Dr Paul Litchfield, Tacita Small, Michelle White, Tome Levi and Jude Spencer (credit: Paul Hampartsoumian) Depression and anxiety are very real problems for many in the industry. How can we create a healthier culture? Belatedly, television seems to be waking up to the mental health crisis in the industry. Progress is being made but there is still a huge amount of work to do.

Dec 13, 2024 | rts.org.uk | Matthew Bell

If you can judge the success of a comedy show by the ubiquity of its catchphrases, The Fast Show was “Scorchio!”. That one was courtesy of Caroline Aherne’s weather girl on Chanel 9, the Euro telly spoof. And they kept on coming on TV’s greatest sketch show: “I freely admit I was very, very drunk” (sozzled QC Rowley Birkin, Paul Whitehouse); “Does my bum look big in this?” (Arabella Weir’s Insecure Woman); and “… which was nice” (Patrick Nice, Mark Williams).

Dec 13, 2024 | rts.org.uk | Matthew Bell

More than 24 million people tuned into ITV and the BBC to watch Spain beat England in the Euro 2024 final in July. A month later, Warner Bros. Discovery streamed 3,800 hours of live Olympic competition, consumed by UK and European audiences to the tune of 7 billion minutes. Clearly, sport still pulls in huge audiences, whether broadcast on linear TV or streamed on platforms such as Discovery+ and Max.

Dec 13, 2024 | rts.org.uk | Matthew Bell |Lorraine Heggessey |Andy Harries

It would be no exaggeration to say that British TV drama and comedy over the past 30 years would have looked very different without Andy Harries, a producer with his finger on the popular pulse, but never at the expense of quality. While working in-house at Granada and then for his own production company, Left Bank Pictures, Harries’ hits have included Cold Feet, The Deal, Quiz and, of course, The Crown. There have also been acclaimed films, most notably The Queen and The Damned United.