Andrew Newman: There are lots of challenges with Derren Brown Andrew Newman, an executive producer on illusionist Derren Browns latest Channel 4 show, in which he coaches pensioners to steal a Chapman brothers painting from an art exhibition, is no stranger to brazen stunts. Early in his TV career, Newman worked with Sacha Baron Cohen in his Ali G phase and Chris Morris on Brass Eye, so he should have a natural affinity with Browns high concept pranks. As chief executive of Objective, the independent producer behind Browns TV output, Newman oversees a programming slate that mirrors his own background working on offbeat, sometimes spiky series. The likes of Peep Show, Fresh Meat and Toast of London – recommissioned for a second Channel 4 series last week – attract critical plaudits and industry awards, but not always large audiences. Newman is in the process of diversifying Objective beyond this core of eclectic comedy and entertainment output. The interview takes place in a large rehearsal room at the companys offices in Londons County Hall. On a nearby window sill sits a box of props, including a mock French baguette, from CBBC show Help! My Supply Teacher is Still Magic, winner of a childrens entertainment Bafta. In January the company makes its first foray into BBC1 Saturday night entertainment, with family gameshow Reflex. Brown, Objectives original award-winning turn, is now seen as just one of many signatures of the company, according to Newman, and returns to Channel 4 on Friday with The Great Art Robbery, a change of direction from last years Apocalypse. The art heist caper, Newman says, is an attempt to lighten up after Browns last outing. In its mind games, and in making people question what is and isnt reality, its now acknowledged that Apocalypse went too far in its quest for originality. It was very dark, Newman recalls. He convinced a bloke the world was ending and the country was being overrun by zombies. In the last few [of] Derrens [shows], the people are in them without knowing they are in them. This time people know they are in them. And its a good idea people know they are in them. Apocalypse proved uncomfortable viewing, and since it required scores of security men, a former military base in East Anglia and night-time filming, Objective had to pick up the tab when the production overran its Channel 4 budget by about £200,000. So there has been a rethink. Derrens been brilliantly creative in his output since Ive been here, Newman says, while admitting he presents lots of challenges. Part of it is coming up with the idea. Part of it is how to make the idea. Part of it is how to do it legally, he adds. This year the actual copyright clearance of the paintings was a difficult one, who would have thought that? Newman has form himself as a dreamer-up of wacky ideas. In 1996, working on Morriss Brass Eye, he rang up the prison housing the gangster Reggie Kray to ask him to support a charity campaigning for distressed elephants. Kray rang back and spoke to Morris for 25 minutes about the fate of Clara, an elephant who was slowly inflating because her trunk was stuck up her anus. He also contributed to Baron Cohens ideas round tables (after helping with Ali G), which resulted in Borat and Bruno. Now, aged 43, as the head of a nearly £40m-a-year business with 50 core staff – one of a number of independent producers owned by All3Media – and the chairman of Baftas television committee, he is building a company and an executive career. What I would love to have is some slightly easier shows to make, he says. Deal Or No Deal, he adds, is brilliantly thought-out. And you can do thousands of them. Derrens very different to that. You need all sorts. Television is not working down a mine, but it is hard to do things which are at the top of the game. I hope a lot of the shows we make are special. The company has always had magic in its mix, having been founded by the TV magician Andrew OConnor in order to make the 90s BBC1 word game The Alphabet Game. Newman is a member of the Magic Circle and as a teenage magician performed at childrens parties. Though the main channels largely avoid the genre, Objective makes Discoverys Breaking Magic, a science show disguised as magic, and The Happening, with overtones of Browns stunts, for Watch. Objective is bidding for more mainstream work and overseas format sales with BBC1s Reflex, a gameshow that tests contestants reaction times, and also draws on the slow-motion filming techniques used in ITVs Splash!. It will use special-effects cameras that can shoot 1,000 frames a second, rather than the more usual 24 frames a second, to replay the competitions. Two teams of three family members will face five challenges in each show. These include jumping through a (stunt) plate glass window, blowing up a nine-foot-high balloon, collecting water in jam jars from a series of water spouts, and exploding a jar of marshmallows. We want competitive people that you would warm to, people the audience will root for, says Newman of the families. It was devised by Adam Adler, creator of Objectives ITV gameshow The Cube. A stand-out TV show is very much down to a mix of the skill [put into] production and post-production, along with the original idea, observes Newman. As the show was being tweaked, Radio 2s Ken Bruce was enlisted to do a gently funny voiceover, and Jake Humphrey, the former BBC motorracing presenter who is now the face of BT Sport, was replaced as host by Shane Richie. There will be a celebrity version, featuring the former rugby international Austin Healey and Olympic sprinter Iwan Thomas. BBC1s recent cancellation of I Love My Country and That Puppet Show highlights the pressure to deliver ratings on Saturday evening and Newman is aware of the potential pitfalls of being commissioned for such a slot. Entertainment is tough. And comedy. When something doesnt fly 100%, people are very keen to slag it off. Maybe Reflex will work, maybe it wont. I think entertainment is quite spitefully judged. It is certainly something we have put a lot of creative energy into, Newman says. I do think there is a snobbery about entertainment. When it is good it is as engaging as any great drama, when entertainment really sings people feel passionate about it. Newman is waiting to hear from Channel 4 if the comedy drama Fresh Meat will have a fourth series, in which the students graduate, and hopes to build on its success with more drama – we have some more serious dramas in development, a few ideas with Channel 4. He has good news for fans of Objectives award-winning sitcom Peep Show. Although David Mitchell told an interviewer last month that after a decade Mark and Jez are getting too old to live together in a flat, he insists there are going to be more Peep Shows. The plan is not for them to drive over a cliff in a bus and be dead, and not leave the door open, 10 years on, for [a follow-up show on the lines of] Whatever Happened To the Likely Lads. Channel 4 said they want another one. It will happen when the writers, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong [who also created Fresh Meat], have the time. His companys long-standing commitment to making comedy with a difference is a gamble which seems to have paid off with the second series order for this autumns Toast of London, starring Matt Berry as a roguish thespian, and written by Berry with Father Ted co-creator Arthur Mathews. It was broadcast at 10.40pm on Sunday nights by Channel 4, and failed to break out beyond a small consolidated audience of 400,000. I wish more people watched it – I think it is brilliantly authored, different to anything on TV, says Newman. It is quite a strong flavour. Skewed reality. I obviously think it should have been on at 9pm. Career 1993 TV writer and producer on shows including The Word, The Big Breakfast, Brass Eye, The Sunday Show, The Eleven OClock Show and Ali G 1998 commissioning editor, entertainment, Channel 4 1999 head of programmes, E4 2001 controller of entertainment, Channel 5 2003 head of entertainment, Channel 4 2006 head of entertainment and comedy, Channel 4 2009 chief creative officer, Objective 2011 chief executive
Posted on: Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:08:17 +0000
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