TV x Three: BBC3 relaunches

The channel’s new logo (which still resembles Heart FM’s to me, at least in its static form as shown above) will normally be a lot more dynamic in its onscreen form. Its tubular composition carries through into several pipes (or ‘lifelines’ according to the very nice BBC3 PR people), through which multi-coloured liquid flows.

The idents themselves comprise busy animated models, through which the camera moves before resting on the channel logo:

Other idents, though, will include in-vision presentation from BBC3 viewers - part of the channel’s wholesale embrace of user-generated content. BBC3 Controller Danny Cohen says:

We’re going to ask our young audiences to upload their own introductions to programmes. We’ll take those introductions and we’ll use them as part of the way we introduce our shows. So you won’t always see a professional continuity announcement; you’ll often see a BBC3 viewer.

I remain to be convinced about how well that presentation style will work. What it will certainly do, though, is emphasise the channel’s new found commitment to mixing traditional, ‘linear’ TV content with web and mobile usage. Cohen again:

BBC Three is going to transform from being simply a television channel into a properly joined-up multiplatform experience… I think BBC3 should be known for pioneering risk more than anything else. BBC3 should be obsessed with everything new — new programmes, new talent and a new relationship between television and the web.

Next month, as I said, we will become the first BBC channel to transform from a linear service into a multiplatform experience. I want the channel to become known for being Britain’s most ambitious attempt to combine television and the web.

There are a number of key ways in which we can do this. They are first of all, we’re going to simulcast all our programmes on the web as they go out on television. We’ll be the first BBC non-news service to do that. You’ll be able to watch BBC3 on your telly, on your laptop or on your computer every night.

Secondly, we’re going to place innovative, interactive ideas at the heart of our key programmes. The forthcoming show [Lily Allen and Friends] is a really good example of that. It’s based around social networking, and it’s a really good example of the kind of things we want to put around all our key shows.

We’re also going to produce online content with the passion and production values you would normally associate with television. Later this week we’re going to launch an online project called Upstaged. It’s a really innovative mix of talent show, social networking and stamina. It’s going to be online for the first five weeks and then it’s going to have a joined-up television show for its final three weeks.

The central conceit of Upstaged is that contestants will be competing for the chance to perform on specially constructed stages in Bristol’s Millennium Square — for six hours (hence Cohen’s comment about the show including stamina). Now, I’ve seen many a light entertainment act at showcase events where their ten minute slot felt like it dragged for six hours — just how many acts will be able to entertain for that length of time remains to be seen. We’ll have more on Upstaged at a later date.

 Dramas

We’ve talked about the series of six one-off drama pilots before, when the commissions were first announced. Some more details emerged today, including the confirmation that at least one will definitely get a full series commission.

A strong front runner for a full commission, based purely on the strength of the promotional clips we saw, has to be Dis/Connected from Shine (which had the working title The Six in the initial announcement). It concentrates on the lives of disparate teenagers who find themselves drawn together when a mutual friend, Jenny, commits suicide. The young cast includes Kidulthood star Aml Ameen as Anthony, and The Sarah Jane Adventures actor (and one of The Stage’s Rising Stars of 2008) Daniel Anthony.

The only other pilots we were shown clips from included Being Human, the werewolf/vampire/ghost flatshare starring Guy Flanagan, Russell Tovey, Andrew Riseborough and, if the extracts were representative, numerous appearances from Russell Tovey’s naked butt cheeks; and Phoo Action, the futuristic kung fu cop show based on Jamie Hewlett’s comic strip Meet the Freebies.

Starrig Jaime Winstone, Eddie Shin and Carl Weathers, the brief extracts shown to us did make me cringe — due, in part at least, to the incongruity of the show’s style when compared to the rest of the preview reel (and the general non-plussed reaction from a non-comics savvy press). In order to judge this at all, I think we’re going to have to see the complete pilot episode to provide the correct context to the extracts we saw. It’s certainly the riskiest proposition of the six pilots, as it’s the one show which looks unlike anything else on TV.

 Comedy

Sitcoms Gavin and Stacey and Pulling return for second series, and are joined by two new sitcoms. Coming of Age is most likely to get the headlines, as its lead writer, Tim Dawson, is just 19 and still at university. Dawson has apparently been mentored by BBC sitcom veteran Paul Mayhew-Archer, so we can expect some traditional sitcom structure with age-appropriate subject matter. Sort of like Two Packets of Lager if it was funny.

A new show which didn’t get a mention at the press launch will be Trexx and Flipside, described in the press material as a ‘multi-platform sitcom’. Following two wannabe rappers stuck to a music label more used to promoting crooners. Of more interest to me, though, are two new sketch shows: Scallywagga, starring Coronation Street’s Sally Lindsay, and The Wrong Door, which is set in a bizarre parallel universe and will use CGI visual effects alongside the comedy.

 Factual

This isn’t really TV Today’s remit, so I’ll just summarise the basics: news strand 60 Seconds will be getting a makeover, to include world news, environmental and sports bulletins in an effort to prevent each bulletin from being too same-y; Making the Clothes I Wear takes high street fashion fans off to work in the sweatshops where their favourite outfits have been made; Jack’s Story follows Lance Corporal Jack Mizon of the Queen’s Company of the Grenadier Guards both in the UK and while on duty in Afghanistan. Fashion gets more of a look-in with Filthy Gorgeous, which bills itself as a ‘make-under’ show, and Find Me a Face, which takes a Streetmate-style approach to model searching.

 US Acquisitions

The second series of Heroes will continue to air on a ‘first look’ basis on BBC3, in conjunction with BBC2. It will be joined by college drama Greek, starring Jacob Zachar and Spencer ‘daughter of Kelsey’ Grammer.

In summary

Taken on content alone, the new slate of BBC3 shows would be interesting, but not too different from the sort of risk-taking that the channel has been about since its launch five years ago. The refreshed graphics and identity seem a lot more inviting than the old blue block THREE and the orange blobs, but I think it’s really going to be how the channel performs on the web that will be the deciding factor of the change in approach. Not all of the interactivity methods that the channel tries out will work — and of those that do, not all would be appropriate for other sectors of the BBC’s output. But I think it’s good that BBC3 is prepared to stick its neck out and experiment, not only with its traditional linear content but also in the way it approaches the internet.

See also:

• Bye bye blobs!
• Cohen unveils plans to combine BBC3’s TV and internet output
• Enter BBC Three