Hideously middle class: Privately educated BBC controller says it makes too many sitcoms about well-off families and needs more 'blue collar' shows
Man on a mission: BBC One chief Danny Cohen says the channel makes too many programmes about well-off middle class families He's the privately educated Oxford graduate now running BBC1.But the channels new controller Danny Cohen, who lives in North London with his fiancee an academic and economist has decided the Corporation has become too obsessed with the middle class.And the 36-year-old, who takes home a salary of around 250,000 a year, has vowed to do something about it by ordering more blue collar programmes to cater for the working class.Mr Cohen, who presides over a budget of 1.3 billion, has been carrying out an in-depth consultation of the state of the channel since he was promoted from BBC Three where he was behind programmes including Snog, Marry, Avoid and How Drugs Work.A source says Mr Cohen appointed to replace outgoing controller Jay Hunt last year feels the channels output doesnt reflect the lives of ordinary working people.He says Mr Cohen believes the channel is relying too heavily on middle class stereotypes and is losing touch with viewers outside that group.The findings echo former BBC Director General Greg Dykes controversial comments in 2001 that the corporation was hideously white.Now Mr Cohen wants to see the commissioning of more comedies such as Bread, which followed the working class Boswell family in their Liverpool terrace home, and Birds Of A Feather, about two sisters living in Chigwell, Essex, whose husbands were in prison.The source said: Danny is not reinventing the wheel. But he feels the BBC has lost its variety and become too focused on formats about comfortable, well-off middle-class families whose lives are perhaps more reflective of BBC staff than viewers in other parts of the UK.One of his priorities is getting more programming that reflects the different social classes and what he describes as blue collar comedies. In the p! ast, pro grammes like Porridge, Birds Of A Feather and Bread were about real working families and the workings of their lives.
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- JEREMY LLOYD: Blue collar comedy? How patronising, foolish and old-fashioned
- JEREMY LLOYD: Blue collar comedy? How patronising, foolish and old-fashioned
It stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as put-upon parents Pete and Sue Brockman a teacher and a part-time personal assistant who are outnumbered by their three unruly children. They live in an imposing Victorian terrace house set in fictional Limebridge but the show is filmed on location in Wandsworth, South West London.
Days numbered?: Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner with the children from outnumbered which is set in Chiswick, an affluent part of West LondonMy Family, set in leafy Chiswick, West London, stars Robert Lindsay as dentist Ben Harper and Zoe Wanamaker as his wife Susan, a mother of three who works in an art gallery and has an MBE for charity work.Yesterday Jimmy Perry, co-writer of BBCs wartime favourite Dads Army and Hi-de-Hi, said programmes shouldnt be categorised by class.Ina room full of people there are all sorts. You cant say, you watch this and you watch that. You cant tell people what to watch and what tolike. You cant lay down orders.Mr Cohens mission is ironic given his gilded background.Theson of a solicitor, he grew up in Edgware, North London, and! was edu cated at the exclusive City of London School for boys, where fees are12,000-a-year.
Classic: The cast of Only Fools And Horses. The sitcom was set in Peckham and featured market trader 'Del Boy' as he struggled to make a livingPast pupils include former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, writer Kingsley Amis and Aaron Barschak the self-styled comedy terrorist who infamously gatecrashed Prince Williams 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle dressed as Osama Bin Laden.Mr Cohen went on to study English literature at Oxfords Lady Margaret Hall college, graduating with a double first.
He is engaged to Left-wing author and economist Noreena Hertz, who isan expert on globalisation and whose work has been praised by Sir Bob Geldof and U2 frontman and Aids campaigner Bono.Mr Cohens first big professional break was at Channel 4 and its youth strand E4 where hewas behind shows such Cutting Edges The Trial Of Tony Blair, a satire about the former Prime Minister being put on trial for war crimes, and controversial teen drama Skins.
Popular: Ronnie Barker In a scene from the 'Porridge', the type of sitcom that Mr Cohen would like to see more of
Hard times: Diana Dors, Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett in Steptoe and Son, which followed the lives of two rag and bone menIn 2007 Mr Cohen was appointed controller of digital channel BBC Three where commissions included Lip Service, a drama about a group of lesbians living in Edinburgh.He also introduced 60 Seconds, short news bulletins screened every hour and the BAFTA award-winning comedy Gavin And Stacey.In 2009 it was revealed that Mr Cohen had claimed 438 expenses for a meeting to discuss the recommissioning of a drama series.
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