Raymond Snoddy on media: Cracker let down by fashion despots

Marketing 11-Oct-06

At long last we have incontrovertible evidence that ITV is not entirely dead. As the chief executive soap opera has continued on its weary way over recent months, such evidence has been hard to come by. But the return of Cracker this month demonstrated conclusively that, just sometimes, ITV wakes up and remembers where it has come from and what it once was.

The cynics can snipe in obvious ways. The reliance on an idea more than a decade old, with another of similar vintage on the way in the shape of Prime Suspect 7, is perhaps less than ideal. Can an ITV remake of early-80s hit Brideshead Revisited be far off? It would be fair to ask why the company can't come up with a contemporary hit on such a scale.

But just for a moment, let's forget the current obsession with two-minute clips on YouTube and, despite mixed views from the critics, praise Cracker - two hours of top-quality popular drama produced by ITV.

The sharp script by Jimmy McGovern combined with production values that compared well with movie standards. Above all, it produced what advertisers expect, and need, from ITV - an 8m audience, and that in a straight schedule clash with the BBC's excellent Jane Eyre. Thank God for the PVR.

Marketing directors need to reflect for a moment on how wise it is to continue kicking ITV, which has become the softest of targets. In the internet age, is there any other commercial broadcaster - or communications outlet of any kind, for that matter - that can attract a diverse audience of 8m for a single programme outside a top football match? If the answer is no, then ITV deserves more encouragement than kicks - however appealing it may be to continue taking revenge and removing revenues for past bad behaviour.

Not every creative decision is quite so admirable as Cracker. Two nights after the return of Robbie Coltrane came the ITV debut of Trinny and Susannah.

Earlier in the summer, former ITV programme director David Liddiment ran into Mica Paris and Lisa Butcher, Trinny and Susannah's successors in presenting the BBC's What Not To Wear show, at the Proms. His private view was that Trinny and Susannah were another example of an ITV buy-up from the BBC that would not work. This was an archetypal BBC show that would not travel.

It's not yet clear whether Liddiment's gut instinct will turn out to be right, and in any case, Trinny & Susannah Undress is a very different show from What Not To Wear.

Their first outing last week attracted a respectable audience of 4m - but at a cost. The feel of the original concept has been destroyed in favour of a gratuitous and brutal intrusion into the personalities of their subjects by people who have neither the knowledge nor the right to do so. Physical nakedness is the least offensive aspect of it.

It is more than possible that given the current appetite for 'peep-show' programming, Trinny & Susannah Undress will turn into a hit. But I hope not, and our household will be doing what we can to ensure that does not happen.

Meanwhile, the organisers of next year's Edinburgh International Television Festival should set to work on a celebrity edition in which all those responsible for this wretched show should get their kit off and have their private lives exposed to ridicule.

For good measure, we could also stir in a guest appearance by ITV chairman Sir Peter Burt. It might remove any lingering doubt in his mind that it really is time to stand down and stick to running banks in future. A big audience would be guaranteed.

30 SECONDS ON ... TRINNY AND SUSANNAH
- Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine teamed up in 1994 to write a weekly style guide for The Daily Telegraph that ran for seven years.

- They were the co-founders of Ready2shop.com, a fashion website that went out of business in 2000.

- They joined the BBC to present What Not to Wear, an 'ambush' makeover show where the subject, nominated by friends and family, is advised on their wardrobe before being given £2000 to buy clothes.

- Their latest programme, Trinny & Susannah Undress, debuted on 3 October on ITV1. The show explores how the way people dress affects their relationships by making over the wardrobes of six couples and taking steps to rekindle the romance in their lives.

- Trinny and Susannah provided the voices for deadly robot versions of themselves in an episode of Doctor Who last year.