BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw has signalled her intention to blow away the channel’s cobwebs, calling for more documentaries that “grab you by the balls” for an audience she described as the “punk” generation.
The channel, which has become synonymous with cookery and craft shows, has just seen the average age of its audience rise above 60 for the first time.
Shillinglaw called for more presenters with edge and attitude, and appeared to call time on “straight cooking” shows despite the imminent return to the channel of Nigella Lawson.
The BBC executive, charged with reinventing Top Gear following the axing of Jeremy Clarkson, said the channel required “fresh ideas and renewal right across the landscape” of its schedule.
Shillinglaw said: “People often forget that if you are in your 50s or 60s you grew up with punk; you don’t have an automatically staid view of the world. I don’t think in terms of an actual age, I think more in terms of a mindset. That young-at-heart thing is very important to me.”
Shillinglaw, the BBC’s former science and natural history chief who took over BBC2 last year, called on documentary makers to put more emotion into their films, pointing to Channel 4 series such as Benefits Street and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
“Whatever you thought about it as a series, Benefits Street had some moments that absolutely grabbed you by the balls. We made a flawed but very interesting documentary called Meet the Ukippers which had some moments in it which just made your jaw drop,” she told a Bafta event in London.
Shillinglaw said she wanted BBC2’s factual shows to be “a little bit more contemporary. Life isn’t just about bunting; we could do more to get closer to the national conversation”.
There was praise for BBC2 presenters such as Stephen Fry, Brian Cox, Dara O Briain and Mary Beard who she said had attitude and irreverence borne out of knowing their subject matter inside out.
“Cheeky irreverence is really important to me; it can’t be surplus or cheap or unearned, it’s got to be rooted,” she said. “The reason why Mary Beard can crack a joke about Roman sex lives and – you know – penises, is because, you know what? She bloody knows her stuff about Rome.”
The average age of BBC2’s audience reached 60 last year – a year older than that of BBC1 – up from 58 three years earlier.
Last week the channel unveiled a pottery spin-off of its biggest show, The Great British Bake Off, which switched to BBC1 last year. It was the latest in a long line of BBC2 talent contests including the Great British Menu, the Great Interior Design Challenge and the Big Allotment Challenge.
Shillinglaw praised BBC2 comedies such as James Corden’s The Wrong Mans and Inside No 9 but admitted in recent years on the channel “there hasn’t been something quite as close to capturing the moment if you like, as The Office or Absolutely Fabulous”.
New BBC2 shows include Phone Shop Idol about the search for Britain’s best mobile phone salesman, Chinese School in which Chinese teachers attempt to turn around UK schools, and Britain’s Hardest Worker, about low pay.
She said there was less appetite for “straight cooking” or “chop and cook” shows but indicated there was more potential for travel documentaries to find the “next turn of the wheel”. Asked about the difference between BBC2 and BBC4, which she also oversees, Shillinglaw said: “BBC2 brings you the universe and BBC4 brings you the atom.”
