The South Bank Show thrived upon being discovered amid unlikely company. Taking up its unpretentious slot in the ITV schedules was in many ways the whole point. The idea was to be free, in both senses, and not to be earnestly improving.
Now the programme, or at least substantial parts of it, will be turning up in an even more unlikely setting: on Sky. On Monday, the satellite broadcaster secured its long-rumoured deal with Melvyn Bragg, and soon he will be setting up an annual awards night and a series of documentaries – if not the whole of his SBS franchise – on their pitch. .
At the dawn of the new millennium I remember going to the launch of the well-intentioned subscription channel Artsworld. Jeremy Isaacs was one of its investors, and so was our publisher, GMG. The promotional trailer shown to arts journalists was full of ambition, vivid images and glorious sounds (although, embarrassingly, the snores of one opera critic vied for dominance with the soundtrack). The hope was that there was an audience for the kind of arts events you couldn't find on terrestrial television and that, crucially, this audience had money.
Before the days of YouTube, Spotify and cheap DVDs it was harder to navigate the backwaters of culture to find the kind of entertainment you wanted to watch at home (this was also two years before the advent of BBC Four). Back then the BBC2 schedule was already stacked from ceiling to skirting board with DIY shows, antique shows, and property shows, so there was little room for culture.
But after three years things were looking difficult at Artsworld. So Sky stepped in, taking a 50% share at first, before taking full control in 2005. On 1 March 2007, Artsworld became Sky Arts and Artsworld HD became Sky Arts HD. And since then Rupert Murdoch has been chief purveyor of highbrow entertainment to the masses, as well as bringing you the Sun.
On Sky Arts, you can watch theatre broadcast direct from the West End (Playhouse Live), a literary quiz with Sandi Toksvig, live coverage of the Hay festival, browse through the footage of the Fourth Plinthers, or take a wider look at contemporary art with Tim Marlow.
OK, so the Sky Arts channels (they've multiplied now) are a reputation-building, loss-leader for the Sky brand, but they are also still the only place to find presenters with the kind of enthusiasm for books, plays, ballet and opera that you normally only see in relation to sport. So maybe Sky is the right place for Melvyn after all. As Lord Bragg put it: "I don't really mind who does it as long as it is done."
