The Rose D'Or Nominations

Delighted to have been asked to go and represent Producers Filmlance and Director Pontus Lidberg of The Rain as nominees for Best Performing Arts Programme in the Rose D'Or - http://www.rosedor.com/ - television awards for this year at the always welcoming and generously appointed BAFTA.

Neither Pontus nor his producer Mathilde Dedeye were available - so Piccadillywards we wended on their behalf.

131 (or so) production companies submit 470 programmes from which 75 nominated programmes are shortlisted.

Three years ago the awards moved to Lucerne from Montreux, subsequently losing their slightly more upmarket
address moniker. Rumour has it that the festival had become a bit of a busted flush in terms of its former kudos when (particularly the Brit) TV companies, went, celebrated, tried to flog their programmes to eachother and fell about on the balmy shores of Lake Geneva with slightly naff Awards-night gala shows featuring the likes of The Black & White Minstrel Show, Lisa Minelli or Cliff Richard, usually backed by the Dougie Squires Dancers - I remember I was there on at least two occasions as one of those dancers in the white nylon flares and white platform boots....or was it the 3rd Gen, it was all soooo long ago, and I digress...

Recently these same Meejuhtypes have been somewhat spoiled for choice with the likes of MIPCOM, The Edinburgh Television Festival and sundry other Tristram Fests in usually rather more sunny and inviting climes to which they cart and attempt to peddle their wares such as, "I Ate My Wife and Dog" and "If They Were Your Own Kids - Would You Leave Them On A Desert Island With Ant & Dec?" etc, endless Gameshow/Reality slices and of course, the inevitable Soapy Sitcoms.

Added to which the whole satellite, cable and online marketing phenomenon now enables TV execs and producers worldwide to make, sell and distribute their product to the farthest reaches of the Empire, from the comfort of their overstuffed office chairs.

Lucerne being the new gaff, the event still takes place in a casino which is sort of appropriate given the fact that as with all Awards events and the other entirely meritricious activities of this nature, the whole thing is usually a bit of a lottery.

Dancefilm is still relatively poorly represented, however, I suppose we mustn't grumble as Opera which gets a far bigger slice of the arts programming pie only got the three noms.
One for "Peking Opera Children" (not strictly Opera) , one for "Mozart's Magic Flute - Onstage and Backstage", and as ever, the obligatory Peter Sellars directed overwrought nonsense, this year its "Dr Atomic", next year it will be "Nixon In China" or something...
This is, as opposed to the two dance programme nominations, Ballet Boyz (such a quaint and redundant name, now that both the "Boyz" have become grizzled codgers of the wind-swept and interesting ilk and the BIG one we were rootin' for, Pontus (STILL a boy) Lidberg's "The Rain".

Heart sank a little after a cursory scan of the 75 nominees threw up Fonejacker, Secret Diary of a Call Girl and The Mighty Boosh "Journey To The Centre of The Punk" slotted right up front and centre as prime examples of the very best that the whole of European TV (and Israel) could offer as "Entertainment"- not to mention Billie Piper and Charlotte Church (pert, nubile and fragrant as they doubtless are) walking off with a nomination apiece from a shortlist of only 8 of the Best Entertainers in the whole known TV universe!

This was what the entire intellectual weight of 24 of the European Broadcasting Union's finest minds could come up with??

I had a sudden flash of , "Quick! name one of the greatest thinkers and intellectual powerhouses in the last fifty years".
"Er, um, Mr Bean?" , however, keeping the mind open and the glass full we smiled, nodded and continued to raid the absolutely delicious trays of nibbles as they passed

Anyway, to business, as we were now mostly focusing on Herr New Direktor stepping up to the mic.

He rejoices in the name of Urban Frye which is understated by comparison with his boss and overall producer of this Alpine TV fest, one Freddy Burger, interestingly, notable by his absence... ...anyway, we were then treated to a quick video round-trip of the highlights of the twilight that is Lucerne, complete with alpenhorn and yodelling accompaniment and the obligatory shots of roadies wheeling flight cases off vans into casinos and lots of Media types at cocktail parties smiling broadly as they waved perspex Gongs around, shaped like oversized, double function Back-Scratcher/Doorstops, or perhaps the other way round...

The new Director of the Festival at least, has had the vision to separate the arts strands into Documentaries AND Performance, rather than lumping the Turns in together irrespective of the POV of the camera or the relative creative and/or directorial choices and approaches.

However, for only two "Arts" strands" we had 6 others which were as general and frankly unedifying as is possible, namely: "Comedy", "Drama" (why cannot they be both I wonder?), "Entertainment" (as opposed to the two previous mentioned, which presumably are not to be classed as entertainment), "Game Show", "Reality" and "Sitcom", which from my admittedly cursory television watching time these days, have now seem to have become inextricably muddled into one single genre, usually called something breathtakingly creative such as "How do We Solve A Problem Like Big Brother Singing Lloyd Webber on The X Factor" or somesuch.

Urban waxed far too apologetically about the recent slightly dusty history of the fest, threw out a few strained analogies involving gardening, roses, cultivation, pruning and er, new growth (perhaps I just lost these in translation), listed the 75 nominees, each, slowly, by name, and category, and roundly exhorted our small if perfectly formed group to congratulate them, which we duly did with great pride and enthusiasm.

Entirely to his credit, Urban later informed us that he personally had brought the delicious chocolates and Swiss cheese nibbles being served, all the way from Switzerland, which we thought a very fine gesture and waaay beyond the call of duty.

The Festival occurs May 2-6 as previously mentioned, in Lucerne and if we go by the charming if somewhat keen glint in Urban's eye, is set to become a relatively significant pin in the map of European culture for anyone interested or involved in making, flogging or measuring the relative demographics of TV-Tube- Prole-Food.

Interestingly it remains to be seen if the same can be said for what the newly minted 48th Rose D'Or Television Programming Festival can do for Arts programme makers when the flight cases roll back onto the vans and the circus finally rolls out of town on May 7th.

We are definitely going, if only to cheer "our" guy to win, get some more of that delicious cheese and watch Mick Jagger (2 Nominationss - Performing Arts "Rolling Stones - The Biggest Bang" & Best Entertainer) turn up and naked mud wrestle Billy Piper for one of those Back Scratchers....
With a generous commission for the wonderful Pontus to choreograph it, they should make this the gala event for the evening and blow Cliff off the stage. Now THAT's what I'd call a TV show!
It sure would beat the hell out of the Slinky Act and Boyz -2- Men who appear to have been what passes for a Cabaret at last year's Awards show.

PS.
For those of us who thought that UK plc and its creative output, at least in telly terms had gone to hell in a handcart, the good news is that overall UK Television companies received 31 nominations, their next nearest rivals being Germany, with a grand total of 8.