Why are dramas such as Teachers and Cold Feet so successful?

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Chris King        A2 Media Studies Coursework        Spring 2002

Why are dramas such as Teachers and Cold Feet so successful?

In this essay, I intend to look at the factors that help to make reality dramas such as Cold Feet and Teachers successful.  Cold Feet and Teachers are two of the most recent dramas to be put on British screens. The ITV television series Cold Feet has become a hit programme on British television, regularly pulling in audiences up to 9 million. (MediaGuardian, Dec 27th 2000)  Set in Manchester, the text is based on a group of friends in their thirties and focuses on their everyday lives, from the happy to the tragic in the blink of an eye.  As said in the MediaGuardian, (Dec 27th 2000) it has “defined a new genre – comedy-drama.”     As Helena Sheehan, a lecturer at Dublin University put it; comedy-drama penetrates deep into the social realities of life.  This statement also shows in the second text – Channel 4’s ‘Teachers.’  Set in a London secondary school, this drama follows a group of young teachers whose unruly lives and loves are not dissimilar from their adolescent times. It stars Andrew Lincoln as Simon, (also in ‘This Life’) fighting maturity at the age of 27.  It follows Channel 4’s remit of being new and innovative in its service to the public.  Despite terrible reviews from newspapers such as The Times, and condemnation from the NUT, Channel 4 has re-commissioned this programme for 2002.  

With quality dramas such as this, it is hard to think that Cold Feet is shown on ITV, a channel sometimes thought to produce low-quality TV just to pull in advertisers. As stated in ITV’s current remit:

“ITV is not required to cater specifically for non mainstream tastes and interests (though it has a wide range of ‘positive programme requirements’), or to meet particular requirements for innovation, experimentation or distinctiveness.  That is not to say that these characteristics will not feature in the ITV service, but they are not its defining characteristics.”  In my opinion, Cold Feet is innovative in its production by way of rebelling against the traditional ‘old’ stereotypes.  The PSB of BBC 2, or Channel 4 were more likely to have shown this.  But as David Liddement puts it, “Cold Feet is an important part of how ITV is evolving, but I don’t see it as a radical departure, I see it as part of a tradition” (as shown by Cracker, Prime Suspect, and Band of Gold.)  He went on to say that ITV had a reputation for ‘mould breaking’ dramas, and this is mould breaking because times are changing, and Cold Feet reflects this well.  It also appeals to the young and more trendy audience that has been targeted so far by BBC 2 and C4.

Cold Feet and teachers both target a similar audience, 18-35 year olds with a high disposable income – Cold Feet being more slanted however to the female audience.  This is especially relevant in the case of Cold Feet.  Another gratification that can be gained from the media is ‘Personal Identity and Personal Channel 4 has recently been criticised for attempting to constantly " target and reach a demographically clearly defined audience - the 18-35 year-olds - and single-mindedly commission a bulk of programmes that suits their tastes, however laddish or yobbish." (Sir Jeremy Isaacs) - it has signed up Richard and Judy from ITV,  relies heavily on Countdown for its afternoon ratings, and has effectively binned the ‘old hat’ Big Breakfast show.  Channel 4 is evolving into an ever-innovative channel, and this shows in programmes such as Teachers.

ITV don’t have to innovate in this way but in a way they do, in order to compete with the BBC and especially, Channel 4.  Channel 4 is a non profit making organisation, as opposed to ITV, and this means that Channel 4 can afford to innovate and fail – it doesn’t matter.  Teachers is a very good example of innovation from Channel 4 – it destroys any traditional representations of teachers and makes them appeal to the students – they can identify with the characters.  Before this programme was shown, teachers in the UK were seen as effectively a different species by the students, but this text brings the teachers closer to the students. It shows students that Teachers have lives as well, and no person, teacher or not, can have a life without problems.  In fact, students are learning about life through Uses and Gratifications – learning when they don’t know it.  

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Both Teachers and Cold Feet are quality television as since the 60's/70’s, television was fast becoming the most prevalent form of mass entertainment.  Numbers of cinema admissions were declining - in 1960, cinema attendance was at only 500 million, as opposed to 1634 million on 1946. By 1984, this number had dropped to just 54 million. (Business Review).   In the early 80’s, the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, brought a Conservative government into power, and with it, a myriad of changes to the way the country was run, and this affected the Media severely.  For example, Thatcher wanted to bring ...

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