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"This is a seminal work. Scrupulously researched ... a story that had to be told and an awful warning of what may lie ahead for the BBC if certain people in the Tory party have their way." -- Chris Mullin Tribune
Product Description
This title presents a unique insider account of the rise and fall of ITV, as seen through the fate of Granada Television, and the ripple effect on the standard of broadcasting we see on our screens today. It is the unfolding of the story of 25 years, in which "The best broadcasting system in the world" was turned into "Ignorance and self-interest, the idiocy and feeble mindedness that is 21st century ITV". It is a book based on more than 90 exclusive interviews with key players who had their hands on the money, and the power, behind commercial television, but who saw politicians, businessmen and broadcasters convert high quality public service broadcasting into a ratings driven commercial wasteland, undermining the BBC and Channel 4. Accompanied by a collection of original photographs, "The Dream That Died" is essential for anyone involved in, or learning about, the broadcasting industry.
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First Sentence
Granada Television was the great address. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Granada Television was the great address. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A fascinating, intriguing and in some ways horrifying account of what was going on at Granada through the 80s, 90s and close to the present. Not so much behind-the-scenes as within the corridors of power.... the stories of the avarice and callousness of Robinson, Allen and co make chilling reading. I was there, but didn't know the half of it.
The book goes a long way to explain the complete sorry, downmarket mess that ITV has become.
The book goes a long way to explain the complete sorry, downmarket mess that ITV has become.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The conflict at the heart of this book is the same as there is at the heart of the British TV industry; between the creative programme makers, convinced that they are on a mission to serve and enlighten the public, and on the other side, the money makers, who have to run the business so that everyone gets paid. The author, formerly head of documentaries at Granada, leaves you in no doubt about which side he stands on; much of the book is a hatchet job on Gerry Robinson and Charles Allen, the managers who laid off thousands of staff while personally enriching themselves and leaving Granada, as the author grimly concludes, "hollowed out".
That is my problem with the book: it's terribly one-sided, making little reference to the context of technological change which has had an impact on the TV industry. Some slimming down of broadcasting had to take place - ITV hasn't lost viewers just because it was badly managed, but because cable, satellite and digital TV (which is barely mentioned) came along, and guess what - given the choice of 30 channels, people watch less ITV. The section at the end of the book which tries to put ITV's decline in the context of incompetent British industrial management is not without a grain of truth, but unconvincing, bolted on.
Certainly worth reading if you are interested in British TV, and quite good on the regulatory context of the Thatcher government in the 1980s and 1990s (not as boring as that makes it sound). Probably a difficult book to get much out of if you don't know some of the people involved.
That is my problem with the book: it's terribly one-sided, making little reference to the context of technological change which has had an impact on the TV industry. Some slimming down of broadcasting had to take place - ITV hasn't lost viewers just because it was badly managed, but because cable, satellite and digital TV (which is barely mentioned) came along, and guess what - given the choice of 30 channels, people watch less ITV. The section at the end of the book which tries to put ITV's decline in the context of incompetent British industrial management is not without a grain of truth, but unconvincing, bolted on.
Certainly worth reading if you are interested in British TV, and quite good on the regulatory context of the Thatcher government in the 1980s and 1990s (not as boring as that makes it sound). Probably a difficult book to get much out of if you don't know some of the people involved.
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