Ever wondered what makes a TV executive tick? This podcast spills all
Judging a podcast on its first episode is a bit like judging a footballer solely on their debut, but at least Insiders: The TV Podcast (Expectation/Hat Trick) gave us a handy yardstick. 'This podcast isn't going to be like The Rest is Entertainment,' said Jimmy Mulville at the start, instantly making listeners think of The Rest is Entertainment, Marina Hyde and Richard Osman's audio behemoth. Mulville protests too much – Insiders is rather a lot like The Rest is Entertainment, and on the evidence of this debut, it should strive to be even more so.
Mulville and his co-host Peter Fincham certainly have the credentials for the gig, both being veteran TV producers with enviable CVs. Mulville's Hat Trick Productions has made everything from Father Ted and Derry Girls to Whose Line Is It Anyway and Have I Got News For You, while Fincham (who co-hosts the excellent What's Funny About… on Radio 4) has been MD of TalkBack, Controller of BBC One and Director of Television at ITV. They know what they're talking about.
The podcast has a format (tip for wannabe podcasters: The Rest is Entertainment doesn't have a format), which has the pair's producer handing them envelopes containing various topics. Each subject comes to Fincham and Mulville as a surprise, meaning that all conversation is off-the-cuff.
And while they have the knowledge and anecdotes to do this, the nagging feeling is that greater insight would be gained from allowing the hosts to choose each week's topics. I would also tighten the episodes – 53 minutes can feel a long time.
Yet the pair have an enormous amount to give and this opener had plenty of nuggets to enjoy. I particularly enjoyed the segment on the US vs the UK, with Mulville having finally launched HIGNFY in the US after many aborted attempts. Part of the problem previously was that US execs considered the news quiz to be 'too newsy', while Mulville ran into similar problems when trying to get a US remake of Father Ted off the ground: 'Do they have to be Catholic priests?'
More specificity like this, and fewer general musings on the state of the industry, will help the podcast fly (and when it settles in, I think it will). My favourite tale was about Richard Hammond pitching a show about the social history of road building to Fincham. 'I think I ended up commissioning Richard Hammond In Search of the Holy Grail. He didn't find it.'
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