Why we all need to see inside the sausage factory

Two new streaming platforms have launched in recent weeks - Apple TV and BritBox. I suppose I’ll have to add one of these to my ever-growing list of subscriptions I never use. Will people really pay ￡6.99 a month to watch endless repeats of Midsomer Murders?

One of Apple TV’s first programmes, The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carrell, was perhaps a brave opener, tackling the #MeToo issue head on. I don’t call it brave for highlighting one of the most important movements of a generation, but because it is a television programme about the making of a television programme and the blurring of the lines between truth and reality.

I’m a huge huge fan of The West Wing. It’s possibly my favourite ever television programme. It appeared to pull back the curtain on a political empire which few rarely get to see. Yes, I know it was fiction, but it truly made you believe in the characters and the events which played out. What we wouldn’t give for Bartlett at the helm right now.

(Favourite episode: series two, episode 44, Two Cathedrals – the sad loss of Mrs Landingham, Bartlett sets up his re-election announcement, accompanied by a real guilty pleasure Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits).

When The West Wing finished, and it’s fair to say it had run out of steam, writer Aaron Sorkin’s next offering was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - based on what goes on behind the scenes of making Saturday Night Live. It was a television programme about the making of a television programme - and it flopped.

Critics claimed the reason behind its failure was that audiences don’t always want to see inside the sausage factory. I funded my university education by working in a sausage and pork pie factory during the holidays. It’s EXACTLY how you’d imagine.

Some of my favourite programmes and films are based on what goes on behind the scenes of media production, whether that be television and films, but particularly newspapers.

·        All the President’s Men – the 1976 film about the Watergate scandal

·        State of Play – the 2003 BBC series with John Simm and Bill Nighy, not the Russell Crowe debacle

·        Spotlight – about The Boston Globe’s investigative journalism team

·        Full Metal Jacket – if you class the adventures of Matthew Modine’s Private Joker as an aspiring war reporter as a film about newspapers

In all of these examples, albeit depicted with a hint of dramatisation, is a theme of journalists striving to deliver the truth for the common good, in the public interest.

In one scene of The Morning Show, executive producer Chip Black is having dinner with the network’s owner Cory Ellison to discuss the replacement for disgraced anchor Mitch Kessler. Defending the programme’s staunch journalistic integrity, Black says: “There will always be a need for quality, reliable journalism.”

The owner snaps back: “People get their horrible news, delivered in the palm of their hand, 24/7. And they get it the way that they like it, coloured the way that they want it. News is awful but humanity is addicted to it. The whole world is depressed by it, which is why what we really need on television right now is not news, or f$*king journalism, it’s entertainment.”

BBC Scotland’s recent documentary The Papers was a fascinating insight into an industry facing up to the challenges of today’s news consumption habits. (For a more in depth and eloquently-presented critique of The Papers, read my colleague Charlene Sweeney’s recent blog).

So, what’s the conclusion? I’ve lost the thread too. Perhaps it’s that while we all need a bit of escapism from time to time, we also need to remind ourselves of what is fact, and what is fiction.

This was brought into sharp contrast last week following the revelations of the doctored interviews with Labour’s Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer which have not only set the tone for the general election campaign, but more importantly reminded us that the truth should be protected at all costs

People should get to see what goes on behind the scenes every now and again, even if that means a tour of a sausage factory. It reminds us what's true, and what's false.