2013-05-19T18:47:54-04:00 Al Fox http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=al-fox Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Al Fox Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1180984 2012-01-03T19:00:00-05:00 2012-03-04T05:12:01-05:00

Al Fox http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-fox/ Strictly Come Dancing: the reliable, adored staple of BBC One entertainment.

Right? Of course. Having just seen out its ninth series (to ITV1-battering viewing figures, no less), it's easy to forget its origins, and just what a colossal risk it was. Ballroom dancing? In prime-time? A celebrity elimination format? Like what the other channels do? On BBC One?! Whoever commissioned Strictly Come Dancing had some serious cojones, but it paid off.

However, the BBC has yet to match the success of Strictly with any other entertainment show. In fairness, it hasn't really tried. The boldness of that original concept hasn't been applied to anything else, and with reason. But with the British version of Dutch format The Voice on the horizon, the BBC has a rare opportunity to make a serious impact.

A wee masterclass: The Voice kicks off with live studio auditions from pre-selected hopefuls (pre-selected in this instance means actual contenders, not an X Factor - style invitation to laugh at the mentally ill). They're trying to impress four coaches (NOT judges, they're keen to stress), who listen to the auditions with their backs to the stage - the focus is entirely on the vocals. Coaches choose to mentor contestants, performing with them each week and guiding them through battle rounds, until The Voice of Great Britain is found. Gimmicky on paper, perhaps, but it's done wonders across the globe.

Unfortunately, the last time BBC One acquired a format based on its US success, it fell flat on its face. The American incarnation of So You Think You Can Dance was loud and explosive and attention-commanding; the UK version, in contrast, was housed in a studio on a par with the CBBC Broom Cupboard; had a bored, uninspiring judging panel that resembled a dawdling queue at Caffe Nero; and contestants it was hard to engage with, and thus, care about.

Every aspect of it felt small, almost apologetic, as though the BBC weren't allowing themselves to do 'big' amidst whispers of cuts. Unsurprisingly, the show hasn't been recommissioned for a third series.

The short-lived DanceX, meanwhile, was tied up by in-house regulations, so strict that the winning group weren't even allowed to perform their single. That, coupled with the fact they didn't even have a name, saw their track limp into the charts at 91.

In an increasing world of complaints culture - particularly where broadcasting is involved - it's understandable that producers have to tread very carefully indeed. Put so much as a toe wrong and some disgruntled Middle Englander will be diving horns-first into a strongly-worded letter. And should the Daily Mail pick up on it and dress it up as one of their overblown moral panics, the complaints will increase at a rate quicker than regular earth maths can allow for.

But there's a great deal to be said for standing your ground. The Voice is an entertainment show, and thus, it needs to be entertaining. And for every sniffy, ill-informed viewer who thinks prime-time Saturday night is the key slot for Andrew Marr's History of Spoons, there's a thousand normal viewers waiting for a show to make some noise.

And The Voice is just that - or at least, has the potential to be, not just based on the format's worldwide success, but on the promise of the UK version. The last-minute replacement of Will Young in favour of The Script's Danny O'Donoghue has had Twitter up in arms, but overall, it's actually an impressive line-up of coaches: Jessie J may sound like Alesha Dixon with hiccups, but her success is impossible to contest, plus her extensive songwriting credentials make her a relevant choice and an exciting prospect. Will.I.Am, meanwhile, may have been responsible for The Time (Dirty Bit) and thus ought to be sent to the Tower, but is the evil genius behind arguably the biggest pop group this century. And in Sir Tom Jones, they've bagged an actual, bona fide legend. Kudos to the celebrity booker.

A line-up like that, and a concept such as The Voice, would be wasted on a modest, polite, quarter-arsed adaptation. It needs to stand tall, show off and do exactly what Strictly did back in 2004. It needs to engage and surprise and enthrall, and if it finds a genuine star at the end of the process, then that's a bonus. If nothing else, it'll put music performance back on prime-time BBC One, something the Corporation has seemingly been terrified of since Top of the Pops bowed out.

With The X Factor now a laughable parody of itself, it's a brave move of the BBC to reinvigorate the genre. And sure, there'll still be viewers questioning the presence of a talent show on BBC One, but consider this: a chunk of the licence fee is earmarked for entertainment regardless, so it might as well be done properly. And that's just as much a plea to the BBC as it is a polite middle finger to the naysayers.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1131115 2011-12-09T19:00:00-05:00 2012-02-08T05:12:01-05:00

Al Fox http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-fox/ Eastenders special; Terry's Chocolate Oranges. They may not be in keeping with the true spirit of Christmas, yet they've all become a bonafide part of the Yuletide routine. But one such late 20th century tradition seems to be dying out here in the wintry wasteland of the 21st.

The race for the Christmas No 1, once a headline-generating, excitement-building cultural event, has fizzled out in recent years. On the surface, it would appear to be a direct result of there being no actual race - it's largely been a given that the X Factor winner's single would sail to the top of the charts. So, in short, no-one else has bothered. The usual Christmas Top 10 mix of slushy ballads, charity singles and novelty records has dissolved (though it could be argued that, in some of the X Factor releases, we've had all three in one), leaving it an everyday rundown of airplay standards trailing behind Cowell's newest victor.

But is it as cut-and-dried as that? Should artists, labels and fans just shrug their shoulders and resign themselves to the reign of the X Factor juggernaut? If we use the model of Christmas 2009, then it's still very much up for debate.

When Jon and Tracy Morter spearheaded a campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to the festive top spot ahead of Joe McElderry, the objective was to stick two fingers up at the X Factor's monopoly on the Christmas No1 . And while it achieved that with aplomb, it brought something else far greater - an actual race for the top, something that arguably hadn't been seen since 2001.

Through a nostalgic haze, it feels like the Spice Girls' consecutive three Christmas No 1s were a breezy, effortless dead cert at the height of Spicemania. But each time, they very much had a battle on their hands - 1998's Goodbye fought off stiff competition from South Park's Chef; 1996's 2 Become 1 was delayed for a week to avoid a clash with a charity single in aid of the Dunblane massacre; while the bookies - and even the midweeks - put 1997's Too Much at Number 2, behind the Chicken Shed Theatre Company and their tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. By Sunday, not only had Too Much claimed the top spot, but Chicken Shed had slipped to 15 - one place behind Vanilla's No Way No Way. Grim.

This highlights that the element of surprise was a key factor in the Christmas chart, not just at the summit but throughout the Top 40. Huge sales translating into meagre positions; random re-entries; things you'd never find at any other time of year. No such luck these days - while the inclusion of downloads makes for a more accurate picture of consumers' purchases, there hasn't been a single year since 2006 where Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You hasn't revisited the Top 20. Who's still buying it? Do they think the previous year's MP3 has somehow expired?

In fairness, the charts overall don't feel as though they carry the weight they once did. With iTunes, the progress of a single can be monitored at any point, taking away any sense of occasion. And in a world without Top of the Pops, there's no platform for artists to celebrate their achievements, or to illustrate their success with a performance. Listening to Reggie Yates on Radio 1 indifferently reveal Rihanna as the UK's No 1 yet again doesn't quite invoke the same kind of excitement.

But Christmas carries so much expectation on so many levels, perhaps the race for the Number One spot is still that little bit more coveted than the other 51 weeks of the year? Maybe that sense of event is still present - it just needs the likes of the Morters to coax it out of us.

It's not about smothering the output of talent shows - sure, A Moment Like This or When You Believe were on a par with paper hat from a Christmas cracker in terms of both shelf life and quality, and perhaps weren't deserving of the accolade. But the likes of Alexandra Burke's Hallelujah or Matt Cardle's When We Collide were largely well-received, and might well have been contenders - if not certified champions - were they not gifted the backing of the X Factor.

Even when Popstars: The Rivals saw a newly-formed Girls Aloud take on One True Voice, there was still the element of competition. And that's what we want - an epic skirmish of Spiller vs Truesteppers chart lunacy that plays out in the run-up to that auspicious Sunday, except with added sleigh bells. Something that garners coverage and generates debate and brings a bit of life back to what's become a parched, predictable Top 40.

So, if any disgruntled music fans are planning to get behind a deliciously inappropriate rock anthem again this year, it'd be welcomed warmly by the rest of us. Maybe sticking it to the Syco machine isn't quite in the Christmas spirit, and it's safe to say any attempt would be a long shot indeed, but the excitement that it would generate would revive a dying festive ritual. And hey - if it means grainy Nirvana footage plays out just before the Queen's Speech, then that's just the Flake atop the mini Yule log.]]>