There were sceptics. Could a regional city sustain its own TV channel? Not one of the big boys, like Manchester or Birmingham, but a comparatively small city - especially that one up the M1, home to mushy peas and Robin Hood. Surely it couldn't raise the advertising bucks for a comfy sofa, let alone a thriving media company, right?
Well, the long road to Notts telly began not on the banks of the River Trent, but down in Westminster, thanks to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. That's right, the Culture Secretary who the Arts sector couldn't wait to get rid of. His pledge to support and nurture creativity quickly rang hollow, as organisations like the UK Film Council faced the chop. Here was another Tory public schoolboy, uttering unctuous words while swinging the axe. Indeed his biggest achievement seemed to be in replacing arts funding with philanthropy.
Yet maybe now he has one legacy that's not about parliamentary expenses or shafting creative practitioners. In 2011 he launched the Grand Idea: regional TV, funded from the BBC licence fee and private capital. Soon nineteen applications were on paper, from Edinburgh to Norwich and even diddy Brighton. How could our own dear Nottingham not be on such a list?
So Notts TV was born, fully-formed, on Tuesday 27 May 2014. It's not twenty-four hour, too soon for that, but it comes on the air at 4pm and stays with us until bedtime. Okay, we can't expect the noise and fireworks of a Thames Television or a BBC Four. The budget, we imagine, is shoestring thin. But they make up for that in enthusiasm, dedication and a love of all things local.
Torvill and Dean in Mass Bolero
Along with plenty of local news, and a debate show, some other recurring programmes have covered our histreh, with Nottingham Now and Then, an interesting look into the city’s past, presented by university academics who are long on book smarts but lacking the charisma of a Michael Woods or a Simon Schama. But, hey, they're our academics. Music is well covered with Nusic’s Mark Del presenting Noise Floor, which covers our thriving local music scene, as well as a separate show with some great footage and interviews from last year’s Splendour Festival at Wollaton Park. Film. The excellent F-Stop - showcasing local filmmakers and their work - and football, with chat show The Boot Room, are also represented. You can even be nosey about your fellow Notts workers, in A Day in the Life, which kicked off behind the scenes at the Theatre Royal. And an excellent filler between shows is the Int Notts Mint, animated snippets with the familiar tones of May Contain Notts' Al Needham talking us through some little known facts about Nottingham.
Perhaps the most inspired dash of brilliance was the Mass Bolero. In this one-off show, the cameras followed Nottingham's very own Torvill and Dean on a stroll around the mean city streets. In the background bystanders spontaneously broke into bolero dance routine - librarians, bus drivers, school children, pensioners; they all got involved. It was all rather cool and the skating duo certainly deserves acclaim for putting ice-skating on the map.
It is early days. The schedules are all current affairs and local issues, we're a long way off a costume drama. But Notts TV celebrates all things Nottingham, from the accents (although, that tarmac infomercial does overdo it a bit) to our culture and heritage. And what an opportunity. Any media students graduating soon, should get their arses down to Antenna on the double. Nottingham has gone live and things can only get better.
Notts TV airs everyday from 4pm to 12am on Freeview channel 8 and Virgin channel 159. There is also a limited catch-up service available.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
