I imagine by
now most people will have seen the bold and innuendo filled adverts on channel
four for their upcoming dramas Cucumber, Banana and Tofu. They're hard to miss.The mini adverts do
little to explain, yet seem to suggest the coming of very different and striking
new set of dramas for the new year on channel four.
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It’s been a staggering 15
years since channel fours first audacious drama Queer as Folks hit our screens, following the lives of gay men in
the UK. And who was this pioneer writing the controversial and original drama? Russell T Davies. Best known now for his work on Doctor Who and Torchwood,
Russell seems to have gone back to his origins working on sexuality based
dramas and has made a series of three programmes (Cucumber, Banana and Tofu) exploring the ups and downs of 21st century gay life.
 |
| Russell T Davies, swapping sci-fi for sexuality |
But what
makes these new dramas so very different to its grandfather series Queer as Folks, is that it has been made
to fit across multiple channels and multiple platforms.
Cucumber and Banana are two original drama series for
television. Cucumber follows 46-year-old Henry and his long-term boyfriend
Lance in the aftermath of ‘the worst date night in history’ and will air on
channel four. Banana will be on E4 and will tell standalone stories by
up-and-coming talent that cover, what channel four have named as “fifty shades
of gay”. Tofu, meanwhile, is an online documentary series and will be anarchic
online guide to sex inspired by the dramas each week.
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Channel four’s chief creative officer Jay Hunt described
the drama as “channel defining” and the series boasts it
is so risqué that it would never get past an American network. Well maybe thats exactly the point. With the expansion of programming on different platforms, it seems the LGBT community are finally getting a voice. Not to be held back by worries of conservative audiences and broadcast censorship, channel four has realised that it can make programmes about contemporary LGBT life for specific audiences on specific outlets that want it.
The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who on BBC one reached 10.2 million viewers, not bad but on iplayer a record breaking 1.3 million views in 24 hours, 77 million viewers worldwide and online is the most tweeted drama ever with 12,939 tweets a minute during the show’s opening moments. But how does this fit with the LGBT community, you may ask? Well the LGBT community is undeniably huge online, originating from support forums there are now hundreds of thousands of LGBT websites, social networks, dating sites and almost every online streaming platform has a LGBT dedicated section.
Its seems instead of being worried about viewers turning their backs on traditional television screens to laptops, Channel Four are embracing it. Channel Four are trying not to be concerned that Youtube is becoming more popular than certain channels, particularly for the LGBT community with gay mega stars like Tyler Oakley having a massive 4 million subscribers and 164 million views. Instead Channel Four are using them like Tofu which is presented by Benjamin Cook a gay you tuber with over 190,000 subscribers.
By not making these different media platforms a comepetition but a collaboration, the LGBT community are finally get specific programmes tailored to them.
Channel four's recent campaign strap line describes the channel as 'born risky' but the truth is there is nothing risky about using multiple platforms such as the internet to expand and reach specialised diverse audiences. This at the end of the day, when looking at the figures of online platforms (Channel Four's service 4OD has has 28 million views monthly and Netflix has 50 million subscribers worldwide), online could well be the future of programming and the sooner other programmers embrace this, the better for them and these niche audiences.
For more info about the convergence:
Tomorrows world: the television revolution coming to a screen near you
Channel 4 plots to shock with its new gay drama cucumber
And for anyone interesting in watching the new three part series. I'm sure it will be worth a watch!
Cucumber, Banana and Tofu
The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who on BBC one reached 10.2 million viewers, not bad but on iplayer a record breaking 1.3 million views in 24 hours, 77 million viewers worldwide and online is the most tweeted drama ever with 12,939 tweets a minute during the show’s opening moments. But how does this fit with the LGBT community, you may ask? Well the LGBT community is undeniably huge online, originating from support forums there are now hundreds of thousands of LGBT websites, social networks, dating sites and almost every online streaming platform has a LGBT dedicated section.
Its seems instead of being worried about viewers turning their backs on traditional television screens to laptops, Channel Four are embracing it. Channel Four are trying not to be concerned that Youtube is becoming more popular than certain channels, particularly for the LGBT community with gay mega stars like Tyler Oakley having a massive 4 million subscribers and 164 million views. Instead Channel Four are using them like Tofu which is presented by Benjamin Cook a gay you tuber with over 190,000 subscribers.
By not making these different media platforms a comepetition but a collaboration, the LGBT community are finally get specific programmes tailored to them.
Channel four's recent campaign strap line describes the channel as 'born risky' but the truth is there is nothing risky about using multiple platforms such as the internet to expand and reach specialised diverse audiences. This at the end of the day, when looking at the figures of online platforms (Channel Four's service 4OD has has 28 million views monthly and Netflix has 50 million subscribers worldwide), online could well be the future of programming and the sooner other programmers embrace this, the better for them and these niche audiences.
For more info about the convergence:
Tomorrows world: the television revolution coming to a screen near you
Channel 4 plots to shock with its new gay drama cucumber
And for anyone interesting in watching the new three part series. I'm sure it will be worth a watch!
Cucumber, Banana and Tofu
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