Following training as a journalist, writer and producer Charlie Parsons joined LWT in 1982 amidst the controversy surrounding his colour strikes which had dogged the early years of the network. With a love for David Bowie, Charlie cultivated an inquisitive fascination with those who rebelled against the fixed concepts that the postwar generation had set. At LWT, he worked under some of the greatest names in TV management such as Greg Dyke and John Birt who both had a dominant effect on the direction of his career. Yet unlike such pillars of the TV establishment, Parsons knew that he wanted to do something different with the medium. Working directly under Dyke at LWT offered him an insight into the creation of populist TV which unknowingly would inform the rest of his career.
London Weekend Television in the 1970’s was thriving following a turbulent period which culminated in the colour strike which had cost Michael Peacock his job as managing director. Those who followed him identified the need for area specific programmes which charted a changing Britain. The creation of the London Minorities Unit helped the network celebrate diversity in a way that had rarely been seen on British television. Suddenly there were programmes celebrating homosexuality and race in a fresh and relevant context that felt refreshing for the time. What had started as an unpredictable and controversial network suddenly became at the forefront of television and Charlie was proud to be a part of it.
One of the first shows to fail under his leadership was the youth orientated entertainment series Network 7:an early attempt to capture the teenage zeitgeist of the early 1980’s. This was essentially a showcase of the latest stars of music and entertainment edited by the formidable Janet Street-Porter and broadcast on Channel Four. Life in Britain was slowly changing as a new generation began to come of age and require television which represented their lives. Being in such demographic, Charlie identified with these desires and sensed a change in the air throughout all walks of life including music, fashion and past times. Times were definitely changing and TV had a duty to echo this.
First broadcast on Channel Four on Friday 24th August 1990, The Word was an irreverent music show for nineties Britain and spoke to a lost generation who were rebelling against the fixed concepts set by Thatcher’s Britain. Charlie didn’t proclaim to be a music expert but rather assembled a group of young music enthusiasts who had their finger on the pulse. Music bookers like Jo Whiley became absolutely integral in creating some of the most seminal moments of the decade including Nirvana’s iconic performance in 1991. Other iconic performances included The Manic Street Preachers playing the wrong song and the TV debut of Oasis. Such a free flowing show gave Charlie belief that a similar approach could be used to update breakfast TV.
In 1992 Channel Four tasked Charlie with the daunting challenge of updating breakfast television for nineties Britain. Over a decade since the creation of the genre in the UK, early morning television had been quite serious and conservative comparable to an elongated news bulletin. Why did it need to be like this? In collaboration with Bob Geldof’s company Planet 24, Charlie set about making a breakfast show with a difference. This was essentially a Saturday night entertainment show broadcast early morning and everyone who worked on it treated it as so. The chemistry between Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin made it an instant hit and by accident Charlie had once again tapped into the zeitgeist of nineties Britain.
Features such as Family Of The Week and On The Bed with Paula gave the show a structure on which the madness could happen. By incorporating all these elements, The Big Breakfast was unknowingly rewriting the rule book for breakfast television and for the next nine years, the show continued to push the boundaries of entertainment. Over the following nine years, an array of presenters would inhabit the famous house with the hope of recreating the magic of Chris and Gaby but arguably the only combination which came close was Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen. However, The Big Breakfast cultivated a new attitude towards live entertainment that remains influential to the present day and is recognisable on everything from The One Show to Sunday Brunch.
The remarkable aspect of Parsons’ career is the aforementioned two juggernauts may not even be his most successful international achievement. Post millennial Britain quickly became amerced in the first entertainment obsession of the 21st century: reality television following the huge success of the Channel Four juggernaut Big Brother. However, three years prior to such success, Charlie created Survivor: a series which took ordinary members of the public and stranded them on an island. For this, Charlie remembered a segment which he had contributed to for Network 7 where they took a group of people to a desert island to see how they fared. This idea always stuck with him and in 1997 set about making it happen. Unfortunately Survivor has never turned out to be a hit for British audiences but its huge success has come through exports. Indeed the Survivor franchise has become one of the biggest in the world and has made Charlie Parsons a formidable name in international television production.
There’s a definite theme aerating from all of Parsons’ extensive body of work: the notion of freedom, togetherness and creativity. He may not know or even like the specifics of the programme being made but knows how to assemble a production team around him who do. Maybe this is actually the secret to TV management: it doesn’t matter how much you know about particular genres or audiences, if you know how to make television then you’re halfway there. Our subject is definitely a master of the latter which he has proven countless times and through a whole range of different programmes. A TV producer celebration wouldn’t be complete without featuring a maverick who shook up the medium and Parsons has done just that. It was an incredible achievement to welcome the formidable Charlie Parsons to Beyond The Title and he’s most certainly earned his place as an important figure in the history of public service broadcasting.
Beyond The Title