An interview with Sky TV's Stuart Murphy

17 July 2011
Posted in TV

Stuart Murphy (below) is Director of Programmes for Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky2 and Sky3 and Director of Commissioning, Sky Entertainment Channels. When he joined Sky, having been Controller of BBC 3, he pledged to create more home grown shows and crank up comedy on the main channel. Richard Bevan met him to check on progress.

What ingredients make up a scripted Sky show?

We’re aiming for Sky1 to be a family entertainment channel. All the scripted content on the channel needs to appeal to everyone from age 15 to 50. I think the perfect show as an example and one of my personal favourites is Modern Family which takes a big broad theme, has big actors and loads of different entry levels. I have two sons and the 11-year-old feels that it’s for him. I’m 39 and I feel it’s for me! It’s that kind of comedy-drama. So everything on Sky1 has to feel broad. There are certain times of the day when not all the family will watch at the same time but it’s certainly got to feel broad and deal with big themes. BBC3 on the other hand is about new talent, new British talent and really untried, untested things. Yes, I still look at BBC3 and I get excited when they use new talent but disappointed when they do something that’s derivative that somebody else is already doing.

There’s an emphasis on comedy at Sky, but what characteristics do a Sky comedy require? 

When it comes to new British comedy on Sky1 it needs to definitely have A-list talent and to be a familiar area that all of us have been in or familiar with. You need to feel that the characters on screen are people that you’ve either met or they live next door to you, or you that know that kind of person. I think high concept stuff or really niche topics just won’t work on Sky1.

Would a successful ‘cult’ show like Misfits work on Sky?

I think a show like that is too young to be honest. All the cast are of a certain age and they all talk in a way that is quite ‘youthy’. I like the fact that it is distinctive and I think on Sky shows like Lost or House are distinctive but Misfits is just too niche. If we were doing that show it would have a much broader range of characters. We’d also want it easier to get into, have more high energy and be less surreal. But it’s got a good sense of humour which is definitely Sky1. 

We’re now seeing an increasing amount of home grown content on Sky – is that due to you? 

Yes! There’s a few reasons for it, mainly that when I first turned up at Sky1 it was so dependent on US content. The problem with that being that loads are competing for it, so it’s expensive. Another is that when you’re trying to get the channel to feel more in touch with British audiences it’s difficult to do with loads of American shows. I believe that if you put scripted stuff on a channel people (the audience) tend to feel warmer and love it more than if it has documentaries on. It just gets to your heart straight away.

So there’s been a big ratio shift with content?

When I first started, 70% of content was American and 30% British. We looked at that chart recently and it’s literally 50-50 now. It means that Sky’s investment in the UK creative community is a lot higher now.

What’s the deal with British drama on Sky1?

The first priority is that it has to rate and the second is that it needs to be loved. Just having something tacky isn’t going to work. It has to rate first, be loved second. A good measure of whether people love a show is whether people quote it as a channel defining series or the way people use it prompt subscription to Sky. A third consideration is whether it will sell abroad although I don’t want to be at the behest of the international drama market.

And what sort of dramas are you looking for?

When writers are thinking about writing drama for Sky1 they need a good cracking romp. Strike Back the SAS inspired drama based on Chris Ryan’s books (adapted by Jed Mercurio, Alan Whiting and Robert Murphy), for instance, doesn’t deal with any geo-political theme about war – it’s just a really good romp with sexy people in it. There’s a lot of shooting and sex in the series! Or The Runaway (Martina Cole’s period thriller, adapted by Allan Cubitt and Tom Greaves), which looked at the underbelly of London in the 60’s but really it’s about a good love story. It doesn’t try and deal with big epic themes at all.

Is the international market oversubscribed now with the same material?

Certain scripts do the rounds. The international market, say, will really want shows on ‘spies’ or, quite bizarrely, we recently something on international pig selling! I’d much rather do stuff that works in Britain and if it sells that’s a bonus.

Are there things that are peculiarly appealing to British audiences?

Well, we’re doing Sinbad, a 13-hour series, and when we were looking at casting tapes we saw actors that didn’t look glamorous or have fit bodies and I think British audiences are comfortable with a heroic lead not being great looking. I guess the way we define sexuality is a bit more relaxed. But I think an international market definitely wants someone who is great looking with a six pack. So the two actors we were thinking about are both that. So occasionally I will temper British tastes in case it hinders international sales.

Can family shows still feel original and appeal to big audiences?

I think Modern Family and Britain’s My Family has given us the confidence to do that. I love Modern Family because people are naughty in it. In The Middle (ABC comedy) people are rude, naughty, lazy and eat bad food. It’s funny. So what we did when we hired Lucy Lumsden (Head of Comedy Commissioning) about a year ago is we quickly commissioned about eight pilot scripts most of which are around ‘family’ and they’re just coming to fruition now. Mount Pleasant is the first massive family one and will play as comedy drama.

Mount Pleasant is written by Sarah Hooper (who has written episodes of Shameless) – what’s the show about?

At the centre of this comedy-drama are two characters in their late thirties and in love, played by Sally Lindsay and Daniel Ryan. It’s their various family shenanigans with her parents, played by Bobby Ball and Pauline Collins, and Daniel’s mother played by Paula Wilcox. It’s really warm and hopefully the kind of characters audiences will love being with, a bit like Gavin & Stacey. In the nicest possible way not much happens but you just love being with them. I did a show at BBC3 called Early Doors which equally had brilliant characters but not much happening.

So Sky’s range in drama is quite diverse?

Yes, because apart from Mount Pleasant we’ve got Stella written by and starring Ruth Jones. Again, it’s coming out of comedy but will play as drama. It doesn’t have big belly laughs and is about a single mum trying to raise her kids and dealing with all the struggles of everyday life.

I love starting with a bit of raw research about how society works or what people feel like and then you try and work out how you can make it into a TV show. I think in a recession when people are feeling a bit grim, their backs are against the wall and lifes a bit shit for a lot of them. To be frank when I’m knackered I don’t want go home and watch either people who are doing miles better than me or people who have a really, really crap existence. What I really want to watch is pretty nice people where it’s pretty redemptive, where good things tend to happen to good people, ordinary people win and life is pretty much seven out of ten.

In other words, I’ve got nice people I love, my body’s not great but it’s alright, my sex life isn’t perfect but it’s alright, my mates are brilliant but they’re alright – you know that type of feeling, that’s what we’re about, so that people at home feel good about themselves. And it’s particularly important for Sky where it’s all about subscription. People pay for us every month and they set a much higher bar with us than they do with other broadcasters.