Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

MNHQ

Idea for new parenting advice TV show based on Mumsnet Talk - your thoughts/input needed

238 replies

JustineMumsnet · 26/04/2011 23:27

You may have clocked a wee announcement last week that Channel 4 are interested in making a TV show featuring real mums sharing their best support and advice to others in need of it, a sort of TV version of Mumsnet Talk. We have been approached by the production company - Studio Lambert - to work together to come up with a pilot for the show.

If it's commissioned it's likely to be 6-8 programmes of 1 hour length (48 mins without the ads). The (very rough) idea is to have 4 or so featured families per show, each with a specific parenting problem and a range of mums who've been there and done that or just have some insight, giving their help, support and advice in an attempt to help them through the problem, a la Mumsnet.

We're at a very early stage but we wanted to ask for any thoughts about format, participation, whether/how you'd like to be approached - a panel, a sticky thread? - what you think the pitfalls are, what the opportunities are, what subject matter you'd like to see covered and indeed anything else that springs to mind on the subject.

Many thanks in advance for your input.

OP posts:
rosatstudiolambert · 04/05/2011 13:07

LOVE that someone loves it! I think it makes me sound like an old spinster... which actually isn't far off the truth! Now what was it that whomovedmychocolate was saying about veering off on wild tangents?!!..

rosatstudiolambert · 04/05/2011 13:30

I absolutely agree that tv can be a tricky industry to work in if you are a mother - particluarly if you are working on programmes that involve filming away on location. And yes - I would love to employ women with children on this project. I think it's very important. On the other series that I'm working on at the moment two out of four of the producer/directors are mothers of young children.

I can't tell you off the top of my head how many parents there are in our company at the moment - there are so many people coming and going it's hard to tell, but I would say that (like the rest of the industry) the majority of people are young and childless. However, I can say that Studio Lambert is very parent-friendly and they try to be as flexible as possible with the hours. 5 out of 8 of the senior members of staff here have children - 3 are men and 2 are women.

AitchTwoOh · 04/05/2011 14:42

well if you are looking to scout for new employees then have a look at the freelance boards, Ros, there are plenty of super-smart ex-tv types there with a wealth of experience who found that they weren't so popular when their kids started making demands on their time. They are, of course, the people who should be making MNTV.
another excellent post from oneshortofasandwich, i think. agree that the challenge is to represent us, not rip us off.

whomovedmychocolate · 04/05/2011 16:05

Ladies a touch of realism here please: there are a million daft people out there willing to make arses of themselves for no money on TV just to be famous.

However at which point does advice become chargeable?

If you ask my DH for legal advice in the office he'll send you a bill, sit next to him in a (virtual) pub and he'll give you the same (okay a slightly less coherently if it's in a real pub) view for nothing. It's about context.

If you ask my opinion on something on FB

whomovedmychocolate · 04/05/2011 16:06

and that sounds a lot more patronising now I read it back - sorry :)

onesandwichshort · 04/05/2011 16:54

WMMC, you are completely right on both counts. Yes there are a million daft people out there, but whether you want to be the person that exploits them is up to you. I've always made sure that any programme I worked on gave people enough back for their contributions, and didn't make them unhappy. Should MN be associated with and make money from letting its contributors - who may not know what they are getting into - be exploited? Expecially in a situation where they don't have editorial control. I think that could be quite damaging. But I suspect that children's tv is much nice to its contributors than primetime. Grin

And yes the advice question is all about context; I'd happily sit next to anyone in any pub or indeed on here and give them advice on how to pitch a programme idea. I wouldn't do that for an executive producer or another company, unless they were going to pay me. It's the latter case here; Studio Lambert get my ideas and format thoughts, not you, or Aitch or anyone else, and make their tidy production fee from them if it works. And as this is exactly the kind of popular factual primetime stuff that I used to develop and produce, I am reasonably confident that I could develop a format that might just be useful.

On another note, did anyone see that C4 format about thrifty people which is or was just on? Featuring a woman that they found on the internet helping out lots of people. It was truly, embarrassingly awful, and I only stuck out the half hour to find out who were the guilty parties. But the format does rather remind me of this one...

whomovedmychocolate · 04/05/2011 17:52

That's a good point onesandwichshort. But if the production company were willing to pay, they probably wouldn't have gone about things in this way! :)

FYI Children's telly presenters only get an easy ride because we are generally too young and stupid to be taxed with hard things! Wink

AitchTwoOh · 04/05/2011 19:05

they are paying, whomoved, ros and freya are getting paid. let them do the work. if i were to meet them in the pub then yes, of course, it would all be for the price of a drink, but the fact is that once again (a la Garry Lace and his housewives), people outside of MN are under-estimating the audience.

this place is chock-full of MNers who used to make docs, produce/present shows etc, and ros and freya would know that if they hung around long enough. they could just ask in the freelance/media section for formal pitches to be submitted at the going freelance rate (while continuing to ask us all to act like turkeys plotting our own christmas on here).

i'd do you all the work favours in the world, whomoved, because i know and like you. i just would expect not to work for free for a company that will do very nicely out of my idea should it be commissioned and go global.

AitchTwoOh · 04/05/2011 19:07

which is, i should say, a general principle worth holding to. it's everyone being prepared to work for free when they are 'starting off' (a period that is stretched beyond belief in the media now) that has jiggered the system for everyone else.

GastonTheLadybird · 04/05/2011 20:11

You would think MNHQ might have contacted some of the talent already here when they were thinking about this stuff too given how many regular media/tv types we do have lurking around who already understand MN - the hardest part of the brief IMO.

Personally I can't imagine wanting to participate in anything TV focused, many reasons for this including anonymity for both myself and my child as well as time. One of the things I love about MN is that I can do it anytime, get advice in an instant, whilst on the train, in the bath, at work, sitting in my DD's bedroom on the floor singing her to bloody sleep (again!) etc. Wouldn't be terribly interested in watching it either unless it was going to have regular MNers on with usernames for nosy purposes, why watch it on TV when we have the real thing here?

Also can't really see the funny translating that well, half of the things that are funny are because of in jokes and the other half are amusing anecdotes or situations which don't even translate when I tell them to DP (although that could be my lack of comic timing).

specialmagiclady · 04/05/2011 20:55

I think it does have to be about parenting, because that's what brings people to mumsnet - even it it's not what we stay for.

If it's a roaring success you could always have spin off series "mumsnet does.... mooncups.... fruitshoots.... bumsex" etc.

I'd watch it, but only if the women who represent the "mumsnet" angle come from the interesting and varied backgrounds represented on mumsnet.

It's a big ask in terms of talent finding for the production team: first find enough families willing to air their problems without the anonymity of the interweb.

Then find enough wise and opinionated women who are prepared to spout shite share their wisdom without the anonymity of the interweb.

Themed by age group/developmental stage

Film shortish observational VTs of family/ies, intercut with footage of Mumsnet "panel" drawn from various sectors of the various debates watching it and slagging off their parenting and each other offering frank advice.

Family then chooses whose advice to take, meets the mumsnetters and we see what works when implemented - revisit 6 weeks later.

It's kind of the natural successor of Supernanny - the Expert is Dead, Long Live the Network!

specialmagiclady · 04/05/2011 20:56

Am also thinking - 360 degree progamming and that - the web element is already in there, isn't it! That's the attraction for the programme makers....

LeninGrad · 04/05/2011 21:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FreyaStudioLambert · 04/05/2011 21:03

Whomoved and onesandwichshort, I promise you we're not trying to make you do our jobs for us!

Along with Justine, we just felt it would be useful to let MNers know that we're interested in making a series based on the Mumsnet Talk 'model', and to get people's thoughts on how they might like (or not like) a show to work.

And AithchTwoOh, you're absolutely right. Plus the growth in unpaid work experience/internships over the last 10 years means it's now almost impossible for young people to get a break in TV unless they can afford to work unpaid. Which means increasingly the industry is just filled with people who's mummy and daddy can support them...

LeninGrad · 04/05/2011 21:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BecauseImWorthIt · 04/05/2011 21:05

Sorry, Lenin, but listening to you talking about your fantasy football team may not be the most exciting television.

FreyaStudioLambert · 04/05/2011 21:06

I like it specialmagiclady, there's the tagline!

LeninGrad · 04/05/2011 21:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bibbitybobbityhat · 04/05/2011 21:43

"Plus the growth in unpaid work experience/internships over the last 10 years means it's now almost impossible for young people to get a break in TV unless they can afford to work unpaid. Which means increasingly the industry is just filled with people who's mummy and daddy can support them..."

... exactly like certain pockets of the publishing industry in the 1980s. Infact, there was quite a famous publisher who used to advertise his jobs with the proviso that only those of at least partly independent means need apply. Gah, why can't I think of his name? (maybe because I am an old gimmer who got my first job in 1984 ...)

SybilBeddows · 04/05/2011 22:32

haven't read whole thread so apols if someone has already said this, but I think you need animation.

don't film RL MNers - you can tape us but then have little animated stick figures doing all the stuff that we talk about. Much better & funnier.

Merrylegs · 04/05/2011 22:54

Why is the working title 'The Bad Mums' Club?'

I don't get it?

Why are the mums bad?

As in bad-ass?

Are you trying to be street?

Or is it because the advice dished out on here is often straight to the point or witty or irreverent.

Is that bad?

Why can't that be good?

AitchTwoOh · 04/05/2011 22:58

not to mention that the bad mother's club website will presumably have something to say about it.

agree totally re bad mother bullshit, though. i have outlawed it on my own very teeny forum. actually OUTLAWED. if people start yacking about maternal guilt they are politely shown the door. hahaha.

Merrylegs · 04/05/2011 22:59

I mean, I know 'Bad' is meant to be tongue in cheek, like we are all so busy being hilarious and intelligent and fascinating that our tips are things like - 'baby crying? earplugs! ha ha pass the wine'. But it's just so ....

AitchTwoOh · 04/05/2011 23:05

it's very 90s...

squeaver · 05/05/2011 08:08

I actually think the best example of how this will probably go is the Great Daily Mail Disaster of 2009. Ros and Freya: you should have a look at the threads relating to that - they were features describing "what Mums are discussing on Mumsnet this week". The hoo-ha on here was mainly about the Mail lifting posts without "permission" but there was also a lot of debate on how watered-down and non-representative the selections were.

If this goes ahead, you can pretty much guarantee that this place will be dominated by debating the minutiae of everything that's featured for weeks and weeks and weeks. It'll be so bloody boring.