Bad Education 2 leads BBC's new online strategy
Bad Education 2 leads the way for BBC online content
1st AD, Adam Morris, tells us about making the series and we look at the BBC's new online strategy for comedy
Bad Education 2 returns to the BBC this week, premiering on the BBC iPlayer a full week before airing on BBC3. We spoke with the 1st AD and member of thecallsheet, Adam Morris and explore why Bad Education will be available online first.
Adam told us “Bad Education season 2, was as much fun as season 1 to work on, with the majority of the same crew returning with the addition of director Elliot Hegarty and DoP Pete Rowe, both of whom are extremely talented and experienced and produced once again by Pippa Brown."
“Jack as always, is the glue; he is so very talented and together with his writing partner Freddie Syborn wrote some real laugh out loud gags. All the cast were great once again, particularly Mat Horne, who returns as the useless headmaster Mr Fraser. There have also been some really exciting new additions to the cast. The ante has defiantly been upped, with more set pieces and stunts”
Bad Education’s release on the iPlayer (a full week before it’s broadcast on BBC3) marks a step change in way all BBC3 comedy will be made available to viewers in the future. Every new BBC3 comedy series will premiere online before TV.
This strategy seems to have paid off, for Bad Education 2 at least. The viewing figures for the BBC3 broadcast came in at 823k viewers, with a whopping 1.5m iPlayer requests in the week before broadcast.
Victoria Jaye, Head of BBC TV Content Online said “We want to use BBC iPlayer to maximise audiences’ discovery of BBC programmes and increase the time they spend with the BBC. Forty-two per cent of viewers who come to BBC iPlayer today do so without anything specific in mind to watch, and over a third are happy to try new and different content”.
Future series that will premiere online first include Peter Kay’s new series, Car Share. Younger viewers are more likely to explore new content and are not wedded to the idea of linear TV. The rise and influence of Netflix appears again, challenging the BBC to think digital first, with Bad Education 2 leading the way.
Back to Adam Morris, who told us about the various challenges of making the series: “Being a 1st AD on a multi-episodic comedy brings a unique set of challenges, with a very tight schedule, but the energy that you get from such a young cast and great crew really helps As you can imagine on set jokes abounded, with quite a few at my expense, thanks to Jack impersonating me.
Our floor runner, Callum Taylor, who looks extremely young, seemed to permanently be in school uniform, filling in as an extra.
The first episode will be available on the iPlayer from the 27th August HERE. – Adam told us that there is a “Great opener to the series with nudity, prosthetics and a stunt performed by both Jack and Ethan Lawrence (Joe Poulter) that we saved until the last day of shooting”
Bad Education is available on the iPlayer
View Adam's profile page here
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