Copyright 2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.

The Scotsman

September 29, 2000, Friday

SECTION: Pg. 10

LENGTH: 970 words

HEADLINE: COMPASSION FATIGUE

BYLINE: Eddie Gibb

BODY:

It's ten years since a Bristol anaesthetist first raised concerns about the poor success rate of baby heart operations at the hospital where he worked, which led eventually to three doctors being found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 1998. The fall-out from the case continues to be felt inside the medical profession, and, of course, the parents of the children who died will never forget their loss.

But long after the headlines have faded, the public's sense of outrage is about to be tweaked again by a docu-drama which retells the story through the eyes of several of the bereaved couples. The death of a child is the ultimate storyline for a dramatist trying to get our attention, and one that hospital dramas like Casualty and ER save for blockbuster episodes.

When Dr Stephen Bolsin, the anaesthetist who blew the whistle on the scandal, gave evidence to a General Medical Council inquiry, he said: " I couldn't go on putting these children to sleep, knowing that it was almost certain to be the last time (their parents) would ever see their sons and daughters alive."

Although it is a dramatic reconstruction, director Peter Kosminsky says Innocents has been fact-checked by Channel 4 lawyers in just the same way as a documentary. Innocents will almost certainly get a bigger audience than a documentary. "People have to watch these things to get the message," says Kosminsky.

But can a film like this have any real lasting impact? Will we write to our MP to demand reassurances about NHS accountability or simply make a cup of tea?

Still trotted out as an example of a drama with the power to effect social change is Cathy Come Home, Ken Loach's drama about a family being torn apart and ending up on the streets. The film was behind the creation of the charity Shelter, and put the issue of homelessness firmly on the political agenda. However that was 1966, and the fact that Cathy Come Home is still cited as evidence of the power of television suggests no better example has turned up since.

David Miller of Stirling University believes television drama has become obsessed with personal relationships at the expense of deeper social issues. "Where are the politics?" he asks.

Kosminsky's films may be the exception. In the past he has tackled child sexual abuse, school bullying and, most recently, in the acclaimed drama Warriors, the difficult task facing the peace-keeping troops in Bosnia.

Sometimes these films do have a real impact beyond a television programme. Shoot to Kill, about the Stalker inquiry into the RUC, forced the government to disclose information that had been previously classified. And No Child of Mine prompted the jamming of a phone line set up for victims of child abuse.

But Kosminsky acknowledges it is nearly impossible for even the most powerful piece of television to have anything like the impact of Cathy Come Home. "Films like Cathy set people thinking about problems in society, and those kind of pressure groups (like Shelter) didn't exist then," he says.

Next weekend the BBC screens a film called Care, a modest-budget single drama about sexual abuse in a fictitious Welsh children's home. This is not based on a single true case, but dramatises the kind of stories that have emerged out of widely reported abuse scandals in North Wales and Cleveland.

"My feeling is that drama has to be able to address contemporary society," says Ruth Caleb, the film's producer who has a track record in "social issue" dramas. "But people are much more used to having their conscience tweaked and their heart-strings pulled."

Care and Innocents are very different films, but both rely heavily on factual research. Care tries to create a sense of outrage at the way police, care staff and even a magistrate conspired to prevent their betrayal of public trust being exposed. The difficulty is that we knew all that, and this form of kitchen-sink drama where tormented men smash up furniture has lost its power because we are better at spotting how these dramas work .

Innocents works far better, precisely because it lays out the facts in forensic detail while offering us the chance to emotionally connect with the bereaved parents.

But Kosminsky and Caleb agree it is getting harder to get issue-based drama onto British television. One response has been the launch this month of the Community Channel, available to digital subscribers, which was set up in response to the concern from charities that they are finding it harder to get issues aired on mainstream TV.

"Public service broadcasting is at a low ebb and we need to redress that balance," says the station's managing director, Gerard Melling. "We decided that if these social issues are going to be taken seriously we had to create a guaranteed space."

Mostly it is showing appeals for donations and corporate videos made by charities, but it has also screened a ten-minute drama made by Barnardo's about an abused girl who ends up a prostitute.

The audience for the Community Channel will be tiny, but then the overall TV audience is splitting into smaller chunks. There were only three channels when Cathy Come Home was broadcast - now there are nearer 300. Only the soaps can deliver anything like a mass audience, which is why so many charities lobby producers to have their pet issue turned into a storyline.

The conclusion has to be that while broadcasters continue to suggest their worthier programmes are in the tradition of Cathy Come Home, no television drama will have that impact again. There are too many causes competing for too little airtime on too many channels . As Kosminsky himself says: "Cathy was a hard act to follow."

Innocents is on Channel 4, Sunday, 9pm; Care is on BBC2, 8 October, 9pm.

LOAD-DATE: September 29, 2000