Last night, the Man Booker Prize was awarded Kiran Desai for her novel The Inheritance of Loss. And congratulations to her. But what was curious was the manner of its announcement. Yesterday I spent a short while scouring TV listings to find what channel it would be shown on.
BBC2? Nope.
Channel 4? Nope.
BBC Four? Nope.
More 4? Nope.
Artsworld? No again.
Normally you’d have expected one of those channels to carry it. ITV certainly hadn’t waded into a highbrow literary war. So I went to the Man Booker website which said that the award would be announced live during the BBC Ten O’Clock News. Really?
And so it duly was, with the presenter on the stage clearly waiting for the BBC correspondent to turn around and give her the nod to make the award.
The award was swiftly announced – with none of the judges words conveyed – and it was back to the studio. More coverage was promised on News 24, including an interview.
I must admit that I question the involvement of BBC News in this. I can understand that they wanted to cover it, but it’s a commercially sponsored award, but although the actual award is newsworthy, the live nature doesn’t seem to sit too squarely with me. I’m happier for a programme on BBC Four or BBC2 carrying it, rather than it being a live event for the news. I realise politicians give press statements at strategic timed moments for coverage on news programmes, but this is a little different. Not the best editorial judgement.
On the other hand, if I were from Man Booker, I’d be thrilled. A guaranteed larger audience on the Ten O’Clock News than on a specialist arts programme.