On 22nd February 2023 it was announced, to little fanfare, that ITV’s home video show You’ve Been Framed! would be cancelled after 33 years. Perhaps the lack of remorse is because we’ve lived with TV for so many decades now we know we’ll likely see once axed shows come back around (Both Big Brother and Deal or No Deal are set to return this year).
Maybe it’s because we’ve lost so much as a country that we’re desensitised to the demise of a SEMINAL show. Or possibly it’s because we walk around every day now with an unlimited amount of You’ve Been Framed! on tap, right in our pockets (I’m referring to our smartphones to be clear).
I’m not suggesting that we credit the late, great Sir Jeremy Beadle for the invention of YouTube, I just think it’s fair that we recognise his status as somewhat of a trailblazer and remember him as such. Which is why I feel slightly disheartened that I’ve not seen one mention of the YBF! cancellation on LinkedIn these past couple of months, nor any of our great thought leaders highlight the overwhelmingly clear connection between Beadle’s programmes and user generated content.
Here’s the very first episode of the show, take a look:
I was too young to make a submission to the show during it’s 90’s heyday, though I do remember there being an open threat from a family friend to send in a video captured of my Mum’s spectacular fall in the parents’ sack race at my school sports day. In the end the friendship was valued at higher than the £250 reward had the clip been shown.
Speaking of which, in our turgid age of inflation it’s incredible that at the end of the show’s run, the £250 cash sum remained unchanged from the show’s launch in 1990, and yet this is still probably a better deal than you’d get from the ad revenue on YouTube.
I am the media
Growing up on a steady diet of You’ve Been Framed! and Beadle’s other prank based shows must have had an effect on my impressionable young mind. It probably made me receptive to later shows of a similar ilk that cemented the determination I had that anyone could create ‘media’.
It wasn’t limited to the people inside the TV, even if they won on Saturday night audience numbers when pitted against me putting on shows in the lounge for my Mum, Dad, Grandparents and whatever poor Uncles and Aunties were subjected to it (I am so sorry, particularly now I am now firmly in your position as a childless thirtysomething).
When I went to secondary school I made a friend who saw life through the same lens. We made lessons fun by imagining every scenario we found ourselves in was our version of a TV show like the ones we grew up on, Noel’s House Party, Ant, Dec and Cat’s SM:TV Live to name a couple. We were undoubtedly the weirdest kids In the class, though happy as Larry entertaining ourselves, in part because there wasn’t a lot to show for anyone else.
We didn’t have a family camcorder I could use, but my Dad did have an early digital stills camera he used for work, that was probably in the minus numbers for the amount of megapixels. For us it was a first step in going beyond a cast and audience of two. More friends became involved and collectively we began to take a heavy influence from the following shows that preceded an era of ‘audience’ generated content.
Trigger Happy TV – Dom Joly’s sense of humour was a perfect match for ours. To this day I can’t walk around London without recognising locations where he filmed this hidden camera prank show in the same vein as Candid Camera.
Jackass – A collective of performers who came together under Johnny Knoxville and MTV’s stewardship to perform stunts that were far too dangerous for us to replicate at home. Despite the warnings not to, it didn’t stop us trying.
The Adam and Joe Show – Two loveable idiots given a show by Channel 4, which appeared to be presented from a bedroom, cutting away to their handheld filmed segments. This was something to aspire to!
The Dave Gorman Collection – A unique show format in which comedian Dave Gorman and his mate Danny Wallace travelled the UK (and then the world) trying to meet 54 other Dave Gormans. A challenge conceived on a night out drinking. Brilliant.
The meaning of life
The project was known as ‘Forty Two’, named due to one friend’s obsession with Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Initially ‘Channel 42’, then ‘Area 42’ when we built our own Geocities website to host and share the photos of the pranks and stunts we were getting up to.
Stills were always a limitation and when the day came to upgrade the digital camera I was over the moon that this new model had a video feature. There was only one issue. The clips were limited to 30 seconds in length.
I’ve long believed that the Twitter character limit or Instagram box format bred creativity. To work within what was available. Not a week goes by when I don’t see an example of something along these lines re-shared on LinkedIn, usually originating from a ‘Famous Campaigns’ account or similar.
I would like to submit one of my own for your consideration in this category. In 2003 I made two feature length Forty Two productions, comprised of 30 second clips, set to the soundtrack of the bands we loved at that time. Looking back, they’re actually not a million miles from an episode of You’ve Been Framed!.
We were still a couple years out from the launch of YouTube and uploading video to your website was a challenge in all senses. Instead we burnt DVD-R copies, printed and hand cut the sleeves, then sold them to friends.
Somewhere in the Cotswolds, two cousins were having a similar experience:
D.I.Y or die
Creating as I did in my early teens paved the way for the career and extracurricular activities I would later have. It all got a lot easier along the way as the technology became more readily available. At some stage everybody became creators and the playing field was levelled. The D.I.Y production skills I took the time to hone became second nature, at the simple click of a button for everyone, even the ‘adults’ I forced to watch my homemade variety shows.
I’ve realised recently that having all this available to me now has made me complacent and I couldn’t easily create content above and beyond the standard fair in the same way I used to be able to.
You don’t need to over invest in equipment to begin with. It’s overwhelming. The perfect piece of tech could also be the tools at which great ideas are killed off. I needed to be reminded of this. When I finally set out on a podcasting journey back in 2019 I bought some fantastic gear. The challenge of getting the most out of this made producing the show harder and took far longer. Loss of time was one of the major factors when I decided to call it a day less than two years later.
That’s entertainment
You’ve Been Framed! survived for over three decades of changing tastes and evolving media formats, solely with compilations of poorly filmed clips of people injuring themselves or doing mildly amusing things. The production value only ever increasing due to the newer version of the same entry level tech being used by the public.
The quality of video clips across YouTube and social media varies wildly. A viral success is almost always never directed by Micheal Bay.
As AI continues to interfere with content creation I’ve become more determined to recapture some of the D.I.Y ethic I had 20 years ago and use it to my advantage to produce output that feels authentic.
Whatever the outcome, I’ll never compete with the universal appreciation of handheld camcorder footage capturing the local drama society falling through a community hall stage.
Thanks Jezza (Lisa and Harry too).
Liam Toms 