Press: Top 10 TV shows about journalism, from Sharp Objects to Brass Eye and State of Play
New BBC newspaper drama only the latest to tackle the Fourth Estate
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Your support makes all the difference.The new BBC series Press dramatises the lives of editors and reporters toiling in London’s busiest newsrooms.
Starring David Suchet, Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin, the drama from Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett centres on the intense rivalry between fictional print publications The Post and The Herald, a tabloid and broadsheet respectively.
“Set in the fast-paced and challenging environment of the British newspaper industry, Press will immerse viewers in the personal lives and the constant professional dilemmas facing its characters,” the corporation says.
Journalism has long provided a rich source of material on the big screen, from His Girl Friday (1940) and Ace in the Hole (1951) to All the President’s Men (1976), Network (1976), Nightcrawler (2014), Spotlight (2015) and The Post (2017).
But there are also some fine examinations of the media on TV. Here’s our selection of 10 of the best.
10. The Wire (2002-08)
The fifth and final season of David Simon’s state-of-the-nation address took on the Fourth Estate with a close-up look at the offices of The Baltimore Sun.
Simon himself had been a crime reporter at that same paper before his book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991) brought him to television and his insider knowledge and eye for authentic detail proved invaluable.
Generally regarded as the weakest of The Wire’s seasons, it found detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) planting evidence at murder scenes to fabricate the existence of a serial killer in order to whip up sensational press coverage and draw attention to his department’s lack of resources as a result of budget cuts.
Tom McCarthy, who would later direct Spotlight, had a memorable role as corrupt hack Scott Templeton, while Clark Johnson excelled as Gus Haynes, the paper’s principled city editor struggling to uphold standards in adverse conditions.
9. The Thick of It (2005-12)
Armando Iannucci’s superbly acerbic BBC political satire may have been primarily concerned with the “doomed middle-aged men” of Whitehall and their hapless aides but it also had plenty to say about the capital’s media machine.
Special adviser Ollie Reeder (Chris Addison), having previously had a relationship with Evening Standard reporter Angela Heaney (Lucinda Raikes), creates all manner of awkwardness, particularly when Satanic director of communications Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) pressures him into attempting to exploit their past to win favourable coverage.
The “Spinners and Losers” special concerning Labour Party in-fighting took the viewer inside the offices of The Daily Mail, as the paper is repeatedly forced to redesign its front page due to the chaotic nature of the night’s events.
8. House of Cards (1990/2009-)
Michael Dobbs’s novel – first dramatised on the BBC in 1990 with Ian Richardson before being adapted, expanded and re-staged in Washington by Netflix – was similarly a political animal but the press again played an integral part in its narrative.
In the opening series of both versions, the Machiavellian Francis Urquhart/Frank Underwood begins an affair with a young journalist, offering leaks and exclusives in exchange for sex.
A comment on the potentially murky, mutually exploitative relationship between politicians and those supposed to hold them to account, in both instances the women come to grisly ends after their investigations threaten to compromise FU’s murderous ambition.
7. Nathan Barley (2005)
Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker’s prophetic Channel 4 sitcom skewered east London hipster culture to a tee through its odious protagonist, a self-proclaimed “self-facilitating media node” and purveyor of witless viral videos via his website TrashBat.co.ck (registered in the Cook Islands).
But the show’s true concern was the plight of depressed journalist Dan Ashcroft (Julian Barrett), surviving unhappily in the offices of Sugar Ape, too ill-motivated and sickened by the buffoons around him to better himself. His article “Rise of the Idiots”, in which he takes his tormentors to task, only makes matters worse, proving a hit and seeing him hailed as “Preacher Man” by the same fools he sought to destroy.
His sister Claire (Claire Keelan), an aspiring and idealistic documentarian, is similarly thwarted by Barley and his kind.
Ashcroft’s failed interview at The Sunday Times, where he humiliates himself by stating a preference for “Dutch wine”, is excruciating and made worse by his having to return contrite to Hosegate to retract his resignation from Charlie Condou’s withering editor, Jonathan Yeah? (the question mark added by deed poll), who gloats deliciously.
6. The Hour (2011-12)
Released at the height of Mad Men (2007-15) fever, Abi Morgan’s 1950s-set BBC drama similarly sought to marry the glamour of the period with themes carrying modern resonance.
Beginning at the dawn of television news broadcasting, it starred Romola Garai as producer Bel Rowley, who's tasked with putting together a crack team of anchors and reporters. Their first assignments balance domestic political intrigue with the Suez Crisis, Soho sleaze and Cold War nuclear tensions.
The series blended fresh talent like Garai and Ben Whishaw with experienced hands Dominic West, Anna Chancellor and Anton Lesser, resulting in a quality product that improved as it unfolded and was unlucky to be denied a third outing.
5. Drop the Dead Donkey (1990-98)
Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin’s long-running Channel 4 comedy dwelt on the staff of GlobeLink News, constantly fending off the attentions of Gus Hedges (Robert Duncan), hatchet man for their (unseen) new owner, Sir Roysten Merchant.
Hedges, a management droid speaking exclusively in jargon, is determined to make GlobeLink more sensationalist and tabloid but embattled editor George Dent (Jeff Rawle) sticks to his guns. Stephen Tompkinson and Neil Pearson brought a plausibly worn quality to their hack characters.
A brilliant satire on the commercialisation of news in the era of Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, Drop the Dead Donkey must surely have been an inspiration behind W1A (2014-) in its targeting of mind-boggling managerial interference.
4. Sharp Objects (2018)
Amy Adams stars in HBO’s latest prestige drama, adapted from the debut novel by Gone Girl (2012) author Gillian Flynn, about troubled reporter Camille Preaker, who returns to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri.
Investigating the disappearance of two girls, Preaker also has to contend with her own psychiatric issues, self-harm and alcoholism and the attentions of her waspish mother (Patricia Clarkson).
Unusually, this miniseries from Dallas Buyers Club (2013) director Jean-Marc Vallee takes the strain the job places on Preaker as its primary focal point, rather than the case she is pursuing, with interesting results.
3. The Newsroom (2012-14)
Aaron Sorkin had followed The West Wing (1996-2006) with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07), a behind-the-scenes examination of the running of a live TV show. When Studio 60 was denied a second season, Sorkin parlayed his interest in broadcasting into The Newsroom.
Set at the fictional Atlantis Cable News, the series starred Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, “the most trusted anchor in news”, who is forced to drastically re-evaluate his approach at the risk of alienating his core demographic.
Taking real news events for its backdrop, Sorkin’s typically talky drama called upon an enviable supporting cast including Emily Mortimer, Dev Patel, Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda and Olivia Munn to discuss the challenges facing contemporary American broadcast journalism in the age of Fox.
2. Brass Eye (2000-01)
Chris Morris – the master satirist of his day – followed his TV news spoofs On the Hour (1991-92) and The Day Today (1994) with this glorious send-up of investigative journalism.
Again starring Morris in stentorian, Paxmanesque anchorman mode, the series tackled such weighty themes as animal welfare and drugs in ludicrous fashion, conning well meaning and/or publicity hungry celebrities into endorsing bogus causes without bothering to do their research. The show’s overblown graphics were particularly inspired.
Brass Eye’s ”Paedogedon!” special caused uproar in 2001 but the sight of pop star Phil Collins wearing a baseball cap promoting “Nonce sense” belongs to the ages.
The provocations of Sacha Baron Cohen’s recent Who is America? owe a huge debt to Morris.
1. State of Play (2003)
Paul Abbott’s exemplary six-part drama concerned a newspaper’s investigation into the murder of a Westminster political researcher, The Herald’s lead reporter Cal McCaffrey (John Simm) coming to realise his friendship with the deceased’s employer, MP Stephen Collins (David Morrissey), is blinding him to the truth.
Expertly directed by David Yates, the BBC series was remade for the big screen in 2009, its all-star cast including Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams. Despite an appropriately hard-nosed tone, Kevin McDonald’s film struggled to replicate the devastating impact of the original, largely due to its truncated running time.
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