Dominic Crossley-Holland on Broadcasting

Should a show's success be judged by the complaints it provokes?

Only a month into the new year, and as a nation of renowned complainers we are surpassing ourselves. Three very different and disturbing events have provoked an avalanche of national comment, criticism and debate that has engulfed broadcasting.

First, there was Saddam's execution, as seen in the grisly official Iraqi TV footage as well as the illicit mobile-phone pictures that surfaced on the internet just a few hours later. The mobile pictures showed the former Iraqi leader being taunted before he was hanged. Taken together, the two sequences provoked considerable anger and distaste as well as an international row.

The pictures of Saddam's execution put the fine judgements that news broadcasters must continually exercise under the microscope yet again; exactly how much of a distressing event should be shown in order adequately to convey it to the viewer? In the event, no UK broadcaster showed the actual moment of Saddam's death, although many individuals downloaded the mobile footage in its 150-second grainy entirety.

Nevertheless, the TV coverage provoked 68 complaints to the media regulator Ofcom, mainly over the graphic nature of the images. In the normal run of things, 68 is quite a high number in the complaints business, and underlines just how much we demand and expect from our news compared to other types of programming.

Then, in the second week of January, the growing media obsession with Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton spilled off the tabloid pages. As she celebrated her 25th birthday, speculation swirled about whether she might soon be engaged to the prince, and the number of snappers dogging her every step swelled accordingly. When Middleton's lawyers turned the tables, filming evidence for potential harassment claims, the spectre of Diana was recalled and the cameras backed off.

The press watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, says there were only a "handful" of complaints, but the moves have been watched closely by broadcasters. That's because TV news often ends up following print agendas, and because all journalists continually wrestle with the shifting definition of what is justifiably in the public interest.

Although the Middleton row was primarily about photographs rather than video, this distinction is rapidly ceasing to matter as newspapers put audio and video on their websites. So it felt timely when the PCC chairman Sir Christopher Meyer announced that its remit would extend to newspapers' online video and audio content too.

Just as the number of paparazzi outside Middleton's Chelsea flat had dwindled to the customary handful, the snappers were off to chase all things Celebrity Big Brother, as by then the conflagration over Shilpa Shetty was under way. The sheer speed at which complaints began to be lodged about the Bollywood actor's alleged racist treatment by other housemates briefly caused the regulator's website to crash, although it says there is no suggestion that there was any attempt to co-ordinate the complaints. To date, the regulator has received more than 43,700 complaints about Celebrity Big Brother, with thousands more voicing their concerns directly to Channel 4.

This means that this series of Celebrity Big Brother, which ended last night, is on course to be the most complained-about programme ever, the dubious accolade having previously rested with Jerry Springer - the Opera. When the controversial musical was shown on BBC2, it attracted more than 55,000 complaints before it was even broadcast, and another 8,860 after transmission.

The Springer protest two years ago was by far the largest-ever about a broadcast in the UK, for two main reasons. It was the first organised mass protest, in this case by religious groups such as Christian Voice, who believed the programme was blasphemous; and it was the first to use the power of the internet. Not only did the net help to spread the protest, it also facilitated the act of complaining as e-mail is so much easier than writing a letter or phoning. In no way would I wish to encourage complaints, but if any proof were needed just follow this link - http://www. ofcom.org.uk/complain/ - and you'll see how extraordinarily easy it is to lodge a complaint about Celebrity Big Brother. I tested the system, and found that a protest can be submitted in less than two minutes.

Unsurprisingly, given all this the number of annual complaints to the regulator about TV and radio has risen in the past few years from about 3,000 in 2003-04 to 13,300 in 2005-06. That trend has been mirrored in the world of print, with complaints to the PCC rising from 2,630 in 2002 to 3,654 in 2004.

It used to be that just a handful of like-minded letters or telephone calls constituted a notable protest. In pre-Ofcom days, the largest number of complaints was 1,554 for the televising of Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ, followed by 992 for the Brass Eye spoof on media coverage of paedophilia.

In the end, no matter what the scale of protest, it is often the manner in which the complaints are received and handled that becomes the focus, as with Channel 4's response, or lack of one, to the Celebrity Big Brother controversy. And this can be compounded by regulators, who can seem frustratingly slow to respond or seem to pull their punches when they do act.

So does all this complaining actually make any difference? The general perception seems to be that broadcasters relish controversy, with feedback just lost in the ether. While broadcasters do of course welcome publicity for their output, it is overly cynical to say that they don't care about their viewers and listeners. In my experience the reverse is true, with both broadcasters and programme-makers highly sensitive to public opinion, although of course there will always be exceptions.

All in all, January has been a hectic month in the complaints department - but I'll bet the rest of 2007 will be busier still.

Let's raise a glass to three decades of the 'South Bank Show'

The awards season kicked off with The South Bank Show Awards, a highlight of the year in arts programming. The event, broadcast last night, always stands out among the dizzying array of ceremonies that litter our screens because it celebrates such a fantastic range of the arts. Among the winners this year were Sacha Baron Cohen, the Royal Ballet and Gilbert and George.

All of which means that it's great to see that The South Bank Show's life has just been extended by another two years until 2009. Whether this has anything to do with Michael Grade's arrival at ITV - as has been suggested - I doubt, but it was of course Grade who was involved in first hiring Melvyn Bragg before he launched the show back in 1978.

The South Bank Show is now ITV's third-longest-running programme after Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and it remains one of the crown jewels of the network. And its 30th anniversary line-up, which was announced last week, promises a typically eclectic mix, including the film director Tim Burton, the thriller writer Ken Follett and the Eurovision songwriter wannabe Morrissey.