Deadline (1995 TV series)

Deadline is a British fly-on-the-wall documentary series following the journalists at Yorkshire Television's local news service, Calendar. It was broadcast as a series of six episodes on Channel 4 from 20 March to 1 May 1995 as part of its Whose News? season.^[2]

Yorkshire Television agreed to allow access to Channel 4's fly-on-the-wall documentary series following ITN's refusal to take part in the project.^[3] Most of the Calendar team took part in the documentary rather than be accused of hypocrisy; Christa Ackroyd says, "how could I, a TV journalist whose job it is to persuade others to appear on camera, refuse to take part when the tables were turned?".^[3]

The documentary crew spent three months following the newsgatherers at Yorkshire TV.^[4] Some material was removed from the broadcast version. Journalist Alan Hardwick was captured making some, what The Guardian's media editor labels "fairly abusive", remarks about criminals.^[3] Ackroyd reports that some people refused to sign release forms, and 'no filming' areas were established.^[3]

Yorkshire TV were unhappy at the documentary's press release, which began: "Coming up in just a moment, the biggest petunia in the world – and the man whose grown it. But first, the Bradford murder." Channel 4 thought that the sentence reflected Calendar's diverse content, but Yorkshire were concerned that it made them look silly. The press was requested not to use the offending words.^[3]

The first episode focussed upon the media coverage of the disappearance of schoolgirl Lindsay Rimer in November 1994,^[2] whose body was recovered shortly after the episode was broadcast.^[5] This first episode also covered more trivial stories, such as the launch of a new cheese, and a live interview with Coronation Street actress Lynne Perrie, who was promoting her autobiography.^[2]

Tom Sutcliffe, in The Independent, expressed concern over the length of the series, suggesting that it might become "too much of a good thing" and the focus upon a regional news service ("a little local runabout", writes Sutcliffe) rather than "the great national juggernauts".^[2] Much of Sutcliffe's criticisms were about the journalistic practices and integrity of the Calendar team; he questions its staging of police briefings, and the decision to devote airtime to the launch of a cheese.^[2]

• Deadline at IMDb