This should be interesting:
For its 40th anniversary edition, the Edinburgh International Television Festival is placing an emphasis on talent and bringing in more offshore content than ever. But, it’s keeping things homegrown for the prestigious James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture. The fest has recruited Scottish writer, director and producer Armando Iannucci “to show why TV still matters.” The Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer of In The Loop, The Thick Of It, and Veep, will address the British television industry in a discussion about the role of TV channels, the future of BBC funding, and the changing dynamic of how the public view TV.
Despite the plethora of micro-channels, narrow-casting, DVRing, and the loss of truly mass events that everyone enjoys watching at the same time, this is still a new Golden Age of Television. Just consider everything from The Sopranos to The Wire to Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones. Why there’s more blood and gore and naked women and four-letter words coming through your talking picture box than anyone could ever have imagined even while experiencing a grand mal seizure during the last Golden Age of Television, when you still couldn’t show a married couple sharing the same bed.
I have little reason to doubt that Iannucci will make a most compelling argument for TV as more than just a vehicle for diaper commercials.
Also in attendance at the MacTaggart Lecture will be fellow Scottish actors Tom Conti and Peter Capaldi, three-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti, and TV journalist Carla Romano.
The first person to make a “no true Scotsman” joke gets a punch in the nose.
ANTHONY SACRAMONE 
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