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| Shhhh! How keeping secrets became cool | Shhhh! How keeping secrets became cool |
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| The late Tony Newton was a fairly obscure Conservative minister of the Major era. But there is a case for arguing that, in modern culture, we are – to adapt David Cameron's recent claim about a female Tory prime minister – all Newtonians now. | The late Tony Newton was a fairly obscure Conservative minister of the Major era. But there is a case for arguing that, in modern culture, we are – to adapt David Cameron's recent claim about a female Tory prime minister – all Newtonians now. |
| The politician, who peaked as John Major's secretary of state for social security, is credited with having kept an astonishing political secret: Major's long affair, before becoming prime minister, with Edwina Currie. Newton, a ministerial colleague, had been told for logistical reasons (in case the lovers needed to be summoned back to the Commons for an emergency vote) but, with almost inhuman levels of discretion, kept it to himself. | The politician, who peaked as John Major's secretary of state for social security, is credited with having kept an astonishing political secret: Major's long affair, before becoming prime minister, with Edwina Currie. Newton, a ministerial colleague, had been told for logistical reasons (in case the lovers needed to be summoned back to the Commons for an emergency vote) but, with almost inhuman levels of discretion, kept it to himself. |
| And, though he was never a leadership candidate in politics, Newton's policy has many current followers in entertainment. Until just after 9pm on Monday night, 29 people working at or for ITV rigorously failed to whisper to reporters or gamblers the name of the killer in the network's hit whodunnit Broadchurch, which had become the subject of intense media speculation. | And, though he was never a leadership candidate in politics, Newton's policy has many current followers in entertainment. Until just after 9pm on Monday night, 29 people working at or for ITV rigorously failed to whisper to reporters or gamblers the name of the killer in the network's hit whodunnit Broadchurch, which had become the subject of intense media speculation. |
| ITV's spoiling of plot-spoilers follows Danny Boyle's success last summer in ensuring that the key elements of his Olympic 2012 opening ceremony – including the eye-popping playlet featuring James Bond and the Queen – remained a surprise until the night. While the 007-Elizabeth II scene was on film and so could be kept to a fairly tight professional circle (far fewer than ITV's 29) until screening, thousands of volunteers had seen rehearsals of live parts of the show but almost all obeyed a plea from Boyle that was encapsulated in the hashtag #savethesurprise. As a result, newspaper reports in the build-up to both the opening and closing ceremonies proved hopelessly wrong; promising, for example, live performances by Kate Bush and David Bowie. | ITV's spoiling of plot-spoilers follows Danny Boyle's success last summer in ensuring that the key elements of his Olympic 2012 opening ceremony – including the eye-popping playlet featuring James Bond and the Queen – remained a surprise until the night. While the 007-Elizabeth II scene was on film and so could be kept to a fairly tight professional circle (far fewer than ITV's 29) until screening, thousands of volunteers had seen rehearsals of live parts of the show but almost all obeyed a plea from Boyle that was encapsulated in the hashtag #savethesurprise. As a result, newspaper reports in the build-up to both the opening and closing ceremonies proved hopelessly wrong; promising, for example, live performances by Kate Bush and David Bowie. |
| The involvement of Bowie in a secret that proved to be false is curious because the musician has recently been a beneficiary of the new hush-hush culture. The announcement, on 8 January this year, of Bowie's impending first album for 10 years came completely without warning; a rarity in an era when most acts tweet or blog from the recording studio and try out new songs at gigs. | The involvement of Bowie in a secret that proved to be false is curious because the musician has recently been a beneficiary of the new hush-hush culture. The announcement, on 8 January this year, of Bowie's impending first album for 10 years came completely without warning; a rarity in an era when most acts tweet or blog from the recording studio and try out new songs at gigs. |
| Bowie's shock tactic was partly a result of personality and circumstance – he is protective of his privacy and has not toured for many years – but also reflects a growing perception, reflected in Boyle's canny slogan, that it is better for the audience not to know too much. | Bowie's shock tactic was partly a result of personality and circumstance – he is protective of his privacy and has not toured for many years – but also reflects a growing perception, reflected in Boyle's canny slogan, that it is better for the audience not to know too much. |
| Boyle, as a movie and theatre director, has always shown an astute understanding of psychology and he executed a canny mindgame here: playing not only on the insiders' sense of privilege of being in the community of those who know but intimating that it would be disappointing and irritating for outsiders to be admitted to the club too early. And, while the argument was a tactic to prevent blabbing, it also did the audience a favour. | Boyle, as a movie and theatre director, has always shown an astute understanding of psychology and he executed a canny mindgame here: playing not only on the insiders' sense of privilege of being in the community of those who know but intimating that it would be disappointing and irritating for outsiders to be admitted to the club too early. And, while the argument was a tactic to prevent blabbing, it also did the audience a favour. |
| On recent experience, discretion does increase the pleasure. Olympic opening ceremony viewers will always remember the thrilling double-take on realising that the monarch talking to Daniel Craig in Danny Boyle's Bond film was not a lookalike. Imagine how much less the impact would have been if newspaper columnists, given a nod under embargo, had been loudly hinting in advance that, say, "Daniel Craig plays a scene that really is On Her Majesty's Secret Service." And, though it goes against journalistic instinct, the ending of Broadchurch was better for watching it with everyone else, rather than at a reviewers' preview. Just as, for Bowie fans who had probably concluded that he had retired, the excitement was in the complete unexpectedness of the release. | On recent experience, discretion does increase the pleasure. Olympic opening ceremony viewers will always remember the thrilling double-take on realising that the monarch talking to Daniel Craig in Danny Boyle's Bond film was not a lookalike. Imagine how much less the impact would have been if newspaper columnists, given a nod under embargo, had been loudly hinting in advance that, say, "Daniel Craig plays a scene that really is On Her Majesty's Secret Service." And, though it goes against journalistic instinct, the ending of Broadchurch was better for watching it with everyone else, rather than at a reviewers' preview. Just as, for Bowie fans who had probably concluded that he had retired, the excitement was in the complete unexpectedness of the release. |
| The psychology of the secret-keepers – the ITV 29, the technical crew who knew that Bowie had been in a studio – is partly contractual but also must come from commitment towards the project. The reason that so few secrets are kept in business and politics (except when enforced by the Official Secrets Act) is that the information becomes a weapon against a rival or employee. Secrecy depends on goodwill: the name of the killer in a whodunnit would almost certainly be leaked if an actor or writer had been sacked or unpaid. | The psychology of the secret-keepers – the ITV 29, the technical crew who knew that Bowie had been in a studio – is partly contractual but also must come from commitment towards the project. The reason that so few secrets are kept in business and politics (except when enforced by the Official Secrets Act) is that the information becomes a weapon against a rival or employee. Secrecy depends on goodwill: the name of the killer in a whodunnit would almost certainly be leaked if an actor or writer had been sacked or unpaid. |
| Literature is also learning the power of silence kept and broken. One week after Bowie's announcement on his website, the writer Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, also went online to reveal the completion of a new novel, Inferno, which will appear in May, four months after the announcement. That timetable is startlingly fast in an industry where it is common for books to be announced at least a year ahead, with the hope of building expectation and orders. However, such ambush publishing does not seem to suppress interest. Julian Barnes's memoir Levels of Life recently went to No 1 in the Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller list in its first week on sale despite having been released – again, contradicting publishing wisdom – with almost no advance fuss. | Literature is also learning the power of silence kept and broken. One week after Bowie's announcement on his website, the writer Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, also went online to reveal the completion of a new novel, Inferno, which will appear in May, four months after the announcement. That timetable is startlingly fast in an industry where it is common for books to be announced at least a year ahead, with the hope of building expectation and orders. However, such ambush publishing does not seem to suppress interest. Julian Barnes's memoir Levels of Life recently went to No 1 in the Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller list in its first week on sale despite having been released – again, contradicting publishing wisdom – with almost no advance fuss. |
| Until recently, most PR handbooks commended controlled release of advance material – to media outlets or consumers – as a useful publicity tactic. Books have traditionally been promoted through newspaper serialisation of key excerpts: the Telegraph titles have just run three days of teasers from Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher. Sensational upcoming plotlines in Coronation Street and EastEnders have a funny tendency of ending up on the front pages of mass-market papers, with the press offices involved seeming fairly relaxed about these breaches of confidentiality. | Until recently, most PR handbooks commended controlled release of advance material – to media outlets or consumers – as a useful publicity tactic. Books have traditionally been promoted through newspaper serialisation of key excerpts: the Telegraph titles have just run three days of teasers from Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher. Sensational upcoming plotlines in Coronation Street and EastEnders have a funny tendency of ending up on the front pages of mass-market papers, with the press offices involved seeming fairly relaxed about these breaches of confidentiality. |
| The trend now, though, is shifting from strategic leak to fierce secrecy. And the Broadchurch experience offers an intriguing case-study in the new cult of mystery. The revelation of the killer, when it came, was not much of a shock: many viewers and an odds-on majority of those backing their suspicion at bookmakers had correctly identified the murderer. But what is striking is the absolute understanding of the ITV 29 that they must not blab. This is even more impressive because the secret was shared relatively widely. Many fewer people at Radio 4, for example, knew that it was Nigel Pargeter who would fatally leave The Archers at Christmas 2011, another recent example of a script-twist successfully protected. | The trend now, though, is shifting from strategic leak to fierce secrecy. And the Broadchurch experience offers an intriguing case-study in the new cult of mystery. The revelation of the killer, when it came, was not much of a shock: many viewers and an odds-on majority of those backing their suspicion at bookmakers had correctly identified the murderer. But what is striking is the absolute understanding of the ITV 29 that they must not blab. This is even more impressive because the secret was shared relatively widely. Many fewer people at Radio 4, for example, knew that it was Nigel Pargeter who would fatally leave The Archers at Christmas 2011, another recent example of a script-twist successfully protected. |
| Perhaps surprisingly, neither ITV nor Kudos, the production company that made Broadchurch, bothered with any of the confusion methods employed for televisual cliffhangers in the past: for example, the filming by Dallas of multiple solutions to the "Who shot JR Ewing?" storyline, so that actors couldn't gossip even if they wanted to. Whereas those involved in the Danish show The Killing were reportedly asked to sign a secrecy pact about the outcome, the Broadchurch team were subject to a less official but still stern injunction. | Perhaps surprisingly, neither ITV nor Kudos, the production company that made Broadchurch, bothered with any of the confusion methods employed for televisual cliffhangers in the past: for example, the filming by Dallas of multiple solutions to the "Who shot JR Ewing?" storyline, so that actors couldn't gossip even if they wanted to. Whereas those involved in the Danish show The Killing were reportedly asked to sign a secrecy pact about the outcome, the Broadchurch team were subject to a less official but still stern injunction. |
| The general willingness to save the surprise may partly be a hangover from the Olympic spirit and Danny Boyle, but it is also a practical response to the different speeds at which culture is increasingly consumed. | The general willingness to save the surprise may partly be a hangover from the Olympic spirit and Danny Boyle, but it is also a practical response to the different speeds at which culture is increasingly consumed. |
| For example, I have deliberately avoided naming the Broadchurch killer in this piece out of consideration for any readers who are waiting to catch-up on ITV Player or to buy the box set next month. But, conversely, discussion of TV imports from America often have to take account of the fact that some viewers will be ahead of the UK audience having seen or read material from the US. Between its homeland TV premiere and its eventual UK box-set release, an American series may be consumed by different audiences over a span of several months. | For example, I have deliberately avoided naming the Broadchurch killer in this piece out of consideration for any readers who are waiting to catch-up on ITV Player or to buy the box set next month. But, conversely, discussion of TV imports from America often have to take account of the fact that some viewers will be ahead of the UK audience having seen or read material from the US. Between its homeland TV premiere and its eventual UK box-set release, an American series may be consumed by different audiences over a span of several months. |
| The newer fashion for releasing entire series online to be watched at the viewer's own pace – a form of distribution pioneered by Netflix with its House of Cards – also means that some subscribers can have reached the end while others are still at the beginning. The consequence of this multi-speed TV highway is that any forum in which broadcasting is discussed must be ever more wary of plot-spoiling. | The newer fashion for releasing entire series online to be watched at the viewer's own pace – a form of distribution pioneered by Netflix with its House of Cards – also means that some subscribers can have reached the end while others are still at the beginning. The consequence of this multi-speed TV highway is that any forum in which broadcasting is discussed must be ever more wary of plot-spoiling. |
| Mystery is in. If any other long-silent pop star is thinking of doing a Bowie, they would probably now be advised to forego the teaser-single and hold back the whole album for the day of release. In the Newtonian universe, we like to save the surprise. | Mystery is in. If any other long-silent pop star is thinking of doing a Bowie, they would probably now be advised to forego the teaser-single and hold back the whole album for the day of release. In the Newtonian universe, we like to save the surprise. |
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