News / Press Releases

First drama made just for mobiles

Source: BBC (09 January 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk

At 7pm every Friday night for the next 22 weeks, a 60-second teenage drama is going to be texted direct to viewer's mobile phones. It's thought to be the first series of its kind made just for handsets.

Thmbnls follows the lives of a group of ordinary teenage mates.

It's been funded by the government to try to raise awareness of issues like sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy.

But you won't find the Department for Children, Schools and Families mentioned anywhere in the episodes, or the advertising.

Peter Riley's behind the idea.

He told Newsbeat:

As soon as there's something like the government behind it, it's not unfair to say it puts a lot of people off. If this was something that was coming from MTV or Nike or Orange, it would carry a certain amount of gravitas with that audience. So we've created our own brand.

To make the series as realistic as possible, all the actors are involved in the scripting. And every week, viewers will be asked to chip in with ideas for the next episodes. Seventeen-year-old Tara Hodge plays Mundy in the drama, a tomboy with attitude.

She told Newsbeat:

Once people see the cast, I'm sure that they can say to themselves, 'I have a friend like that', or 'I've been through that situation'. Everything's realistic. Maybe we haven't been through it ourselves, but it's real life stuff.

Riley says the technology to provide this sort of service hasn't been around for that long. They've done a deal with the big mobile providers so that the service is free. And he says there shouldn't be a problem with phones not playing the footage.

He said:

Any phone that's two years old or younger is totally compatible with Thumbnails. It works on every network, it works on every phone that plays video.

There are no figures yet for how many people have signed up. But Hodge says if she wasn't acting in it, she'd be watching it.

She added:

I'm not just saying it because I'm part of Thumbnails, but it is really eye-catching. It's short, it's sweet, it's straight to the point. It's taking it to a whole new level now.

Thmbnls is sent to phone users who have signed up online at 7pm every Friday