Oscar winning actor, and star of Netflix political drama House of Cards, Kevin Spacey, recently defended ‘TV Binges’ and called for innovation in storytelling as the boundaries between film and television are being broken down. Spacey used his address at the annual MacTaggart Lecture during the Edinburgh Festival as a rallying call to develop new and emerging storytelling talent, saying that not enough is being doing to support new talent across the industry.

Referring to innovative figures such as Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, Spacey urged Television personnel ‘to be that innovative. In some ways we need to be better than the audience. We need to surprise, break boundaries and take viewers to new places.’

Spacey, having famously declared television drama as ‘a lost cause’ over a decade ago emphasised the reducing boundary between big screen films and television drama series insisting that series such as House of Cards and Breaking Bad have proven that there is significant value in investing in ‘sophisticated, multi layered story with complex characters.’

During the festivals keynote speech to TV executives, Spacey said ‘History proves that commitment to ideas and keeping faith in the talent has to be preferable to a pilot system that just throws everything at the wall in the hope that something sticks.’

‘When the story is good enough, people can watch something three times the length of an opera. We can make no assumptions about what viewers want or how they want to experience things. We must observe, adapt and try new things to discover appetites we didn’t know were there.’

‘Clearly, the Netflix model – releasing the entire House of Cards season – has proved one thing. The audience wants the control. They want freedom. If they want to binge, then we should let them binge.’