h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I too would like to express my distastefor the recent sacking of Angus Deayton.Over the years he has hosted a very entertaining and more crucially, informative show and I am angry that things cannot continue to be so. It won't be the same or as good without him.
I am very disappointed with Iain Hislop and Paul Merton for sticking the knofe in, and I'm shocked and stunned that they can't focus more on the inequities of our government rather than Deayton's benign showbiz lifestyle. They should be sympathetic not spiteful. Are there more shocking revelations that these two satirists wish to share about Angus? I doubt it.
What Angus Deayton does in his private life is his own business, let it be. As for the cocaine, well Mick Jagger's just received a Knighthood hasn't he. I'm not an advocate for the use of illegal drugs but I detect more than a whiff of hypocrisy here. This ludicrous decision has sanctimonious nannying Tony Blair and Co. written all over it.
Yours Faithfully,
Alex Holt

The fact is that Tony Blair and Co had far more to do with Mick Jaggers Knighthood than Angus Deayton's demise. So where's the sanctimonious nannying there.

Stuart

From the House Rules:

"No spamming or flooding. [...] Flooding is when the same (or very similar) message is posted over and over again to the same conversation. It's especially antisocial if it's off-topic for those forums. So please don't deliberately send the same message, or very similar messages, to loads of different Conversation Forums, or post the same message to one Conversation multiple times. We'll simply remove your Postings, and possibly your account."

I count the same message 11 times. For the first time I'm actually tempted to Yikes something, but it's such a lame attempt to suggest widespread opinion that it doesn't seem worth it.

What the hell are you complaining for? It's my space he's clogging up-do I care? No! I agree. BRING HIM BACK, BBC, BEFORE I MARCH UP TO YOUR LOVELY TELEVISION CENTRE AND SMASH UP ANY IMPORTANT EQUIPMENT WITH A VERY LARGE AXE.

Its not you space - it's the BBCs space which they allow you to use - and stop shouting, its rude and ill manered.

Stuart

and hilarious. how about using a chainsaw?

Well, I think I was complaining because I saw all the conversations and thought, "Wow, lot's of discussion about HIGNFY, " (yes, I think in smileys), but what I got was lots of very very similar comments quite blatantly by the same person. So I felt a tad aggrieved.

It is unfortunate that we have to consider one decision in isolation. It is also unfortunate that details of Deayton's life and sacking came to the fore in the same week as the allegations about John Leslie. Interesting by comparison: if you allegtions against you in the NHS, then you'll probably be suspended on full pay for as long as it takes to decide one way or the other.
The reason I say this is because it's an unfair world. But people who put themselves in the public eye at large salaries, or in positions of integrity, carry more risk.
On HIGNFY, Hislop & Merton took advantage of the situation. The show is also surrounded by producers and directors, and they could have stopped such a game. They could have made Deayton's media interest a no-go area for the jokes, but they didn't. Therefore I think it is wrong to demonise Hislop & Merton - they could not have acted alone in producing that particular show.
"Scapegoat" is the word that comes to mind. And some people obviously thought they'd get a bigger & better profile out of it.
I believe that what goes on in a person's private life is private, unless (1) it is an obvious conflict of interest, or (2) it affects the way they do their job in the public eye and/or for the public, and finally (3) the ability to trust is shattered by those who need to trust the person.
By my definition, Deayton would fall down on (3) if he was a politician or someone who managed something on behalf of others' investments. He simply presented a TV show. But where the house of cards falls down after that, is where others on the show are allowed to use the media reports to poke fun at his personal circumstances.
This isn't pre-watershed TV. And who are we to comment on his private life and condition of the main relationship in his life?
We wouldn't know anyway, unless someone paid and someone else accepted a few grand for it.
Now that the decision has been made, it would be a sorry thing for the BBC to go back on it and reinstate Deayton. However, the BBC should review its ability to maintain independence in many other areas.

A chainsaw... Yeah, why not? and while we're at it, whoever said that the Angus stuff came out at the same time as the John Leslie is quite right. Has anybody noticed that incidents like this reported in the press usually come in 2s or 3s? Some time ago we had 2 celebrities claiming that they'd been raped, within a week of each other, and hadn't revealed it before because they were too traumatised. So why didn't they go to the police instead of those journalist loud-mouths? I think it's called jumping on the band-wagon.

Just hope and prey that you never have the misfortune to be raped, because if you were, you would find out why so many rape victims do not or cannot got to the police.

Stuart

You've spelt "Prey" wrong. It's "Pray". And I haven't suffered in extreme, but I have had to tell people about things of this sort before. It is hard, but it's the only way to make it stop, so I know what I must do. You may think me stupid, but I have the common sense to tell the police before the press.

"but I have the common sense to tell the police before the press."

You may say that now, but after the trauma of being raped, common sense goes out of the window. If you want to know what I mean, find and speak to a woman that has been raped and you will have a better understanding of why speaking to the Police, to anybody for that matter is not something that comes easy. After time when the trauma has worn off, then perhaps it is easier to speak off it.

Stuart

OK,OK, it may be painful to start with. But once you can talk about it, then it would make sense to go to the police first. Once you're over the worst of something like that, your common sense does return. "talk to a woman who has been raped". I fear that you know little of my history, as I do of yours. So for that reason I will not tell you to do what I think it would be wise to.

But that can take years. Imagine a woman going to the police and saying she was raped five years ago and would like the culprit caught and prosecuted. The police would treat such aligations with extreme caution as all the floresnsic evidence is long gone. It would be her word against his and that very rearly works.

Stuart

Yeah-the police wouldn't apparently do much, but I think they may try to do more to maintain justice than the press. Just a thought.

no1 actually cares what he has done, he is funny, he is not convicted/charged/arrested/apprehended. if he's done anythign wrong, arrest him. if you dont, then he's obviously clean, and so what is there to stop him presenting a tv show. NO ONE CARES, AND MORE PEOPLE HAVE STARTED WATCHING SINCE THE ALLEGATIONS BEGAN.

bring him back. period.

"he is not convicted/charged/arrested/apprehended"

Deano,

You need to learn the difference of "beyond reasonable doubt" and "the balance of probabilities". When you do know the difference you will understand why he was sacked, but has not yet been charged with a anything although he almost certainly commited a criminal offence.

If Angus thinks he was sacked unfairly, he has recourse through the civil courts. Has he done that?

"NO ONE CARES"

You right there. No one cares that he was sacked judging by the level of protest outside in the big wide world.

Stuart

You know what, Stuart, you remind me a lot of my Grandad.

Probably because I am as old as your Grandad. An example of the wisdom of experience.

Stuart

Ah, that explaind a great deal.