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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6692361/BBC-plunged-into-a-new-TV-fakery-row.html


~jwf~

>>The BBC has been plunged into a new fakery row after it emerged that several of its most popular daytime television shows used production staff to pose as members of public.
Sun, Sea And Bargain Spotting presented by Angela Rippon on BBC Two and Trash For Cash, the BBC One auction show, were among the programmes that were found to have misled viewers.<<

Thankfully I was unaware the either of these dreadful sounding programmes were even in existence. Hopefully they can be shed in Thompson's slimmer, leaner meaner BBC, that's been so heavily briefed about.

It's only trashy TV fer goodness sake..

I'm more concerned by the dumbing down aspect of various costume shows like the laughable Robin Hood and Merlin..The dialogue and costumes are derisory and totally unwatchable for me..and yet when they get it right they are fabulous.

Frankly if they just left the reality crap to the other channels and concentrated on what they are good at I'd feel they deserved my loyalty.

I would willingly sell my house and all its contents to help the BBC.

(Still one of my favourite sketches)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukun8nc5Y8U

Entitled to? That's a funny way of looking at it.

Personally while I dont watch them endlessly, I've enjoyed Merlin and robin hood. Good, clean fun for all ages and whimsical, I thought, rather than rubbish.

And if you read other reports on that story, it's not the BBC that did the faking, it was the production companies that made them and it's been sorted out (i.e. noticed and stopped). It's a non-story. Once again the BBC getting dragged into stuff that maybe they *could* have done more to stop, if they had the use of hindsight. In the past.

I'm currently writing an entry on TV fakery (must get around to finishing it). Whereas the BBC has had a number of high-profile incidents, they were certainly no worse than their commercial rivals in that respect. ITV have suffered the wrath of the regulator far more.

It's a slippery slope. In America one of the big three networks
got into deep doo-doo for faking exploding gas tanks on pick-up
trucks. Happily it was eventually resolved and people were fired but
not before millions of trucks were recalled and eventually even
re-designed.

They also drove Saab out of the country with a story about sticking
accelerators resulting in deadly high speed crashes.

The melding of reality and reality TV has re-defined the fuzzy edges
of what TV producers think they can get away with for 'arts' sake.

It all goes back to "Drop The Dead Donkey".

And them damn Teletubbies! Imagine a generation of kids growing up
to associate TV screens with their stomachs.

TV is a dangerously powerful medium.


~kwf~

<>

TV is your friend

watch your TV

take your Soma

"Glass Teat" - anyone

Soma. Yes. Of course.

I only ever see Dave.

TRiG.

has it got a nipple

I guess, I may have been there, but.. I'm old, so to quip" Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out", and be Leary.
And, yes teats, do have nipples; wether real or or imagined. Oedipus syndrome, perhaps?

Actually if the BBC wants to save money like they claim, why don't they go back to the days (of my youth) when there was closedown at about 1am and nothing on (except selected Ceefax pages) until about 9am. Then another closedown from 2pm - 4pm (except on Budget day) for the children's programmes ...

I dont think they do want to 'save money'. They probably want to not spend money unnecessarily, which is what happens in big organisations when you dont keep an eye on things!!!

Does anyone really trust anything they see on programmes like that anyway?
If a staged event influenced the actions of the participant, or affected the outcome, then isn't that fraud? If it's merely added to bulk out the entertainment then so what?

I reckon the current series of The Restaurant, with Raymond Blanc, is fixed. It has little or nothing to do with cooking, there was only ever one reasonable chef and one hopsital cook and he's just been binned. The programme is purely tabloid tv. Why I'm watching it I don't know, probably because we had a less than riviting experience at Le Manoir, Blanc's gaff.

I might do some digging around as it reminds me of that other fix when Digger Dean, clearly the best cook got binned for some old fart who then didn't take up the price. Ratings were good, reality poor. Master Chef I think, which is now all celebrity as they have agents and are easily manipulated to produce piss poor tabloid tele.

Prize not price. Preview is my friend, repeat 1000 times.

I masterchef though, even though it's edited like crazy...

So much for conspiracy theory. MasterChef is produced by Shine and The Restaurant by Tiger Aspect. Back to the drawing board.

I've not watched the restaurant much, only one episode, last week.

Masterchef is great, I cant decide which I prefer... Normal, professionals or celebs... It is nice seeing celebrities showing some real effort and talent for something that's often not appreciated and also, in some cases, learning a lot about themselves in a way I think doing showbizzy things like dancing and singing just dont do.