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

"If you call that entertaining, well, I'm sorry if you felt I called you sick. But what would call it>?"

"Apologies - I'm not calling anyone of you sick"

I think you are...

What I mean by 'your standard detective drama' is that it is about people trying to solve a puzzle.

I know and don't entirely care that the techniques employed aren't an accurate reflection of reality (hint I'm watching a tv drama - I am willing to suspend my disbelief), I am watching more for the story than the science.

Media types have contempt for their audiences eh? Well I don't care about that either. They can sneer down their noses all they like, if they had any self-respect they would be producing a better quality of program instead.

Sounds like you have a bit of that sneer too, so I am sure that you only ever watch worthy documentaries.

Me, I like a bit of variety.

It sounds like you want to do away with the vast majority of fiction through the ages - unless it has "a point". What sort of points are valid in your opinion? Obviously just entertaining the reader isn't enough.

Well quite. It's not like anyone forces you to watch TV chaps. Feeling emotional- don't watch a programme about corpses!

Wow! never new a detective story would raise so much emothion I mean we not talking about "pop stars - the rivals", which really is sick and treats the audience with contempt.

Thing with farsacape and the BBC2 7pm slot, dont grumble it will be repeated!(probably untill you are sick of it (esp if you have sat/cable). Alternatively think of the poor people in Scotland who no only have to compete with 71st annual tiddlywinks championship (BBC sport) but also gaelic programming (horror, strange how it must be shown, considering more people speak urdu than gaelic in scotland!)



some smiles to remind us all its only TV and quite frankly given the alternatives just about anything is better than telly.

I was somewhat hacked off about the schedule change last night too, especially after discovering that series four of Farscape started last night on BBC2 and I hadn't realised until it was half way through.

Although I have to admit that if I had read the Radio Times properly, I would have seen it was on and alerted GB. SO that wasn't entirely the Beeb's fault.

"some smiles to remind us all its only TV and quite frankly given the alternatives just about anything is better than telly."

Well said Ali1.

"Television is the gretaest educational tool that never was."

Arthur C. Clarke.

My point was that it's a shame there's so much trash on the box. Dark and unpleasant trash at that.

I'm not sneering, either - I'm outright condemning.

I watch very little TV.I loathe ALL the soaps and WON'T watch them on principle and I hate TV games and quiz shows.I also loathe all these fly on the walls programs as they are all cheap,cheap,cheap.I only watch historical dramas,the occasional defective show and SF/Fantasy shows.For the last three months I've only watched the news channels as there has been nothing but repeats(typical summer fare)so when the new season of so called NEW shows begins it might be nice if they were advertised and shown as advertised.

I also have to say my thoughts were with a dead child and that child's family last night but not it wasn't Milly Dowler.I was thinking of a young boy of 17 whom I have taught in the past who was beaten to death at the weekend in the local town centre.The truth is that these incidents are all too common everywhere and we cannot acknowledge every single one of them or life would come to a standstill.

Incog.

When will they make more episodes of the detectives, it was brilliant!!!

Ahh but what would other members of the media have said?

I really think that this is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Personally, the thing I get annoyed by is what the media think is worth being sensitive to, and what can be ignored.
I don't imagine they'd have pulled the League of Gentlemen (containing a scene of a house being burned down) in the case of one or two house-fires with multiple deaths last weekend.

Nice one potholer! programs are pulled all the time because of disasters etc, which is mad, were not children! If I can cope with a real life disaster then I can sure as hell cope with the dramatised version (which was probablty made before the disaster). Its just coincidence.

I don't think it is you that they are worried about actually. No offence but I think the friends and the relatives are slightly more important then disgruntled license fee payer of where ever.

And how do I know? A couple of years ago a family friend of mine was kidnapped and murdered in a particularly high profile and distressing case. Knowing how her family and other friends felt at the time, I would never criticise schedulers for showing a bit of tact.

Yes but the point I was trying to make (before I was criticised for liking to watch the occasional drama on the telly) was that horrible things happen to people all the time. If had known that my licence fee granted me the right to get the schedules changed when something tragic happens I'd have asked them not to show Casualty the week my nan died.

When is a case tragic enough to warrant a change? Did the schedulers think that anybody even vaguely connected to Milly would be watching a program called 'Waking the Dead'? Is the fact that the case was high profile have a bearing - do the BBC only care about your feelings if you have been in the papers a lot?

I can't speak for my employers as I don't work in Television let alone in scheduling.

Abi, I wasn't asking you to speak for your employers! I just don't understand why they do things sometimes and not others, and how they make the choice. I doubt anyone here can answer that.

Sorry if you feel I was attacking you personally with that comment - I wasn't attacking anyone! I'm posting this here in case you are still lurking but I'll put it in your spae as well just in case.

Hey its no problem. I will repeat what I said over there here.

The reason I unsubscribed is that as a BBC employee I have to be careful about what I say, because it can be interpreted as the official line. Not neccessarily by you or any one else in the thread, but by people reading it from outside (I have fallen foul of this before). I am not offended honestly.

If no one expressed opinions on here, then h2g2 would be a sorry place indeed.

Not that I agree with many of you lot!

True Abi, I understand why the BBC pulls things every now and again but as Kelli pointed out I sometimes question what constitutes a tragedy. The Milly Dowler case is heart breaking, but such things happen fairly often, what made that case so bad that a program was pulled? I dont feel that just because a programme has similar themes to a current tragic news story that we are all so sensitive that the BBC has to pull it.

Indeed it shows sensitivity for the relatives, but there are many people who have tragedy in thier life which may be reflected on TV (eerily it happend to me with Eastenders a few years ago)but for one reason or another it isnt in the news. Perhaps a little warning of content would suffice, certainly for programs after the water shed.

I've really got nothing to add; the Milly Dowler case is tragic and I feel for all concerned, but pissed off a bit that I missed the last episode of the League of Gentleman especially since I missed it the first time round and its back on this week - can anyone tell me what happened?



okay ... carry on scrapping

ps - do you ever think we'll get to see 'Messiah'? that was pulled a couple of months ago for the same reason or indeed the missing waking the dead episode? will it ever be shown? given the huge amount of media coverage over the Holly and Jessica case. persumably this case is now ingrained into the nation's psyche - will there ever been a time when it can be shown?

Obviously I can't comment on BBC issues (and you can quote me on that) but on a side issue, it is difficult times at the moment for the producers of Brookside.

It does seem to be a matter not of concern for relatives or friends, but for the much larger number of entirely unrelated people who have made a temporary emotional connection to someone they have never met as a result of intense and prolonged media coverage.

I'd suggest that someone who actually *had* lost a dearly-loved relative or friend in a particular unpleasant manner would be pretty much as upset seeing a programme featuring that particular method of demise a week or two after the event than at the actual time, so it seems that postponement for a short time may be mainly for the benefit of people with a transient emotional connection to the event.

I'll stop buying a tv guide then if this is going to be the normal reaction to every high profile case and whenever there is a large(or small scale)disaster.I may as well take potluck.Bye,Bye Radio Times.

Incog.