Thursday, 17 May 2007
Charlie Brooker slags off new BBC credits guidelines
No need to add anything, other than that he's right, again.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Eurovision: Not In My Name! UPDATE!
While composing the previous post, we received this breaking news!
- "Harmful to the relationship between the peoples of Europe"!
- Commons early day motion!
- "Five or six" countries "angered"!
Eurovision: Not In My Name!
Digital Spy reports that the Eurovision Song Contest was a hit for BBC1 on Saturday.
International joke
Despite the figures though, I just wonder whether it's all starting to feel a bit lame. The party line is that it's a joke we participate in at everyone else's expense, and I'll be the first to admit to enjoying Terry Wogan's undercutting of the saccharine and the pompous in previous years; it just felt like going through the motions this time.
There comes a point where, no matter how many funny remarks you make about how crap the thing you're watching is, in the end you're still watching crap.
Mind you, it did lead to Paul Gambaccini saying this:
See also here for more in-depth analysis.
ADDENDUM: Doctor Who writer Gareth Roberts agrees!
Coverage of the annual Eurovision Song Contest brought in 8.7 million viewers and a 39.9% share for BBC One on Saturday night.There's a lot of fuss being generated about block voting also, meaning 'we' never stood a chance at winning, though I feel that the UK entry (I can't bear to type that awful name) was simply too calculated and cynical in its lunge for campery.
Grabbing its largest audience since 2001, the show peaked at 10.30pm with 10.9 million viewers and 50.8% of the audience watching at that time, rising to 53.4% at 10.45pm.
Despite the figures though, I just wonder whether it's all starting to feel a bit lame. The party line is that it's a joke we participate in at everyone else's expense, and I'll be the first to admit to enjoying Terry Wogan's undercutting of the saccharine and the pompous in previous years; it just felt like going through the motions this time.
There comes a point where, no matter how many funny remarks you make about how crap the thing you're watching is, in the end you're still watching crap.
Mind you, it did lead to Paul Gambaccini saying this:
It may be the strangest reason for ending a war but if you want to win the Eurovision Song Contest again, bring the boys home.
See also here for more in-depth analysis.
ADDENDUM: Doctor Who writer Gareth Roberts agrees!
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
Quick! It's started! (pt.2)
Brilliant piece of professionalism from the thinking person's channel on Saturday night as, having extensively trailed the return of Parkinson, including a headline interview with man-of-the-moment David Tennant, ITV bizarrely and surreptitiously move it forward 15 minutes. Most people therefore tuned in just as David Tennant was wrapping up. Even the website still gives 10.40pm as the start time.
Do people really just walk in off the street and "manage" the "schedule"?
Do people really just walk in off the street and "manage" the "schedule"?
Friday, 4 May 2007
New, improved nonsense
There are a thousand different ways that modern advertising can irritate, if you let it, but I can't let the current TV commercial for Miracle-Gro pass without comment.
It's the perfect example of the 'spurious need' school of advertising; in order to demonstrate the boon to modern life that is their current spray attachment (or whatever it is - I'm not entirely sure as my brain liquifies whenever it's shown), a young woman is shown (a) making a complete hash of pouring some liquid into a small container, (b) being utterly inept with a garden hose, and (c) somewhat flummoxed by a watering can. The average viewer would conclude that, rather than invest in a new piece of garden equipment, she would be better served by improving her basic motor skills, or buying a games console to work on her hand/eye co-ordination, or by simply being less crap. It's the kind of advert that really diminishes the splendour of humanity, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of those who have seen it subsequently become alcoholic.
I hate that supposedly winsome kid who sits on the bog complaining precociously about how smelly his crap is too.
It's the perfect example of the 'spurious need' school of advertising; in order to demonstrate the boon to modern life that is their current spray attachment (or whatever it is - I'm not entirely sure as my brain liquifies whenever it's shown), a young woman is shown (a) making a complete hash of pouring some liquid into a small container, (b) being utterly inept with a garden hose, and (c) somewhat flummoxed by a watering can. The average viewer would conclude that, rather than invest in a new piece of garden equipment, she would be better served by improving her basic motor skills, or buying a games console to work on her hand/eye co-ordination, or by simply being less crap. It's the kind of advert that really diminishes the splendour of humanity, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of those who have seen it subsequently become alcoholic.
I hate that supposedly winsome kid who sits on the bog complaining precociously about how smelly his crap is too.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Quick! It's started!
Good article here criticising the BBC's cak-handedness with the scheduling of Doctor Who. I won't repeat it, other than to agree that, what with the current fluid approach to the schedule, and now the news that the series is to skip a week for the Eurovision Song Contest, it seems a perverse and foolhardy way to treat the show that has galvanized Saturday nights for them. It brings to mind the Monty Python gag about the number of exams you have to fail to work in programme planning, and that was made almost 30 years ago.
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