TV programmes

[Primrose]

Am I the only person who is getting thoroughly fed up with the semi documentary programmes being televised these days about people and places which are presented in the same sing song type of voice with the inevitable accompanying music. All the presenters sound as if they,Re rushing to catch a train and the music often drowns out the narrator.
What kind of TV programmes annoy you?

[Westi]

Any where people show no dignity (& I bet are paid significant amounts to humiliate themselves for ever)! You know the ones I mean - don't watch them but hear about them!

Westi

[Motherwoman]

I feel very uncomfortable with programmes that allow people to embarrass themselves. Sometimes they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer and they are taken advantage of by programme makers.

I hate the waving about camera technique, looks very unskilled and makes me feel seasick! And shots of the journalist/presenter instead of the thing they are talking about, I'm talking to the TV at this point 'well show us then!'

MW

[glallotments]

To be honest I find very little that I want to watch and don't watch the docusoap type programmes at all. It's a cheap way to fill schedules. For that matter I don't watch soaps either and think they are to blame with much of the way people behave to one another. Children watch them from a young age and seem to use them to model their behaviour.

I also hater filming that tries to look like it has been taken by a beginner using a cheap video camera.

It's also telling that they have started to put the word new at the beginning of any series that are not repeats - shows just how much of the stuff is rehashed. Maybe if they paid their people less (including platinum handshakes for those who are found useless at their jobs) they could spend more on decent programming.

[peter]

My pet tv hates?

Hundreds of channels and very little new programmes that I wish to watch.

The programmes that skip between several "threads" throughout the episode and do a recap of each thread every time they rejoin it, rather than follow one thread to its conclusion and then start a new one. Net result, of a half hour programme, five minutes for introduction and end credits, ten minutes for recaps, fifteen minutes of content.

The relatively new habit of shrinking credits into half the screen to push some coming programme. I might actually want to see if I got the actor playing second policeman correctly identified!

[glallotments]

My pet tv hates?

The programmes that skip between several "threads" throughout the episode and do a recap of each thread every time they rejoin it, rather than follow one thread to its conclusion and then start a new one. Net result, of a half hour programme, five minutes for introduction and end credits, ten minutes for recaps, fifteen minutes of content.

I hate that too - as they do in Countryfile. I also don't watch countryfile to see the presenters indulging themselves by trying out new activities such as canoeing or climbing. I watch for the information and film of the different places in the UK.

[Primrose]

Agree. Am beginning to think that the presenters are just using these programmes to showcase their own careers. And I too hate programmes which break up the reports on one topic into several different parts of the programme. Probably the result of producers who did these soft Media degrees and think they're going to change the world !! Or perhaps they're aimed at we old corners who they think don,t have an attention mindspan of more than ten minutes.

[Primrose]

There have been a couple of programmes on Wales recently on BBC2 where the split topics syndrome has been particularly noticeable. I don't know whether it's supposed to be a technique for keeping our attention but I just find it irritating.

[Motherwoman]

Well, you see, after a three minute advert break we oldies have obviously forgotten what happened in the previous bit of program and need to be reminded!

I do some work in schools and we have what is known as the 'East Enders Effect' and I'm afraid it's more the parents than the children. They think normal life is full of arguments and drama which for most of us it isn't. So they try to make it happen. And the language is having an effect on children's learning. I don't mean swearing but everyday pronounciation, if you think the word is 'fink' instead of 'think' it plays merry hell with phonics!

MW

[Primrose]

And not to mention the Innits !!

[alan refail]

Top hates: all the interminable sports nonsense! Innit?

[glallotments]

I do some work in schools and we have what is known as the 'East Enders Effect'
MW

When I was a primary teacher I was appalled to over hear seven years olds at the lunch table discussing who they thought had got someone pregnant in East Enders.

[Weed]

Some of the seven year olds at our local schools have a far better vocabulary of swear words than the cast of East-enders...and use them!

What's more many of them seem to be watching adult viewing programmes on a regular basis.

[glallotments]

Some of the seven year olds at our local schools have a far better vocabulary of swear words than the cast of East-enders...and use them!

If we mentioned bad language at parents' evenings we would often get remarks such as
I can't understand where he/she ?@### well gets it from. It must be the /$$#* school playground! :{