Gah!
Today, being on holiday, I’ve had the misfortune to witness the departure of two BBC presenters from their respective shows – Dermot Murnaghan from Breakfast and Fiona Bruce from Crimewatch.
Now I like them both as presenters, but I have to wonder whether its fair to subject the viewer to the self-indulgent twaddle that seems to arise from such a departure.
Nostalgic video clips, co-presenters heaping on the compliments, the departing presenter praising the show to the hilt. Please people! Save it for the bar after work.
Why does TV do this? It is certainly not for the viewers’ benefit. Is it because TV is more steeped in the cult of personality? Or is it just the pure “lovey-ness” of the medium. Whatever the reason, it makes for cringeworthy viewing.
I can remember moving BBC Look East to their snazzy new building. They did a big nostalgic love fest programme for the old building.
It didn’t seem to occur to them that viewers didn’t care about their office as it didn’t feature in the programme ever so effectively it was a half hour special on desks and chairs.
It is part of move towards “info-tainment” rather than providing news coverage that has been creeping into the BBC for years.
If you want news, facts and useful information, check out Newsround. If you want light entertainment, self indulgence and annoying smugness, then stick with BBC Breakfast and most prime time news/current affairs output…I’ll get off this soapbox now too.
The fact that they can stitch together an hour or more of old footage glued together with a minimum of new footage probably doesn’t hurt either… but at least it only lasts an hour or so..
the ones that really piss me off are the “100 worst/best..” films aired in southern russia between 1972 and 1973 that they make last 5 or six hours. Yes we know you budget has been cut and yes you have 7 extra channels to fill but seriously, does anybody want to watch that crap?