Watching “Dog Borstal” is good for you

Posted by Andrew Adams on November 20, 2008
Filed Under Media, TV |

I have to say that the current furore about John Sergeant leaving Strictly Come Dancing has rather gone over my head. Not being particularly interested in dancing or minor celebrities I have no great desire to watch minor celebrities dancing but hey, it may be populist tat but there’s nothing neccessarily wrong with that if it’s done well and I’m happy to get my kicks from the X-Factor (although it’s not as much fun as American Idol).

I did rather raise my eyebrows reading the following comment from the Indie’s Media Editor Ian Burrell though

The problem with Strictly Come Dancing, according to David Wood, of Broadcast magazine, [whom I guess should know about these things] is that the BBC was determined it would be a bona fide talent contest, awarding genuine dancing merit and – most importantly – fulfilling the corporation’s public service broadcasting credentials and thus justifying the licence fee.

Yes, that’s right, Strictly Come Dancing is not just a harmless bit of fun, it is public service broadcasting. Which I suppose makes a kind of sense given that in recent years we have seen the virtual disappearance of current affairs and arts programming from BBC1 (and the dumbing down of what’s left), the shunting of the news to 10pm, a glut of reality and lifestyle programming, historical dramas that are no more than Eastenders in funny costumes with only a faint nod to any notion of verisimilitude (hence the huge steaming pile of shite which is “The Tudors”) and its atrocious US election-night coverage, demonstrating the low opinion the BBC has of its viewers’ intelligence (at least those who watch BBC1). Not only is it desperate to find a “public service” angle to the output on its flagship channel in order to justify the licence fee but it probably does think that anything more cerebral than SCD will have its viewers reaching for the ITV button on the remote.

This isn’t just mindless BBC bashing either, I totally support the principle of public service broadcasting and there is still some genuinely great stuff on the BBC, see Picture Book for example (buried on BBC4 of course) but I can’t help thinking that the BBC should lose one of its digital channels, use the money saved to make better quality programming for its terrestrial channels, stop chasing ratings and trust the intelligence of its viewers.

Do you agree or disagree? Text your vote to 83635 or call 0890 53468273

Calls cost 50p per second, text messages cost £5.00 from all networks and the result will be whatever I say it is.

Comments

Leave a Reply