Wednesday 22 June 2022
The British Babbling Corporation
The other day, other family members decided to watch an episode of a BBC TV programme called Springwatch. I was reading and didn’t watch it, although I was in the same room.
As I sat reading I could hear the TV programme as a kind of background babble which in one sense was more interesting than actually watching it. To this intermittent listener, the whole programme was mostly babble with a few brief breaks, presumably to allow viewers to contemplate the natural world.
In other words, from this listener’s point of view the primary activity of the programme was presenters busily promoting their status as celebrity presenters. Behind them, the BBC was promoting itself as a guardian and presenter of the natural world. Behind both was the natural world.
I’m sure the photography was superb, but the natural world seemed to be of secondary importance. Tertiary importance even. That was my impression of what sounded like virtually continuous babble.
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9 comments:
Classic FM is often on in our kitchen. The music is fine but whenever I walk in I seem to hear the babble phase rather then the strings-and-winds phase. And the babble is offensive. The speech is usually too high pitched for my taste, it lacks the natural cadences of English, and some is downright oily. Hang 'em all.
I find nature programmes unwatchable. Me! me! me!
I gave up watching 'Springwatch' a while ago. They replaced some good white presenters with coloured ones; are in thrall to 'climate change' and I loath Chris Packham.
Try swapping from Classic FM to Radio 3. Far better presenters
All BBC nature and countryside programmes are like this. Lots one lots of presenters showing their skill of walking and talking.
This very frustrating if you actually know the area. "Why don't they show us ...." You find yourself muttering.
You often see more of the restaurant or hotel that has no doubt done a deal.
And the constant foreground noise of yabber and "music".
I have up years ago.
Back in 2012, the BBC brought us a series of ‘live’ wildlife programmes filmed in Africa, fronted by that well-known natural historian Richard Hammond.
Responding to viewer complaints about a lack of interesting - or indeed any - live animal footage and the interminable presenter waffle, a spokesman for the BBC said the presenters were there to provide analysis and to comment on the day’s news and stories.
“We consider the series to be a multi-media experience so the Twitter feed and website is key to the live action.”
Doubtless Springwatch, too, has relegated the majority of wildlife content to its website (or to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), leaving the field clear for what is essentially a light entertainment TV programme.
I sometimes wonder whether anyone can babble inanely, or whether it is actually a marketable skill. If you think about it, it must be quite difficult not to give up in mid-sentence and just dissolve in self-disgust.
dearieme - I'd play Classic FM, but the babble phase eventually turned me off. It's still on one of the channel buttons on our kitchen radio but I never switch it on now.
Tammly - I detest Chris Packham too. How he gets himself on TV I don't know.
Anon - I've tried Radio 3 as an alternative, but don't find it much of an improvement.
Doonhamer - it's a pity that the wildlife photography is embedded in such dross. A single expert narrator would do.
Macheath - crikey, I'm pleased to have missed Richard Hammond doing wildlife programmes in Africa. Zero gravitas wouldn't help.
Sam - I'm sure it is a marketable skill, although editing may help too. Maybe there is a special interview test to weed out those who do give up in mid-sentence and just dissolve in self-disgust.
"presenters busily promoting their status as celebrity presenters"
That's exactly what Springwatch is; well spotted.
Incidentally your preamble reminds of the way the late great much-lamented Peter Simple used to introduce any item about a TV programme: "...Happening to be in a room where a television apparatus was operating..." How we miss him!
Anon - "...Happening to be in a room where a television apparatus was operating..."
I wish I'd copied that.
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