why the presenters of serious and interesting programmes talk and then trog off after giving to camera another nugget of information about the subject? The two presenters who come to mind are Alice Roberts who over the years has given us such fascinating topics from the human bod to archaeology and all stations in between. All the while stepping out over fields and hills, streets, snickleways and thoroughfares.
The latest is Lisa Hilton presenting
Charles I Downfall of a King.
She stares into the camera lens with the oddest of blue eyes and a wart on her chin. The hairs on my neck stood up as I waited for her to blink. And then like Alice she struts off, or on occasions, lays on the floor to admire the wild frescoes, that Banksy would have been proud to call his own. Ballerina like she twirls on the spot, no, not the one on her chin, to take in the room in which she finds herself. Then you’ve guessed it her itchy feet take her off again. Personally I wouldn’t mind if occasionally they nipped into a Macky D’s, Kentucky Fried or even an odd public lavatory... but no the subject matter is far too weighty for such mundane happenings.
Then there’s the man with the brolley and the Scottish bloke with the man bag all wandering across our screens?
Brian Cox does it too and all I can think about as he strides up a hill to get closer to the moon, is for goodness sake watch where you put your feet as there’s bound to be
rabbit holes up them there hills!
It's the fashion for now I suppose. I do like Brian Cox, he sure makes star gazing easy on the eye!! He can walk up hills all he likes, I'll watch!
ReplyDeleteThinking about it... it is a filler, although when they send Brian to the moon best he watches where he steps there, because it would never do if he stepped off the edge... make good telly though!?!
DeleteLX
LX
You made me look! Snickleways!
ReplyDeleteYou certainly have more fun spam in UK. But spam, nevertheless.
Snickleways, I first heard in York, the city is crisscrossed with Snickleways, all very ancient and atmospheric.
DeleteLX
What annoys me more, Lettice, are two commentators having a chat as if we, the viewer/listener, wishes to listen in to their conversation. Years ago I am sure there used to be only one commentator at a time - Dan Maskell for tennis, say, or Kenneth Wolstenholme for football. Now they have a couple chatting away, and often gabbling about totally inconsequential things (sorry inconsequential rubbish) unrelated to the action. I also dislike the way any presenter now (apart from those presenting the News or from Parliament - by the way, husband and I love old Norman Smith; why isn't he the Political Editor instead of Laura K, I wonder?) doesn't speak to camera, they speak as if to someone close by, but never look at the camera. I first noticed this when Mary Portas made some programmes; she would be sitting in the back of a taxi and speaking as if to the back of the driver's head and never once looking at the camera.
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
www.margaretpowling.com
I suppose it all started in order to put the presenter at ease talking to a real person rather than to the lens of a camera. News readers and the political gurus are paid to be beamed directly into your home. I also look for ticks i.e. Mary Nightingale and her papers, she hangs on to them like a soothing dummy to a baby. Always careful to turn them over at the end of one piece and the start of the next, a safety net in case she falls. She shuffles them with relief at the end of the news. All of these odd things they do, take my mind off what they are trying to say. Robert Peston is so irritating I feel like lobbing a doughnut at the screen whenever he is on. His pauses and the elongation of his words as he tries to think of what to say next drive me crackers. Mind you the all time worse was a lady called Jane McGurty she strangled her vowels and drew them out like sugar being made into rock, without the sweetness obviously!
DeleteLX
I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices ticks and so forth and stragulated vowels! I'm English and while I admire the other nations which make up the United Kingdom, I do wish we had more News readers, presenters, reporters, etc, who spoke English without strong accents. They are fine in their own neck of the woods, but on TV I want them to speak clearly and without a strong accent. Is this too much to ask? Robert Peston always had a strange way of speaking, it sounds here as if this has simply become worse! Don't know Jane McGurty, perhaps a good thing otherwise I'd have something else to moan about, ha ha!
DeleteMargaret P