As you all know by now, I get fed up with the BBC at times. It is their seeming arrogance and indifference to anybody else's view but there own and their dismissal of any complaints or queries that they receive that sticks in my craw.
I have seen TV abroad and believe you me, I appreciate the BBC enormously and think we are lucky to have an ad free channel with good programmes. But the Beeb forgets one thing. We pay for the BBC. If it was not for us forking out for our TV licence they would have no funds sloshing around in their money boxes. No money for taxis, expensive jaunts, outreach days, workshops for the staff, first class travel etc etc. They would do well to remember this and say thank you now and then. Yeh right…
The other week there was a wonderful documentary on BBC2, The Lost Princesses, all about the four Romanov daughters of Tsar Nicholas. For once it was relatively free of scudding clouds, presenters wandering around looking at ceilings and blurred film of actors pretending to be either Alexandra or Rasputin. There was a little but not much. Instead we had excellent commentators, though I felt a few were surplus to requirements, lots of photographs, letters written by the sisters and wonderful historical footage which I had not seen before. Best of all no sign of Fiona Bruce in tight trousers….
So what is my problem? The usual. It had barely ended when the credits were minimised and in came the COMING UP NEXT announcer. This drives me CRAZY. So I got online and sent a complaint. Received a reply and this is Wot I Got:
Thank you for contacting us regarding BBC Two's 'Russia's Lost Princesses' on 26/08/2014.
While you’re admiration for the programme is much appreciated, we understand you feel the ending was disrupted by a continuity announcement. (my italics!!)
We try very hard to produce a wide range of high quality programmes and services which we hope will appeal to our audiences. As a publicly-funded broadcaster we serve the whole of the United Kingdom providing programming to a hugely diverse audience with differing tastes and preferences.
With an increase in viewer choice and a dramatic fragmentation of the market, we have a duty to let the audience know about the programmes available to them. Continuity announcements provide clear programme descriptions in a concise timeframe. They are carefully positioned to avoid interference while refreshing the listings.
Having reviewed the ending of this particular episode, we accept an announcement was delivered during the credits, however the presenter's tone was measured and respected the sombre scenes depicted in the programme.
Transmitting announcements during credit sequences also reduces the number of trails between programmes. We recently adjusted the presentation of end credits to minimise diversion.
Nevertheless, we acknowledge you believe this is a persistent matter. All complaints are sent to senior management and programme makers every morning. We included your points in this overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensures that your complaint has been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future programmes.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
Alastair O'Donnell
BBC Complaints'
So, as per, bog off you miserable old bag. Love the 'we acknowledge you believe' bit in the last para. I thought oh sod it and left it but then I got annoyed. No I am not going to let this go. I know full well that my complain will not reach the right people quickly. It is probably in the Trash folder right now. So I got out my Quick Quotes Quill, aka my laptop and got going.
And this is what I wrote to the Director General of the BBC:
Dear Mr Hall
A few years ago I wrote to the BBC and complained, by letter and email, about a matter I found troublesome and irritating. I had no reply and had given up hope of receiving one when six weeks later a letter dropped through my post box. When I saw it was over a page long I was delighted, perhaps my concerns were being taken seriously.
I sat down and read it cup of tea to hand. Then I read it again. And again. After several perusals I managed to translate the page and a half of management speak and gobbledegook it contained and came up with a one sentence translation which I interpreted as Go away you Old Bag we are not interested in a Word you Say. This is a sanitised version of my original thought.
Now here is the problem. If you receive a letter or email like this, you are dismissed. The BBC is not interested in you or your opinion and probably has three or four standard responses like this which are sent to all and sundry. So I could write again and again and this is where the problem arises. You contact the BBC more than once about a concern which is not being addressed and two things happen, (1) you are ignored or (2) you are dismissed as Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells aka Pain in the Neck and filed away in a darkened cabinet somewhere in the bowels of BBC House.
We can’t win.
My recent complaint to the BBC was about exactly the same subject about which I complained some five years ago. The constant minimising of the credits at the end of a programme and a voice over booming in and telling you what is coming next before you have had a moment to take in what you have just watched. If it is a programme of a sad and sensitive nature it is even more annoying than normal.
A week or so ago I watched The Lost Princesses on BBC2, a documentary about the Four Romanov Sisters. It was excellent, a cut above the average BBC production with its usual scudding clouds and actors dressed up and filmed in a blur. There was some of that but it was kept to a minimum and we had excellent speakers, letters written by the Four Sisters, photographs and some wonderful footage which I had never seen before. So all was good.
We know what happened to this tragic family and the end of the second part came to its poignant close and, naturally, in comes the usual announcer who I imagine must be sitting with a stop watch and timing the intervention of Coming up Next.
I am a grown up woman. I know what is Coming up Next and if I want to watch it then I will stay with the channel. If I don’t then I either switch off or go and view something else that I might have noted. There is no need for this kind of announcement at the end of any programme.
“With an increase in viewer choice and a dramatic fragmentation of the market, we have a duty to let the audience know about the programmes available to them. Continuity announcements provide clear programme descriptions in a concise timeframe. They are carefully positioned to avoid interference while refreshing the listings.
Having reviewed the ending of this particular episode, we accept an announcement was delivered during the credits, however the presenter's tone was measured and respected the sombre scenes depicted in the programme”
This is part of the reply I received. It is rubbish. You do not have a duty to let us know about the programmes available to them. We know and we can read. Carefully positioned. No they are not. To avoid interference. They don’t. And what is Refreshing the Listings pray tell?
I am also told that it was accepted that an announcement was delivered during the credits but the presenter’s tone was measured……blah blah ……respected the sombre scenes reflected in the programme.
You just don’t get it do you? I don’t care if the announcer was grief stricken at what they had just watched, if they were sobbing at the fate of the Romanovs, if they were speaking quietly in order to avoid upsetting us. I don’t care. I just do not want ANY announcements at all until at least the end of the credits. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.
This is one of the most commented and complained about subjects by the viewers to the BBC and you continue to ignore us. I am dreading the start of the Christmas season and the trailers repeated over and over and over again. Only upside of this is that it confirms that I do not wish to watch any of the shows so relentlessly being hyped.
Now think on this:
Mr Hall you were in charge of the Royal Opera House for many years and I have attended many operas there. Imagine this scenario:
It is the end of Verdi’s Aida. The lover’s duet O Terra Addio has just finished, Amneris is on top of the tomb singing Pace Pace, and the violins are playing the final heartbreaking tune, the curtains slowly close and drop. The audience is silent.
And then a voice comes over the PR system. ‘Coming up next week. LA BOHEME!!!!!!’
Imagine how your audience would react.
Exactly…………..
Yours sincerely
Elaine M Simpson-Long (Ms)
PS and by the way it might be helpful if you pointed out to the writer of the email that ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ are two different things….
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