Monday 21 September 2009

How deep can you go?

Hard though it is to believe, internet chat rooms and newspaper comments boards are buzzing with a 'barrage of criticism' over the debut of a singer called Aleisha Dixon on BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing'. What is really desperate is the fact that some fans of the show have claimed that she is 'out of her depth'.

Quite how any judge on a ballroom dancing show - however dim - can be out of their depth is anybody's guess. But it might have something to do with the BBC's remarkable designation of the show as an example of 'public service broadcasting.' The BBC Director General Mark Thompson underlined this point last week when he claimed that viewers of the show were concerned with "the quality and range of the programmes and content they watch and listen to.”

Oddly enough, the show is scheduled directly against that other beacon of public service broadcasting, 'The X-Factor' which gives some idea of the kind of programme the BBC really thinks it is. Still, fans of the dancing show now clearly are of the opinion that it truly is quality programming - as they indicated when they furiously bombarded message boards with such pearls of wisdom as 'Aleisha is banal' and "Aleisha's limited knowledge fell short of that of the ex-judge, choreographer, Arlene Phillips".

Maybe the BBC could have a rethink and start hiring wits and wags like Jeremy Paxman, Stephen Fry and Alain de Botton to judge pop and dance competitions. You never know, it might just fool people into believing that these shows are actually 'high-brow'.

22 comments:

  1. Leave the poor girl alone. She perfectly witless enough to front that moronic show

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  2. This is quality broadcasting.
    Especially if compared to the crap on BBC3

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  3. The people on the show require precision, training and great deftness. Stop knocking these kind of programmes you elitists.

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  4. Compared to BBC3 anything is quality

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  5. If a man is tired of crap he's tired of life (in the UK)

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  6. Lord Thompson of White Shitty21 September 2009 at 17:32

    My advisors tell me that the programme is very good, though I do not follow it myself

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  7. I think that it is time for a spot of top slicing

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  8. Apparently the Tories have said that they would trim down the Beeb and scrap shows like Strictly.
    Can't be bad

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  9. Gotta give the morons something to watch other than repeats of Eastenders on UK Gold

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  10. Has anyone wondered whether this appointment was a diversity move on the part of the BBC. I have seen noone mention that she is black... are we colourblind or something?

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  11. Apparently the Tories are also planning to cap pay for all BBC executives at £192,250 – the same level as the Prime Minister – if they come into power.
    Still seems a lot to me

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  12. Apparently Bamber Gascoigne has been asked to be a judge

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  13. This is all garbage. Who gives a damn?

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  14. Can I please add my complaint to the total of 250...? And my complaint is that the Beeb continues to produce cack like this. This kind of controversy is just what the Beeb loves, lots of lovely publicity... and we'll have endure this shit for another year. Best bet is just to ignore it all

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  15. Can't believe that this story appeared in all of the broadsheets... and they weren't taking the piss, I can assure you.
    Serious reporting eh?

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  16. This is the kind of comment that was posted. Says a lot about the mentality of the 'Strictly Fans'.

    "Last night Alesha came across as a bit shouty, and didn't really make any useful comments on the dancing. Arlene didn't slouch in her seat and came across as a true professional. Whoever made this decision to dumb down the judges panel made a big mistake."

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  17. Are Mark Thompson and many other senior BBC executives overpaid? Probably - but being told this by a bunch of con artists who quite happily fleeced the public of millions to spend on trimming wisteria, accommodation for servants and building duck houses is just plain hypocritical.

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  18. Apparently Top of the Pops and Masterchef count as public service broadcasting... can you believe it?

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  19. Channel Four was supposed to have a public service remit, wasn't it?
    So what of C4 and the way it has broken barriers over the years? What with? Gok's Fashion Fix? Come Dine With Me? Wife Swap? C4's halcyon days are also long gone

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  20. Re: Mark's comment... Individual council leaders also earn more than the Prime Minister, as do many civil servants. The PM's salary is traditionally low in terms of the job done as to attract someone purely for public service reasons as opposed to someone wanting the position because of a commensurate high salary.

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  21. The Conservative plan is to sell off the non PSB side of the Beeb - with which most would definitely count "Strictly"

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  22. I love that bit about 'dumbing down' the judges. Talk about dumb and dumber...

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