Friday, 11 May 2018

TV documentaries

what the heck is going on!?

Several documentaries, two for certain: Back to the Land with Kate Humble (BBC 2) and  Great  Art - David Hockney (David Hockney (ITV) have introduced a most irritating feature. In addition to the programne’s normal narrator every so often a soppy male voice, the same on both those programmes, interrupts with banal descriptive comment. E.gs. “ Kate approaches a farm gate” or “green trees with bright green leaves and a purple path.” As these occur on both BBC and ITV it is not exclusive.  I have to say that it is the most irritating intrusion on documentaries ever, going beyond inappropriate music which I have ranted about before.

14 comments:

  1. Have you turned on Audio Description (AD) on your remote control by mistake?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve Watson - Looks like that is the answer - thanks - I am 78 and have kept up pretty well with tech. being pretty adept with Photoshop, and generally solving crashing problems and the like, but this makes me feel a bit daft - ah well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve Watson beat me to it. Mick had the exact same rant when I downloaded a series unknowing that it was not just signed (only the sign language version was available), but also audio described.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha ha �� The same thing happened to me once when staying in a hotel room. I thought I’d gone mad!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gayle and Ruth - I think we can all three conclude that we are not as daft as I thought I was - three such intelligent people making this minor error must underline that.

    ReplyDelete

  6. The best thing is to switch off and read a book - you know my views !

    ReplyDelete
  7. gimmer - Although I don't claim to be, the best approach is to be selective. There are from time to time especially worthwhile programmes on tele.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sue recalls us having been caught out by this...
    I’m glad I didn’t have a blog rant....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Phreerunner - what got me more than anything was the strange, soppy, nasal voice of the commentator. Also, the comments were so few and far between it wouldn't have been much help to anybody whether with disability or not.

    ReplyDelete
  10. On reflection I suppose the comments are filling in the bits where the principle commentator has not described something, or it describes some action that commentator is taking.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I found all that very funny Conrad.
    I watch less and less TV as the years go on, but that maybe down to me rather than the broadcasting content.

    ReplyDelete
  12. BC - Glad to have provided some amusement - just another of my mix ups along with yours and mine with b and b bookings.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Its been nagging me as well. So thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Alan R - As I said recently on another blog about mis-booking b and bs, you are in good company along with me and others commenting above.

    ReplyDelete