BBC announcers go bananas

I think the network are taking a leaf out of BBC Wales' book.

Here's Gary MacKenzie from a few weeks ago...

http://www.jamez.plus.com/video_bollywood.rm

I like the V/O's on BBC1 & 2, i heard the Beverly Hills Cop link and thought it was great, well to be honest i was at the computer, i had swiveled the chair round to see if they let the ident play for a while like on Music Video's debut night.
I would rather they kept it like this rather than the dire announcments from the past, at least listening out for unique announcments takes your mind off the stupid BBC idents, am i right?.

That's right, the announcers on BBC1/2 can't win! How we all appaulded Channel Five when they had refreshing announcements from the likes of Bill Buckley but if the BBC do it, then it's totally out the norm. Presentation styles change, I think viewers don't like it to be too restrictive and formal but I suppose it depends on the programme they are announcing into.

As long as the announcer isn't discrimnating anything in particular then they can say anything like that as they can leave the discriminating part to the BBC1 idents!

Do they though? UTV's Julian Simmons has been mercilessly ribbing Coronation Street for years and years. Tyne Tees's announcements were far from formal even in the 60s. Viewers prefer a bit of humour... that used to be provided by ITV, now the BBC is doing more of it. How can that be a bad thing?

chrisb, I agree about Maggie Mash-style announcements. I've always thought the anno should give nothing away about the programme following the announcement, indeed announcements work best IMHO if the announcer talks about a different show coming up, with the "now Emmerdale" as a throwaway at the end. But that's just my opinion.

I think the BBC should be forced to give us all back our licence fees just for the sheer awfulness of that one announcement. The guy seemed to think he was God's (well, Greg's) gift to comedy. Is he still alive? It must be more than a month since that announcement, so it would be a crying shame if he was.

I may have to go and beat myself up for being the same basic species as that arsehole. There's nothing like being reminded that you have a common ancestor with BBC presentation scum to fill you with a violent sense of self-loathing.

The bloke who does Puffin's Pla(i)ce on Channel was making his way down the programme line-up tonight, and having told the kids to watch the local news decided to inform them that 5.35 there was Kindergarten Cop... "so you might as well go out and play or watch the football on the BBC" (paraphrasing)

I stumbled across this whilst fiddling with my Sky Box too. I've never seen Puffin Pla(i)ce before.... is it for real? It was the most totally shambolic, surreal, and down right bonkers piece of schedule padding (or p*ss take) I've ever witnessed on regional television.

BTW does channel no longer have local continuity? If it does when does it appear and what does it consist of?

im all for traditional presentation/continuity (clocks/name checks/times etc.) but i cant understand why on earth a little humour on bbc one/two can be seen as a negative move.

as jason has pointed out, it is not really a recent concept - up-until central continuity closed in october, andy marriott and paul v were using humour here and there to engage the viewer. andy introduced the planet's funniest animals, as being presented by "the bloke who could fit a banana in his mouth ... sideways".

although i have never disliked bbc one/two continuity, they really do seem to be putting an effort in recently. the few programmes we watched on christmas day were on bbc one - and the continuity impressed me.

a clever end credit v/o, IMO is far more effective than the current crop of ECPs which seem to be fashionble at the moment.

So why not give us a good old menu and rundown from the announcer? Regarding "personality announcements"; everyone seems to be missing the bigger picture here. And that seems to be the BBC as a whole is becoming youth-oriented. Look at the Proms promo in September; instead of Stephen Fry we got the narrator from Big Brother. The BBC no doubt thought this would attract young people to classical music. But at the end of the day the Proms is the Proms, no matter how it's packaged.

Anyone who saw the Peter Sissons sketch on 2DTV will know what I mean. Peter is reading the news, usual style; up comes a "dumbing level" bar on the screen similar to a volume indicator. As the dumbing is turned down, Peter refers to Al-Qaeda terrorists as "naughty naughty fighty people". Thankfully that has never happened on BBC news, but give it time...

I'll admit I've been brought up with traditional "Now on BBC1" style announcments; I've never questioned them, and they still have a valid place in 2003.

AFAIK it's a daily "birthday" slot... usually on either side of CITV on weekday afternoons. It looks completely thrown together with that poor presenter having endless minutes to fill... still, it's regional telly - which don't get much of on ITV these days!

And Channel seems to take the majority of the ITV1 junctions now - haven't seen the Channel regional idents myself, but I presume they're working in the same manner as the English regions. Shame.

How would that help anybody!? The idea of trailers is to give viewers an idea of what's going to happen in the programme with sneak-previews to cast, characters and plot etc. Quite frankly the idea of reading through a list at every junction fills me with dread - especially seeing as most people now have acces to listings magazines, Ceefax or EPGs ... what benefit would a menu bring to anyone who is not an anorak?


I really am failing to see your argument here other than the fact that you think there should be no "life" in television announcements. This from the person who believes each channel should closedown during the day for a testcard. What benefit would that bring anyone!? Television is a medium for broadcasting PROGRAMMES not bloody test cards!!

The fact that the BBC is becoming more youth-orientated I can only feel is a good thing. Society has changed drastically since CAs used to dress up in dinner jackets to announce the newsreel following shortly at xx Greenwich Mean Time... Personally I can't see that introducing a programme whose target audience is under 30s with a lively announcement is a problem at all.

You say we're missing the bigger picture.. can there be a bigger picture to such a trivial issue? Let's face facts. Television? It's evolving. Never a truer word said. I say let it evolve and let's stop worrying about whether our CA is recommending we have Zs or sleep...

*cue Clocks by Coldplay and Greg Dyke walking through a park peeling his face off*

Of course, there should strict rules in which television should evolve. We do not want television to evolve into a DOG advert filled screen constantly asking us to press red but something in which all of us and enjoy.