Watchdog

Maybe there less crime. The government say crimes has reduced 😏

Rather than all the silly gimmicks and having to make it dumbed down for a prime time hour long entertainment audience, I'm sure Watchdog would do just as well if it was a year round half hour programme, maybe at 7:30 on Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Back to basics with the old Anne Robinson format.

Crimewatch is ridiculous as well, I'm not sure how the BBC have managed to sideline such a key item of PSB in this way.

I think that's looking back at things with slightly rose-tinted glasses, though, because if any era of Watchdog was loaded with gimmicks, it must surely be the Anne Robinson era, not least thanks to Weekend Watchdog which included pop bands and daft sketches and jokes and all kinds of rubbish. Indeed I remember one week when it ended with a live performance from Steps, followed by the start of Top of the Pops with a performance by... Steps, doing the same song. Regardless of the merits of the current Watchdog, they no longer do that.

Watchdog has always been the most popular of popular factual, right back to the Lynn and John era when viewers complained about the In The Doghouse titles where John threw a cartoon bucket of water over a cartoon dog.

And of course twenty years ago Watchdog was on all year round with both regular Watchdog and Weekend Watchdog and then myriad spin-offs, and it just felt like it was dominating the schedules, people say now The One Show's on too much and there's too much light factual on BBC1 but in the nineties virtually every night there would be Watchdog or Holiday or one of its spin-offs and they stretched it all to absolute breaking point.

As mentioned, we're getting the same amount of Watchdog and Crimewatch as we used to, only it's now concentrated at particular times of the year, and any more and it starts getting very repetitive and doing things for the sake of it. Points of View being on all year round in the past had less to do with any golden age of openness from the Beeb but because they had loads of ten minute slots to fill. It's not like it's the only way to complain to the BBC, and it's not like Watchdog is the only consumer show.

I think the problem with Watchdog is how 'un-involved' the current presenters are with the show.

Of course Matt Allright has his Rogue Traders slot but the other presenters just seem to just be there to link into VT's.

Back in the day Hugh Scully got physically thrown out of an MFI, Lynn Faulds-Wood had a chain thrown in her face and her various campaigns on safety. And at least Anne was a probing interviewer enough to make the company's representatives sweat.

Now it seems that companies get an easy ride and can get away with just throwing out a written statement and a goodwill gesture to the people featured in the report.

The hard-hitting nature of Watchdog is what made it what it was and this is what is very much lacking nowadays.

And it doesn't help that the presenters are just a rotating selection of general BBC faces that have a bit of time free. We know Steph probably won't be there long term or make any sort of impression, it'll just be linking into clips, as we did when Sophie did it in between her news commitments.

Anne Robinson was so well known as the face of the show, and is still associated with the show, just like Nick Ross was with Crimewatch even now.

It would be a perfect show to give to one of the veteran journalists they use in the day time equivalent (Rip off Britain?)

Why wouldn't Steph be there long term? Yes, she has other roles, but so do all the other presenters. Nicky Campbell was on the radio five days a week when he did it and he was there for years. Anne was doing Points of View and The Weakest Link. Indeed, when The Weakest Link became massively popular she buggered off without even saying goodbye. Why would Steph be any different?

If I recall, Steph took some considerable time away from Breakfast (cue Victoria Fritz/Ben Thompson cover) last year so that she could film her Watchdog VT's along with Shop Well for Less.

I think part of the problem with Watchdog is technology has moved on a lot over the past 10-15 years, by the time they get round to featuring something now it'll already likely be on Facebook / Twitter on the like and that'll spread the word like wildfire! You don't look up a company in the phone book these days either, you stick them in Google and instantly have access to plenty of reviews so can easily fish out rogue traders!

Probably why more recent series have seemed to focus more on the rogue traders targeting the elderly, who aren't as likely to embrace all this new technology.

There's a real case to be made for Watchdog to become a year-round "online brand" with the TV show less of a focus.

They already do that on BBC Three.

There is still a place for it on T.V. I don't always trust everything that gets shared or seen on social media and rightly so as people will share anything and everything, to the point that things like actual scams themselves get shared as people fall for them or articles from 1855 appear again. it's programmes like Watchdog that people trust more, I certainly do.