When TV gets TV wrong

[George White]

Was reminded of Hunters season2 and their pisspoor depiction of a BBC News bulletin from 1979, with Jason off Hollyoaks as Angela Ripoff.


What are our bugbears when TV or film portray TV? Things like news bulletins and variety shows clearly shot on film, inaccurate set dressing, phony channels...

That C5 Maxine Carr biopic having a British TV channel called Channel 8 in 2002 seemed particularly WTF.

[gilbertharding]

Isn't it a truism that fiction/drama writers (producers and actors too, I guess) can NEVER accurately reproduce news presentation or journalism? They just can't.

[George White]

Isn't it a truism that fiction/drama writers (producers and actors too, I guess) can NEVER accurately reproduce news presentation or journalism? They just can't.

https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/William_Beckley
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

[Mister Six]

In the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London", one of the news anchors - who might have been an actual BBC bloke, and if so should have known better, although I imagine you can't just tell Russell T Davies that you're changing his script on the day - relays some information that was given "off the record".

That means the info was given solely for the journalist's benefit and not intended to be transmitted to the public. Reporting something that is off the record is a big no-no and a massive breach of trust.

What RTD meant to write is that the information came from a source who did not want to be identified.

Fascinating, eh?

Just nod.

[Snrub]

Maybe the journalist thought "fuck it, aliens are invading, we're going to die anyway so the public need to know this and damn the journalistic code I have previously abided by all these years"

In fact there is a 10 part spin off from Big Finish trying to close off this loophole featuring the journalist as a main character

[Rev+]

The live episode of 'Inside No. 9' - getting on for six years ago now, mortality watchers - lost me at the first fake continuity announcement.  It was so clearly an actor, rather than someone used to making such announcements, but there's nothing I could really identify as a difference.  You just know it when you hear it, or don't hear it.

[Glebe]

That woman's wearing a moustache, I mean come on!

[Maureen Brontë]

That woman's wearing a moustache, I mean come on!

Bloody hell, I'd totally forgotten Roger Waters was in that bit at the end.

[Zero Gravitas]

I recall House of Cards extensively used real news personalities be they acting as themselves or in archive footage, is there a special sauce of recognition and repetition that the news specifically requires to read correctly?

[George White]

I recall House of Cards extensively used real news personalities be they acting as themselves or in archive footage, is there a special sauce of recognition and repetition that the news specifically requires to read correctly?

But in The Final Cut, they cast Don Warrington as pseudo-Trevor McDonald, which takes one out. Because it's Don Warrington.

[magister]

The live episode of 'Inside No. 9' - getting on for six years ago now, mortality watchers - lost me at the first fake continuity announcement.  It was so clearly an actor, rather than someone used to making such announcements, but there's nothing I could really identify as a difference.  You just know it when you hear it, or don't hear it.

That's interesting - it was Beccy Wright, who was a continuity announcer on BBC1 and 2.

[pigamus]

lol

[Alberon]

In general I think television companies get a bit twitchy about being too realistic, and the Ghostwatch controversy couldn't have helped. Hence the moustache in the Brass Eye report and the upside down globe in this Naked Video bit.

A drama done as a live news report is an obvious idea, but it isn't done that often and I'm struggling to think of any good examples in the UK.

[George White]

RTE did one called Fallout that was a fake BBC report about Sellafield, rather than RTE, not to alarm audiences. It still fooled some. And caused great controversy.
Uncle Dick Roche hated it.

[Lordofthefiles]

That's interesting - it was Beccy Wright, who was a continuity announcer on BBC1 and 2.

Hiya Reece mate!!

[Norton Canes]

In the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London", one of the news anchors - who might have been an actual BBC bloke, and if so should have known better, although I imagine you can't just tell Russell T Davies that you're changing his script on the day - relays some information that was given "off the record".

That means the info was given solely for the journalist's benefit and not intended to be transmitted to the public. Reporting something that is off the record is a big no-no and a massive breach of trust.

What RTD meant to write is that the information came from a source who did not want to be identified.

Fascinating, eh?

Just nod.

That is actually fascinating

[Mister Six]

Cheers. :)

[Glebe]

Bloody hell, I'd totally forgotten Roger Waters was in that bit at the end.

'Mad' Roger Waters.

[Shaky]

Time Trumpet had some amusing sketches but the main conceit - that the show was looking back from 2031 to the noughties and beyond - completely fell apart by having 2006 Aoyade, Buxton etc as talking heads. Always seemed weird to even bother with the concept when it was so half-heartedly executed. Either make a convincing spoof near-future clips show or don't even try!!!

[Dr Marbles]

That's interesting - it was Beccy Wright, who was a continuity announcer on BBC1 and 2.

I remember it at the time - she definitely sounded like she was giving a reading, rather than just reading it out - too much intonation or something.

[Dr Marbles]

That woman's wearing a moustache, I mean come on!

I remember reading (or possibly hearing at one of the Oxide Ghosts screenings) that the moustache was something they did to appease Channel 4, who told them it couldn't be confused for a real news broadcast.

[Glebe]

I remember reading (or possibly hearing at one of the Oxide Ghosts screenings) that the moustache was something they did to appease Channel 4, who told them it couldn't be confused for a real news broadcast.

And yet some still did, apparently?

[gilbertharding]

Time Trumpet had some amusing sketches but the main conceit - that the show was looking back from 2031 to the noughties and beyond - completely fell apart by having 2006 Aoyade, Buxton etc as talking heads. Always seemed weird to even bother with the concept when it was so half-heartedly executed. Either make a convincing spoof near-future clips show or don't even try!!!

They dressed them up in 2031 clothes though, iirc. I wonder what Aoyade and Buxton will look like in

*opens calculator app*
*checks the maths again*
*finds a real calculator and does the sum again*

seven years time. Fucking hell.

[holyzombiejesus]

.

[George White]

Was reminded of the Carol Burnett Show's kitchen sink film parody

And that reminded me of the SCTV kitchen sink parody

And SNL's shite

And this which can't decide if it's Corrie or Our Friends in the North.

[studpuppet]

In general I think television companies get a bit twitchy about being too realistic

they literally aren't allowed to be, for precisely that reason. Annoying Youtuber explains at around 8.20:

[Rev+]

That's interesting - it was Beccy Wright, who was a continuity announcer on BBC1 and 2.

Heh!

Yeah, as Dr Marbles says, there's something oddly studied about the reading.  Just the inevitable result of rehearsal and direction, I suppose.