Last night we watched Professor Regan's Diet Clinic, partly from behind the sofa, to see just how far BBC's once proud Science Programming had dumbed down below the Horizon.
The production people just couldn't get over the shock that Professor Regan was, er, a woman and (blimey guv!) A PROFESSOR! Billed on one BBC site as "Professor Lesley Regan, one of the UK's most well-respected (and glamorous) medical experts.." (my italics) the production style of this GCSE in Calorie Counting was an amalgam of Balamory and The Weakest Link, and not in a good way.
The production people just couldn't get over the shock that Professor Regan was, er, a woman and (blimey guv!) A PROFESSOR! Billed on one BBC site as "Professor Lesley Regan, one of the UK's most well-respected (and glamorous) medical experts.." (my italics) the production style of this GCSE in Calorie Counting was an amalgam of Balamory and The Weakest Link, and not in a good way.
For a start, the director was so overcome with the Professor that he used voice over to refer to her in the third person every 30 or 40 seconds ad nauseum. "Professor Regan wants to find out...", "Professor Regan is now wondering what this means.." just became so tedious after the 200th time. Just in case we forgot that Professor Regan was a Professor "AND GLAMOROUS" the scenes were intercut with a little cartoon of her flouncing across the screen in red high heel shoes for no apparent reason.
To do her in-depth research of reading a couple of diet studies she was filmed in an empty library, and when there was a brief mention of the Mediterranean diet we had to see her (with family) in a French market. Then she went to bravely have her own body fat index measured and was simpering like a 12 year old school girl hoping she wouldn't show up as obese when we could all see clearly that she had to run around in a shower to get wet.
The dramatic conclusions that her incisive inquiries produced were (look away now if you don't want to spoil it!) that diets don't really work and the more you eat or the less you exercise you take, the fatter you become. Shock Horror. Who would ever have thought it?!
Am I alone in wondering how Professor Regan, who appears to be a nice approachable person, let herself be a part of this tosh in which she (and the viewer) is patronized silly by the childish production values?.
Can't we understand Science programmes anymore without being spoon fed with gimmicks and lowbrow tosh?
I say this! Bring back Tomorrow's World - now that "tomorrow" is actually here we could do with some intelligent science programmes again!
9 comments:
They should bring back Tomorrow's World, All Our Yesterdays and Play For Today.
Geoff: All our Yesterdays! Sounds like a good title for a post...
Did they show the glamorous Prof Regan running around in a shower?
Well she must be an improvement on Dr Gillian.
And what's wong with 'lowbrow tosh'?
I visit this blog often enough - don't I?
Dave: Yes, you missed that!
Kaz: Touchee! Or did I mean "Touchy!"
What are those coloured strip things behind the 'woman' in the picture? Why do you call this person 'Lesley Regan' when the name is clearly marked as 'Oliver Lim', itself an anagram of 'Molli Iver'? Clearly there are further depths to plumb.
I'm making notes on how not to incur your wrath, Rog. You've made me nervous.
Christopher: I'ts an anagram of "I am livid". Well spotted!
Z: It's only the production team, Z. When you get to my age you are legally obliged to have a good BBC rant every few months.
Rog: Oliver Lim is not an anagram of I am livid. This may explain your problems with Scrabble.
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