In Defence of Cartoon Graham Norton
April 27th, 2010For those of you who missed it, the climactic moments of Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who were interrupted by an on-screen graphic of Graham Norton which appeared to promote Over The Rainbow. You can see the moments in question here:
Thousands of people rightly complained, so I thought some balance was in order.
The current series of Doctor Who is a triumph. Steven Moffat is a superb writer and Matt Smith is uniquely suited to his new role. I cannot praise it enough. Last night’s episode was particularly exciting: a two-part, mid-series story featuring the brilliantly creepy Weeping Angels from Moffat’s “Blink”, which won the Hugo Award, the BAFTA Cymru and the British Academy Television Award and was nominated for the Nebula Award, and Professor River Song from the sublime Silence In The Library story, also nominated for a Hugo Award. And I thought it lived up to all of that. This is genuinely world-class television, of exactly the kind the BBC is best at and ought to be making.
By far the best part was a gaudy yellow graphic pasted over the climactic moments to advertise an extended audition show for whatever musical Andrew Lloyd Webber reckons isn’t making enough money on its own merits. I suggest you implement this on the radio too. My enjoyment of Just A Minute would be hugely enhanced if while Nicholas Parsons read out the final scores a continuity announcer yelled over him that things look bad for Brian in The Archers next.
I no longer visit the cinema because I can’t enjoy a film unless there’s something to ruin the immersion. At home I get my gran walking in, seeing me rapt on the sofa leaning in toward the screen, and saying “it’s only a film, love”. The BBC have taken great strides to accommodate that. The magenta logo pasted over every single second of Being Human was genius. Aidan Turner’s portrayal of a man devastated by his betrayal by the one person he thought could save him, for a while, from the murderous hell that his vampyric life has become is hugely enhanced by the bright pink logo whirling away pointlessly in the corner because you’ve shunted the show onto a fringe digital channel to try to make BBC Three seem less of a mindless, chav-focussed waste of a frequency band.
I expect these graphics are very effective too, because usually people interested in science-fiction drama are the same people who are interested in brightly coloured singing competitions. I found myself thinking “oh my, how are they going to get out of this? What’s the Doctor’s plan going to be? Can River Song die in this if she’s already ooh look, it’s Graham Norton. There’s a show about the Wizard of Oz on? How exciting, I must watch that. Why did nobody tell me about this program before? Come on, you tedious Time Lord, hurry up and save the day so I can see which Dorothy will be leaving tonight!” Then I think there was some water or something but mostly I just wanted Graham Norton to come back. It was especially useful because I don’t really care about expertly written sci-fi drama. I can get that at one of the many science-fiction-drama bars in Manchester City Centre, but there isn’t really anywhere I can go to hear fairly average members of the public sing popular songs they haven’t written and then cry.
I was dismayed to read that “thousands” of people have complained about these graphics, perhaps because the graphics don’t also have sound. I think if the graphic also made noise it would be more effective. I was glad that when forced to apologise you didn’t pretend the graphic was an error or promise to stop using them, and that you restricted the apology to the timing of the graphic and routed it through a news report of an anonymous spokesperson.
When you get talent like Moffat to helm your flagship program, it’s important to make sure he knows his place. If you show his work as he intended it to be seen instead of spilling the plot all over the internet the previous week and using the climax to advertise dross then he might start to think you respect him and demand a pay rise or the budget cuts to be reversed or something. Obviously we couldn’t have that.
Keep up the good work.
*send*
Thank you for your e-mail.
The ‘Over the Rainbow’ trail in ‘Doctor Who’ should not have played out on Saturday and we apologise to all ‘Doctor Who’ fans whose enjoyment of the show was disrupted. We recognise the strength of feeling that has been expressed and are taking steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.
Regards
BBC Complaints
Well, they might at least play along.
Tags for this article: BBC , Doctor Who
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