TV Rant
by Philip
Well this is the first post on the new blog and I thought a rant about “The Apprentice” was in order. First the context, BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have served up an increasing amount of mind mush telly. Reality shows are everywhere: celebrity: dog walking, dog training, horse riding, haircutting, singing, farm working, big brother. The list goes on. All these programmes have one thing in common. Their aim is to show how much celebrities are just like you and me and in their Joe Public counterpart programmes show how normal people can be extraordinary. You just need to think for a moment or two about Jade Goodey and her mum to have the thought ”freaks of nature, ” cross your mind. As for that “lady” pleasuring a pig, well what’s the country coming to when that’s served up for prime time viewing.
The Apprentice is the BBC’s attempt to bring business to the public. Who do they get to front the show? Well you would have thought someone with a track record of innovation and business success, with a modern business outlook and well honed interpersonal skills would have been a good start. The guy who invented, marketed and sold Dyson hoovers for example, or the man who turned around M and S fortune, or the woman in charge of the LSE.
Instead we get good old Sir Alan Sugar, pantomine villain extraordinaire. Anyone remember his last market leading product? Know anyone who’s bought one?No thought not. Shareholders only need to look at the three year share price graph for Amstrad to note its uncanny resemblance to the cresta run. This is the man for whom the adjectives abrasive, rude, and boorish were invented. Not really the sort of man to hold up as a paragon of British business. Guess he’s a marginal improvement on the comically bewigged coiffeured Donald Trump who stars in The Apprentice stateside.
Don’t get me started on the contestants. Vain, aggressive wannabees whose only skill appears to be relentless self-promotion and preening. Business is far too important for this country to allow the BBC to reduce it to this level of muppetry.
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