R3 Documentary Sunday: Real Pretenders. A thought.

[arthroceph]

Listened to what I thought was a rather good program on actors and their methods. Various worthwhile issues covered, but one in particular caught my attention:
about how actors in the past were more bombastic, overacted, strained to project to the audience. And how this has decreased considerably now with more natural methods (sometimes over-natural) methods taking their place.

It occurred to me a trend that is happening in the opposite direction among narrators and presenters. Old style presenters such as K. Clark, D. Attenborough and J.Bronowski were more natural (though not less emphatic) especially in the method of delivery.

The newer documentaries and programmes tend to employ presenters who are like the over-actors of bygone days: they over-present. W. Janusczak exemplary here. B. Cox also too heavy handed all the time (was somewhat amazed to hear Ince cutting close to the bone with a parody of Cox himself on the same programme they occupy (Infinite Monkey Cage) the other day). I'd also class T. Service here as well.

So if you want to get ahead in acting nowadays, in terms of delivery, I'd study the old famous documentaries. If you want to get ahead in presenting TV or radio documentaries, study 1950s actors!

[aeolium]

It occurred to me a trend that is happening in the opposite direction among narrators and presenters. Old style presenters such as K. Clark, D. Attenborough and J.Bronowski were more natural (though not less emphatic) especially in the method of delivery.

The newer documentaries and programmes tend to employ presenters who are like the over-actors of bygone days: they over-present. W. Janusczak exemplary here. B. Cox also too heavy handed all the time (was somewhat amazed to hear Ince cutting close to the bone with a parody of Cox himself on the same programme they occupy (Infinite Monkey Cage) the other day). I'd also class T. Service here as well.

I quite agree. I find it a constant irritant, though I suppose people have got so inured to having presenters in their face for pretty much the whole programme that they barely notice it now, or can remember a time when it was otherwise. I'd add to your list of the old style presenters the excellent Charles Wheeler who combined enormous knowledge and expertise with a degree of self-effacement that made him feel actually uncomfortable when he was in front of the camera. Also some of the music documentaries by Christopher Nupen and Tony Palmer had no onscreen presenter.

It really is extraordinary to me that - particularly with programmes about wildlife or the visual arts - presenters feel the need to dominate the screen to quite such an extent. Sometimes the programme resembles a sort of giant video-selfie in which the actual subject of the documentary is for long periods partially or totally obscured by the figure, or just the face, of the presenter. I suppose it's a combination of the vanity of the presenter - here is a work by which he can be remembered visually as well as on the soundtrack - and the current BBC belief that no-one can be sufficiently interested in the content alone without the constant presence of the narrator, who thereby becomes the real focus of the programme.

[arthroceph]

and the current BBC belief that no-one can be sufficiently interested in the content alone.

Yes, especially in relation to other competing, one could say, content.

Good choice of word, irritant, exactly my sensation. Next stop of course will be preceding the title with "Waldemar Janusczak presents ...Watching Paint Dry" :-)