Pedestrian television documentaries

[Norfolk Born]

[QUOTE=kernelbogey;122552] I can accept the point made by Norfolk Born (n7) that the former reflected the slower style of Indian life and that of the railway./QUOTE]
Gosh - I mean thanks - no, really...I feel quite honoured....really ....

[Forget It (U2079353)]

Actually - I like the way Adam Curtis makes his occasional blog into a documentary programme that you can digest at your own pace.
I'm not sure how much TV air time he get these days though.

[Serial_Apologist]

Actually - I like the way Adam Curtis makes his occasional blog into a documentary programme that you can digest at your own pace.
I'm not sure how much TV air time he get these days though.

Thanks for posting Adam Curtis blog link, FI - brainbloggling!

[Flosshilde]

No

what's the rush ?

As Caliban said, it's not a question of 'rush' - just of having information & knowledge imparted at an appropriate pace, with images (if on television) that support it & aren't there just as padding.

I don't have a TV, but on visits to my mother I've been watching some TV (probably more than I'd like), & a couple of examples of the worst trends stand out - Joanna Lumley's series on Greece, which was the worst sort of empty travelogue that used to be shown in cinemas, & no insight into the history of the country nor its present problems, and a history of bells. The latter was a fascinating subject, with, I'm sure, a knowledgable presenter, but with deplorable sub-Terry Gilliam animations (that just might have been suitable for a programme aimed at 11 year olds), & inappropriate images - eg when talking about bells in the early church & monasteries/abbeys the location was the ruins of Whitby abbey, built a few hundred years after the period being discussed.

Oh, & one of the most irritating things - constant reminders about what is 'coming up', & what has just been - even on BBC progs (which don't have adverts to interrupt the flow).

[Nick Armstrong]

Actually - I like the way Adam Curtis makes his occasional blog into a documentary programme that you can digest at your own pace.
I'm not sure how much TV air time he get these days though.

Adam Curtis's programmes: tremendous TV whatever you think of the views expressed - images and music used to highlight, illustrate, provide ironic commentary on ... Exemplary pushing of the medium to its maximum potential.

As Flossie says, how different from the Lumley style travelogue (though her yacht in the Aegean did add an extra item to my 'after-I've-won-the-Euromillions-lottery' shopping list )

[vinteuil]

her yacht in the Aegean did add an extra item to my 'after-I've-won-the-Euromillions-lottery' shopping list

... helpful hint: much better to have friends with yachts in the Med rather than have the faff of owning them oneself...

[Nick Armstrong]

... helpful hint: much better to have friends with yachts in the Med rather than have the faff of owning them oneself...

There is, as ever, much in what you say, vinsanto.

[amateur51]

As Flossie says, how different from the Lumley style travelogue (though her yacht in the Aegean did add an extra item to my 'after-I've-won-the-Euromillions-lottery' shopping list )

Not your silicon enhancement fantasies again, Calibs?!

[amateur51]

... helpful hint: much better to have friends with yachts in the Med rather than have the faff of owning them oneself...

Shucks! Vints knows an oligarch or two, huh?

[Mr Pee]

I don’t have a television but occasionally watch programmes on iPlayer. Last night I dipped into a documentary about Indian Railways and another about the human body at altitude.

They reminded me of one reason I don’t have a television: the pace of these documentaries is irritatingly slow. I recognise that television prioritises the image, and the commentary is in a sense secondary. But in a 60 minute programme the amount of information delivered is pitifully thin, and often patronising in style, as though the imagined audience is twelve year olds.

It seems to me that radio delivers information so much more efficiently.

Do others share these perceptions?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/jan/20/cheerful-2012-television-golden-age?intcmp=122