10.5.13 Vanity, Superfluity & Stupidity

In this week's TV guide, I have necessarily taken a look at the stupid number of programmes that feature the presenter's name.  This suggests that the programme is actually all about the person and not about the content, the theme or the relevance.  Instead, personality is key.  In a few cases, it might be argued that the presenter is actually vital to the programme, and maybe "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA" is a good example.  Certainly it's the featuring of Gordon Ramsay that makes this show of any interest - in fact, it only exists because he is in it.  However, there are other programmes where any cunt could present them, and the featuring of names is more to do with vanity, and superfuity most definitely applies.  On the latter, I had to look up the word, after first considering 'Superfluousness' which is correct, if a little cumbersome.  'Superfluosity' was deemed slang, and 'Superfluity' labelled an alternative that would suit.

Here are some of the annoying listings.

Sarah Beeny's Selling Houses  [Not sure if this is possessive or a comment on what she is doing]
Paul Hollywood's Bread  [This is possessive but could it be Cockney rhyming slang?]
Dickinson's Real Deal  [This one's been going for ever]
Caroline Quentin's National Parks  [Vanity & Stupidity - she doesn't own them]
George Clarke's Amazing Spaces  [Is he indeed?  How does he amaze them?]
Gok's Style Secrets  [But he's got no style and is there anything left to say?]

In all of the above, the name could be omitted, to give us: Selling Houses, Bread, Real Deal, National Parks, Amazing Spaces and Style Secrets. There's one more that could be added, although the format for the title is slightly different.  I refer to: My Tasty Travels with Lynda Bellingham.  I think that 'Tasty Travels' would have been more than sufficient for me to ignore the programme.


The other approaches are more direct in their relaying of who's involved.

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
The Martin Lewis Money Show
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

Again, what was wrong with: For the Love of Dogs, The Money Show, New Lives in the Wild?

One cannot have the word 'vanity' on TV being mentioned without Simon Cowell being included.  I am sure tonight's edition of BGT will be 30% entertaining and 70% a waste of time, but that's actually a good split based on TV overall.

Monday

Before I forget, I'd like to make sure there's no confusion regarding the content of Monday's repeated edition of "The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain".  The TV listing shows the content as: "The duo cook a once-lost recipe in Henley, Oxfordshire."  To the credit of the BBC, this outline of the content is rather better than the alternative of: "The duo cook a recipe once lost in Henley, Oxfordshire."  This would allow multiple interpretations, of course.  For the avoidance of confusion, the latter could relate to the efforts to cook food based on a recipe that was once-upon-a-time lost in the town of Henley.  Or it could be interpreted as the duo cooking the recipe just the one time while somewhere-or-other-in-Henley-but-not-too-sure-where.  It could further be interpreted as the duo going to Henley and starting to cook only after becoming lost.  Now that we've cleared all of that up, give it a miss.  [PS. The duo 'cook' instead of 'cooks' was of course NOT to the BBC's credit at all]

Wednesday

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is  Mark Franks and Paul Hayes travel to Brussels, Belgium, in search of antiques.  How stupid is the viewer supposed to be?  Stupid enough for some guidance on where the fuck Brussels is.  And shouldn't the presenters be called Euro Euros and Paul Hayes, Middlesex?

Secrets of the Shoplifters  The undercover retail police tackle theft on the high street in the run-up to Christmas.  Hmmmm . . Channel 4 giving us a timely repeat, eh?

Thursday

Great British Railway Journeys Goes to Ireland  Michael Portillo embarks on a journey through the Republic of Ireland.  Well, it's not a fucking Great British railway journey then, is it!!!

Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams  James Holland presents an analysis of the 1943 RAF attacks on German dams, and examines whether the impact has been underestimated.  Sure that has to be 'Pun of the Week', with the 'impact' reference?

That's the weekly round-up.

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