Sunday, January 28, 2007

Car Crash TV

Last time I was on the phone to Bethnal Green Dave talk turned to motor vehicles.

Bethnal Green Dave it turns out was just about to scrap his car and not buy another. Well fair enough when the London Underground practically runs through your living room and everything you need or want is found within a 25 mile radius I can see why paying car insurance might seem more like a luxury but I live in Southampton.

(oh no I've just pissed off the greens as well now, haven't I? More hate mail *sigh*)

Anyway as we were chatting B.G.D. asked me what car I drove.

"A Renault" I replied "Because you get a lot of car for you money"

I said that, not because it's true, but because it sounds like the sort of thing that Jeremy Clarkson would say.

"When people say things like 'You get a lot of car for your money' I start to glaze over" said Bethnal Green Dave, who is clearly not a acolyte of the God of high octane motor journalism.

That is the difference between me and Bethnal Green Dave. I actually like cars, which is why if I wasn't an Anglican Priest I'd probably watch Top Gear every week.

This week I've had a weekend off. So I've had a chance to catch a bit of weekend tele and it got me thinking. You see Sunday kicks off with 'The Heaven and Earth show' and ends with 'Top Gear' but despite sharing a day the two shows are not really even operating in the same universe.

The trouble is that religious broadcasting is just so sodding inoffensive. Whereas Top Gear is actually worth watching. The problem is that Broadcasters have to have religious broadcasting and so it doesn't matter if anyone actually tunes in. So they just make sure they don't upset anyone.

Where are the risks? Where is the entertainment? Gloria Hunniford is lovely but at least Clarkson makes you form an opinion.

I tried getting involved with religious broadcasting once but the problem was the very nature of the thing was boring. We were on during the graveyard slot and we said nothing that could ever upset anyone. Would we talk about the stuff I speak about here. No way. Better to talk about the Da Vinci code and Christian music. Or let's meet some Christian bloggers. OH PLEASE!!!!!

Please can we have some decent religious broadcasting? Or better still stop religious broadcasting being compulsory. Then it will have to complete to get the airways and it will either get better or die a natural death. Neither of which is a problem.
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1 comment:

shorts si said...

I remember when Songs of Praise, which is pretty much the only religious programme on, covered Soul in the City. Picture the scene - thousands of people (mostly teenagers and young adults) praising Jesus in the mornings with great passion and then doing social/outreach projects/events in the afternoons and evenings. What did SoP have? A couple of interviews with the organisers, a montage of people working on those social projects, a quick bit by one of the teams, who explained their project, and Diane Louise Jordan raving about how good it was, all linking what was the main thing - the songs, which were reruns of SoP's best bits throughout the past year - mostly choral bits or older congregations singing old hymns.

Here was a chance to show that God wasn't just about Cathedrals and choirs, but it wasn't taken - the linking bits didn't match the songs (and there was plenty of opportunity to have recorded some songs from the actual event).

The interviews with Mike Pilavachi, et al were done during the afternoon - here they were in massive camp sites, and hardly anyone was there - there was one team (including me) praying (that day we started late - we were the only team on the site at that point) in the background of one of the interviews - but you almost had to take their word that thousands of people were really passionate for Jesus those two weeks.

I agree - uncontroversial, fit the stereotypes, nothing that can offend.

4:55 pm

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