Archive for July, 2008

Beeb in phone-in shocker. Again.

The BBC was fined £400,000 by media watchdog Ofcom yesterday, the largest fine in the corporation’s history, for a succession of phone-in competition scandals.

The BBC accepted the fine immediately, levied for breaching the broadcasting code on four television programmes and four radio programmes by “faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly”.

The £400,000 fine made up a fairly small proportion of the £11.5 million in charges levied at the broadcasting industry in the UK last year, after a spate of incidents involving the abuse of premium-rate phone-in competitions.

By contrast ITV was ordered to pay £5,675,000 in May for deceiving viewers of prime time TV shows such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night takeaway into entering competitions on premium rate phone-lines which they had no hope of winning. The maximum penalty for faking phone-in competitions is £2 million. However, Ofcom said the BBC’s lesser penalty reflected the fact that the broadcaster had not been seeking to gain financially from the deceptions. Nonetheless, the BBC had made serious breaches of the broadcasting code including making “premeditated decisions to broadcast competitions and encourage listeners to enter in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of winning”.

There were several issues of faked winners on television programmes: On a Comic Relief broadcast in March 2007 a member of the production team pretended to be a competition winner after a technical issue with the phone lines. In September 2007 a member of staff posed as a child after the programme had difficulty in getting in contact with competition winners. On a BBC Scotland production for Children in Need the name of a fictitious viewer was read out as the competition winner after a technical fault, and a member of the Sports Relief production team posed as a winner on air in July 2006.

However, radio programmes received the brunt of Ofcom’s criticism for their repeated breaches of the broadcasting code. The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music received a £115,000 fine for 17 pre-recorded episodes which invited listeners to call or text entries to competitions they had no chance of winning. The names of fictitious winners were later read out on air. Other programmes that received fines were the Russell Brand Show, Jo Whiley’s show on Radio 1 and the Clare McDonnel Show.

The BBC said in a statement: “We have taken these issues extremely seriously from the outset, apologising to our audiences and putting in place an unprecedented action plan to tackle the issues raised.”

The Final Countdown

The presenter Carol Vorderman has announced that she will be leaving Countdown after being told to accept a 90% pay-cut or quit, her agent claimed last night.

The first woman to appear on Channel 4, Vorderman joined the quiz programme 26 years ago as a fresh-faced maths graduate and has charmed millions of viewers ever since with her gentle banter with presenter Richard Whiteley and her head for figures. The two presenters turned the low-key tea-time show into a national institution. Even the Queen is said to be a fan.

According to Vorderman’s agent, John Miles, the presenter told Channel 4 she was happy to receive a 33% pay cut in line with a reduction in the show’s budget. Vorderman, who had previously earned an estimated £1 million for 225 episodes a year, was offered less than £100,000 and given 48 hours to decide. “It was a non-negotiable take-it-or-leave-it offer. I was stunned,” said Miles.

What is more, one executive reputedly told her the show had survived Richard Whiteley’s death in 2005 and “could easily survive without you.”

Vorderman had initially claimed on Friday that she was stepping down because she did not want to go through the stress of bonding with another new presenter, after Des O’Connor announced that he would be resigning from the show at the end of the series. However, she said that she wanted viewers to know the “truth” about leaving the show.

“I am devastated that my joyous time with one of the best programmes on television has ended this way,” she said. “I was happy to continue doing the numbers and letters for years to come. I wish all of my friends and colleagues every success in the future.”

Counting down the days

Rory Bremner is the favourite tipped to be the new host of Countdown, after Des O’Connor announced his resignation from the Channel 4 games show earlier this week.

Others touted for the position include singer and host of Songs of Praise Aled Jones, former Antiques Roadshow host Michael Aspel, and ex-MP and HIGNFY guest Gyles Brandreth. Both Aspel and Brandreth have appeared on the programme in ‘dictionary corner’, with Brandreth gaining a reputation for wearing brightly-coloured jumpers.

Satirist and impressionist Bremner has been a regular on Channel 4 for a number of years now, as one of the presenters of the satirical series Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

Carol Vorderman’s future on the show is also being questioned, as Granada television plan on making cutbacks to staffing costs. Vorderman has been with the programme since it started, along with Channel 4 itself in 1982, shuffling and arranging the letters, as well as adding up the numbers effortlessly after each round. Vorderman is currently one of the highest paid women in Britain, earning £5 million a year.

However, Granada, which owns production company Yorkshire Television, is understood to be planning a reduction in wages for the show’s presenters. “The advertising recession means that at the moment budgets are tight,” said a source at the show.

The quiz show is the longest running programme on Channel 4. Until his death in 2005, Richard Whiteley’s clashing ties and corny jokes, as well as his on-screen chemistry with Carol Vorderman were popular with viewers. Sports presenter Des Lynam took over but proved to be a highly uncharistmatic presenter and quit after 18 months on the programme. Things picked up with Des O’Connor, and Channel 4 is hoping that the new presenter will follow in his footsteps.

Monkey Business

A cartoon based on the 1970’s kids’ TV programme Monkey is being used to promote coverage of the Olympic Games on the BBC.

Animated by Jamie Hewlett and with music from Damon Albarn, the duo behind both Gorillaz and stage adaptation of Monkey: Journey to the West, the campaign features Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy as they embark on a perilous journey to the Olympics Stadium in Beijing. The two-minute promotional clip takes inspiration from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, a fictional account of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang’s pilgrimage to India during the Tang dynasty.
In the BBC version, the cartoon trio use a variety of Olympic sports including gymnastics, diving, javelin and hammer throwing, defeating scary monsters along the way, on their journey to Beijing.

Jonathan Bramley, executive producer at BBC sport said “This has been a really exciting collaboration. To work with such renowned artists as Jamie and Damon is a real plus for BBC Sport. Their treatment of the trail and titles will kick start our Olympic coverage in a really different, energetic way”.

The first clip from the sequence will be broadcast at 7.27pm tonight on BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and BBC News. It will air on the BBC website and YouTube channel, on social networking sites Facebook and Bebo, as well as in cinemas.

The campaign, which was created by ad agency RCKR/Y&R and media agency MPG, aims to link closely with the BBC’s existing Olympics coverage resources. It is being targeted at audiences in their twenties and early thirties.

In this feel-good beauty series playful stylist Gok Wan pitches designer fashion items that cost the earth against his own bargain-basement fashion-fixes and asks the audience to decide on which they prefer. This week it’s all about beaches - “one of the toughest challenges in any woman’s calendar” according to Gok, “because deciding what to wear on holiday can be a recurring nightmare”.

Gok joins fashionista and former OC star, Mischa Barton on an exclusive shopping trip in Paris, in which she revelas the secrets behind the unique wardrobe that has made her one of the most photographed women in the world.

A light-hearted but genuinely useful programme to get you all set for summer.

Gok’s Fahsion Fix is on tonight, Channel 4, 8pm.

C4 rock the casbah

A Channel 4 documentary on the Qur’an described as an “exemplary piece of programme making” has been severely criticised by a group of Shia Muslim scholars for making “seriously inaccurate statements,” about their branch of the faith.

In the documentary which launched a Channel 4 Islam week, film-maker Antony Thomas looks at the history of the Qur’an, examining it for statements on equality, suicide bombings, and relationships with other faiths.

Whilst some have praised the documentary for its careful study and insights into the Muslim faith, it has angered prominent Shia Muslims, who make up about 20% of Muslims internationally. In a letter to Channel 4, a group of Shia scholars said that the depiction of Shia beliefs in The Qur’an, broadcast earlier this month, was “disappointing, misleading, even defamatory.”

The scholars believe that the documentary presented an imbalanced view of the Shia branch of Islam, portraying it as violent as Iranian Shias were seen on the programme burning effigies, chanting anti-Western slogans and encouraging acts of terrorism.

Yousif al-Khoei, director of the Al Khoei Foundation, largest Shia organisation in the UK and one of the letter’s signatories, said that a second letter would be sent to Channel 4 dealing with the group’s grievences:

“We are going to handle the issue with Channel 4 directly to highlight how it managed to get such imbalances in prime-time TV,” al-Khoei said. “If we don’t get any joy we will point out all the technical faults, mistranslations and editorialising opinion as fact.”

He said that Channel 4 owed its viewers and apology, and that a second programme should be broadcast in order to present to the public a more “balanced view” of Islam.

“If this doesn’t happen we are going to go to Ofcom. We are pretty confident we have a case,” he added.

However, it was not only members of the Shia community who criticised the programme. Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, also wrote a personal letter to Channel 4’s Chief Executive, Andy Duncan, last week, saying that “specific misrepresentations” of certain Muslim groups could threaten unity between Muslims in the UK. “The programme unfairly maligns Muslims following the Shia tradition by accusing them of heresy based on a collection of age-old polemics and misinformation,” Bari wrote. “With respect, this is an irresponsible portrayal which plays into the hands of those who wish to seek discord amongst Muslims, which we hope you did not intend.”

Shia Muslims believe that there is a direct line of succession from the prophet Mohammed, and that those in this line should lead Muslims worldwide, whereas Sunnis, who make up the majority of Muslims reject this. The documentary nailed its colours to the mast when it asserted that there was no basis for the direct line of succession in the Qur’an. Having explained Shia doctrine, the programme asked: “But do these specific beliefs have any substance in the Qur’an? The answer is no.”

However, Channel 4 has defended the documentary, saying “Antony Thomas’s acclaimed film was clearly labelled as a documentary about the Qur’an, not about Islamic belief… Both sides of the various discussions were fully aired within the programme. The film was critically acclaimed and generated a positive response from viewers.”

Car Crash TV star in car crash

Witchfinder General, ex-gambling addict, intern-botherer and ITV2 star Jeremy Kyle has emerged unscathed from the wreckage of his black BMW, after it was involved in an accident on the A1 near Blyth this Monday.

The talk show host was being driven north to film a special edition of his show in a black BMW when it collided with a Mazda MX3 in Nottinghamshire on Monday afternoon. His dinged Beemer finished up on the central reservation; 35 year old Darren Shannon who was behind the wheel of the Mazda was not so lucky.

“I was absolutely petrified,” he told the Daily Mirror. “I was upside down in my car on the wrong side of the dual carriageway. If something had been coming the other way, I would have been annihilated. The emergency crews said Jeremy was shaking like a leaf.”

“Thank God no one was injured,” said Jeremy. “In any accident you are shaken, but I am fine.” Well, that’s all right then.

A Notts Police spokesman said: “It’s too early to say whether anyone will face charges but we are investigating the circumstances surrounding the collision.” Maybe a lie detector test will reveal who is to blame.

Margaret! Margaret!

A new drama about Margaret Thatcher’s final days in office is being filmed for BBC2. The drama, stars Rome’s Lindsay Duncan as Margaret Thatcher, James Fox as foreign policy advisor Charles Powell and Robert Hardy as deputy prime-minister Willie Whitelaw. Amazingly, her husband Denis is portrayed by none other than Ian McDiarmid, the actor most famous for his role as the Emperor in the Star Wars films. In an echo of Lindsay’s Rome character Servilia, the drama will examine the men “who loved her and those who betrayed her”, and chronicles her last days as Prime Minister, according to the BBC.

Margaret will be produced by Great Meadow Productions, the company begind the controversial BBC4 drama, The Long Way to Finchley which looked at Thatcher’s early days and was almost taken off air for fear that it would upset the ailing former prime minister too much. The new drama is set in the early 90’s, at a time when Thatcher was slowly losing her firm grip on her party and was forced to resign. The BBC has described it as “intimate portrayal of a woman on the brink of ruin”. Robert Cooper, co-founder Great Meadow Productions, says Margaret is a “darker examination” of the Iron Lady’s last months as Prime Minister. “It is a compelling look into what 11 years in power did to her,” he said.

The drama boasts a host of well-respected British actors, such as Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean) as Kenneth Clark; John Sessions (The Good Shepherd) as former foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe; Doctors‘ Michael Cochrane as MP Alan Clark; Michael Maloney, who starred alondside Judi Dench in the movie Notes on a Scandal, as Thatcher’s successor John Major and Rosemary Leach (My Family) playing the Queen. The production, written by Hancock and Joan’s Richard Cottan, started filming in London last week.

SkyTunes vs iTunes

Sky are set to launch a new digital music subscription service in a joint venture with Universal Music. Customers will pay a monthly subscription to the service, rather than buying music on a track-by-track basis. They will be entitled to a number of free streamed tracks, as well as a set number of tracks to download and own from the thousands available from Universal Music’s vast collection. Sky says this is a world first for digital music. The pricing and number of tracks available for download will be revealed nearer to the launch.

Tracks will be downloaded in MP3 format, and can be downloaded to any MP3 device, such as an iPod or mobile phone handset. Unlike tunes bought from rival iTunes, which accounts for 70% of the digital music market in the UK, the music will be free of DRM copy protection software, so it will be available to play on any device, including Apple’s iPod.

Whereas iTunes and other rivals tend to hone their advertising to individuals, Sky intends to target families, which make up a large part of their existing customer base. “Sky already has contact with one in three British homes through our television service,” said BSkyB’s chief operating officer Mike Darcy, “and we’ve got plenty of experience of running a subscription model. We have considerable expertise in customer-focused subscription services, content aggregation, packaging and marketing,” he said. “We have strong broadband services and online assets… No one has brought that to bear.”

He added that the Sky subscription service would also help tackle file-sharing by offering an affordable and legal way of downloading music which would make sure that “artists are properly rewarded for their creativity.”

Lucian Grange, CEO and chairman of Universal Music Group said subscribers would welcome a “safe, state-of-the-art service and legal alternative to those services which exploit services without compensation,” which would be “a lot more appealing than piracy”.

Sky is currently trying to persuade other companies to join in the venture with Sky remaining the majority shareholder.

Peter Jones reveals his appalling taste in music

The dragons are back, and another set of would-be entrepreneurs are quaking beneath their icy stares, laconic put-downs and cruel jibes.

Tonight’s episode features a nervy indie band from Cambridge who “got to number three in the Austrian charts.”

Compared with Belle and Sebastian and The Divine Comedy, five-piece band Hamfatter have been pitching for a break for the last six years. Struggling away on the “toilet circuit,” the group had received a couple of offers from big labels but were put off by the draconian terms which were part and parcel of the deals. In a rather unconventional attempt to score funding, the budding rockers set up their own registered company, Hamfatter Ltd, whereby the band members act as directors, retaining all the rights and complete creative control, rather than relinquishing the majority of royalties to a record label.

When band manager first suggested going on Dragon’s Den to secure funding, his band members were less than enthusiastic.

“My reaction was, ‘that’s such a terrible idea’,” said guitarist James Ingham. “First of all, they’re no way going to give money to some band, and we don’t want to be ‘that band that went on Dragons’ Den’. But Jamie was quite persuasive.”

The band has already taken a leaf out of Radiohead’s book by releasing three albums independently without a record label.

“To get to the next level we needed the kind of massive backing that you get from a record label, but we didn’t want to go with a major company because they then take total control – what you release, when you release it, what you wear and so on.” said James.

That said, being free of the evil controlling record company corporate straight jacket hasn’t stopped Hamfatter looking and sounding exactly like a million and one other crap indie bands currently clogging up the airwaves.

In tonight’s episode, viewers will see dragon Peter Jones blown away by the band’s performance, agreeing to back them with £75,000 of his own cash, in return for 30% of all profits.

Lead guitarist Eoin O’Mahony, said: “A major part of our pitch was to show the Dragons how wasteful record companies are. We told them that last year, with a budget of £5,000, we released an album, recorded a video for just £750 and got ourselves on to the radio and into the charts. Can you imagine someone like EMI spending just £750 on a video?” The band has a new single coming out this week: “The Girl I Love.”