Adebayor's started so well for Man City
Eastenders Five Nights a Week?
As far as I know there isn't a plan for a Wed night episode of Eastenders, but I wanted to catch your attention.
Tomorrow morning we've got a big 大象传媒 TV boss coming on the show. Big as in important. Anyway she's called Jana Bennett and she's what we call in showbiz the 大象传媒's Director of Vision, which means she's in charge of a lot of TV and online stuff.
So you can ask her about the being made to your fave TV and radio programmes, about presenters' salaries - whatever you fancy really. All you have to do is call 0500 909693 or email victoria@bbc.co.uk with your question. She was also the boss of the 大象传媒 One controller who recently resigned over the false and mad editing of the footage of the queen. Perhaps that will come up too.
By the way I wouldn't want you to read anything into the fact that I have used a picture of Deano Wicks rather than say Ian Beale to illustrate this piece.
I'd like to question her ( or her boss ) and suggest an easy way to save a bit of brass.
As an example take last years World cup, why was it felt necessary to decamp the entire daytime output ( presenters and all )Aasmah Mir excluded to Germany ?
Much as i enjoy your show Victoria i failed to see what you being out in Germany doing a phone in from various squares added to the show . Other than allowing the entire staff of daytime 5live to get to the matches on jollies paid for from the media tax ( or license fee as the beeb charmingly call it ).
You have no idea how galling it was to hear you interview fans who were paying vastly inflated prices for tickets from touts day after day only to then hear you next day report how bored you were ( on one occasion i remember you saying you spent the 2nd half watching the wags because the footy was so bad ) and how terrible England were and me screaming at the radio
" Give me your freeby then cos i'd love to be there but can't afford it "
The Beeb always seem masters of doubling up on reporters at whatever sporting event they seem to cover .It regularly being stated that the Beebs contingent is invariably the largest in attendance . Be this true or urban myth, to us poor taxpayers the perception is of staff away having a good old jolly on the backs of our Media tax.
Another instance that always galls me is the Cricket and the quarter hour updates on 5Live of overseas England Tours usually done by Pat Murphy .
Now i have nothing but respect for Mr Murphy who has a deep knowledge of the game and always gives interesting and accurate reports but my point is the Beeb has in its portfolio TMS the best cricket show on the radio bar none. 5Live Sports Extra seems able to take the TMS commentary so my question would be why can't the quarter hour updates fall into their remit thus eliminating the extra reporter and any production staff with all the attendant costs , hotels , travel etc for 4-6 weeks of an England tour . I'm absolutely certain that Jonathon Agnew and co would be able to furnish the requisite information required .
It just seems to me that the Beebs ethos is that you never use one man ( or woman ) when you can use 3 or 4.
Have been listening with interest to this morning's phone in and I agree most strongly with the people whose criticisim was the fact that sometimes two or more presenters and reporters were often abroad covering sports events. This has annoyed me for years.
Take this morning for example. Why does Nicky Campbell have to be in Paris? Haven't they got enough other reporters there who could report back to the studio?
Victoria, of course tried to defend the 大象传媒 on this but," she would, wouldn't she" because, if my memory is right she was doing likewise at one of the recent World Cups. I think it was Japan but I am open to correction on this one.
Keep these presenters at home and the 大象传媒 could save quite a bit of money on air fares, accommodation, expenses etc.
Remember the old saying, "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"
Having said all this I believe the 大象传媒 gives value for money but they could give even more value for money through commonsense good housekeeping like that mentioned above.
Neil , i agree wholeheartedly with your your observation about this mornings show.
The 2 callers who raised similar issues Re; duplication of reporters, spring to my mind.
The 1st higlighted the fact that Chris Hollins was now out in Paris for Breakfast Telly and the the caller asked why John Inverdale couldn't do it instead as he was already there for 5live. Victoria was to my mind correct when she explained that Inverdale would be working at the actual match late in the evening so its a bit unfair to expect him to do the morning telly as well ( though her defence was shot to pieces somewhat with Inverdales appearance on the Sports panel in Simon Mayos show ).
When the next one asked why Nicky Campbell was out there as well as Hollins her use of the same defence doesn't stack up to my mind as the 2 shows run concurrently so there would no problem with one reporter doing both.
Its particularly galling Campbell being out there to display the accepted easy going racism which is the norm on 5live as long as its Scot ( or any nationality ) slating the English because thats a joke, just don't try it the other way round.
Re; Jana Bennett
The Beebs output is all outstanding
The Presenters are all great value for money , i won't discuss Wossy but hes worth every penny cos Morcambe and Wise were in the good old days.
The "Faked" phone ins were all seperate incidents and individuals made their own choices that just happened to conincide ( ie; be identical ) but this in no way shows that there was an atmosphere of contempt for the callers endemic in the 大象传媒.
Repeats aren't repeats they are " narrative repeats " that we all love and want ( didn't quantify how many times a show had to repeated before it stopped being a narrative repeat and became just a repeat, though i'm guessing a lot because Two Pints of Lager seems to be on a permanent loop on 大象传媒3 or 大象传媒 repeat as its known in my home )
大象传媒3 and 大象传媒4 are doing "Brilliantly" because 2 men and a dog watch them, 2 "yoofs" and a dog in 大象传媒3s case because its not for anyone over about 16 apparantly .
Also the woman seemed to have an inbuilt inability to say the word "No" when questioned by Victoria about whether she had thought about resigning over the "Faked Phone Ins" .
All in all about as enlightning as watching telly with the set turned off in a dark room with your eyes shut, total waste of airtime .
I wholehertedly agree with the comments about gross duplication of coverage of Sporting events, invariably involving England, whether in football, rugby, cricket or tiddly winks.
We also shouldn't forget that the "大象传媒 English regions" also send out their own media crews to cover these events.
It's a waste of licence payers money and severe cuts should be made in this duplication of services.
I must though disagree with Mickey's view on Nicky Campbell. Is he saying that only rabid England supporting 大象传媒 staff should be allowed to travel abroad at the licence payers expense? It seems to me that there is enough of them already!
Scotland has 8.7% of the UK population but 大象传媒 Scotland receives only 4% of the 大象传媒's programme making budget. The fact that 10% of the recently announced job cuts are in Scotland is simply unfair.
London is the most expensive city in the UK. Why is the 大象传媒 and much of it's production located there when locating it elsewhere could be done at half the price?
Never have I witnessed so many things wrong with the one organisation.
Jim, its not only the events that involve England that are oversubscribed by Beeb staff.
Take the Scotland game the other day 大象传媒 Scotland quite rightly have a team there for telly and Radio so why was it necessary for the MOTD team to be there as well? Why not just use the 大象传媒 Scotland feed for the whole country i'm sure they would have done an excellent job and their know;edge of the team would definitely have been superior.
My point about Campbell wasn't that he was there, its the implied anti-English comments that are far to often deemed acceptable that are his stock in trade. Comment the other way by an English Presenter denegrating Scotland and the Scottish just don't happen, nor should they so why is it acceptable to slag the English we're part of Britain as well!
Were my ear's misleading me, or did the
'大象传媒's Director of Vision' have an 'American' accent?
(Is it too LittleBritlander to raise this question?)
A Little British Mostly Cosmopolitan
Hello Victoria. Through you may I respond to:
Mickey,
Thanks for the reasonable answer. I agree with you. Why should the 大象传媒 in London send out countless Sports journalists and camera crews etc to cover a football game that 大象传媒 Scotland is already covering when it involves a Scottish team?
It happens ALL the time!
Anyway, if you don鈥檛 think that the Scots are denigrated by people in the English/British media then you must be blind to it or have become so accustomed to it that you don鈥檛 notice it. A day never passes without someone or other at the 大象传媒 or elsewhere having a below the belt dig at the Scots.
Whether it鈥檚 Kelvin McKenzie and his 鈥渢artan tossers鈥 comment or Jonathon Ross鈥檚 鈥渄irty Scottish b-----d鈥 remark about Sean Connery, live on radio of a morning. I really could go on鈥
Indeed, our own Victoria once hosted a show about the difficulty English people have when talking to call centre staff from 鈥淚ndia and Scotland鈥!
I must therefore disagree with your view that English-bashing has become acceptable with Scottish-bashing non-existent!
Regarding Nicky Campbell, whom I don鈥檛 listen too that often I concede. However, he is entitled as a Scot to express a point of view not inkeeping with the usual England worshipping that is rife throughout FiveLive and the English/British media. If it鈥檚 any consolation, he is considered to be too anglified to many Scots.
He was also one of the most passionate believers in London hosting the 2014 Olympics, which should be recognised. Simply, Scottish people are not English and there is no reason on earth that we should be supporting England. If English people want to support Scotland then fine. If Scottish people want to support England then fine. If they are doing it for purely political reasons then they really shouldn鈥檛 be!
I hope we鈥檙e not falling out over this my friend and I hope Victoria site manager doesn鈥檛 go into censorship mode!
Now Biancca is coming back do you think we're going to here her shouting "Oi Vicky" oops sorry,
that was supposed to be Ricky