Monday, June 10, 2013

Choosing Blue Peter presenters and the fall of Western civilisation

At the time of the controversy over the naming of the new Blue Peter cat - remember Cookiegate? - I wrote:
In my day the Blue Peter cat would have been called whatever Valerie Singleton damned well said it was and that would have been an end of the matter.
Time has moved on. The programme no longer has pets for the nation's children to enjoy, but now they get to choose its presenters.

BBC News reports:
Each episode of Blue Peter - You Decide! will see the contenders tackle a series of challenges reflecting things they may be asked to do as a presenter on the show. 
The judges will eliminate one person each week until three make it into the final, where the winner will be chosen by CBBC viewers.
As I wrote when Blue Peter announced it was to have no more pets on screen:
In the 1960s Blue Peter's presenters were undoubtedly on your side, but they knew lots of interesting things that you didn't and shared them with you. You don't make good children's television simply by giving children what they think they want - you end up with Tiswas if you do that.
A reader replies: Oh come off it! This is just "why oh why oh why?" stuff.

Liberal England insists: You mark my words: what we are seeing is the decline and fall of Western civilisation  - possibly by next Tuesday.

1 comment:

Paul Walter said...

And, if not, here's one I prepared earlier.

P.S. Tiswas wasn't a bad programme. I still get the giggles remembering Lenny Henry signing off as "Trevor McDoughnut, ITN, standing in a bowl of custard"...