Last night I watched some of the VJ-Day commemoration on the BBC. To say I was disappointed is putting it mildly. What ought to have been a time of listening to those who served became an excuse for absurd pictures and music designed to drown out the speaker.
Splashing the film of the speaker onto the buildings of Horse Guards Parade must have appealed to some joker in the BBC but it neither appealed nor did the job intended. Not only was it difficult to see the individual it was hard to hear them with the music played over their speech.
The men who spoke on the 'Voices of the Great War' were allowed to speak, usually in answer to questions we do not hear. On TV or Radio they come over clearly and respectfully. Last night while the speakers were respectful the programme was not and clarity was lost. This I thought insulted those recording their story for us.
The music, the bandsmen excellent as always, was used disrespectfully to cover the voice. I suppose we were to see heightened emotion? The story itself carries the emotion, we do not require childish additions from people who spend too much time in theatre and not in the real world.
This was a failure for me, I turned it off after a while. It appears the BBC today is incapable of understanding the war, the attitudes of the time, or how to reflect such people to the world outside.
Maybe of course it is the world that cannot understand and requires a 'Disney' like approach to subjects.
2 comments:
The BBC coverage of memorial events has left me disgusted for many a year.
I want to hear the memories, the voices , of those who were there, not some fancy son et lumiere. Their unvarmished tales give a better picture than these contrived set ups could ever do...but then, these buggers never saw war except through the lens of a camera - someone else's.
Fly, You sum it up well!
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