Sunday, January 20, 2008

Kidults

Came downstairs to find my eldest watching my bete noire (one of them, anyway - I've a whole menagerie of them) Gordon f****** Ramsay presenting something on Channel Four called Cookalong with special guest Chris Moyles (down the path, cage three on the right).

As I passed hastily through the room I thought his manic "well, that's done and now we have" style seemed familiar, and realised it's the persona of every Saturday morning kids TV presenter since Tiswas. I suppose this is what all the TV generations weaned on them ever since have grown to expect. Kids TV for adults.

You can see the same thing on BBC's Ski Sunday. It was always going to have to take in boarding as it became the snowsport of youth choice, but the revamp a few years back also chose to feature a fair chunk of apres-ski, totty-heavy party footage which has stayed ever since, at the expense of more snowsport coverage.

Was the thinking that the youth demographic wouldn't watch board action unless accompanied by lashings of hip background ? Or has the boarding coverage on satellite already set the standard which the Beeb are following ? I suspect the latter. If motor sports had started out on satellite I imagine the pit babes and parties would now be part of ITVs coverage.


(a confession - I bought a board last year and to my horror discovered that I'm overweight and unfit enough to have had to take the board off in order to stand up after falling over - something you do a lot when you're learning)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cuddly Hugh FW had a recent series entitled Chicken Run. He swore quite a bit as well; as did three blasphemers in a boat.

To what extent do these individuals swear in front of their own children and parents, compared to what they do to ours?

Anonymous said...

I had the misfortune to watch Friday's offering; due mainly to the fact the C4 trailers seemed to promise something else. The camera work alone was enough to induce seasickness. One hour of my life stolen - never again...

Anonymous said...

The infantilisation of adults is mirrored in the adulteration of children.

It's all to do with the contraceptive and abortive culture see. The one thing that divided children from adults was the sexual function and the responsibility that came with it. Now we can fornicate to out hearts' delight, why grow up? And why protect children from the sexual? Why reserve that world for adults? Well, it harms them of course, but when adults are children too, why should they care?

Where are the men? Men like my grandfather, like my father. Men who left childhood behind them, and moved on. And if there are no adults any more, why should we expect adolescents to know how to exercise any self restraint?

Anonymous said...

Hugh Oxford wrote ... The infantilisation of adults is mirrored in the adulteration of children. ... I have perceived a similar occurrence on TV; the adult programs seem to be written for a child and vice versa.

Anonymous said...

Apres-ski totty-heavy partying?

And your problem is?

Laban said...

You don't get to see enough skiing.

Anyone who skis abroad knows theres a big party or bar scene - and very nice too if that's what you want. But there are already enough pretty girls on TV. There isn't enough skiing.

(for those who want a more sober apres-ski could I recommend the Lecht or Cairngorm. Nice places as they are, Tomintoul and Nethybridge aren't exactly vibrant centres of depravity of an evening. You need to bring your debauchery with you.)

Anonymous said...

No-one over the age of 20 should go near a snowboard, unless they are a children's entertainer.