springer

you would have thought that by now the furore over the televising of the jerry springer opera would have been over the done with.
nope.
the bbc’s complaints committee has reported on the complaints and cleared the show 4-1 of breaking the beeb’s code of standards and practices. the committee admitted the show had caused offence but said it had been justified by its "outstanding artistic significance". (here)
the one hold out, angela sarkis, accused the bbc management of a degree of naivety in failing to realise that the show would cause offence.

the report pointed out that the tabloid press exaggerated the use of swear words by saying there were thousands of uses of foul language. in fact the report says there were around 200 “f-words” and 9 “c-words” (i wonder what they could be. interestingly this is quoted in the article after they have quoted the show when satan threatens to have springer “fucked up the ass with barbed wire” i guess that could be a clue to what the f word is….)

the article points out that the bbc received 63,000 complaints about the show, 55,000 of them before it had been shown. so only 8,000 people actually complained about what they saw, the rest were just complaining because they were told to….


angela sarkis accepted that jerry springer the opera was an exceptional piece of work in the theatre disagreed about it being on television. now sarkis is a former chief executive of the church urban fund, so we can probably guess where she is coming from (and let me make it clear i do hold religious beliefs, but appreciate that my faith is not something that everyone shares) and it is more than likely her views on the matter are not going to be unbiased.

there are several points about the whole springer thing that i would like to make (and they will be brief – honest).

1] we seem to want to live in a sanitised world where no one is offended or challenged by ideas that are different to their own. this is not a cry to allow the inciting of hatreds, but if thoughts are to be “policed” so that one merely has to be offended (or dislike) by an idea for it to be banned or attacked then i believe we open ourselves up for the creation of an increasingly intolerant and bland world.

2] as the figures show it was only 63,000 people who complained. that is not many when compared with the total population. no one forced those people to watch the show. yet their complaints have the potential to deny many more people the pleasure of being entertained and challenged.

3] who gets to be a bbc governor and be part of the complaints committee? i am pretty sure it is not ordinary folk like me and thee. so not only is there the chance that shows like springer have to pass the “complaint” test but they are going to be subjected to the cultural filters of people who believe that the work is fine in the theatre but somehow can’t be viewed by many more people in their own homes.
sarkis and the like are snobs to believe that they somehow can view springer in the theatre and understand it and appreciate it but joe sixpack at home is somehow going to be tainted by it.
either that or she is pretending to be liberal by saying it is fine for the bohemians and rich to go see it in the theatre but it must never be shown to the masses.

(by the way anyone from the beeb reading this – i am up for a governors job if there is one going spare.)

4] some people just need to get a life, find a sense of humour and stop worrying so much about some things. sometimes all you need is a bit of a laugh and a cuss word or two and world is a better place.
for those of you still wondering what the f and c words are they are fuck/fucking and cunt, and lovely words they are too.