tv – Page 12 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

Strictly Come Dancing fatigue

I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but this year I’m already suffering from SCDF – that is, Stricly Come Dancing fatigue.

I love the show and enjoy the ‘journey’ (ugh!) many of the Strictly celebs go through, but I haven’t been able to get into it at all yet this year.

The problem, as I see it, is that the BBC – in their eternal quest for ratings and freshening it up – has gone a step too far.

The introduction of a Strictly show on Friday is unnecessary, even if they have ditched the Sunday results show. It feels too early in the week.

My other big gripe is with the number of contestants. They’ve split them into two groups for while, but unfortunately, as the Strictly budget has been cut, so has the calibre of celebs.

Think back to the early years and every single participant was a household name – even Quentin Wilson, bless his cotton socks.

Now, you need to be the king or queen of trash TV ‘and’ an avid sports fan to have any idea of who they all are. Let’s face it, how many Crimewatch-loving, Hollyoaks-goggling, horseracing and tennis fans do you know?

Ricky Whittall may be a darned good dancer, but I don’t give a monkey’s about him at the moment.

Proof that I’m not feeling Strictly yet, either, is to be had because I haven’t set the series link for Strictly: It Takes Two. Love Claudia Winkleman, but not this early in the ‘season’.

Of course, I can guarantee that by the end of the series, I’ll be glued and desperately hoping Ricky Groves wins – C’mon Ricky!

How much advertising can the BBC get away with?

I was catching up with the weekend’s football last night and revelling in the enjoyment of the Manchester derby.

As Mike Phelan was being interviewed after the match, I took a proper look at the hoarding behind his head and was astounded.

I think we all know that the BBC’s policy on advertising has slipped a little in the past few years, but just how blatant is it on MoTD.

I looked closely at the screen (pic as you can see on the left) and realised there were none other than 7 different brands/companies being plugged. And that’s not forgetting the BBC Sport logo.

OK, so football is a different animal anyway because of the hoardings on the side of the pitch and on-shirt sponsorship, but the post-match interview is completely separate from that part of the game, isn’t it?

I get annoyed with the constant plugging of their own programmes in between other shows, but this is a step too far, surely.

Why Keith Floyd will be sorely missed

So Keith Floyd has passed onto the great vineyard in the sky.

It often seems to be the way that two famous people die on the same day: and so it is that Floyd turns up his toes on the same day as Patrick Swayze.

Maybe it’s the parochial nature of Floyd being British, maybe it’s because I’ve barely seen more that 2 films that star Swayze (I have never seen Dirty Dancing, just for the record), but I feel far more affected by the chef’s death than the Hollywood star.

It’s fair to say that Keith Floyd played a massive part in revolutionising TV cookery – in the UK at least. Before he came along, it was all standing behind a counter, staring at a camera and playing a straight bat.

Floyd changed it completely. For starters, there was the wine. The glass of red became his sidekick, if you like, along with his bow tie – always the mark of a real individual.

But more than that – it wasn’t all about the fixed camera. On Floyd’s shows, the camera went right into the dish, the saucepan or the ingredients.

And then there was him. A great chef, a mesmerising personality and a true one-off – he loved words and he loved food: what a fantastic combination.

I first recall Keith Floyd because my Dad and step-mum were always going on about him. I was barely a teeanger and was more interested in Top of The Pops than cooking programmes, but there was something about him, even to me at that age, that made TV compelling.

Enjoy this clip which is actually about Marco Pierre White at Harveys, but Keith Floyd makes an entertaining, as always, appearance.