I came late to it, but I really enjoyed the first series of Gavin and Stacey. So when the second series started on BBC Three a few weeks ago, I started watching it.
As a rule, I can’t stand BBC Three. But, with both Gavin and Stacey, and Pulling, it actually has a couple of good sitcoms, so 9pm on a Sunday night is a must Sky+ hour (there’s the under-rated, and very under-watched He Kills Coppers on ITV1 at the same time).
But BBC Three seems to go out of its way to annoy me. First there’s the redesign – they decided that a pink logo would be appropriate. So, permanently, in the top-left hand corner of the screen there’s a glowing electric-pink logo, a bit like the “red lamp” that appears in the corner of a video camera to remind you that you’re recording. Except that if I’m recording a video, that’s useful. A pink BBC Three logo is about as useful as an anvil on my head.
You try and blank it out – perhaps actually going as far as sticking gaffer tape to the screen, and get on with the comedy of Gavin and Stacey. The epsiode ends, and the gentle humour turns a little towards pathos as it becomes clear that Gavin hasn’t been giving Stacey enough time, and she’s lonely. She wants to return to Wales. It’s an emotional moment. Writers (and co-stars) Ruth Jones and James Corden probably spent some time over the script. They wanted the audience to react emotionally. Are Gavin and Stacey going to split up?
So what better moment for the pink logo to suddenly introduce another element and inform us that Pulling is on next.
No kidding?
You ran a trailer for it right before the start of this programme. The appearance of the words on the screen is obviously meant to make us notice them. If I’m reading the words on the screen, I’m not listening to the words that the characters are saying – or at least I’m not giving their words my full attention.
Some “branding” moron in a marketing department somewhere has decided that telling me what’s on next is much more important than me finishing watching what’s currently on.
Seconds later, the programme fades to black, the theme music starts and the credits begin to roll.
This is BBC Three of course, so the credits can’t last much longer than 15 seconds anyway, but within a second of them starting, the credits shrink to an illegible size rendering them completely useless, and a caption informs us again that Pulling is on next.
I !@$%ing know!
You’ve already ruined the end of this programme telling me once.
And just in case I’m illiterate, a voiceover comes on and tells me the great news.
At this point, despite actually wanting to watch Pulling, I’m just about ready to switch over to any TV channel aside from BBC Three.
Seriously.
Living 2, UK Drama +1, Fashion TV or even S4C2 (which isn’t even broadcasting) are all going to be slightly less annoying.
I know the arguments. BBC Three is aimed at 15 year olds with the attention span of a gnat on speed. If they let up for more than 1 second, their viewers will be too busy updating their Facebook status and IM-ing all their friends, and generally not watching television. Or else they might start watching the second half of Casualty 1907 or Extreme Skinny Celebrities 3 on Virgin 1 (no – I didn’t just make that up).
And it’s not just BBC Three that does this. BBC Two is doing it as well.
So, should you be a channel controller, please note: if you treat me like a moron, and irritate me to the point that I find myself writing 700 words about what you’re doing, then I’m not going to watch your programmes. That’d be the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve isn’t it?