Airport Live
Join Date: Dec 2009
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While I agree with the "it's for Joe Public" type comments, I do wish that the BBC didn't assume we're all morons.
'Airport Live' is a great idea for a programme, but I don't see why we have to be subjected to the likes of Kate Humble, someone from Watchdog and a child by the name of Dallas during such a programme.
They are all totally out of their depth and it shows.
I felt embarrassed to watch Kate trying to think of things to say whilst interviewing the staff in the tower, before making lame jokes and daft comments. Yes, she may have been a last minute replacement but was no one else available ?
I know us licence fee payers are supposed to be impressed by "The One Show" and think that "Snog, Marry, Avoid" and "The Call Centre" are gripping telly, but some of us can cope with something a little bit more involved.
I've only seen the first two so far (the 2nd being a repeat of the first pretty much), but I was expecting something much better than this.
Joe Public has spoken
'Airport Live' is a great idea for a programme, but I don't see why we have to be subjected to the likes of Kate Humble, someone from Watchdog and a child by the name of Dallas during such a programme.
They are all totally out of their depth and it shows.
I felt embarrassed to watch Kate trying to think of things to say whilst interviewing the staff in the tower, before making lame jokes and daft comments. Yes, she may have been a last minute replacement but was no one else available ?
I know us licence fee payers are supposed to be impressed by "The One Show" and think that "Snog, Marry, Avoid" and "The Call Centre" are gripping telly, but some of us can cope with something a little bit more involved.
I've only seen the first two so far (the 2nd being a repeat of the first pretty much), but I was expecting something much better than this.
Joe Public has spoken
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Airports for Idiots
That's doing it a favour. Considering Blue Peter would have done better, it was cringeworthy. The NATS Heathrow shirts were a bad decision.
Love my company, hated the pi55 poor PR.
Love my company, hated the pi55 poor PR.
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Well, I made it here after watching the programmes. I'm mostly pure SLF with some listening experience (hence why I won't be straying outside of this particular spectators' forum!), so if I'm not welcome here then please do let me know. (I took the presence of this forum to mean that non-pilots are welcome as long as they stay here, but I might be wrong about that. Obviously I'm very interested in learning more, which is why I'm here! But if I need to move on, I will.)
I gather from the posts here that the programmes weren't as great as I personally thought they were. I don't know, it inspired me, but then I suppose I'm not one to talk!
I gather from the posts here that the programmes weren't as great as I personally thought they were. I don't know, it inspired me, but then I suppose I'm not one to talk!
Last edited by Sophira; 23rd Jun 2013 at 09:39. Reason: For some reason my paragraph break disappeared.
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Well, I enjoyed it!
Well, it is very easy to criticise but for my part I enjoyed the programme - barring the odd mistake and over-excited presenter, they all did their best in a busy & fully operational airport environment & for me it was great to see our favourite topic presented on tv in a largely positive manner, well done Auntie Beeb, reminded my of the live "skywatch" programme of a decade or two previously!
Paxing All Over The World
Sophira you will find that you are also most welcome in the SLF forum.
This monring, my newphew and his wife (early 20s and not regular flyers) asked me if I'd seen the programme. I said not and they then enthused about the programme, how interesting it was and hio much they'd learnt. So, to confirm, it wasn't made for us!
This monring, my newphew and his wife (early 20s and not regular flyers) asked me if I'd seen the programme. I said not and they then enthused about the programme, how interesting it was and hio much they'd learnt. So, to confirm, it wasn't made for us!
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I have seen all four episodes now and whilst it was very interesting, the presenting style was poor and most of the time I felt like I was watching Blue Peter.
Kate Humble tried to shoehorn a lame reference to aviation into every link and that got very tedious very quickly.
I also didn't see why they needed to feature the control tower in every episode. I think we all understood how busy and pressured the job of ATC was after the first programme and Kate wandering around and speaking in hushed tones every single night seemed a waste of time.
It wasn't so much "Airport Live" as "Air Traffic Control Tower Live".
Kate Humble tried to shoehorn a lame reference to aviation into every link and that got very tedious very quickly.
I also didn't see why they needed to feature the control tower in every episode. I think we all understood how busy and pressured the job of ATC was after the first programme and Kate wandering around and speaking in hushed tones every single night seemed a waste of time.
It wasn't so much "Airport Live" as "Air Traffic Control Tower Live".
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Airport Live
Personally I love the irony of the whole project.
Heathrow are happy to have hordes of BBC personnel crawling everywhere, encouraging our interest in all things aviation, yet try and follow up that newly fostered interest the next weekend by taking little Junior down to look at the airplanes/aeroplanes/aircraft/planes, and you're more likely to learn about the working methods of P.C. Plod than those of your local friendly international airport.
Heathrow are happy to have hordes of BBC personnel crawling everywhere, encouraging our interest in all things aviation, yet try and follow up that newly fostered interest the next weekend by taking little Junior down to look at the airplanes/aeroplanes/aircraft/planes, and you're more likely to learn about the working methods of P.C. Plod than those of your local friendly international airport.
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I've seen all four episodes and really enjoyed it. It was great to see so much of the ATC role (both LHR Tower and Swanwick). Locating Kate in the control tower allowed her to link easily to the other areas of the airport. I thought that the presenters did an excellent job, and asked the questions that most people who are not involved in aviation might ask
Perhaps I'm just easily pleased?
Perhaps I'm just easily pleased?
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Nice one, Geoffco, very well said. It has struck me a few times during these kinds of tv and light entertainment shows about aviation that if the show producers went just one step further and considered a short interview with a few enthusiasts come spotters at runway ends and the like a broader view of the industry might be got perhaps with the inclusion of the odd critical comment just for a bit of balance to all the lovey, dovey stuff. Railway shows seem to be a tad happier to include some enthusiast involvement - the aviation shows could do with a little less of the presciousness.
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Heathrow are happy to have hordes of BBC personnel crawling everywhere, encouraging our interest in all things aviation, yet try and follow up that newly fostered interest the next weekend by taking little Junior down to look at the airplanes/aeroplanes/aircraft/planes, and you're more likely to learn about the working methods of P.C. Plod than those of your local friendly international airport.
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It's a shame the program only focused mainly on ATC, push backs and turn-rounds, and maintenance. Why not briefly cover things like:
Catering
Customs
Animals and quarantine
Airfield ops
Check in
I know they only had 4 days but surely they could have mentioned the above too !
Catering
Customs
Animals and quarantine
Airfield ops
Check in
I know they only had 4 days but surely they could have mentioned the above too !
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bacardi walla, I think that might be because they have been covered in the not too distant past. Was it the "Airport" series? (also on BBC), or something like that. That concentrated on all that you mention.
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Overall I think the BBC did a pretty good job. Why Kate Humble feels the need to refer to Heathrow in the same way she refers to animals on Springwatch though is beyond me.
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Just watching ep2. Surely the date and time on boroscopes must be accurate for legal reasons? If so, why show apparent turbine damage clearly dated from 2011 whilst giving impression it is a current prog (c 39m in).
Paxing All Over The World
It's possible the boroscope item (I did not see it) was 'One we made earlier' whilst omitting to tell the 'dumb' viewers and the truly dumb producer and director not spotting the dates.
As to presentational style ... nowadays the instructions are:
"Keep it light. Keep it bright."
The use of young people has long been seen and tested in the courts. All TV companies use general purpose 'presenters' who are well known to the production company as reliable and known to the public. They 'interview' the 'experts' with (mostly) scripted questions and the 'expert' knowing in advance what the topic and question will be. Everybody smiles - or is serious - as the director demands.
This enables cheaper television.
These programmes are scripted in advance. Just because it's live does not mean there is no script. They have planned months before what the segments and items will be and even if the words differ slightly at the moment - the item will have been scripted:
"We'll then have X introduce a 3 min 45 second insert about the problems of an RTO and brake cooling. This will include questions of the crew and discuss the effect on the other machines that are on finals. Also what does Approach have to do."
OK - they won't be looking at RTOs and brake cooling (
) but if the did? They would do it in less than four minutes and consider it more than enough time.
That is modern TV.
(I wasn't born cynical - I've just lived too long)
As to presentational style ... nowadays the instructions are:
"Keep it light. Keep it bright."
The use of young people has long been seen and tested in the courts. All TV companies use general purpose 'presenters' who are well known to the production company as reliable and known to the public. They 'interview' the 'experts' with (mostly) scripted questions and the 'expert' knowing in advance what the topic and question will be. Everybody smiles - or is serious - as the director demands.
This enables cheaper television.
These programmes are scripted in advance. Just because it's live does not mean there is no script. They have planned months before what the segments and items will be and even if the words differ slightly at the moment - the item will have been scripted:
"We'll then have X introduce a 3 min 45 second insert about the problems of an RTO and brake cooling. This will include questions of the crew and discuss the effect on the other machines that are on finals. Also what does Approach have to do."
OK - they won't be looking at RTOs and brake cooling (
) but if the did? They would do it in less than four minutes and consider it more than enough time.That is modern TV.
(I wasn't born cynical - I've just lived too long)
