Episode 6 Points of View

Good afternoon and welcome to Points Of View.

Where shall we start this week? How about the headlines?

Sir Alex Ferguson, Britain's most successful football manager

announces his retirement.

The decision on Wednesday to prioritise Sir Alex Ferguson's

departure from Manchester United over the State Opening Of Parliament

has been severely criticised.

So should the man knighted for his service to the beautiful game

have been given precedence over a speech to parliament

by the woman who knighted him?

We asked the people who make the decisions on what goes where on the news running order.

By the time the Ten O'Clock News had come around,

the Queen's speech had moved up the running order

and was leading the programme, so it seems priorities had changed.

Next on our agenda, not news of what has happened

but news of what will happen.

It seems the BBC's on-air advertisements, the previews we run,

or trails as they're called, are getting your goat.

People sometimes think I'm overconfident.

I am almost perfect.

The ninth series of The Apprentice returned on Tuesday

with the usual collection of business go-getters and high achievers.

But before it actually aired, some of you had already had enough.

I am perfectly aware that this is not how these people actually are.

Well, I trust that is so.

You are obviously making a TV programme, this is drama.

This is seeking TV ratings.

But if any young jobseeking viewer sees only the trail

and thus believes that this is the attitude needed to get a job,

he is likely doomed to permanent unemployment.

But it isn't just The Apprentice that has been accused of spoiling things.

Drama also increasingly uses trails to reel us in.

But their end-of-programme trails

for what's coming up in the next episode...

Mummy, Dita's run away, she's taken all her stuff.

I never came on to her, not in thought, not in deed.

..like this one for The Politician's Husband

have been accused of giving the game away.

No, you're not alone because viewer Raymond Crozier says

the previews are ruining his enjoyment, too.

I really like television drama, particularly serials that last

over several weeks

because then you can see how the drama unfolds over time.

New characters appear, old characters simply disappear, just like that.

You don't know which way the plot is going to go. Will it go this way?

Or that way?

The pleasure is in the...

anticipation.

So I don't understand why the BBC insists on spoiling the anticipation

by showing excerpts from the next episode.

I don't know.

This really came home to me when I was watching Dancing On The Edge.

This was the second episode.

One of the leading women characters was suddenly violently assaulted.

This was a complete surprise and the programme ended at that point.

-Jessie?

-She hasn't woken up after the operation.

Then when I saw the trailer for the next episode

and it was so clear from the little bit that they showed, what happened next.

I felt it had really spoiled the episode for me.

# I'm just on top of the world. #

I think the programme makers are probably more sensitive than anyone

of having anything that will ruin the audience's enjoyment.

So what they will do in those coming nexts is to tee up the next episode,

rather than reveal anything in too much detail.

Conor Mulgrew, will you marry me?

It is endlessly discussed what goes in the trail and what doesn't.

It is chewed over, I cannot tell you how many times.

I already asked you and you said yes.

The biggest service we can do the programme

is try and bring new viewers to it on the basis that people who love

the programme anyway will probably tip up and watch it.

The registry office called,

they've had a cancellation for this afternoon.

We're not out to spoil anyone's enjoyment, but to get an audience

and to encourage them to come and watch our dramas.

I can understand that you want to attract new viewers,

but it shouldn't be at the expense of those of us

already following the serial so on behalf of all of us who enjoy the suspense...

ALL: Please don't do it!

Please don't do it.

Perhaps just like the football scores,

there needs to be a "look away now" warning with these.

Come to think of it, with a trail,

the last thing you want to do is tell people not to watch.

I'm Alex Polizzi.

Returning to our screens in a new series is the sharp-tongued

business fixer, Alex Polizzi.

A year on from when she first helped four businesses to resurrect themselves,

she was back to see how they were getting on.

Now I'm heading back to see how it's all turned out.

Except, as some of you have pointed out, in The Fixer Returns,

The Fixer did not actually return.

The shots used on Tuesday night's programme

were in fact from her first visit 12 months ago.

So, were the programme makers deliberately misleading the audience?

Is the series just a repeat by another name?

The question we asked ourselves is, is it worth making the show?

We felt they would be interest in finding out what had happened

to the businesses in the last 12 to 18 months since Alex first visited.

It transpired that some very significant developments had happened.

One firm faced closure unfortunately,

another firm was about to be passed on from parent to child.

So that in combination with a very pacey potted version

of the original material as a reminder,

felt like it could offer something really compelling to viewers.

There was no intent at all to deliberately mislead.

We thought about the programme itself, The Fixer Returning,

as opposed to necessarily Alex Polizzi herself.

She is in contact with a lot of the firms and we debated

whether or not she should go back but in this instance,

we didn't feel it was essential.

But, given those points, it is something that we would look at when we go forward.

Up next, Gardeners' World,

dumped from its Friday night slot to make way for the rugby

in Northern Ireland, and the snooker World Championship everywhere else.

I just want to say how disappointed I am

that at the start of the gardening season, the regular slot

on Friday evening for

Gardeners' World should be hijacked by world snooker.

I respect that people have different interests and therefore want to watch

something different from me

so since it always seems to be sport which disrupts the schedule,

maybe it's time for a dedicated sport channel

so viewers can see live sport whenever it is necessary

and the rest of us can enjoy our scheduled programmes in peace.

And you are not alone, Cathy Baker,

because we've had quite a few people who have been in touch this week to say exactly the same thing.

It seems hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned.

So, we're going to keep a tally of the number of times

that gardeners fall foul of sport scheduling in the future.

A lively opening to the One Show on Friday of last week

to introduce the guest, Archbishop John Sentamu.

The Archbishop of York's appearance pleased many of you who got in touch.

Inspiring people to make life changes

is something BBC Three's Snog Marry Avoid? series is all about.

But one viewer got in touch to say she thinks they've got it all wrong.

First up, here's a bit of the programme to set the scene.

Snog Marry Avoid? is back

on the road and POD is fighting the fakery of Britain.

Make-under machine POD is the Queen Of Mean

and she is cattier than ever.

Why do you want to look so cheap and tacky?

How very dare you!

Let the battle against fakery commence.

This is Snog Marry Avoid?

I don't think it's fake to express your personality and individuality

through your clothing or style choices.

Snog Marry Avoid? goes against this and takes anybody who seems out of the ordinary

or different and changes their clothing style into a more mainstreamed appearance.

I am POD, the personal overhaul device.

-Who are you?

-I'm Mel.

-Mel from hell?

No, Mel from heaven!

I can understand the potential entertainment

that some people might get out of it.

What concerns me is how it talks about people

-who are members of the alternative subcultures.

-What do you do?

-I work in retail.

-Do you sell coffins?

-No.

In one particular show, they described somebody as a Gothic freak

and Snog Marry Avoid? tried to turn them into chic.

POD computes that you are a walking dead disaster whose grave style must be buried.

I find this particularly distasteful in light of campaigns

such as Sophie, which was set up in the memory of Sophie Lancaster

who was murdered for being a Goth.

The show casually suggests that people with these alternative looks

cannot find employment, relationships or happiness within their lives.

This is kind of going against what people have been fighting for in recent times

in order to be able to find jobs and relationships

in which they are able to express themselves with these looks.

Scary hair alert! Scary hair alert!

-It's not that bad.

-It really is.

It doesn't matter if you're Goth, punk or more mainstream,

it is what is inside that really counts.

POD computes that Liberty has gone from Buffy catastrophe to pretty young thing.

All of the people who go on the programme

seem to completely have their personality and originality wiped clean.

Oh, my God!

It kind of reminds me of an old-fashioned freak show

which surely is no longer relevant in 21st-century, let alone on the BBC.

Kirsty Rowland, putting the case against Snog Marry Avoid?

Thank you, Kirsty.

We got the Executive Producer to answer her complaint.

Far from alienating these people, groups or subcultures

or portraying them in a negative light,

Snog celebrates these young men and women

and their fashion statements before they willingly face POD's transformation.

The language in Snog Marry Avoid? is meant to be light-hearted

and viewers are familiar with POD's fun tone and attitude

when it comes to describing the look and fashion choices of the people seeking make-unders.

Snog embraces diversity and we genuinely reflect our audience.

POD computes that you are a clog-crazed calamity.

All the language and comments are typical of POD

and her character and have been familiar to the young people taking part

and Snog's enormous and loyal audience for the last six series.

But if anything in this series causes offence,

it is completely unintentional and we apologise for any offence that is caused.

Viewers in Scotland were treated to nature's own beauty

with the beginning of a new series on BBC One Scotland.

# I am smiling... #

Hebrides - Islands On The Edge, three years in the making

and narrated by Scotland's own Ewan McGregor.

Outside Scotland, if you want to catch this series,

it is available on the iPlayer.

Good to end with a bit of positive thinking.

For any positive or negative comments you have on BBC TV,

here is how to get in touch with us.

By post, the address is:

By phone, the number is charged as a local rate call from any land line.

You can join the messageboarders, always lively, on:

Finally, there's our e-mail address:

That's it for now, we leave you with some of those magnificent Hebridean pictures

and until next week, goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd