They mostly happen in magazine programmes when one of the presenters goes out to the home of some member of the public who is about to have his three minutes of fame. We get a shot of the presenter approaching the house. Then we get a head-on shot of the door and the presenter ringing the bell. If they’ve got an extra three seconds on the running schedule, we’ll get a shot of the interviewee approaching the door from the inside. Then we get an exterior shot of the interviewee opening the door and doing his best smile.
‘Hello, Bill,’ says the presenter with practiced enthusiasm.
‘Hello, James,’ says Bill, who's doing his best but you can tell he didn’t go to drama school, and who’s obviously chuffed to death that he’s allowed to call the celebrity by his first name. ‘Nice to meet you.’
Now, this might have had a shred of credibility with rookie audiences in the 1950s, but we’re all sophisticated now. We know that behind the camera is a crew of at least one camera operator, one sound recordist, one director, and maybe a few assistants. We know that the various shots have been done separately and then spliced together. And we know they’ve rehearsed it umpteen times.
So please, TV people, this is an insult to our intelligence. We’re not fooled! So would you please stop doing it.
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