Thursday, September 21, 2006
Richard Hammond and Kate Moss: the Issues
The world is rotten with issues. Richard Hammond is badly injured in a dragster stunt for Top Gear. Following, as it does, Steve Irwin's death, this becomes an 'issue' about the safety of TV presenters. Meanwhile, Kate Moss becomes a model for Topshop. This is an issue because of her 'alleged' cocaine problems. Grownups know neither of these are real issues. The whole point of Hammond's Top Gear stunts is that they were frequently dangerous. It is what the audience wants. Hedging them about with health and safety concerns to the point where they are absolutely safe makes them, in essence, fake. (I note, incidentally, that the policemen who killed Jean Charles de Menezes have been charged under health and safety laws. This, being warped, I find funny.) Equally, anybody employing any model knows there is a very good chance he/she will have encountered illegal substances. But news schedules demand that there is always more to be said, that there is 'a debate'. No, there isn't. There is only the clamour of hacks filling space and still further enervating their audience.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
I certainly agree that people shouldn't be making an 'ishoo' out of Richard Hammond's accident. The safety fascists at the HSE are already planning a full investigation, and, more ominously, the BBC will also undertake a full investigation. Despite the huge British and worldwide success of the current incarnation of Top Gear, the BBC clearly dislike the programme; it's not politically correct, and this puts BBC management in an embarrassing position when they attend dinner parties in Islington. Top Gear picked up an International Emmy for 'best unscripted entertainment show' last year, and the BBC were so ashamed they didn't publicise it at all.
ReplyDeleteGet well 'Hamster', and lets hope that Top Gear lives on.