Whilst we’re on the subject of GOLD transmission errors, the below – broadcast yesterday – brings me out in FISTS OF RAGE. The dinnerladies episode Minnellium – and just as we get to the discovery that Anita was the one who abandoned her baby:
One of the most heart-wrenching endings they ever had to an episode: ruined. The last joke in the episode: ruined. One episode of dinnerladies: ruined. All because they triggered their pre-recorded voiceover in the usual place, rather than actually checking the end of the episode to see if it fitted.
Brilliant, GOLD, well done.
Addendum (23/10/11): So, here I was after publishing this article, thinking maybe I was being slightly harsh. Mistakes happen in transmission, after all. That was, until I read this tweet from a certain Jamie Graham:
“Predecessor UKTV Gold did exactly the same to that episode on both of my attempts to record in a few years ago, the ignorant swines.”
So, this exact mistake has been going on for years, then. On UKTV’s flagship channel. It beggars belief. The question is – is anybody responsible watching? Or are they watching, but just don’t care?
3 comments
Steve on 22 October 2011 @ 8pm
This happens all the time on freeview, mate. It think in the long run it does us all a favour, in that it reminds us just how much they care.
JamesW on 23 October 2011 @ 12pm
Challenge have been bad at this lately – it looks like their playout system has a time code that triggers the announcements, and in some cases it’s just plain wrong, kicking in during commercials and the like. It doesn’t help that apparently the act of buffering a prerecord for rehearsal or playback actually results in broadcasting it, so you get it starting too early, only to interrupt itself and restart as the credits start to roll.
The fact that Red Bee don’t do playout for them anymore is probably entirely related to this.
John Hoare on 28 October 2011 @ 11pm
True to form, GOLD have just done this *again* tonight, on Fawlty Towers.
Imbeciles.
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