It’s a question I’m grappling with on two fronts.
Front one: I’ve an invite to a BBC4 audience focus group, in which BBC4 viewers can comment on the network and be paid £50 for the experience. I’m grappling with the ethics of that one: can I, a media journalist, not only influence the content of a channel but be paid for it?. I suspect, despite the allure of £50 (there’s very little I won’t do for £50), that I’ll have to duck that one.
Front two: A new BBC4 game show is on the way, according to The Stage. Hosted by Julian Fellowes, Never Mind the Full Stops is all about the exciting world of punctuation, bad grammar and misspellings. Hmm. Must avoid severe temptation to mock pedantic middle-class gameshow hosted by a man called Julian.
However, I’d quite like to watch it. When I wear my sub-editing hat, these are exactly the kinds of issues I have to watch out for (hey, I’m off to the Royal College of Nursing next week to ensure all manners of naughtiness don’t sneak into their magazines). A nice show with pointers like this is just up my street.
So does that make me a BBC4 viewer? Am I becoming one of ‘them’? What a worrying idea.
