TV speak in live news reports, e.g. "As you just saw in my package...''

Why not use the word report?

It's been mentioned before I'm sure but I am getting increasingly annoyed at the Americanisms creeping into dialogue in British dramas.

Of particular note at the moment is the increasing use of phrases such as "let's go eat" and "go answer the door", instead of "let's go and eat" and "go and answer the door". EastEnders is particularly bad for this.

FAKE laughter. Those OTT laughter reaction shots used when someone says something average.

EX: The Voice


Paloma: I'm love your clothes. So quirky, just like me.

Cut to...

Boy George falls into a fit of laughter.

^That reminds me; canned laughter, especially when there's someone with an annoying laugh that stands out from the rest. I don't want to be told when I'm expected to laugh thank you very much. This is particularly annoying having to regularly put up with hearing it from the flat underneath mine.

When people mention canned laughter someone will usually pipe up with 'but it's filmed infront of a live audience'.

I don't care, the laughter is still edited in. It's quite obvious.


There was a pre-titles scene on The Big Bang Theory a few episodes back and I swear that the same excerpt of laughter was used several times in a row.

This has really p--------d us off for years and it came up on BBC Ponts of View some time ago. Apparently there are TV rules to prevent unrequested increases in volume but they are avoided by only increasing part of the sound profile to make the end result sound louder, deeper or sharper. It obviously works but is most annoying. There appears to be nothing we can do about it.

Some more gripes for the pot:
The use of very odd camera angles and techniques, from the ground up, down or bouncing around, zooming in and out, hazy or very dark with mumbled dialogue or dreadful close-ups. Unsynchronised sub-titles and garbage words. Putting a key moment right at the start of the prog so that if you miss it you miss the whole plot.
And one more:
The superimposition of statistics and exaggerated graphics on everyday items, like trade figures on the side of a can of beans as though they are really there. It just annoys me. 'Get a life!' I have to paint on my hand sometimes.

The antique roadshow is quite annoying now, when they keep jumping between two items, showing a little bit of each one. Just show us one at a time.
The other annoying thing ( which no doubt has been mentioned before) is where a programme starts and they spend ten minutes telling you whats coming up instead of just getting on with the programme.
Plus after an advert they recap whats just happened before the advert, as if you would have forgotten in those 3 minutes.

Using those two Robson Green's fishing shorts to pad-out programme schedules.

How many times an we stand seeing him land that Sailfish or that bloke rowing against the current while he lands a foreign river fish?

It was proposed in a recent edition of Room 101 but Frank Skinner clearly didn't understand the proposal.

Few things that have been annoying me about Pointless:
Not being able to see the questions on the screen for long enough because the stupid camera insists on switching to Richard, Alexander or the contestants!

The unnecessarily long pause after a contestant gives an answer.

Random banter about some crap that has NOTHING to do with the current category.

"Anyone that has received an acting credit according to IMDB." SODDING ACTOR QUESTIONS!

Just thought of another one. Britains got talent this year, why do they keep cutting to the audience during the acts, we want to see the acts not the audience.

So what subjects would you want to see? I'd probably feel the same as you do about sport categories, but you can't please everybody.

Someone had written into the letters section of the Radio Times recently complaining about this, there was a response from one of the makers of the programme to say that it will be returning to the original format soon. Sorry I can't remember exactly when it will be.

The worst by far are the scripted comments from random punters in the audience who just happen to be miked up... Whether they're trying to ape Googlebox I don't know, but it's extremely cringe

The way all weather presenters speak in shorthand. And their undying fondness for the word 'squally'.

..Which is a word
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/squall

Because that's when they do an edit

It's obviously done to keep people watching. It's even more annoying if there are 4 or more threads to a programme and they keep swapping between them.

Uh, yeah, hence my referring to it as "the word 'squally'".

Shakeycam. There was a documentary on BBC 4 about New Wave iirc, and the camera was shaking all over the place in the interviews, like the cameraman was drunk. It was awful and made me feel nauseous ,it's unnecessary I mean it's just about bearable in action/horror films.

and the audience members always seen to be female, although you can see many men in the audience. Must be the same person that chooses Ant & Decs win the Ads contestant.

The BBC get so many complaints about it, yet nothing ever seems to happen. It's referenced very often on Points of View, often referred to as the National Tripod Shortage.

Tories ruining the TV.

My bugbear at the moment is on channels like Pick who show a lot of American imports, they show a "British" ad break (ie every 15 minutes) but edit out the US ones every 5 minutes.
So you are sitting watching a show and it will have a dramatic lead up, followed by something like "it was really scary and I didn't know what would happen next", the screen goes black for 5 seconds then it immediately shows a recap of the dramatic lead up and the person saying "it was really scary etc"... then nothing happens after all that!

Grrr.

Re Canned Laughter.
BBC2 showed the American version of M*A*S*H* (with the canned laughter left in) and it was absolutely horrendous.