Do you even care about Yentob’s noddy shots?

By mofgimmers on September 7th, 2007 3 comments

The BBC has admitted that Alan Yentob has performed “noddy shots” on interviews that he did not personally conduct for his arts series Imagine. If you’re unsure what that entails, essentially, it means someone has interviewed a celebrity, and Yentob has been edited in nodding away like he was there. Does this fill you with horror and distrust… or could you not care less?

Yentob is one of the BBC’s most senior figures and regarded by many as the corporation’s ambassador. He’s interviewed artists Gilbert & George, musician and genius Scott Walker and Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, Simon Amstell and David Bowie. However, it is understood that scenes featuring Mr Yentob reacting to some of the more peripheral figures and experts featured in his programmes were edited in even though he was not actually present. The BBC declined to issue a statement about the matter last night. It comes after the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, last month told staff that those involved in deceptions could face dismissal.

“Nothing matters more than trust and fair dealing with our audiences,” Thompson told staff in an internal broadcast. “We have to regard deception as a very grave breach of discipline which will normally lead to dismissal. If you have a choice between deception and a programme going off air, let the programme go. It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive.”

A senior BBC source admitted that Yentob had engaged in “noddy” shots for interviews he did not conduct. The source, talking to the Guardian, robustly defended the practice, insisting that Yentob was unable to attend every interview that appears on his show because of his workload. Then why give him the work? That’s another issue I’m sure. Anyway, the source said; “Everybody does it – it is a universal technique. The important point is to ask – does this change the meaning of what you are doing and the answer is no it does not. If you had everybody who did interviews featured in them you would have have 11 or 12 people nodding at different times which is getting into the realism of the ludicrous. This is standard practice across the industry.”

In fairness, has anyone ever believed that the TV (and the world of TV) has ever really told us the truth? Creative edits have always existed… and cast your mind back to when Gerry Adams starred on the news with someone doing an impression of his voice. Hardly ‘the truth’ was it? The debate over “noddys” was given added impetus last week when the Channel Five News editor, David Kermode, decided to ban what he called “rather hackneyed tricks” in his channel’s bulletins.

“I genuinely believe that if we lead the way by stopping some of the tired old ‘showbiz’ shortcuts, we can help restore trust in our medium and make our programmes more creative too,” Mr Kermode told the Guardian. However many senior figures within the BBC were reluctant to follow Five’s lead, with one senior news source describing Five’s move as a “publicity stunt”. The BBC source added: “No wonder Channel Five can do that – their news reports aren’t long enough anyway so they can do it but the BBC bulletins are usually much more in-depth. It was pure attention seeking on their part.”

Should we see a ban on ‘noddy shots’ or should we leave TV alone and take it for what it is? Scoopers… it’s over to you. [Mof Gimmers]

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johnberesford

As one who’s “nodded” himself during the recording of the Book Quiz (…yes, I know, sad little man, fifteen seconds of fame, stop banging on about it, etc, etc) I’m well aware of this technique and how it’s done. More important perhaps, is the why. The director needs to keep his audience with him, and cuts between heads in a group that aren’t linked by sub-second shots of other group members turning their heads from one to another are, apparently, harder to watch and/or more confusing.

I think the same thing applies here. It’s reassuring to see the interviewer nodding away every so often. As to whether it matters if the interviewer is there or not, for me this falls into the realm of “production” rather than “deception.” It would be different (obviously) if the interviewee’s words were edited around so he appeared to say “I am a con artist, not a man of conscience” instead of what was actually recorded: “I am a man of conscience, not a con artist.”

If you get upset by the discovery that a ghost writer penned your favourite sleb’s autobiography then you might equally be disturbed that someone other than Yentob did the interview purported to be Yentob’s. To which I’d say: get over it. There are more important things to get aerated about.

John Beresford
TV Scoop Fantasy Correspondent
http://www.scottwalkerfilm.com S. Kijak

FYI. I interviewed Scott Walker for my film about Scott Walker: “Scott Walker – 30 Century Man” which was bought by the BBC for Alan’s wonderful IMAGINE strand, for which he then provided a VO recording of the film’s original VO for his own re-edited 1 hour version. Some have told me it appeared that he was “passing the film off as his own” – well, this is sort of how TV works in some instances, but we were very pleased that Scott’s story was broadcast far and wide — but do your research as to the authorship of the material before claiming Yentob was the one to do the interviewing. He held a “presentational” relationship to the piece, which was authored by myself and my production partners.
mof gimmers

Thanks for the comments.

The ‘do we even care?’ aspect of my piece should give you the clue that no-one should really care if Yentob has done a ‘noddy’ piece. It’s TV. When has TV ever been upfront and transparent?

The simple fact is, as long as the facts are right and no-one is being misrepresented, then why should anyone really care?

All I can say to S. Kijak is that I’m insanely jealous that you’ve met Scott Walker.

Mof Gimmers
[TVScoop Anchor]