The Guardian newspaper's front page lead today focuses on the latest television phone-in scandal, speculating that ITV could face fines of up to £70 for deceiving viewers. Many of the problems occured on primtetime Saturday night light entertainment shows hosted by Tyneside tykes Ant & Dec. [For readers outside the UK, Ant & Dec appeared in the film Love Actually as TV presenters hosting a kids' show on which Bill Nighy's scurrilous character plugs his Xmas single.] The two stars were reportedly given £30 million pound handcufss to stay at ITV, and they are credited are executive producers on several of the shows that ripped off viewers via phone-ins.ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has pledged zero tolerance to viewer deception, but insisted to the Guardian that Ant & Dec were not culpable for these abuses. The juice comes when Grade talks about the presenters' executive producer status, describing them as 'kind of a vanity credit in their case'. He added: 'They were more worried about their scripts and their gags than the logistics of how the phones were going to work - that's way beyond their comprehension and responsibility.'
Make of that what you will...
3 comments:
...which is really rather odd when on one of the news progs last night they said that the Jiggy Bank prog was made by Ant & Dec's own production company and a
'source' inside the prodco (ah, the ubiquitous anonymous source) said they were very 'hands on' executive producers. The BBC has just reported that Police are (finally) taking an interest.
Fines of up to £70? Sounds easy enough to pay. ;)
...and now the SFO wants the files on the GMTV 'issue' to peruse!
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