Cooking in the Kitsch-In
Michel Drucker and friend
From our Own Correspondent is a venerable BBC institution that allows their journalists to spend 5 minutes of airtime speculating and reflecting on experiences and observations beyond the headlines.
Sometimes FOOC provides some stunning radio, (Fergal Kean writing his dispatch with his new son in his arms “learning the art of one-handed typing” is one of the BBC’s most famous broadcast moments).
But often the reporters let their hair down by talking meandering tripe and indulging in stale liberal truisms. Which is not fair at all, because that’s my job on this blog. BBC journalists are paid to know better.
Hugh Schofield’s contribution this week seemed particularly silly: basically a complaint about how crap French television is, how it’s dominated by sycophantic talk shows, and how culturally conservative is French society in general.
Mr Schofield seems to have forgotten TV is mostly crap everywhere, celebrity culture is by its nature sycophantic, and most societies display some level of chauvanism in celebrating their own artists.
So, (I can’t quite believe I’m saying this) let me put in a positive word for French TV.
Seriously, in terms of trading on middle-of-the-road popular culture and cosily flattering their guests, where are the differences between Michel Drucker and Sir Michael Parkinson?
Le plus grand cabaret du monde and N’oubliez pas les paroles may seem kitsch and bizarre to anglo-saxons, but having seen Ant and Dec‘s Christmas Special this year on ITV, I can testify that the French do not hold a monopoly on kitsch. Bruce Forsyth, anyone?
Yes, there are a lot of talk shows on French TV, but for an amateur student of the language and culture (even one as inexpert as myself), these shows are a goldmine of ethnological detail. As I mentioned a while back, On n’est pas couché might be regarded as the Rosetta Stone of the French media mainstream, and I still hold that opinion, even if Laurent Ruquier gets on my nerves these days.
Jean-Michel Aphatie
And there are some hidden gems – C’est pas sorcier is one of the best popular science shows I’ve ever seen. Arte constantly throws up little delights (I’ve previously raved about Himalaya Terre des Femmes), Manu Katché’s music show One Shot Not has a talent roster that rivals Jools Holland, and if I get homesick for the smokey forests of the Vosges, I can just tune into Rund Um: the magazine show in Alsatian.
But the only TV show I watch here regularly is Le Grand Journal (19.05-20.00 weeknights on Canal+), because there’s nothing better than coming home from work to a good argument between a female cabinet minister (normally Valérie Pécresse or Rosalyne Bachelot) and Jean-Michel Aphatie, whose combination of southwest accent and trenchant opinions make him France’s most entertaining political journalist.
French TV may be crap, but at least it lays on some quality shouting about tertiary education reform while I’m making dinner. And I’ll take that over Shortland Street, MTV Cribs or Dancing with the Stars any day.
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One Shot Not sounds good. I’ll have to look for that.
Unfortunately, my French is not yet good enough to really enjoy mainstream French TV, but I half follow a lot of documentaries, many of which are quite enjoyable.
Is it true the Freebox from Free allows you to watch English language shows normally dubbed with the original (English) sound track? If so, I’m getting one! Had nothing but trouble with Orange ADSL TV anyway, and the Livebox is a piece of crap as an office router.
Hi Greg, thanks for the comment – and you’re right, there are some great documentaries, especially on Arte
To answer your question – YES, Freebox allows you to watch some dubbed English language shows in English: I’ve never tried before, but have just turned on M6, and am now watching Star Wars in English
Free seems to do a fairly good internet/TV/phone package – I don’t use it for business purposes, but I’ve had no problems with their router, and overall their service seems good.
You’re right that the UK (and for that matter, the US) have their own rubbish television shows. But when I moved to France nine years ago, I expected French television to be a bit more interesting. It’s amazing to me that the French make such brilliant films, but their television shows are for the most part, unremarkable and often downright silly.
Hmmm…
This article and its comments send me back about 15 years ago in time when I spent two years in Norwich.
I watched a lot of TV (NO internet for me then…) and remember some brilliant shows like “Have We Got News for You !” or “Later with Jools Holland” (yeah, it’s that old though not as old as Michel “Jurassic” Drucker).
To be honest I did raid the video shop quite often and ususally, I confess, it was more hollywood “prémaché” blockbusters than Stephen Frears flicks or great British series: only when I came back to France did I discover Blackadder, such a fool was I…
The funniest memory remains showing Bertrand Blier’s poignant “Beau-Père” to 4th-year UEA student who’d just come back from France. They politely watched it (it is about 2 hours long if I’m not mistaken), deemed it OK if a bit upsetting (it is partly about incest) and then unanimously decided to watch… a couple of episodes of Hélène et les Garçons !!!
If you don’t know that 90s French soap opera let’s just say that compared to it “Plus Belle La Vie” appears not very distant from what Fellini, Bergman and Rohmer might have produced if they’d ever tried to collaborate…
Well, well, tastes… We all have our crappy ones, come on !
I don’t have TV at home, so I’ll have to take your word for it
(i’m too busy practising my ‘solfège’ anyway)