A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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I called them the 21 st Century Freak Show… that‟s exactly what they are… you
don‟t have to pay to go and stare at someone in a cage… you‟ve got them in your
living room… every night at 9 o‟clock… either Channel 4 or Channel 5… or if
you‟ve got Sky you‟ve got whole channels… and it‟s not just a British thing…
there‟s plenty of these things coming over from America as well… (l.2:609ff.)
Charles believes that the primary function of such programmes is sensational. Human bodies
regarded as abnormal are displayed in forensic detail in order to emphasise the advantages of
normality. Charles talks about the cynicism involved in the production of documentaries like
this:
...very often it‟s someone who‟s not particularly empowered… and they can get
away with saying anything about them… and portray them in any way… so I think
it‟s really exploitative… and obviously they‟re going for the sort of tear jerking
reaction, aren‟t they… (l.2:590ff.)
He illustrates his point:
… the classic one was that documentary last year… Age 12 and Bringing Up The
Family or Looking After the Family… where… I mean, it was so biased… they
filmed these two families where there were kids that were disabled young carers…
and… yeah, one family seemed relatively coping… the other family was a blind
couple… and I think one of them had learning difficulties as well… and they had
eight kids…and there‟s one bit that sticks out, where the baby was, like, crawling
around on the floor… and the interviewer asked the dad, you know, “Isn‟t that
dangerous… what if you step on him…” and he said “No, that‟s OK… I dress him in
contrasting colours to the carpet… so he stands out…” ...and you can kind of see
what he was getting at… but the way he said it sounded so callous… (laughs)… and
again, what was interesting was they filmed these two families… one was
relatively… you know, getting on with it… the other family were just… I mean… it
was appalling… they weren‟t good parents… they were really awful parents… but
that made good television… so they devoted, like, three-quarters of the programme
to them… and one quarter to the other family… cos it was obvious they‟d set out to
film two families, going Oh, my God, this is brilliant… (l.2:52ff.)
Charles‟ suggestion is that making good television is the primary intention of documentary
makers. In the details of the documentary described above – the narrowness of the focus
(two families), the family-oriented focus, and the far greater focus upon the family perceived