Charles on… anything that comes along

What is it with the new breed of continuity announcers on TV? Once upon a time they were happy to tell you what the next programme coming up was, or when the next episode of whatever you’d been watching would be coming on. And they’d wear formal clothes if they had to be on screen.

Now, though, they seem to think that they’re right there in the living room with you and that you want to know what they think. So the soap episode ends with someone crying - for she might be pregnant. Or not. It’s carefully done so you don’t know. Cliffhanger, don’tyaknow.

“Ooh, tears of sadness, or tears of joy?” wonders the continuity announcer. Yes, we know. It’s flipping annoying. And nothing seems to put them off. (Will this? Could it? Please?) It’s worst on Channel 4 and ITV especially - I haven’t really noticed it on the BBC. (Perhaps there are guidelines that prevent them making personal comments. If so, thank God.)

Stop this attempting to inject personality stuff. We don’t care who the people are announcing the things. Only that they don’t sound like drunks, get it right, and don’t flipping well give us their opinion when we didn’t invite them in. They’re only there on sufferance. If we had stereo and could tune them out, what chance would there be that we’d just turn it over to the channel without their blabbing?

(Thanks by the way to meldrum.co.uk from whom I’ve sourced the photo. The original post - about continuity announcements - is pretty interesting too. There was some rubbish stuff then…)

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