BBC 3 has launched a new debate show called Free Speech. The
show is basically meant to be a young person’s Question Time where a panel of
cool young hip people debate topics that are supposed to effect cool young hip
people. The episode I watched was set in Bristol which was the main draw for me
as well as being presented by Jake Humphrey who I love. (I always want to
support the career of someone who used to do children’s television making it as
a grown up.)
The problem with the show for me was that it is so hard to
make current affairs trendy and everything that they did to make the show seem young
had no point and was purely there for the gimmick. Along with Jake whose
presenting role was to ask the questions and lead the debate they had a second
presenter Michelle de Swarte whose sole purpose was to be on the internet
checking Twitter. I can completely see where the show is coming from, Twitter
is cool and hip so we must incorporate it in the show somehow. The problem is
people can be talking about your show but it doesn’t mean what they are saying
is relevant or complimentary. The show was hashtagged as freespeech but the
thread mainly consisted on how fit the presenters were or how shit they thought the
show was, not really recipe for television gold.
The show also
introduced this ludicrous feature called the power bar. This was where each
panellist was voted on if the people of Twitter agreed or disagreed with what
they were saying. This was basically a glorified popularity contest with Jamal
Edwards of SB.TV continually having the highest power bar rating even though he
really didn’t say much of anything at all. Of course he had asked all his
followers to support him so he at least knew how to play the game. At one point the specifically mentioned the
they were trending number 4 in the uk, this would be impressive if they weren’t
being beaten by the phrase beliebers will never leave Justin.
While the social network elements were gimmicky and
embarrassing , the real problem was that even though the show was called Free
Speech you could almost feel the tension as someone began to say something
controversial, or not saying something that relevant or very well constructed.
The problem with asking young people about current affairs is that they probably
don’t really know enough about it and can’t articulate their argument well enough
under the pressure of live telly.
I love Jake Humphrey though, he hasn’t aged a day.
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