Permanently Peevish: The bookies were the only real winners of Strictly 2013 #SCD

Monday, 23 December 2013

The bookies were the only real winners of Strictly 2013 #SCD

There seemed to be very strong support for Susanna Reid in the betting market as towards the final she had been backed down to odds on favourite. Normally the market is a fairly reliable indicator of the outcome because who, in their right minds, is going to dump a load of cash on a contestant without placing as many votes as possible for that person as well. But on this occasion as we all know now, Susanna lost pace at the final hurdle leaving victory to Abbey Clancy at around 3/1

I have more than a suspicion that, judging by the BBC's elephantine PR on Susanna's behalf, her backers may have comprised of BBC staff and their families making a trip to the bookies in their lunchbreaks or whatever. Of course Strictly, like all TV shows is only regarded by "the old enemy" as a fun bet so the amounts taken on Susanna would have been limited. Nevertheless they would not have been happy bunnies if all the Beeb's promotion of their teleprompter reader had paid off. It's rather ironic to surmise that it was probably the Beeb's own PR that cost Susanna the glitterball in the end because of the British public's intense dilike of being told who is going to win. Just shows how out of touch the BBC actually is with the viewing public.
We are now being told that the BBC is considering further roles for Susanna in the light of her obvious 'popularity' I don't know how much demand there can be for someone who is quite good at reading an autocue but I hope they change their minds because I'm not fond of seeing her I'm trying eat my toast and Oxford marmalade.

No doubt underwear companies will be falling over themselves to book Abbey for their catalogues. It's okay with me as long as she never gets any speaking roles on television. Every time she opens her mouth I have to reach for the mute button. Not only is the accent horrendous but she quite obviously never got past Janet And John in school.

What will happen for my own favourite Natalie I know not. Apparently ITV are considering a return to Corrie for her. In some ways, although I enjoy seeing her on screen, her character there was very limited and from what we've seen on the dancefloor she is capable of a lot more. I, for one, would be quite happy watching her eyes for half an hour at a time.

The one good thing to come out of Abbey's win is that I shall be able to watch again next year. Because if the Beeb's publicity drive had worked and the uninformed public vote gone their way, I would certainly not watch again. The public vote is always justified by BBC PR departments by saying that Strictly Come Dancing is an entertainment show as much as a dancing contest. Well I'm far more entertained by competent and dramatic ballroom and Latin dancing than I am by mumsy newsreaders with teary eyes and soppy backstories living out their midlife career crises on the telly in front of me.

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Causes of Peevishness

These are the things which get up my nose in day to day life. OK they're maybe not serious in the grand scheme of things but they make me shout at the television, change channels and raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. The first of these is Estuary English. Of course I know that people who speak this uneducated and lazy form of English cannot help it and I'm fine with them using it in their own homes etc, but why do they have to bring it into my home? They really should be banned from getting jobs in television (apart from cleaning jobs obvs)
The use of particular words annoys me too and the people who overuse these are often (but not always, speakers of estuary English). These include:- Amazing: Vastly overused and mostly completely inappropriately too. To me an 'amazing' thing is something that is so jaw dropping that there are simply no other words to describe it. It should certainly never be used to describe your friends, relatives, babies or holidays etc. And certainly not the prices of furniture in a DFS sale. There are millions of other words so get a dictionary or thesaurus. And if you're too lazy or stupid to do that then STAY OFF MY TELEVISION FFS. And don't write anything I'm likely to read either (on Facebook, Twitter, Radio Times etc).

Then come a couple of words and phrases which are completely unnecessary in any sentence: At the end of the day,Basically, Go for it and Do you know what I mean The last of these is perhaps the most irritating of them.
It also annoys me when anyone uses the word Delicious to describe anything other than a taste or smell. How can a colour or design possibly be delicious FFS?

And then we have: To Die For: I've been with people who were dying and I know that not one of them would have said that it was a price worth paying for a pair of shoes, plate of food or whatever fashionable colour. It's a stupid unthinking thing to say.

I don't understand the use of the word: Like in this kind of context - "I was like, she was like" and so on. I don't know what purpose it serves. I know it probably means that the perpetrator has spent too much time watching American television but is that any reason to inflict it on the rest of us?

Utterly maddening is the use of Floor: instead of ground. It's just laziness. Isn't it easy to tell whether you are inside or outside? Think before you speak goddammit!

Can I get I hear this all the time in shops and pubs and I think it's the height of rudeness so I assume it's American in origin. Of course anyone with any manners would say, "May I please have."

Trust me: The last thing I will ever do is trust the person who says "trust me".

Yeah: Obviously not when it is used as an affirmative but when it is used to end a sentence as in: do what I tell you, yeah? Or: Have a good day, yeah? And especially - You need to cheer up, yeah?..... No I fucking don't, you twat!

Poo: I've never understood what exactly is wrong with shit or crap. We all know what is meant and the word poo is just childish. There is also manure or dung for the animal variety. And if you simply must be polite you can always fall back on ordure or even excrement

Then we come to what I call unnecessary abreviations such as: Ciggie: This makes me cringe every time I hear it and Goss: Seemingly favoured by continuity announcers on the second rate television channels. And I quite often find that when "goss" is used, there is little or no real gossip involved in the publication or television programme concerned.

I hate the insidious way Americanisms are creeping into English usage. Such as: Gotten and Snuck and Dove. And there are many more that have snuck in so sneakily that we are hardly aware of them being Americanisms any more e.g. Campus which is something to do with a university or college. and Intern It used to refer to a junior level of hospital doctor in the U.S but it has become to mean some kind of unpaid employee.

Monday, 23 December 2013

The bookies were the only real winners of Strictly 2013 #SCD

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