Idea for new parenting advice TV show based on Mumsnet Talk - your thoughts/input needed

Yeah, Ros, that's the thing. I'm married to the guy, I'd like to see him ever. At the moment we've done 3 years living in separate cities Monday to Friday - that's 75% of my DS2's life. Put both of us in edit til stupid o'clock/on a shoot in another country and there's nobody to look after the kids.

The stats are horrible re parents in telly, but even worse for mothers. It's the inability to plan that takes us out of the business. What are you doing next year? Do you know? No, we don't either. What time are you finishing work tomorrow? Ok - how about June 15th? I don't really want to raise kids in an environment where neither of us knows where we'll be working at the end of the next contract or when we're coming home at the end of a day. It was my decision to drop my career down a few notches so that there would be someone who was stable for the kids. Doesn't mean I don't miss it sometimes though!

Anyway, that's a whole nother thread.... And yes, I do feel better now. Thanks for listening!

This is hopefully going to be different because each programme will deal with parenting issues for children of all ages, and for each one there will be a wide range of advice from lots of different parents - some of which will work and some won't. If we get the tone right it should feel different from anything you've seen before.

I'm sure there's room in tellyland for both of you specialmagiclady... As you probably already know, the hours are so long and unsociable you'll never have enough time together to drive each other insane!

Format cracked. Excellent work there.

And instead of 'Indiaaa. It's all going tits up with Indiaaa" It'd be like 'oh god, AIBU. It's all kicking off in AIBU..." And then actually you could have the talking heads thing, a la Model Agency and Justine and co could dispense our hilarious advice/comments to camera.

And they might even have the 'cull' section where they go through the under performing models MNers and Get Rid.

Oh yes that is a brilliant idea! Can you imagine seeing Justine et al bitching and sulking at each other in the office? Hilarious!

might i add that i LOVED it. ahahahahaha

Len- was a fly on the wall thing. They all looked like idiots

"Courted and feared alike by politicians, lest they offend its 600,000 members, Mumsnet has become a valuable brand. It is now working with Channel 4 on a show....

Channel 4 said the series would tap into Mumsnet's network of members....

Justine Roberts, Mumsnet co-founder, said: "We are excited to be working with (producers) Studio Lambert on the series...."

Of course, there is a programme to be made here. One that exploits the 'brand' of Mumsnet. One that Justine can be excited about. One that doesn't assume that everyone (i.e us) wants to be 'on't telly'.

Studio Lambert are just looking the wrong way.

I actually think the best example of how this will probably go is the Great Daily Mail Disaster of 2009. Ros and Freya: you should have a look at the threads relating to that - they were features describing "what Mums are discussing on Mumsnet this week". The hoo-ha on here was mainly about the Mail lifting posts without "permission" but there was also a lot of debate on how watered-down and non-representative the selections were.

If this goes ahead, you can pretty much guarantee that this place will be dominated by debating the minutiae of everything that's featured for weeks and weeks and weeks. It'll be so bloody boring.

it's very 90s...

I mean, I know 'Bad' is meant to be tongue in cheek, like we are all so busy being hilarious and intelligent and fascinating that our tips are things like - 'baby crying? earplugs! ha ha pass the wine'. But it's just so ....

not to mention that the bad mother's club website will presumably have something to say about it.

agree totally re bad mother bullshit, though. i have outlawed it on my own very teeny forum. actually OUTLAWED. if people start yacking about maternal guilt they are politely shown the door. hahaha.

Why is the working title 'The Bad Mums' Club?'

I don't get it?

Why are the mums bad?

As in bad-ass?

Are you trying to be street?

Or is it because the advice dished out on here is often straight to the point or witty or irreverent.

Is that bad?

Why can't that be good?

haven't read whole thread so apols if someone has already said this, but I think you need animation.

don't film RL MNers - you can tape us but then have little animated stick figures doing all the stuff that we talk about. Much better & funnier.

"Plus the growth in unpaid work experience/internships over the last 10 years means it's now almost impossible for young people to get a break in TV unless they can afford to work unpaid. Which means increasingly the industry is just filled with people who's mummy and daddy can support them..."

... exactly like certain pockets of the publishing industry in the 1980s. Infact, there was quite a famous publisher who used to advertise his jobs with the proviso that only those of at least partly independent means need apply. Gah, why can't I think of his name? (maybe because I am an old gimmer who got my first job in 1984 ...)

I like it specialmagiclady, there's the tagline!

Sorry, Lenin, but listening to you talking about your fantasy football team may not be the most exciting television.

Whomoved and onesandwichshort, I promise you we're not trying to make you do our jobs for us!

Along with Justine, we just felt it would be useful to let MNers know that we're interested in making a series based on the Mumsnet Talk 'model', and to get people's thoughts on how they might like (or not like) a show to work.

And AithchTwoOh, you're absolutely right. Plus the growth in unpaid work experience/internships over the last 10 years means it's now almost impossible for young people to get a break in TV unless they can afford to work unpaid. Which means increasingly the industry is just filled with people who's mummy and daddy can support them...