To get annoyed about use of present tense in TV (historical) documentaries?

[pearlkent]

This has been bugging me for a few years now and it's become epidemic.
In any TV programme talking about the past (eg. last night that one about tracing family history in the Liverpool house) the experts/narrators ALWAYS speak in the present tense - eg. "war breaks out" instead of "war broke out". It's confusing and grammatically wrong surely?
I can only assume it's to make the subject more "interesting/appealing" but it really grates on me.

It's overused

I have found my people here!

YABU because I’ve never really noticed before, but now you’ve mentioned it, it’s going to annoy me too. I hate programmes where historians talk about royalty, both in the recent past and more historical, as if they were best buddies and what they are about to impart is some intimate knowledge of them.

@SimonBridges

If the funeral had been yesterday, I could not recollect it better. The very air of the best parlour, when I went in at the door, the bright condition of the fire, the shining of the wine in the decanters, the patterns of the glasses and plates, the faint sweet smell of cake, the odour of Miss Murdstone’s dress, and our black clothes. Mr. Chillip is in the room, and comes to speak to me.

"And how is Master David?" he says, kindly.

I cannot tell him very well. I give him my hand, which he holds in his.
— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter IX

Bastard modern trendy writing.

If you're trying to defend historians using the historic present tense then this is a really bad example which just makes the original poster's point for her.

The passage you quoted involves an author of fiction using the verbs to emphasise how fresh in the character's memory the events described seem. "If the funeral had been yesterday, I could not recollect it better."

Suitable, and quite clever for fiction. Entirely unsuitable for real events being described by a historian.

Yes! I'm another one who rants at the radio about this. The worst is when an interviewer asks questions in the past tense and the historian replies in the present tense. Possibly even worse is when the historian uses a historical date in the sentence with the present tense, only emphasizing how nonsensical it is.

IMO it's completely different to the Dickens quote above. History is by definition about the past.

@FangsForTheMemory

It's not dumbing down, it's a mechanism to draw the listener in and make the story more immediate. HTH.

It's definitely dumbing down. It's drawing in people who can't cope with history being things that happened in the past, and causing people with an attachment to grammar and language to switch off!

It's not so much in historical documentaries that it bothers me, but talking heads in factual programmes who use it to be dramatic and when talking about something that happened to them. It's this where it bothers me and I think that is maybe what people mean by dumbing down, it is overdone in these circumstances and makes me definitely want to switch off!

I don't mind the historical stuff.

The new tense that the Police and others have invented to describe past events annoys me though -

"well this car has stopped and then the other driver has not seen him and has crashed into him"

Why did they feel the need for a new tense?

Yes! Thank you!

It doesn't bother me all the time. Where they're talking about some historical figure, how they felt, what they decided etc, sometimes it seems ok to bring it into the present tense because it helps to relate more to the person. But when they're talking about broad historical sweeps of action like war or plague, no, it happened, it is not happening. And thank goodness for that.

Suppose the news started doing this, so that you thought an important conference was taking place right now, then it turned out they were talking about a week ago? Now add 500 years or so and see how confusing that gets.

Seriously, English is an extremely flexible language with loads of possible tenses. Why confine yourself to just one?

I don't mind when it is at least consistent. In my town there is a series of plaques describing significant events during WW1. Every single one of them is two sentences with the first one in the past tense and the second in the present tense. Just pick one!

Oh I love it! It helps bring it all to life to me

And I have a degree in History!

I like how this thread about the present tense is actually more than three years old.

I think it's very effective in creating drama, suspense, and gripping the audiences interest. I agree it can be annoying in books though. I wouldn't dream of using it in a piece of academic work.

Meh, they’re just trying to pull you into the story.

@PuppyMonkey

I like how this thread about the present tense is actually more than three years old.

It's very annoying, the extent to which it's over used. This blog shares some of my feelings. emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2008/11/a-writer-friend-doing-the-last-big-revision-of-her-new-novel-emailed-to-ask-me-what-i-think-of-present-tense-narratives-sh.html%20%20%20 It's about fiction though.

YANBU, it really grates. Also, the upwards inflection at the end of each sentence, making every sentence sound like a question. This seemed to have originated in Aussie soap operas in the 80s, and is now endemic. It makes people sound like they have no confidence that what they're saying is correct, so they are seemingly asking for someone else to validate their words for them.

My pet hate too.
That flipping Melvyn Bragg on radio 4 Thursday morning is the worst offender of historical present tense. (Plus his topics for discussion are obscure)

@StoneofDestiny

My pet hate too. That flipping Melvyn Bragg on radio 4 Thursday morning is the worst offender of historical present tense. (Plus his topics for discussion are obscure)

That's the guy I was thinking about! In Our Time I think it is.

Does the fact that this is a zombie thread mean the OP is kind of in the historical present? That would be... ironic.

I hate it too and also spend the time saying "no she went in" "no he's not going down the road".

Other people use it to tell me about poor driving on the way to work and I don't listen to the story as I just start thinking " no you are not driving down the road, you are standing in front of me"

I wonder how @erhfjkfrehj2323 found this thread.

@DynamoKev I think that’s the football pundit tense.

The ones that really annoy me are when they talk about the end of the Romanovs and say things like, "Christmas day" - which one?

Modern day Orthodox Christians have Easter and Xmas on different days to the western churches.

Add to that Russia was on a different calendar to the rest of Europe, give me the dates, both the Russian date and the CE date and yes mention if it is a holiday.

I prefer it, I think it’s more engaging.