To be hurt and annoyed at being dropped by the BBC?

[Ladyof2025]

BBC contacted me asking me to speak on camera about an aspect of local history I happen to know a bit about. I agreed and spent the next few days brushing up on the facts and then writing and rewriting a script and reading it out loud again and again until I knew it by heart and could speak confidently to camera as though I'd never said it before.

I do not have a pretty face, and am in my 60s and rather podgy, but I went to the trouble of going through my wardrobe for the perfect outfit that flattered my podginess, and had my hair cut specially and put on some make up, so I could be the best possible version of me that I could.

The production team visited, took me to the site and filmed me speaking. I did it smoothly and confidently and was glad that I had put in all the rehearsal so I came across as knowledgeable, professional and confident of my material. They said my performance was perfect, thanked me profusely and left.

After about a week they rang me to say that due to time and space issues the section of the programme that featured my input had been dropped. I felt absolutely gutted, not because I want to see myself on TV but because I had used up a lot of my valuable free time for several days preparing and rehearsing for it (for no fee I should add).

A few months later the programme I was dropped from came on TV and to my utter astonishment an attractive, slim young lady appeared, at the same site I was filmed at, and she spoke the exact words I had written and rehearsed! I nearly fell off my chair - the absolute bloody cheek of dropping ME but stealing the script that I had written. Thinking about it, I realised that they wanted my expert input, but not my saggy face or ample figure.

AIBU to be hurt and angry?

I think you’ve leapt to making far too many assumptions about what the producers did or didn’t do, in your rush to reassure the OP.

This is not necessary or professional of you - it’s far more comforting for the OP to know that this isn’t unusual, than for her to feel she’s been messed around by an incompetent production team.

The fact that you’ve just added you haven’t had many interviews you couldn’t make work is simply not relevant and will again make the OP feel worse - contribs get dropped for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with whether an IV works or not, and are beyond the control of producers, who do not get the final say on a cut. You know all this, if you are a current producer.

All we can say is the OP should have been communicated with, but that may well rest with the prodco not the producers.

I’ve said all this.

Don’t tell me I’m not being professional for pointing out the failures I see in the way the OP has been treated - if you work in tv, you should recognise the failings I do.

You can also stop with the ‘if you are a producer’ crap; I have no reason to lie on an anonymous forum and the content of my posts should offer enough information that you can tell I work in the industry.

You are also making plenty of assumptions, and yours are no more valid than mine.

You might not see my comments as helpful but perhaps the OP does. Perhaps she doesn’t - but I’ll wait for her to tell me, thanks all the same.

@Ladyof2025 like I said - lots of arseholes in tv.

People are being horrible to you. I'd have done exactly the same. Don't worry about being humiliated. Email them, tell them what you've said here that this was your original, unpublished research and ask to whom you should send the invoice for your expertise and time? Do it. If it's a horrible email back, get a friend to read it with you. And why should you care what reason they choose to give you for stealing your stuff but cutting your voice? It'll be rubbish. People make up all sorts of things to justify bad actions. I know you've been through some tough times confidence wise but you don't have to let this stick. Do it and see what they say.

I do recognise failures in TV - the OP should have been communicated with. If she writes to the BBC to complain, as she’s quite entitled to, they’ll write to the prodco, who will write to the OP to either apologise or explain.

However, it is not professional of you to make assumptions about the production team’s competence based on no evidence, other than a personal preference you have for how you brief contribs. As a producer you may not regularly provide questions, but many good producers do, either because it works for them, or because they may sometimes have to.

I do think you work in the industry, or have done, as an AP or PD. I think it’s less likely you’re been in a very senior role, as you’ve say, or you wouldn’t assume that providing questions is an automatic error - you would know that good producers work in a variety of ways.

TV production teams work very hard, often shocking hours, on ever tighter budgets, tighter time frames, and to difficult channel demands, at a time when the industry is in free fall and according to Pact anyway, 70% of freelancers are unemployed.

Given you are or have been one of them, I find it more than disappointing you are so willing to assume the worst of them, with no evidence, when there are other ways to acknowledge the lack of comms from the prodco was poor and to reassure the OP that her being dropped is not a reflection of her.

Chucking insults at me isn’t terribly impressive either.

So then its up to the skill of the producer to get a natural interview, anyone can prepare for an interview however they choose

Again with lots of (incorrect) assumptions. I’m considerably more senior than PD and do expect excellence from my teams - because it’s my job to make them excellent.

What do you do in tv? And can I ask where you work because I’d love to be surrounded by the perfect producers you seem to work with.

I can’t think of a single instance when providing a list of questions in an interview with an ‘everyday’ contributor is anything other than a hindrance to the interview process. Can you give me one?

I have made assumptions - which I have freely acknowledged as being based solely on the info presented to me by the OP - and given several alternative reasons she was dropped.

You, on the other hand, are deciding what is helpful to the OP based on…what? Your own feelings? Not sure why that is acceptable but my judgements are not. I would also encourage you to read the thread (or even the first post) more carefully, as the OP was told she was being dropped - but not that her knowledge was repackaged into (what I take to be) a PTC.

I’m not assuming the worst of anyone - but I am someone who sees the failure of someone I’m managing as a personal failure. If I haven’t supported someone less experienced than me (so in this case, the OP) through a process to success, that’s on me (or in this case the producer).

But again, all of this comes with the massive caveat (which I’ve said many times) that her being dropped may not have anything at all to do with her performance.

As for insulting you - I’m not the one minimising your experience in an attempt to undermine your input into the discussion.

I’m sure the OP, if she can bear wading through this conversation, will update us on exactly what she was told by the producers.

Never give your expertise away for free.

This.

Prepare the interviewee beforehand by explaining the process and outlining what not to do as much as what to do.

Work with them on the day to help them appear relaxed, confident and knowledgable whilst hitting the story points you need for the overall programme.

Maybe all of this was done - but a few things the OP has said (sending a list of questions and not properly explaining the nature of her contribution being dropped) make me wonder if it was.

70% of freelancers are unemployed

That stat is from Bectu, not Pact. Pact is no friend of the freelance workforce that makes its members so much money.

I am acutely aware of the state of the industry, I have long been active in trying to effect culture change.

Have you seen the latest Film & TV Charity piece? That is a good example of what’s wrong with the industry.

Me reassuring the OP she deserved better is not me throwing producers under the bus - they have an increasingly impossible job with very little training or support.

OP, with kindness, if you were even half as worked up about this as you say you were, it's much more likely a case of that coming across very obviously on camera rather than anything more sinister.

Usually when a producer is looking for an 'expert' to speak on camera, they want it to look casual, confident and effortless, like someone has asked you a question off the cuff and you're answering it.

This was your first time doing a piece to camera and the 'script' you wrote isn't a script, its something that you (not a professional script writer) wrote down to help you remember what to say. None of this leads to a flowing, natural delivery.

What I expect has happened is that they weren't happy with what they'd filmed, didn't have enough time to find another 'expert', so put a version of what you'd said on an auto-cue and got a runner/production assistant/other contributor to read it off.

As for people saying that you should demand compensation, unfortunately it'll fall on deaf ears. You seem very passionate about your hobby though...have you thought about organising a talk about it somewhere local to you? A library or cafe or something?

All the fucking TV experts on here

I would have done the same as you. Email them and humiliate them. It's downright ageism and it's particularly bad for older women on TV. I would have a right go at them.

'All the fucking TV experts on here' are people who work in the industry! Same as if someone in the medical or teaching professions could offer an insight on a different thread based on their knowledge of their industry.
If the OP does want to contact the production company then their advice will be much more help to getting towards whatever her preferred outcome is that people shouting sue them, it's ageism and copyright theft at her.

This.

You don't really know why they did what they did. The point is they didn't tell her they weren't going to use her material...it was a matter of an email or a call, and they didn't bother. That was rude. I don't blame her for being upset. It would have taken someone working on the programme five minutes as a matter of basic courtesy and professionalism. No one is so important they can't take five minutes.

Also, would you like to be told something you take seriously is only to be presented as your little hobby that should be only presented in a cafe? No one would!

She won't get the same traction on there. Your putting your own ideological, purity-circle, righteous priorities above what would be most effective for her. I say this as a user of BlueSky.

What's wrong with tv people posting?

You don't really know why they did what they did

No I don't, which is why I said "What I expect has happened..."

I'm making an educated guess based on many years in the broadcasting industry and the many times I've appeared on BBC TV/radio as a pundit myself.

I agree it was a bit rude not to give her a heads-up, but it's hardly uncommon, it's not the end of the world and I'd say it was more likely done out of carelessness than anyone thinking she wasn't 'important' enough.

Also, would you like to be told something you take seriously is only to be presented as your little hobby that should be only presented in a cafe?

OP has stated numerous times that she has never done anything like this before and was terrified about the prospect of going on camera, for various reasons.

So yes, I think a good way to deal with that would be starting small, in an environment with much less pressure, so that next time, she's confident enough to answer a couple of questions on her specialist subject without needing to write and rehearse a script.

OP, if you're still reading posts, I think the production team has been rude, ungrateful and unprofessional. You deserve an explanation, payment and an apology.
The BBC is still elitist and ageist and rarely deserves it's licence fee.

Its, not it's.

I work in TV and items get shortened/cut all the time so my initial reaction is don't take it persionally as it would have been unintentional and decisions get made higher up and editors have to cut things all the time in order to make durations fit.
Before you contact them, make sure you have all your facts laid out so you can calmly present your side of things - do you have a copy/transcript of what the other contributor said to directly compare to what you wrote?
I am sure you're not describing yourself in the best light and i bet you are vibrant, beautiful and interesting and you should be proud that you put your best foot forward.
Let us know what the outcome is.
x

This is copyright. You need to kick off. They stole your material.

Invoice them for your script. And don't be modest.

Could you expand on your erudite contribution to the discussion?

Ignore the posters being rude. There will always be rude people on AIBU, its a waste of your energy to focus on them.

Do contact the bbc complaints line, it sounds like they've treated you very unfairly, they should not be able to get away with this with no comeback.

I am not all that righteous. Thus is Elon Musk, FGS. There is literally no one comparable.

Twitter is bigger but BlueSky has a more useful demographic. Most media people, artists, writers, academics, etc are on BlueSky, whether or not they are still on Twitter.