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?

Take a look at your home insurance, did it come with free legal stuff as I vaguely recall that copyright infringement is one of the things it covers

The young woman "chatted naturally" using the exact words of@Ladyof2025 ?
I wonder how she knew what to say?
Oh, that's right, the BBC recorded Lady's interview.

This ⬆️ please do something!

This kind of thing gives me the rage. I'm sorry that was done to your father.

I would be fuming at the theft of my copy and waste of my time, yes!

Invoice the fuckers, they do this because they think they can get away with it, but they used your copy, you own that, you wrote it, its yours.

So invoice the fuckers for however much you fancy, at the very least, a nice bottle of wine and possibly dinner out!

Arseholes...and I say this as someone who writes copy for others and sometimes works with TV production co's. It is all too common unfortunately, but it is shitty and the more people stand up for themselves and their work, the better!

Yes. How did they get your script, if they did?

I’ve done a fair bit of talking head tv stuff down the years, mostly on cultural things, and it quite often never makes to air, or in a brutally truncated form. (Now 52, have always been plain.) I would never go to any particular trouble with my appearance or spend ages prepping a script, because it often comes to nothing. But if they (somehow) used a script you hadn’t given permission for, that’s quite another matter. That you should pursue.

I work in TV (documentaries) and I have to say this is very weird!

Can you provide a little more context? Is the person that replaced you a presenter for the programme? Maybe they wanted to provide continuity, but they definitely shouldn't be stealing your script - that's just plain lazy!

Have you contacted the producers to ask why this has happened?

If your depiction of events is accurate, I would complain to the BBC

A lot of these responses are really unfair to the OP. They didn’t say they wrote a script so they could read aloud in a robotic fashion. It’s different to want to brush up on what you want to say so you’re articulate in a situation most people would find stressful even if they’re knowledgeable about the subject matter. It’s like anticipating questions for a job interview so you’re not stumbling over your words and punctuating your sentence with lots of filler words or dead silence.

Sure, but that doesn’t explain how the production team got hold of this script?

... they have the OP speaking her script on film.

You could transcribe it by hand in a few minutes or run it through a voice to text app.

Easy peasy.

Yes, absolutely. It's outrageous.

Yes, my 14 minute slot took an entire day to film and there was the BBC presenter and 3 crew.

Did you complain?

I learnt that lesson (not with the BBC, but with a rich NGO) years and years back. I now don't as much as sneeze for somebody else without a valid contract.

That may well be why they didn't use the OP's piece to camera but that still doesn't absolve them for using the OP's exact presentation without acknowledgement.

I feel so upset reading this. That is appalling. I feel proper rage at this. I bet you looked great and spoke knowledgeably - they are just ageist and pathetic. Rage!!

They could feed the sound into a speech to text programme and produce a script for someone else to deliver in that way.

I presume it was a piece to camera rather than an interview. Cued up by a presenter "So, Lady, tell us about the churchyard in Hamlet-on-the-wold".

I'd love to have faith in the BBC but I don't any more. What with the Gregg Wallace business etc, and other things I've heard about (first hand), I think they're a load of unprincipled chancers most of the time.

Sorry op. If the op looked awkward on the video why would they put it on TV. It would make more economical sense to find an actress who can repeat what op has said. Maybe if they paid op they would have used the footage?

No one is denying that the media (not just the BBC) have covered up some horrific events, but in terms of putting a face on camera, no I’m still 🤨 about this post.

I realise how dramatic this is going to sound but I literally gasped aloud when I got to the bit where you said you’d been replaced AND they’d plagiarised your work, I’d be fuming!

Quite. Unprincipled and certainly not champions of women. The arrogance of being the national broadcaster seems to have lead to complacency and unprofessionalism.

To be fair, Mumsnet is exceptional at the AmDram. Isn’t that how Motherland came into existence? Not sure what the hook of this thread is though.