Ordinary Gweilo

One of the stranger features of our English language terrestrial TV channels (TVB Pearl and ATV World) is that they serve up current affairs programmes from the US and UK, but several weeks or months later.

Last night, I caught part of “60 Minutes” on ATV World, and they had an interview with ‘Democratic front-runner Dr Howard Dean’. I don’t wish to sound churlish, but wasn’t he the guy who dropped out last week after consistently finishing 3rd or 4th in most of the contests? Obviously, before the start of the primaries he was indeed the front-runner, and that is presumably when the interview was filmed and shown on TV in the States. Now, several weeks later, it just looks silly!

Slightly more topical was the BBC Panorama document about the Hutton inquiry, shown in the UK shortly before the judge delivered his report, and shown here some time after Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke had resigned (following the criticism of the BBC in the published report). It was interesting and balanced programme, and TVB managed to find a primetime slot for it even though it was nearly two hours long. However, it would have been ever more interesting and topical if it had been broadcast in the week the report was published.

I assume that with “60 Minutes” there is some deal whereby ATV is only entitled to show the programme a certain period of time after it has aired in the States, but I bet that if they paid a bit more they could show it sooner. Or is it just one of those token gestures that is supposed to demonstrate a commitment to serious programming, and no-one is actually expected to watch it?

Coming soon on ATV World: “Financial Markets Two Weeks Ago” a round-up of what happened in the stockmarket a fortnight ago.