Feelgood-Factual

I wrote several months ago about the dearth of good travel programming on TV. BBC Holiday is no more, and Wish You Were Here…? hasn’t been with us for a long time now. But there is a new type of pseudo-travel programme all over our screens at the moment, and it’s called Feelgood-Factual.

Every so often I read Private Eye, which is where I first read the FF term. Their column ‘The Zapper’ lists shows such as Coast, Great British Journeys, Britain’s Favourite View, Mountain, Robbie Coltrane’s B-Road Britain, etc. etc.

Says Private Eye: “The idea is that the hubbub of modern life has put us out of touch with the ‘real’ Britain – that is, the Britain where the Boche got bashed, you could set your watch by the railways and, if you left your front door open, someone would probably pop round and tidy your garden. As luck would have it, TV is on hand to show us that this Britain still exists. It makes for great telly because everyone likes being told their country is something more than a cesspit; the luscious aerial photography certainly suggests as much and the potted histories that accompany such patriotic porn lend it all a gleam of worthiness.”

As with many major TV series nowadays, travel pages offer their interpretation / added detail for readers. See these examples from the Telegraph and the Guardian. And another Telegraph one.

I’d be interested to hear any comments from some of this blog’s international readers – do you see a similar trend in TV programming in your country?