In 1973, when watching Canzonissima was considered top-notch entertainment, Gigliola Cinquetti sang Il Tango delle Capinere (The Tango of the Black-capped Chickadees).
I wonder whether the government has any thoughts about whether some kind of watershed ought to apply to radio broadcasts- Tanja Cilia
Some bright spark with a naff sense of humour liked the song’s rhythm and promptly came up with Maltese lyrics for it. These went, in part, Li kont nikkmanda jien, promotion kollha ntikom… and continued in much the same vein.
Most people assumed this would be part and parcel of Marija Hammett’s ‘Be Prime Minster for a Day’ stint; and indeed, she did get to nominate three people for quasi-MP status. But that’s about all the power invested in her for a scarce 24 hours.
The Maltese rendering of the prize that went with the iPad was more truthful, speaking as it did of ġurnata mal-Prim Ministru Lawrence Gonzi.
I don’t gamble, but I’d say this ‘day in the life’ will soon be a special edition Xarabank; at this juncture, all I have to say is that all those who applied for the post, as well as those who didn’t, were grossly misled.
It is unconstitutional to designate a Prime Minister without there having been an election; so the bumphs in the media misrepresented the ‘follow the Prime Minister around for a day’ stunt and promoted it in a way that aimed to drum up more interest than it warranted. Of course, bias in news items, and advertorials and commercials are part and parcel of the way the media works.
The good news is that a ‘news anchoring skills’ course is in the pipeline; but it is significant that it is being conducted by a private firm, not the state broadcaster or another TV station or one of the bigger production houses, or even the University’s Communications Department.
Alas, the age bracket (25 to 30) and the number of candidates to be accepted (10) and the education level (tertiary in any academic field) and the proviso “good command of spoken and written Maltese and English”, and other qualities deemed necessary by the organising company, indicate that it is not meant for the current clutch of local newscasters, some of whom don’t even check the pronunciation of common terminology, let alone proper nouns such as countries or names and surnames of individuals.
• “A government study revealed today that government studies are good for you.” This quote is from a speech bubble emanating from a TV set in a Ziggy cartoon strip.
I wonder whether the government has any thoughts on whether some kind of watershed ought to apply to radio broadcasts; specifically, if a couple in a story ought to be considering whether to make love or not when the woman is menstruating. I wonder what the Broadcasting Authority thinks about this and certain professionals’ arrogant throwaway comments as to why the female reproduction system is wonky.
Most of all, I wish the BA would come down like a tonne of bricks on those who are slapdash and spout off in their version of the vernacular, just because they think they can.
More than enough has been said about the presenters of entertainment programmes, and the guests on magazine programmes, some of whom appear to think peppering their claptrap with English words and expressions, or speaking Maltese with a faux accent, somehow gives them an air of class and/or credibility.
Yet jagħmluha mal-aħħar tmienja (make it with the final eight) and similar bunkum could only come from the mouths of sportscasters who are supposed to be covering football matches professionally – and yet sound as if they are either using online translation services, or simply parroting what foreign commentators are saying – and not being ‘on the ball’ enough to interpret rather than give a literal translation.
• I have probably never heard such unmitigated rubbish on Radju Malta as I did last Wednesday evening.
During It-Teżi Tiegħi, the guest, Connie, quoted an antediluvian paper saying Maltese couples feel the ‘need’ to have children, and the failure to beget any could well cause them to become estranged.
At this point, the presenter chimed in and said that indeed, the whole point of getting married was to produce offspring.
As far as I know, infertility is not an impediment to marriage, or a reason for its dissolution, if it is accepted beforehand or discovered afterwards.
Just for the record, the topic of the young woman’s thesis was ‘The Maltese family as presented in local drama’. For practical purposes, the work was done on the lines of ‘compare and contrast’ two Herman Bonaci productions – Simpatiċi and Ipokriti.
I shudder to think of the hours she spent watching episode after episode in order to analyse the behaviour of the Cassar protagonists; but it’s horses for courses, I suppose.
Incidentally, a friend of mine who follows Maltese drama assiduously has pointed out a specific flaw inherent in Simpatiċi.
Despite the fact that the series, more or less, presents good values, it has an irritating habit of taking home security for granted.
Salvinu and Lieni always call out to visitors to “come on up”; so is their door always open? Nanna Katrin waddles to the door and opens it whenever anyone knocks – and this, of course, led to the inevitable plot-line of one of the visitors being a robber who tied her up while he went about his business.
Rather than berating themselves for always opening the door without asking the person behind it to identify himself, and discussing the comparative benefits of installing a spyhole, a safety chain, or a CCTV camera, the family just breathe a sigh of relief that the robber was apprehended.
television@timesofmalta.com