http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/15/nblue15.xml
Blue Peter have fooled their young viewers before. In 1963, just after the series began they introduced the first of a long tradition of pets, Petra the puppy. A few days after the broadcast Petra died; and the producers, rather than having to break the heartbreaking news to the kids, went out to a pet shop and simply bought another puppy that looked just like Petra and pretened that it was Petra. The truth only came out in 2002, almost 40 years after the incident.
Maybe they were justified in replacing Petra, it certainly saved millions of children a lot of tears, but there's no excuse for this new piece of duplicity! I wonder how many other things on TV are fake, which don't get found out. I know for a fact that some documentaries are staged because of the Family Confidential scandal. Family Confidential was a fly-on-the-wall documentary on the life and times of an ordinary family. This was advertized and shown in the format of a documentary; not a docu-drama with a cast list at the end like "Ghostwatch" or "War of the Worlds", the viewers were told it was a documentary. I strongly disagree with most of what Mary Whitehouse says, but I'm full of admiration for her this time because she exposed it as a fake. All the people in it were actors, the characters were made-up and it was scripted.
This could well be the tip of a very big iceberg. What else on TV is fake that is never uncovered!
Blue Peter have fooled their young viewers before. In 1963, just after the series began they introduced the first of a long tradition of pets, Petra the puppy. A few days after the broadcast Petra died; and the producers, rather than having to break the heartbreaking news to the kids, went out to a pet shop and simply bought another puppy that looked just like Petra and pretened that it was Petra. The truth only came out in 2002, almost 40 years after the incident.
Maybe they were justified in replacing Petra, it certainly saved millions of children a lot of tears, but there's no excuse for this new piece of duplicity! I wonder how many other things on TV are fake, which don't get found out. I know for a fact that some documentaries are staged because of the Family Confidential scandal. Family Confidential was a fly-on-the-wall documentary on the life and times of an ordinary family. This was advertized and shown in the format of a documentary; not a docu-drama with a cast list at the end like "Ghostwatch" or "War of the Worlds", the viewers were told it was a documentary. I strongly disagree with most of what Mary Whitehouse says, but I'm full of admiration for her this time because she exposed it as a fake. All the people in it were actors, the characters were made-up and it was scripted.
This could well be the tip of a very big iceberg. What else on TV is fake that is never uncovered!
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