What is going on at the BBC? Last Sunday evening, ski fans up and down the country settled down to enjoy the first in a new series of Ski Sunday; the traditional mid-January anticipation heightened by the prospect of a new, hour-long format. Alas, what we got was another depressing symptom of the trend away from quality specialist programming to dumbed-down, general interest dross.
The show began with a new regular feature in which presenter and former British downhill racer Graham Bell is hiking the entire length of the Alps in mid summer. Lots of references to Hannibal, and lovely scenery of the kind that, a generation ago, Cliff Michelmore or Judith Chalmers would have drooled over, but little snow and no skiing.
Fifteen minutes in we were treated to another new feature: chef Heston Blumenthal, presumably trying to firm up his celebrity credentials, gets a slalom lesson. Cue lots of slapstick hilarity, but again, no competitive skiing. Next week, we can look forward to Fiona Bruce making a fool of herself.
Eventually we got a look at the Kitzbuhel downhill course, but only through the eyes of the long-since-retired Bell who, in order to provide a running commentary on what the course held in store, skied so sedately as to make the stunt meaningless.
When we were finally presented with highlights of the men's downhill, the first competitor shown was the American Scott McCarthy who suffered a horrendous fall which required him to be airlifted, unconscious, to hospital. Thankfully McCarthy is now on his way to a full recovery, but watching his accident was made all the more discomfiting by the preceding segment, which featured a string of such mishaps from earlier competitions.
In all there were just 13 minutes of competition highlights before we were invited on another trip: this time accompanying co-presenter Ed Leigh on a train journey to Siberia where he engaged in a spot of gentle snowboarding. Not even any spectacular scenery this time, although there was an excruciating interview with the local mayor, who was understandably keen to encourage more tourists to his frozen wilderness.
Imagine the reaction if Match of the Day devoted two-thirds of its airtime to revealing how Steve McClaren now spends his days, or what kind of fertiliser the Old Trafford ground staff apply over the summer in order to get the turf ready for the new season.
According to a BBC insider, "Bosses were worried the show was a bit old-fashioned, so they have spruced it up with a few stars. They didn't want the ratings dropping off. It's a bit like what happened to Top Gear." Whatever you may think of Top Gear, it is still predominantly about cars, and in Messrs Clarkson, Mays and Hammond, its producers have put together an entertaining team of TV professionals. Ski Sunday, in its new incarnation, is poor quality travelogue, and an abysmal waste of the licence fee.
Graham Bell has a stab at defending the new format on the BBC website, where a number of viewers have registered their displeasure. His main argument is that it's all about ratings, even if the programme does contravene the Trade Descriptions Act.
Perhaps it's not the BBC's fault. Maybe the problem lies with the great British viewing public. I wonder if we are witnessing an early manifestation of the kind of concentration disorder described by Aric Sigman in his recent post? As he wrote,
Attention is the prerequisite to what we consider being alive; you have to be able to pay attention to things in order to experience them.
Sigman's analysis would certainly explain why so few people are nowadays able to apply themselves to more than 10 minutes' coverage of one of the most exciting sports in the world. If he's right, then we have a great deal more dire television to look forward to in the years ahead.