"Dan Snow must be stopped!" Topic

It is no good boys Dan Snow must be stopped! Bad enough the times we in the UK live in with economic and political bankruptcy looming over us like a huge malignant toad but we have Dan Snow. The gurning child of nepotism and wilful ignorance sapping our will to watch history programmes while filling his pockets with ill deserved money. Whatever the UK is short of its not good historians. Yet we have Snow jnr like a harbinger of famine looming from our screens to relentlessly insult our inteligence. Is there no space on TV for people who know what they are talking about? There is no logic here the sane could subscribe to. But what can be done?

Use live ammo in the documentary on Russian snipers in the battle of Stalingrad?

'popular' 'easy to digest' 'not too demanding'

You'll never see another Clarke or Bronowski on your screen. :(

We had the misfortune to see his program on Patrick

Dearie me

Yes live ammo had crossed my mind. It would upset the Missus though I'm supposed to have the decorating finished by September.

But Connard, surely though at this time of popular dissatisfaction with being treated like fools this Snow thing can be stopped. I want to see another Clarke etc and they are around and available. Why not Goldsworthy or Duffy they would be entertaining and erudite. But instead we get mini Snow. Smug and thick. I don't reckon the punters want this its just what their given.

But Oh (the rest of your username will be bleeped), only a tiny minority do want to see 'serious' (for want of a better word) history on the box. The remainder – having had little or no exposure to the subject at school – want to be entertained, godammit. The X-Factor, or whatever ersatz e is flavour of the month, will triumph over a tweedy old codger delivering a lecture.

I seem to be ranting myself now…

Oh B*gger

How true and how well expressed considering the obvious depth of your despair and rage.

Doug

thank the Lord, someone else who agrees with me. His father became a pantomime character about 5 elections back, but at least he is old and frail. His lanky beanpole son will loom over us ineptly for 40 years to come.

Something should be done. Something that involves him doing a piece to camera while getting into a helicopter that he fails to notice is parked in a ditch.

Pat

Thanks Doug, twas heartfelt.

Pat, The ditch could be provided I'd struggle with the helicoptor though. Yes the Da is bad enough now. Jnr though. He's an epiphany of gormlessness. He would be at loss as to what say if you wished him good morning. What I find frustrating is that there is no way of challenging the wittering loon as he blythely dispenses disinformation.

Wasn't Battlefield Britain an okay series? I enjoyed large parts of it. Has the talent withered since then?

Doug L, I didn't think Battlefield Britain was much good at all compared to say Two Men in a Trench. And the latest stuff is worse. There are two issues Snow doesn't know what he's talking about and so has to rely on his researcher and script writer. The research is incredibly lazy and poor reflecting the assumptions of 50 years ago not the modern acedemic consensus. The script is relentlessly opinionated presumably in a vain attempt to make young Snow interesting. Now Snow Jnr is not a charasmatic performer and so the focus is on the message and the message is constantly wrong. I don't mean 'I disagree with that interpetation' wrong, I mean 'all cats are horned' wrong.

So you might ask why Snow Jnr is being allowed to make series after series if he is no good at it. The answer is political Journalist John Snow is the anchor man for an hour long main channel daily news show in the UK and the useless Dan Snow thrives because of nepotism .

Dan Snow received a first class honours degree in Modern History

I suppose that makes him some sort of expert…and his great, great grandfather was Lloyd George, a bit of information that appears to work its way into every damn programme he presents.

'and his great, great grandfather was Lloyd George' Yes cos thats how we do it here. We are a meritocracy, I know cos Tony Blair said so…..

'Dan Snow received a first class honours degree in Modern History' The only person in this generation to do so and yet he is so modest. Its the sense of entitlement that offends.

I suspect that Dan Snow keeps getting shows because:
1) He is young.
2) He understands how telly works.
3) He is good to work with (i.e. he'll do it in 1 or 2 takes, not 6 or 7).
4) He doesn't look like the back end of a bus.
5) The viewing figures and audience feedback indicate that people like him.

Who is Dan Snow? Some sort of television personality?

One of the things I liked about Battlefield Britain was the father and son narrating team; they are fun to watch and listen to. Even watching DVD's, and getting a HEAVY dose of the pair of them, I didn't notice the irritation yous all are expressing. Perhaps there is a skosh of envy here? Or I am an unabashed Anglofile and find both of them good at the "Brit entertainer" thingie….

While there have been better things from the BBC, given what they are playing on the Canadian history channel (for example, the reality show "Ice Road Truckers", or "Outlaw Bikers" or for sake NCIS) I'll take "Battlefield Britain" or the like any day of the week.

Jealous? Of what?

The fact that he's on the box spouting often inaccurate 'popular' history dumbed down for the masses?

I don't think so.

'Perhaps there is a skosh of envy here?'

No, despair possibly, irritation surely.

I haven't taken him seriously since I first heard him talk about "Egyptian Hieroglyphics". Any decent historian who has done any research on the period would know there's no such creature. As hieroglyphic is an adjective you can either have Egyptian hieroglyphs, or hieroglyphic writing.

His pay-cheque probably IS something I'm jealous of.

Doug

Yeah, he said roughly what he earned a year when he was presenting What Britain Earns. I was definitely jealous then!

Neotacha – Dan Snow is the son of Peter Snow, a TV political commentator/newsreader of many decades experience. The pair of them presenter some history and current affairs shows as a father and son team, as he now seems to be striking out on his own. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Snow

I like his shows, and like most people, he gets paid for working.

I have never had any problem at all with any of his shows, a good, knowledgable, presenter.

John