Monday 7 December 2015

Exit stage left, damn you.

I don't usually get upset by cliches. After all, they convey meaning even though in an unexciting way. But there's a cliche in TV programmes that is bringing me to screaming point. It's the walk-off-shot cliche. A talking head talks to camera and then walks off shot as if on the way to somewhere important, implying that it was very good of them to talk to us for a moment in their busy schedule. They do it again and again. It's as if they can't stand still when they've finished their spoken piece, they've got to scuttle off stage left. It's got to the point that I dread the moment when it happens, and I tend to shout "Where the fuck are you going?"
The walk-off-shot was a clever device when it was first employed. Now it's a cliche of the worst kind, the kind that gives a man colic. If Angela Rippon, Fiona Bruce, Chris Packham, Paul Whassname, John Thingy and the rest don't stop doing it, I shall...I'll....I'm going to.... storm off stage right. That'll teach 'em.

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