SLOW DOWN
Give 'em what they want. That's the mantra for producers and TV companies, and what they want is slow TV. Repairs, antiques, pottery, cooking, baking, crafting, home decor, gardening and staycationing are the current kings and queens of the schedules.
The proliferation of property based TV shows and Celebrity Cook programmes in the Nineties and Noughties was all about the money and the ego. This new breed of TV shows takes a low key approach and let's the ingredients speak for themselves. We all have time on our hands at the moment in this never ending lockdown and time spent pursuing interests is in itself interesting.
This rebirth of Slow TV brings to mind Out Of Town with Jack Hargreaves, Going For A Song and Robert Harbin's Origami. During this first golden age of Slow TV we were given people who enjoyed their passions and had an ability to simply do their own thing in front of a camera in an engaging and interesting way. Magnus Pike and Patrick Moore bought their enthusiasm for science to our screens in a uniquely British eccentric manner and there were a number of unlikely TV presenters talking about low key interests.
Slow TV 2021 is a mirror for the times in which we find ourselves. Flash! Bang! Wallop! seems jaded now, Softly, Softly is the new black. The armchair is the safe place, the living room the sanctuary and it is in this context that we find ourselves gradually getting immersed in TV without drama, TV that calms.
The new Slow TV exists in the world of Lockdown and Pandemic anxiety, and it is in this unique landscape where the viewer has found time to reflect, time to slow down and time to just be interested.
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having said that;