Ministry of Cultural Hyperbole
Wales now officially invisible, says Wales
If any of you were thinking of walking the Offa's Dyke path this summer, you'd better be careful - chances are you could find yourself hurtling into a limbo-realm of non-existence as soon as you put one foot outside the English border. Why? Because it seems that Wales has virtually disappeared.
That's the view of the Wales Broadcasting Committee, anyway, who claim that their country has become an 'invisible nation' on British television screens. Which doesn't seem entirely true - Westmonster recalls a cracking episode of Silent Witness in which the forensics team all took a trip to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and spent forty-seven minutes attempting to pronounce the name.
According to a new report:
"Wales is the UK's invisible nation in terms of its place on TV screens. No UK network lives up to its boast that it reflects the lives of people throughout the UK. Each UK PSB (public service broadcaster) is, in different ways, London-centric and everyday life in Wales is reflected nowhere, in any genre at any time on the schedules".
Yeah - the gogglebox is so London-centric, isn't it? It's such a mystery as to why the place receives most of the UK's televisual attention. After all - it's only the hub of the nation's media, finance, arts, culture, politics, international relations and tourism revenue. Who'd want to hear anything about that?
If only Wales could get more exposure. You know, like having it's own offshoot of Channel 4, which receives approximately £94 million of public funding every year. Something like that sounds ideal...
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