Tuesday 9 February 2016

4. (b) Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the

4) A- Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels

Bad Education is commissioned by the BBC. It was produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC3.


Bad Education is aimed at 15-20 year olds, both males and females. This is because the programme is based around 15-16 years olds as many of the characters are that age. As it is set in a school it is relatable to the 15-20 age group as they are either in school or have shortly left school. It appeals to both genders as both genders are featured it dose not favour one or the other. Teenagers can relate to the characters as they are ordinary (like themselves) and are in the same situation and have the same mind-set as the teenagers watching.


Bad Education was shown at 10:00 PM on a Tuesday night. The programme was shown at this time as that is the time the target audience is free and likely to be relaxing and watching TV. Bad Education is shown on the BBC as it a British programme, set in a British school featuring British actors and characters. The BBC may also commission Bad Education to help attract a younger audience. Bad Education is shown after the 9PM watershed as it includes sexual references and inappropriate language. Bad Education also portrays school in a slightly more realistic and negative light, that older viewers and the target audience will understand and find funny but younger viewers won't and will be more shocked.

Friday Night Dinner


Friday Night Dinner is commissioned by Channel 4. It was produced by Popper Pictures and Big Talk Productions.
Friday Night Dinner target audience is the Jewish Community as the programme is about Friday night dinner which is part of their culture so it appeals to them a lot. The ages of the target audience can really vary as the age of the characters do. It will appeal to 18-25 year olds, mainly boys, as two of the four main characters are this age making them very relatable. It will also appeal to 40-55 years olds, both males and females, as they will be able to relate to the parents in the programme.
The programme is on a Sunday after the 9 PM watershed.



A public service broadcaster has more freedom as they broadcast shows that appeal to lots of different people, as shown by Bad Education Appealing to 15-20 years old.





4) B- Discuss in detail how one  programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. 

‘Bad Education’ is a sitcom which is a comedy which is set in the same location as the title refers to with the same characters at school. This allows the audience to build a relationship with each of the characters as they get to know them, plus the audience is also included in the story line as they they get to see each episode unfold.
‘Bad Education’ offers us audience gratification because of the various stereotypes presented in the programme. One stereotype presented is the ‘chav’ stereotype, in which we see this in Mitchell one of Mr Wickers' students who is particularly difficult to teach, not that Mr Wickers has any intention to teach his students anyway.
The narrative pleasures with in Bad education makes the audience know how the story will begin and end, with a problem and at the end somehow everything will be better. This makes the audience understand the construction of the episode and how it will be formatted.
The comedy with in Bad education is the thing that really makes people watch this as Mr Wickers makes fun of himself as well as the awkward positions he always finds him self in which amuses the audience of Bad Education.The familiarity with the characters and the setting allows the audience to get to know the characters and their personality and behaviour throughout the episode. This will also lead the audience to analyse the stereotypes that each character plays to make it entertaining as they are familiar with the concept of stereotyping which makes each character have a likeable trait. One example of a stereotype is Jing. Her character is specified as the logical and smart one, who is also portrayed as the 'smart Asian'. Throughout the episode, we see her personality as arrogant and egotistical because of her knowledge and constantly telling the teacher what to do and insulting them for not handling the class the way that anyone would expect the teacher to behave.  







Another stereotype would be Alfie Wickers who is portrayed as the lovable loser. Throughout the entire episode we see him trying to impress his colleague Miss Gulliver who rejects him because of his immature and irresponsible attributes. He seems to constantly do this throughout the series to make it humorous for the audience as he fails no matter how many times he tries. Relating to this, this is how the audience familiarised themselves with the characters. Alfie Wickers is the immature teacher who has no authority over the students and lets himself get bullied because of this. This makes the audience realise that these are the attributes that he shows throughout all the episodes and how the audience can identify how he will act in different situations which is presented in the narrative. One example of this is when the school bully confronts Mr Wickers in the corridor and compliments him on his shows, following this he threatens Alfie to give him his shoes. Because Alfie has no authority he unwillingly gives him the shoes and looks in loss property for a pair of ugly shoes. The audience will find this aspect funny but will realise that Alfie has no authority over the other students. 

Thursday 4 February 2016

Audience Pleasure

The pleasures are:
  • narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution, 
  • character identification, snowballing narrative, suspense, comedy, and so on
  • pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation
  • pleasures of difference-within-repetition
  • performance unpredictability and spontaneity
  • transgressive pleasures
  • specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities

Remember to include clear examples from episode one.

What do these terms mean?

Narrative pleasures refer to the audience enjoying how the storyline is constructed. In situation comedy, the plot starts and ends in exactly the same place. What happens in between is usually a snowballing narrative of one problem added onto another problem, This is usually caused by the stupid decisions of the character and the audience laugh as they make each poor choice.

Character identification is how the audience knows the characters well and can predict how they will behave. Audiences feel they can relate the the characters and they become well loved because of these predictable character traits. How does Mr Wickers appeal to the target audience? He is seen as the worse teacher ever but he is surrounded by some of the weirdest teachers who by comparison make him seem far better than any alternative. His intentions are good and the audience identify with him, even though he is immature and makes such cringe-worthy decisions. 

Wednesday 3 February 2016

TV Comedy Scheduling


Bad Education


  • Who commissioned the programmes? BBC 3 was the programme that commissioned Bad Education
  • Who produced them? Tiger Aspect Productions and Jack Whitehall
  • What audience are they aimed at? Why? The audience is aimed at both men and women aged 16 to 35 because of the type of humour is particular to them as it is a quite immature sense of humour.
  • Why are they on at that time and on that channel? They were on BBC 3 at 10pm because that is the watershed time which is from 9pm onwards and 10pm is one of the prime times for adult humour. The reason Bad Education chose to go with BBC 3 was due to how many people watch their programmes as they got a large audience. Also it was shown on a Wednesday.
  • Are they on after the watershed? Why? They're after the watershed because it is aimed at an older audience due to it having rude humour.



Friday Night Dinner


  • Who commissioned the programme? Channel 4 was the programme that commissioned Friday Night Dinner
  • Who produced Friday Night Dinner? Big Talk Productions and Popper Pictures
  • What audience are they aimed at? Friday Night Dinner is aimed towards both men and women aged 16 to 35 due to the type of humour it presents to people that watch this.
  • Why are they on at that time and on that channel? The reason Channel 4 is their audience who watch and who know about channel 4 is a lot so if they have their channel is on channel 4 then they will get a lot of people watching for their first time. It is down to the programme to make the audience come back to watch the programme depending on its content the programme has to offer. 9 pm  is the time Friday Night Dinner is on.
  • Are they on after the watershed? Why?