Asked to watch the Ordinary Boys, Katie Melua and the Beautiful South for nothing? Life at the Beeb can’t be all that bad.

to watch this these days, but as daytime tv goes Today on ITV1 is well loved and a harmless hour of fun. Sad to see it go.

It is with great reluctance that I am complaining about audio description again so soon. I am honestly not planning on making this a weekly occurrence.

The decision regarding AD for the final episode of the Apprentice was probably taken before Tuesday Night’s broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s In Touch, which did an excellent job of highlighting the plight of the blind community in campaigning for consistent, reliable and equitable targets for audio described television. I certainly would not expect In Touch to cover this again in the near future. Clearly other issues exist which impact the quality of life of blind people which require In Touch’s attention.

However, on the face of it at least, it would seem that someone somewhere is not getting the message about audio description. I respect that their may have been delivery constraints in respect of the live part of BBC Two’s broadcast of the final episode of The Apprentice. However, the vast majority of this broadcast was pre-recorded and thus could have been delivered with audio description consistent with previous episodes of the Apprentice.

So in time honoured tradition…

Dear BBC

For your information I intend sending copies of this complaint to Ofcom, Sky’s accessibility team, the RNIB and BBC Radio 4’s In Touch which carries information of interest to blind people.

I have enjoyed the BBC Two series The Apprentice, which has been fantastically audio described on Freeview and digital satellite. I was hugely frustrated when I sat down on 10 May to find that even though The final episode of The Apprentice had been advertised as audio described in TV listings, the broadcast itself was not. Surely this is a mistake?

I appreciate that only some broadcasters are obligated to broadcast only a small percentage of their output with audio description. However for the BBC, arguably the world’s leading public service broadcaster, having offered a prime time series with the profile of The Apprentice with AD, only to drop the AD for the final episode seems incomprehensible.

Yours faithfully
—
Dave Williams

From: Michael Foster MP
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 6:14 PM
To: Dave Williams
Subject: OFCOM report

Dear David Williams

Thank you for your letter of the 3rd May about the report by Ofcom.

I will be writing to Ofcom to reinforce the point you make and as soon as I have a response I will contact you again.

You may be aware that I have worked closely with Dolphin over the years and make regular visits to RNIB New College and the issues you raise are of great interest to me.

Thank you for contacting me about this matter.

Best wishes
Yours sincerely
Michael Foster MP
Worcester

The BBC web site will shortly be updated to carry details of the In Touch for 9 May, featuring coverage of events surrounding the initial lack of audio description for the Channel 4 series Lost.