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50 PLUS MAGAZINE
TWITTERING ON BY ANGELA KELLY “mockumentary” which will take what they see as gospel. They will, wrongly, assume that this is true history being played out by actors and definitely happened. In fact, as in The Crown, there are some scenes “imagined” – in other words, they made it up. Although accepting that it can be used by those with an agenda to shape public opinion, it’s not necessarily always a damaging ploy. In the hit 2017 film Darkest Hour set in May, 1940, and about Winston Churchill winning the hearts and minds of both Parliament and the public during World War Two, there is a scene on the London underground which is pivotal.
Do film and TV dramas really tell the truth? VETERAN broadcaster John Sergeant raised an interesting point about how fictionalised versions of history may fool people into believing this is actually what happened. He was concerned about the Netflix hit series The Crown. He felt the way it depicted the Royal Family might not be “appropriate” and that timelines and events were “massaged and altered” to assist the drama. This comes after the Queen’s ex-press secretary called imagined scenes “distasteful.” However accurate or otherwise such dramatised versions of real-life are, there is definitely a concern there about how near the truth such versions may be. They are, after all, created for entertainment and perhaps some periods of history, some lives, are just not that interesting for quite a large part of them. When there are occurrences (and, goodness me, the Royal Family had a year packed with them in 2019) then they tend to be the ones on which, quite naturally, dramatists focus. More worrying – which I think is John Sergeant’s point – is that there will be a large portion of any audience of this kind of 6
Churchill meets and chats to Londoners who give their opinion about the war which alters, or possibly cements, his own views. As a result, he makes an inspirational speech to Parliament.
However, researchers who observed people meeting in local government, public organisations, the police and health bodies found decision-making is actually very limited. These findings will be balm to all those harassed souls forced to attend endless meetings with their job. Furthermore, the researchers say that these meetings are often more like “therapy”, allowing people to air complaints, justify their job or clarify their own status. Brilliant! Some decisions are best taken by a very small number of purpose-driven individuals who will get on with what’s important. Ready for my 10 o’clock meeting? Sorry, it’s just not productive enough.
Apparently, there is no evidence that this ever happened. We don’t mind, though, because it is artistic licence and adds to the points being made about Churchill which were historically accurate. I suppose the problem is that most of us have either forgotten what we’ve learned of some specific period or event in history or are simply too lazy to find out the truth. We go with the version that entertains us, happily accepting that this “seems right” so it must be true, which is possibly dangerous naivety.
When meetings really take us nowhere I LOVE the latest findings about business meetings: that they may be more about status and showing off than actually getting anything done. According to academics from Malmo University and Lund University in Sweden, some managers spend more than half their working week in meetings.
YouTube is the go-to place for practical skills ARE you a Bake Off fan? I watch it sometimes but it always leaves me feeling hungry. I do love, though, Junior Bake Off because it’s not only inspirational but fascinating to witness the skills that these youngsters display with so much confidence. The latest winner was 13 year-old Finley Woodward. Far from having to be prised off his X-box, Finley plainly loved to cook and was absolutely amazing at it.
