BBC Bargain Hunt Accused Of Fix
NOT Bargain Hunt! Not the show that, along with Songs of Praise and the Antiques Roadshow, has beamed wholesome entertainment into the chintzy living rooms of middle England.
Not the show that, from its low-budget, daytime-TV loins, gave birth to the orange icon that is David Dickenson? Surely it couldn’t be the latest show to be found guilty of deceiving its loyal viewers? Well, yes, it could.
That’s according to former contestant Jim Samuels, who was seen on the show last month. The 70-year-old Samuels claims that the contestants’ ‘bargains’ are agreed before the cameras roll and that the experts even tell them what to buy, rather than just help them. He also said he saw a BBC crew member loading one of his bargains into their van after it was auctioned.
Says Samuels in the Mail: “We went off and had a look at the stuff as they were filming other couples, thought what we wanted to buy and were introduced to our adviser. He then told us what we were going to buy. Then they came round with a cameraman where we were pretending to buy the stuff. It had already been bought. It became obvious that they had all fixed the prices.”
However, the Beeb have refuted the allegations that he contestants are told what to buy or that prices are fixed in advance, although they did admit that the scenes where the contestants negotiate the price of goods are reconstructed. Rather like Dickenson’s skin tones.
Cheap as chips.
Posted: 7th, August 2007 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
