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Have The Nt Got It Right Or Wrong

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youngmafbog | 12:00 Fri 27th Sep 2013 | News
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http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/26/national-trust-big-brother-house

Well, I'm a lifetime member of the National Trust but I wont be visiting this house!

Any other members on here, maybe who would like to see it?
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// We have had one or two complaining letters," admitted Ivo Dawnay, London director of the National Trust, "but I've written back to them and said, 'Well you don't have to like Big Brother or approve of it, or even think it's a marvellous manifestation of modern British society, but you can't deny it is interesting and it is important."//
I can certainly deny it's interesting and important, that's a very arrogant statement by a director of the National Trust. That doesn't surprise me either.
/I can certainly deny it's interesting and important/

Well you're entitled to your personal view but the NT are duty bound to take a broader and longer term view.

There was nothing very interesting or important about Blacksmiths Forges in the 18th century but it's good that some have been preserved for us to see today.

'Big Brother' was a significant and interesting worldwide media event over several years even if it wasn't the ground breaking social experiment some would still claim.

/very arrogant statement by a director of the National Trust/

Isn't making difficult decisions their job?

Or should they just try to please all the current members all of the time?
She seems to be saying that its the house design rather than the program that is interesting and important
i wouldn't go out of my way to see it, but if i was in elstree (?) i would quite like to see how small it is
I think it's a strange choice for the NT because it's not even a real house. It's a temporary TV set that changed for each series.
First, it is only open for 2 days, so it is not as though the NT have made a long term commitment.

Secondly, while the NT do own many large country houses and huge country estates they also own two small houses in Liverpool where John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent much of their growing up years and wrote some of their early songs.

So should the NT not have anything to do with them either?

I am also a long term member of the NT I think it is great they are trying to reach out to a younger and more diverse audience.

Whenever I visit a NT property it seems to be full of people (like me) who are white and in their 50s or 60s or 70s.

If the NT are going to continue to get members they need to appeal to those in their 20s or 30s.

I say good on the NT.
Surely this is just a studio complex, not a great piece of architecture saved for the country ? If there is no long term commitment then why are they getting involved ? Not their remit is it ?
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>>>not a great piece of architecture saved for the country ?

The houses that John and Paul grew up in are not great pieces of architecture either.

And you ask "what is their remit" but they are a charity so I guess they can do what they like (if most of their members approve).

I guess their most important remit is to get as members members as they can, to raise as much money as they can, to protect all the things they own (which includes coastline, hills and mountains and forests, as well as pubs and houses and gardens).

And if opening this big brother house for a couple of days gets more people to join the NT then it will have been worth it, they have certainly had a lot of publicity because if it.
And this was the first house the NT ever owned. Looking at the state of it some might have said why bother.

But we should all be glad they did bother.

http://nttreasurehunt.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/ntpl_1832.jpg
// they also own two small houses in Liverpool where John Lennon and Paul McCartney spent much of their growing up years and wrote some of their early songs. //

They're historically significant properties.

What they're proposing here is a TV studio tour. Having said that, if it was the Coronation Street set I could understand it as that has earned some degree of cultural relevance. I don't think BB has though.
I see it as dumbing down, but I guess the NT have to try to attract new members somehow....
I worked with Ivo long long ago; nice guy. I think he's now Boris's brother in law.

He's right, anyway; I've never watched Big Brother but it's certainly significant. Temporariness doesn't matter; not all NT properties have to have been built as eternal homes of the gods.

It probably won't attract the same people who go round Buckingham Palace (and I won't be going along myself), but surely that's the whole point?
I am a NT member, along with the present Mrs Hughes, and I think it's a great idea.

I would not visit personally, but it is a culturally significant site, and its place in history will become apparent when it is actualy history, as opposed to its present status which is modern-day.

Every property the Trust oversees was a new building once, with no apparent heritage or history - they are received with the passing of time, as this site will receive its own historical context.

That is entirely a separate issue from the fact the the BB show does not entertain the majority of Trust members.

As advised - anything which awakens interest in the young - and potential future Trust members, has to be a good thing.

Will the present Mrs Hughes and I be paying a visit?

No chance!
What a waste. It's hardly steeped in character is it?
As for cultural significance, in that case we may as well choose pieces of wasteland where pike....sorry, itinerants have gathered when making the Big Fat Gipsy Wedding programmes.
ChillDoubt - not comparable at all.

The impact of Big Brother on world culture and television is absolutely massive - it has led to sea-changes in the way that people in society, and ceclebrities, are viewed in a way that simply did no occur before its broadcast.

Being sniffy about it today is the same as my dad, who loftily pronounced when I adored The Beatles, that no-one would be listening to them in thirty years time.

History has a way of proving the naysayers wrong.
Let's face it, it'll maybe become a Mecca for chavs, nothing more.
I also doubt that BB has had quite the seismic effect that you claim, but that's just MHO.
Should have added that the Beatles comparison is a poor one IMHO.
After all, will future generations watch re-runs or buy a box set of BB series?
I seriously doubt that!

We're not BB fans, never have been,
will be looking seriously as to renewing our NT membership
or not at end of year.
They must be desperate for publicity imo
ChillDoubt - the impact of BB is not the content of the show, or the forgettable numpties who did and do populate it - it's the format.

The notion of an athropological experiment like this was regarded as possessing scientific validity - Doctor Desmond Morris was approached in the planning stage, but he declined - much to his bank manager's regret!

That is where the impact and significance lie.

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