Cancelling TV programmes in response to news items

[LeMarchand]

Last weekend, it was the anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance and it was also when news of the cyclone in Burma with it's death toll in the tens (hundreds?) of thousands broke. ITV quite happily showed "Flood", with a huge storm hitting the UK and killing thousands; while the BBC pulled "Madel[b]ine[/b]", about a feisty orphan girl.

Now I don't think that ITV should necessarily have pulled "Flood" (I watched it - very cheesy), but why the discrepancy?

[tiggerblue10]

Is that why they showed that crappy Herbie film?

[jno]

dramas about one person are always a more sensitive issue than dramas about thousands of people.

[LeMarchand]

But why? One girl is missing from one family while thousands of people and thousands of families are dead. It doesn't make sense.

Besides which, the "Madeline" film had nothing to do with Madeleine McCann besides a similar first name.

[Kromovaracun]

There was a film whose release date was postponed (I forget its name offhand - but I seem to remember it had the word Baby) due to the McCann case. It was about the kidnap of a little girl.

Frankly, I think it's stupid. It doesn't really show any further respect/disrespect (and if they wanted to show respect, they could quite easily do it by adding a text screen to the film) and the argument that they might be offensive given the new circumstances is just silly.

[jno]

I think because it sounds as if they're making money out of an individual tragedy. If lots of people die on screen nobody feels personally involved; if it looks as if someone's trying to cash in on the McCann tragedy, it feels bad (at least to me).

[LeMarchand]

Maybe we're talking at cross-purposes, jno, but MadelINE has nothing to do with Madeleine McCann beyond a similar name.

From IMDB: "Redheaded young girl Madeline is very good at getting into trouble, but she's also fantastic in solving problems as well, and her school-mistress Miss Clavel is not too approving of her. The biggest problem comes up when Lord Covington decides to sell the Madeline's school.".

[jno]

I know there's no actual connection, LeMarchand, but not everyone knows how the two names are spelt (and for the purposes of TV they'll sound the same). Personally I think the BBC are overreacting if they're going to pull anything in which someone is called Madeline, but they are always desperate not to give unintended offence

[saxy_jag]

It's political correctness gone crazy. I've seen 'Madeleine' before and I agree, it has no similarity whatsoever to the story of the 'missing' McCann child. Twee film, but it's as traditional as 'Annie' and 'Oliver'. I wouldn't know about 'Flood'.

The truth is, these programmes/films are scheduled months in advance. It's not as though the programmers have done this deliberately. I'm sure those directly involved in these real-life tragedies understand this perfectly well.