| He told us: “I’m playing a member of the jury. I had to do it at the last minute because there wasn’t anybody else and … The only people watching RTE now are the minority of elderly people who just won’t learn to use the internet (possibly because they’ve got better things to do, not because they can’t learn) and those trapped in nursing homes .I recently visited two people in nursing homes and was saddened to find that they had no Netflix, no Sky TV, not even YouTube. One of my elderly friends, currently living in a nursing home, is bitterly disappointed that she can’t watch the Netflix adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s racy novel “Rivals”. She also wants to see “The Crown” and “Game of Thrones” .They don’t even have satellite TV so they can’t enjoy the excellent output on ITV3. People of a certain generation love to watch old re-runs of Inspector Frost, Midsomer Murders, Heartbeat and Doc Martin, just as the middle-aged love Friends and Sex & The City. Old people also love true crime and classic horror (The Omen, the Wicker Man etc) – indeed the latter is a bonding exercise with their grandkids who are delighted to discover their granddad’s taste in movies is anything but bland.To see these poor old people sitting in the communal TV room, plonked in front of Nationwide, quiz shows and half-hour advertorials about home decorating, farming and how to run a food business (I kid you not) is truly disheartening. The only highlights of their TV viewing are the soaps (God bless Fair City).The young and middle-aged have long given up on RTE. The old only watch it because it’s free and they can’t afford real entertainment. |
Posted by 
Who Watches the Watchers? 