Need advice on how to be a cranky BBC mum

[glory_jean]

Okay - it seems I have a bit of a love-hate thing going on with BBC Worldwide. The DVD distribution arm that is. Ever since DW S3 came out BBC Worldwide has embraced the Disneyesque passion for an excessive amount of trailers for their DVDs before the opening menu. Sounds okay in principle but it's their choice of trailers that's at issue.

On S3 that includes family friendly shows like MI-5 and Torchwood. (Which honestly were questionable but the trailers were not inappropriate.) Then we come to Jekyll and we see This. (Not the exact trailer but very close.) My son was just about eight when he saw that. I was out of the room when the DVD started up and came back in time to see all the bloody shirt/menacing kids scenes and my horrified boy standing frozen in front of the TV. Cue kid nightmares and being terrified to watch any of S3 for a while.

I ranted about it on some forum or another and was advised to complain at the BBCA website. I tried but the site kept eating my entry so I decided to try later and somehow never did.

Fast forward a few years. So far the S4 ads have been pretty tame (but I haven't watched all the disks) and we don't have S5. What we do have is all theSarah Jane Adventures.

I was living in hope that BBC Worldwide had learned their lesson. Then we got SJA S3 a couple months back. And on disk two was an ad for Children of Earth. A particularly lovely one too.(Sorry about text overlays from some pirate site. They are the only ones who posted that one. Huh, wonder why.) I especially love the burnt-up, screaming man part.

Now people argue and fuss at me for calling DW a kid's show. Thus the PG-13/R rated trailers *may* (and this is the most qualified "may" ever) be excusable. But I defy anyone to tell me a CBBC show is the place for a trailer like that. (Because young kids need to see stories about adults utterly betraying them?)

So after that tl;dr, my question is thus: how crazed mom should I go about all this and what exactly should I say. Whenever I think of think of it, I want to meta all day and probably come off sounding like Mary Whitehouse. **sigh**

I know better than most that my son blinks at things other kids are blind to. I know he's an extreme pacifist who at eleven is just now deciding that while it's still not okay to have a gun shown in a fictional setting, it's not always a deal-breaker. As long no one gets shot graphically. And as long the film is PG-13 or less. And not a drama. (IE comedy, light action/adventure.)

But I'm not overreacting, am I? Honestly?

Comments

[achuislemochroi.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not over-reacting.

Children of Earth trailers have no business being on anything aimed at children, FFS.

(It has a certificate 15 here and rightly so. Sarah Jane Adventures has a PG rating, which is - if you include 12A as a separate rating - two full steps down from a 15. I don't think they'd be allowed to do a CoE trailer on a SJA DVD here, although I am not an expert.)

Haven't seen CoE, don't intend to.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

Obligatory.

I don't have anything constructive to say, since I think I lack the perspective. I distinctly remember loving Jurassic Park when it came out and I was - *checks* - apparently seven.

[glory_jean]

I know, right? That's why I'm surveying. I was fearless!child. When I was eight my folks took me to see Alien in the theater, because they figured eh, monster flick, how bad could it be. Well...
They thought about leaving but decided I was fine when I spent the whole time fussing over where the cat was and whether the monster got it. (Needless to say I was pleased with the ending. ;) )

(This is the reason why I don't get the whole "watching behind the sofa" Whovian thing.)

[develish1]

from what I've read, which I'll admit isn't much, a trailer itself has to have a certificate too, at least here in the UK it does, and I would think the same applies.

When trailers are put on DVD's they cannot be rated higher than the rating for the main feature itself, so I'm not sure how they've managed this in the first place unless they somehow got that trailer classed as PG.

It might be useful to try contacting the BBFC about it http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

[glory_jean]

Thank you! I know that's the law here too about trailers, but I wasn't sure if that was true in UK. Not sure if trailers are rated, but the films and the trailers for other films have to have the same or lower rating.

I'll check out that link. :)

[develish1]

I had a quick read, but there's a lot of stuff over there so maybe contacting them for an opinion would be better/quicker.

from what I read though, it sounds like they can use a trailer from a higher rated film/show, but only if the trailer itself is cut in such a way that it qualifies for the lower rating.

hope I explained that right, lol

[glory_jean]

Thanks that makes sense.

While looking for the CoE trailer on YT I saw many versions that are spooky without being horrific, just like ones for the regular series' of TW. Sadly, the one they chose to include was not *any* of those, meh.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you.

[glory_jean]

Thanks. :)