I’ve been watching a fair few dramas on tele at the moment and am thoroughly enjoying them to boot but I feel I must speak up for the ‘teams’ involved in producing these programmes.  I don’t know about you but I love to read the credits at the end of each episode – perhaps to refresh my memory  with the names of actors/ producers/directors, perhaps to seek out the names of writers/musicians/ make-up artists or find out where and when the the production took place; I’m the same at the cinema I just like to know these facts and by scrutinising the credits I feel in a way I am respecting the contributions made by  a great number of people to the success (or otherwise) of the show.

Well to begin with, credits often ‘roll’ too fast –SLOW DOWN! Yes, yes, I know I can use my pause button  – and I do – but if my loved one’s name was appearing somewhere on that list I really would like to have a reasonable chance of seeing it. Using the pause button also interrupts some possibly beautiful theme music thus ruining a ‘moment’ for the viewer. Add to this great annoyance, programme planners(?) have now taken to minimising the list of credits to a ridiculously illegible size, in favour of advertising some up and coming programme or event, not just by superimposing pictures and graphics over names of the lesser cast members and the behind- the- scenes’ staff, but with voiceovers too! This may look and sound slick and ‘cool ‘ but IT IS NOT FAIR!! It is not fair to the cast of the previous programme. Can’t we just enjoy living in the moment by ‘being allowed’ to savour something beautiful/exciting/scary/funny before being ‘forcibly distracted’ by what’s coming up next…?…..

Go on, say it ….. making a drama out of a crisis! Well it’s not, in my opinion. Good teamwork should be acknowledged – respectfully. I do not think that there is any position in a successful team unworthy of recognition. This applies also to managers. If someone, in a supervisory capacity, is doing their job properly then they will be able to identify the kind of ‘wasters’ of whom I speak and deal with situations appropriately. Now if one can manage people successfully and justice is done and is seen to be done then one is doing the job for which one is being remunerated. Respect has to be earned without compromising or losing one’s own and by fulfilling the demands of the position honestly and fairly to the best of one’s ability, then this is achievable. We know, however, that human nature being what it is, this is never straightforward and often emotions can be sorely affected. Being true to oneself is as vital as listening to and considering other points of view….. a good boss doesn’t always stay top of the popularity pole but there’s every chance of a reasonable sleep at bedtime!

Over the past few years we have been made aware of the dismal failures of prestigious ‘teams’  which have failed miserably to deal with their internal problems and so have lead to the scandals
and misery which still persists. If only those in charge had been sufficiently courageous to see and deal timeously with those miscreants over whom they had charge……. if only …….  ‘A stitch in time’……. ‘Never put off till tomorrow’…… ‘Procrastination’…… we learned them all by heart but did we really take them to heart…….                                                                                        
 ‘For the want of a nail a shoe was lost

For the want of a shoe a horse was lost

For the want of a horse a rider was lost

For the want of a rider a battle was lost

For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.’

                                                             Benjamin Franklin

This is a proverb which has changed over the centuries but this is how I remember it. It highlights a situation in which a ‘failure to anticipate or correct some initially small dysfunction can lead, by successively more critical stages, to a shocking outcome’……. I’ll say no more………….. I’m off to watch tele……… and hopefully to read ‘the credits.’ x