9th August 2008, 05:27 PM
I suspect that, to meet publication deadlines, the Spoilheap piece was written weeks ago, before certain sharp shards of reality burst the bubble of the makers of Bonkers. It cites the viewing figures for the first episode, a heady high (born of expectation), but not the decline thereafter (born of experience). It cites numbers of comments after the first day or so, but seems not to have fully taken in the nature of them.
Mark Horton may have expected a similar reaction to that Time Team stirred up in its early days. There was grumbling about it from the profession, but huge support from the public. By contrast the negative reaction to Bonkers has come from all quarters. It has been panned as a turkey in TV drama terms. A huge amount of criticism on the official site has been aimed at its political agenda, and about the same amount at its script, direction and acting.
Mark Horton may have expected a similar reaction to that Time Team stirred up in its early days. There was grumbling about it from the profession, but huge support from the public. By contrast the negative reaction to Bonkers has come from all quarters. It has been panned as a turkey in TV drama terms. A huge amount of criticism on the official site has been aimed at its political agenda, and about the same amount at its script, direction and acting.