Thursday, October 04, 2012

Who is Tom Baker?

Well, so who is Tom Baker? Now my guess is that most of you know who he is, Former Dr Who, appeared in Blackadder and so on. Am I right in assuming that you know who he is?

For me there are three type of celebrities. First of all there are those that you only need the first name for. Kylie, Brucie, Nigella, Hayley and so on. (That last one was Hayley Mills of course and I'll be disappointed if you didn't know that one!). A sub-class of this are those that only need the last name for. Cowell, Clooney, etc. I'm sure you know who those people are.

The second group are those that need both names for people to know who they are. Dawn French, Huw Edwards, Joanna Lumbley, Nigel Havers, Again I'm sure that these are all names you recognise. You need no further introduction

On pantomime posters, which I love looking at, there is a third group of celebrities. Those that the designers of the posters think that you need some prompting. I was reminded of this when seeing a poster for the pantomime that is on in Bournemouth this year. Sleeping Beauty. Starting Su Pollard.. no further information needed there, it is assumed that you know who Sue Pollard is, whether you want to or not!… Asa Elliott from ITV's Benidorm. Oh look, they thought that you did need more information there. The 'From ITV's Benidorm' The designer assumed that you might not know who that is using just their name. This is especially prevalent where the person is from Children's Television. I was nominated for an in house award last year (I didn't win) and the guest presenter we had booked was from Children's TV. The audience was split in two. Those that had kids knew who he was and those of us that didn't have a clue and still don't to be honest.

The listing continues with Tom Baker - The designer of the poster has felt the need to add 'from Dr Who'. Surely we don't need that? I know he hasn't be on the TV much recently and there is a saying in acting circles that is your haven't been on TV for a while people think you are dead. And I know he is in drag but still it's Tom Baker. We all know who he is, don't we?



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2 Comments:

At 11:22 AM, Blogger Louise Brown said...

I totally agree with you here Peter but you have to remember that pantos (and the like) need to reach out to the widest possible audience to make any money. They need to be confident that the 8 year old child walking past the poster will recognise someone as well as the 40 year old parents and 70 year old grand parents. Of course I know who Tom Baker is (he actually used to live near me and I enjoyed seeing him about town) but I don't have a clue who the TV presenters and soap stars are. I would rather they give some explanation then have to ask a child who someone is!

(And I had no idea Su Pollard was in Benidorm).

 
At 11:26 AM, Blogger Peter said...

Thanks for the reply. I take your point, the poster is all about putting bums on seats.. and they should be doing all they can to acheive that.

 

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