Teenagers. They’re everywhere peering down like faceless hoods at honest folk. A bunch of unintelligent ABSO chavs running around stealing cars and mugging old ladies. It’s broken Britain. At least that’s what certain sections of the meeja would have you believe by tarring all with the same brush stating that teenagers should be mocked from a distance rather than engaged. So the BBC, spotting a market, has created a new talent show based on the idea of giving da yoof of today a chance to be heard.
The Speaker has X Factor type Auditions without the Cruelty
The concept of The Speaker is to find the best teenage public speakers and nurture the top ones into all round great debaters. It’s the usual talent show set up; a panel of judges, qualifying rounds, weekly eliminations, tears, joy, etc. It’s the formula of the noughties. The first week consisted of X Factor type auditions where teenagers from around the UK were given one minute each to talk about a subject of their choosing.
Unlike X Factor most turned out to be very good and weren’t selected for the purposes of light entertainment by cruelly poking fun at the deluded souls – if you enjoy such things you can tune over to ITV1 for the new series of Britain’s Got Talent. Plus the judging panel of comedienne Jo Brand, former basketball player now professional speaker John Amaechi and stage director Jeremy Stockwell is far easier to tolerate than Cowell and his cronies.
Teenagers in Cringe-worthy Situations in The Speaker
In the second week and third episode to date the 20 remaining contestants had to prove their worth by being put through a series of challenges designed to test their nerve and impromptu speech skills. Half of the contestants were instantly culled when each of them was thrust on stage at an empty Wembley Arena to explain why they should stay.
It’s a trying experience not only for the youngsters involved but for the viewer as most struggle with their speeches, pause heavily or just freeze. It’s quite an admirable thing by the BBC to give these youngsters a voice even if some of their views, like last week’s ill informed rant about the penal system, are a little irrepressible but it is also cringe-worthy to see people fall into embarrassing stupors.
Some Fail at Speakers' Corner in London’s Hyde Park
After week one the judges have suddenly become hard to please and more scornful about failure. What do they expect by pushing a 16-year-old to Speakers' Corner in London’s Hyde Park and make them talk about a pair of binoculars? Being gazed over by scary Dragons’ Den investor Deborah Meaden while they do it doesn’t exactly help either and is enough to send even the toughest Grant Mitchell wannabe into a squirming mess.
For the final task the three who failed to impress had to talk about a topic inspired by a random picture, with only one of them remaining. It’s a novel twist on the tie breaker by giving them something different to do than simply repeat the exact same act again.
The Speaker is an interesting take on a branch of TV that is being bled dry with variations of people singing and dancing before being criticised by armchair pundits. Although a bit dull at times it’s promising to see something that values celebration of talent over ridicule. And if the punters start to drift away Jo Brand could chuck in some witty putdowns a la Theo Paphitis. You know, the sort that obviously haven’t been written beforehand and are edited to make them look like off the cuff remarks. He’s funny that Theo.
The Speaker is shown on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8pm on BBC Two.
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