ABSTRACT
It is, perhaps, less than scholarly to use in a title words which are unattributed and which may be anecdotal, but in the absence of significant academic comment on television holiday programmes they do offer some insight into the genre and a starting point for this chapter. They were quoted by travel journalist Paul Gogarty writing in The Daily Telegraph about the appointment as presenter of ITV’s holiday programme Wish You Were Here? of Anthea Turner, who in 1997 replaced the long serving Judith Chalmers and her co-presenter, travel correspondent John Carter:
[U]nlike John [Carter] Anthea will not write or research her own scripts. She will sit smiling on a restaurant terrace in front of a delicious sunset. The director will tell her to take a sip of wine, encourage her to smile wider and say something interesting, such as: ‘Hmmm … that tastes good … in paradise the food and drink are as memorable as the sunsets.’ Anthea’s appointment is just another stage in the process known as ‘dumbing down’ that must reach its nadir soon. Once, the location was the star, now it is just an interchangeable backdrop.
