TV theory: Appointment TV, Russia with Simon Reeve review (Week 2, Term 1)

Russia with Simon Reeve is written and presented by Simon Reeve and produced and directed by Eric Macfarland. The first episode aired Sunday 1st October 2017 on BBC 2 at 7:00pm. I found this out by reading the TV guide in the Daily Mail newspaper on Saturday:

Therefore, I was able to compare this information to the summary of the show on my TV while I was watching the show:

From this I found that the newspaper gave me more information about the shows that were on TV so made it simpler to choose one to watch as from the summary I could tell exactly what the show was going to cover without it giving too much away.

Analysis:

This week in class the documentary This Is BBC, showed how on the radio, news in different languages used to be broadcast to listeners overseas, but also in England, emphasizing the worldwide reach of the BBC as the heart of British culture.

The motto of the BBC is to 'inform, educate, and entertain'. Russia with Simon Reeve fits this as it educates the public about the country, even if they have never been there, widening their view of the world. 

Review:

This first episode of Russia with Simon Reeve was interesting because it enabled me to see and learn about Russia even though I've never been there before. I enjoyed it because it covered not only the geographic sights and tourist locations of the country, such as the volcanoes in Kamchatka and casinos in the west of Russia, but also the indigenous people and animals who live there such as reindeer herders and Siberian tigers. Watching it while it aired also made me like the programme more as I watched it on the TV with my parents instead of watching it alone on my tablet so we were able to share opinions during the show. After this episode, I would tune in next Sunday to watch the other episodes as they air so that I can see where in Russia Simon Reeve goes next.

References:

BBC. (2017). Russia with Simon Reeve - BBC Two. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096sbzx [Accessed 2 Oct. 2017].

Bbc.co.uk. (2017). BBC - Values - Inside the BBC. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/insidethebbc/whoweare/mission_and_values [Accessed 2 Oct. 2017].