Shine a Light

Long-time readers to my posts here will have noticed a lack of annoyance at BBC Breakfast television for quite some time. There's a good reason for that. I stopped watching in the morning. My IQ rose three points as a result.

Tonight the void was filled by stumbling unintentionally upon The One Show. It would appear ever since Matt Baker made his crack at Call-Me-Dave the producers of the show have decided that inane and bland is the way forward, with consumer pieces that Watchdog would turn down as stretching it a bit, and a love of anything to do with soap operas, treating them as if they're real. And entertaining. And well acted.

So tonight, if you dye your hair then... Well... You're gonna die. They had two tales to highlight that. The first was, genuinely, awful. A woman fell into a coma, and is still in hospital seemingly unaware of her husband and kids. The link is that her husband suspects it was caused by an active ingredient in hair dye that leads to the warnings on the packaging and those entreaties to test it on a discreet area first. This apparent allergic reaction was the cause of the coma. The 'suspects' and 'apparent' aren't my words by the way - but the words used in the actual report. Oh, and no comment at all from the poor woman's doctor.

Second up, a mother and her 14 year old daughter, whose face puffed up after dying her hair for hallowe'en. The mother who administered the dye despite the warnings that they should not be used on under-16s. The mother who said that people use them all the time without problems so, y'know, you don't think there's any harm. Despite the specific warning about under 16s. It's the hair dye's fault, clearly.

So we have one story involving a suspected, but not proved, nor medically confirmed, link; and one story of not doing things according to the packaging.

Cut to the studio and a hairdresser who explains that in 24 years of working he's never come across a reaction like that (allergic reactions are, of course, possible and do happen); pointing out that allergies to peanuts and the like are much more common. Of course that doesn't fit in with the One Show's Daily Wail-esque we're all doooooomed editorial policy, so cut to the vacuous bobble-headed stickwoman Alex Jones to declare that it's all very scary, to be followed up depressingly by the increasingly monochrome Matt Baker (who is no stranger to Daily Wail thinking given he works on Countryfile) who is surprised by how quickly the reactions came on. Like with any allergic reaction. Anaphylactic shock from a beee sting? Pretty instant. Peanuts similarly.

But my word, anyone can get hold of hair dye! Yes. And anyone can walk in a park with recently cut grass. There are quite a lot of people out there with pollen allergies that, in severe instances, can lead to hospitalisation. BAN PARKS! BAN GRASS!

Can we ban ridiculously over-the-top reactions to stuff please? Yes. Some people have allergic reactions to things, and sometimes it's serious, but please do not portray it as happening in every street every day without warning in an almost pre-meditated wave of blotchiness.

In better news, new geek t-shirts arrived! :) I do hope I'm not allergic to the cotton...