There’s a series on TV at the moment going backstage at the Savoy hotel on the Strand. I was interested in it at first, but as I watched more of it I couldn’t help but feel a faint disgust.
On one hand we have the footballer Marcus Rashford trying to get the Government to fund free school dinners for disadvantaged and hungry children in the school holidays, and on the other hand we have florists at the Savoy creating a £1000 bouquet of roses. Businesses are going to the wall left, right and centre, but you can stay in a suite at the Savoy with a butler service for a mere £15,000 per night.
Kitchen staff at the Savoy who prepare food for one of the restaurants owned by that chef who swears all the time live in fear of their jobs. Out he flounces from his taxi and screams blue murder if the new haddock bake (in his opinion) doesn’t taste like haddock. Instead of throwing out the haddock bake, why not donate it to the homeless? Also, why not test it on interested clientele to discover if the chef who swears all the time might actually be wrong?
There are many destitute people lined up in sleeping bags along the Strand who would wolf down a haddock bake if the hotel guests don’t like it either; I know, because I’ve seen them for myself. The chef who swears all the time needs several lessons in people management. I’m sure he’d get the best out of his staff if they weren’t so terrified of him. Would he have liked somebody screaming at him when he was a non-celebrity all those years ago?
I think in this current climate it’s most inappropriate to show a programme about a hotel steeped in excess when people have been made redundant and are fighting to stay afloat. The reformed and re-baked haddock bake would probably be on the menu for a terribly exorbitant price anyway, because as you know, the £15,000 per night room doesn’t include food. Housekeepers (no- we’re not servants, darling) bow and scrape to the moneyed elite. Ugh – it’s absolutely gross.
I really cannot watch another one of these programmes in the series. It raises my blood pressure too much!
usfman said:
If this reality series was made in the U.S. , no doubt guns would be involved. So sad that standards of programming have dropped this low.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thankfully it’s not normal to include guns over here. I think I’d feel quite alarmed to know that ordinary people in a hotel I was staying in were all carrying guns.
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Mister Bump UK said:
I found this post from Vic Crain’s blog. Fully agree. Never watched it but saw it was on.
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Stevie Turner said:
One cocktail was £60! Some people can’t even afford to put food on the table for their kids and have to resort to food banks.
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Mister Bump UK said:
The thing that gets me is that politicians of all colours promote this imbalance.
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Stevie Turner said:
The majority are all ex-public school. It’s probably natural for them to pay £60 for a cocktail anyway. Like in March they said for us not to go to holiday homes and not to visit relatives, but some were doing this anyway and then tried to justify their visits when they were caught out.
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Vic Crain said:
Reblogged this on CRAIN'S COMMENTS and commented:
I rather feel the same way. I have absolutely no interest in what the “rich and famous” do. I suspect this self-absorption among TV execs with their own ilk underlies declining ratings for most tv fare.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks for your comment, Vic, and to show it in these straightened times was a big mistake I think.
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tidalscribe said:
Glad I avoided that one. When I first worked at Heathrow I heard people talking about housekeeping – as there are no homes at the airport I thought this was strange till I realised they were talking about the cleaning company! Cleaning is cleaning, an honest job but it’s still cleaning!
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Stevie Turner said:
Of course. A butler is still a glorified servant no matter what he says.
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franklparker said:
Haven’t seen it – just as well by the sound of it. And this is the ‘industry’ the claims to have been hardest hit by the pandemic restrictions!
Although, it’s not the likes of the Savoy and its owners who are suffering, it’s the staff, most of whom are probably on minimum wage.
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes of course. Tonight’s programme deals with the effects of the virus, so perhaps cocktails are £10 instead of £60 to woo customers back?
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Darlene said:
I don’t like reality shows and British TV has a lot of them. I’d rather read a book.
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Stevie Turner said:
Me too really. Reading is cool.
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jwebster2 said:
There are times when I remember why I’ve not bothered watching TV for fourteen years 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
14 years? Wow, I don’t think you’ve missed much. I only watch documentaries these days, as the rest is too awful to even contemplate watching.
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jwebster2 said:
That’s what I’ve been told by others, and it’s amazing how life manages to fill the gaps that not watching TV is supposed to leave 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Generally, standards have dropped over the years, although some documentaries are excellent.
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Clive said:
I’ve not watched that, which is probably just as well – my tv would be at risk from flying objects!
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Stevie Turner said:
Really? You wouldn’t spend £15,000 on one night’s stay at the Savoy?
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Clive said:
Nope! I once treated my team to breakfast there for Christmas, but needed a second mortgage for it 😉
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Stevie Turner said:
One particular cocktail is £60.
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Clive said:
Blimey! It was late eighties when I went there and from memory breakfast was around £15 a head. I expect it’s rather more now.
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Stevie Turner said:
Add a nought or two!
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Clive said:
😂
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