Why Don't I Turn My Work Into A TV Show?

 

I was asked why I had never developed a podcast, radio programme or TV series from my work? After all I have enough books covering mysteries -four on UFOs and four on "world mysteries" 

The answer is simple. Personally I do not have the finances or technical gear to do so. Things cost money and that is something I do not have. I have talked with radio stations before and they were quite interested, however, their regular people who did short spots on local ghost stories were unhappy and so "Sadly we cannot develop this at the moment." 

Oh, I have tried TV. I have been interviewed often enough by the BBC as well as Sky and other broadcasters. 

My first attempt was going smoothly until I mentioned it to some British Cryptozoologists. I was unaware that these people later contacted the two producers of the planned programme. I did a lot of work and even managed to get a policeman and two other witnesses who had always refused to be filmed to agree to take part. Come the morning that I was supposed to be picked up to go off for filming and meet the witnesses...nothing. I phoned the producers. No response. Tried other methods. Nothing. A secretary told me that the two of them were off filming the programme I had developed and was supposed to be in.  It seems that the two young producers had been pushed about by the crypto people into not involving me and that they would give a better programme. I spoke to a senior director who was not happy but nothing I could do.  The 25 minutes long 'documentary' turned out to be a make believe farce and got very bad viewer reactions -it was complete nonsense. The two producers were "let go".  

In another instance the company which made documentaries for TV companies thought that re-enactments by actors would help the story flow better. I had no objections until I was told "We'll cut to the scene where the two women are in bed together" and my reaction was "What?"  Actually it was a lot ruder. The two witnesses to the haunting in question were indeed in bed together -they were 9 years old and 12 years old and sisters sharing a bedroom.  At this point I realised that the "sexy" angle was the main aim. In another story we would follow a couple who observed a UFO while taking a short cut home through a wood one night. In fact, they had apparently seen the UFO while having sex in the wood. The couple in question were in their 70s and one had to use a walking frame.  I was told that they knew the business of making programmes and if I just sat back and took the payment things would be fine. No.  

I was involved with Yorkshire TV at one point to develop ideas for shows that could be shown on national TV. One of these was The Unidentified which looked into UFO cases. I contacted the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) which fuddled about and decided that I needed to contact their "prominent members" individually. "I have the final say on the edit of my part" was a common phrase along with "Well, I would be giving up my time and as you'll not find anyone more expert on the subject I would expect adequate compensation".  It was sheer ego and wanting to snatch money. A producer contacted the same people to see what result he got -"What a crowd of money grubbing egotists!" was his conclusion.   Uh, there would have been a programme on cryptozoology but the same problem and worse still was the  demand that the cases to be dealt with were chucked out and one of their personal cases replace them. When I showed the producer the actual case details and he realised he would be behind a programme pushing hoaxing that was it. 

With that same producer we had one successfully accepted idea. And idea that was then rejected and after a couple of months became Channel 4s 'own idea' yet we had the paperwork. According to the producer "That's TV. This sort of thing goes on a lot".  

I am not against a TV show idea but it seems the era of Trash TV is here to stay. Believe me, I have no objections to earning money honestly but no one is intereste!