What were they thinking of ?

Last week there was an excellent five part drama on BBC1 written by Gwyneth Hughes and broadcast on five consecutive nights. It was a gripping many stranded story with a superb cast led by Suranne Jones and David Morissey. Then there was marvellous Anne Reid playing Suranne’s mother. She captured the tragic sadness of a woman losing her grip, mentally on life, but still able to attract a widower played by Bernard Hill who had already lost his wife to Alzheimers.

There are so many other facets to this play one of which involved an abandoned baby. This isn’t a criticism of the play but something I need to get off my chest. More and more babies – even new born - are being used in drama and in this particular series the baby was clearly in a distressed condition and left to cry which was just right for the play but not for the baby, He needed to be held and comforted by his mother or someone he was happy with.

There were night scenes outdoors and one began to wish for the days when a doll would be used.

And what about those toddlers who are used to portray child abuse for various charities. They are too young to just act it. Why do they look so desperately unhappy? Producers are always ready to point out that no animals suffered during the action but what about the children?

Is there someone responsible for the well being of these babies? I’d really like to know.

I did one TV advertisement with my baby many years ago and the deal was we stopped the minute he was unhappy and he was held throughout by his mother. No harm was done – in fact the director came off worse as my son swiped a tin of Heinz strained carrots over him. Then we decided to quit before he got concerned about his close-up and became a spoiled brat.