Posted By S R Robinson
I was watching a program last night called 'Building a home in the country' when the following happened:

A bloke who was building a home from a church conversion on a budget of £35k, using his mates as a volunteer work force was informed that he had to add a 0.5 tonne steel support beam to his building.

He did this in the following way. His mates lifted one end 2.5m onto a breeze block wall. They then lifted the other end bit by bit up a decorators step ladder when his body building mate roped it up the rest of the way using a scaffold rig built by untrained volunteer teenagers. At one point, the body builder was stood on the wall holding the entire weight of the beam on the end of a rope whilst others worked beneath it. They did not have a hard hat amongst them and the TV commentator made constant reference to their unsafe methods. The program was a H&S nightmare; no edge protection, rubbish scaffold, no hard hats...

My point is this. Why the flippin' heck was this allowed, televised and not stopped!? I know he was working on his own property and employing volunteers but the TV company just stood and filmed them. This boils my blood. Unsafe practices on TV DIY shows should never be shown unless it shows the consequences. The attitude of this show was well no-one was hurt so whats the probelm? I don't care about legislative loop holes, just stop filming and do the responsible thing. STOP THEM! ALL OF THEM! NOW!!

Nurse, reattach my spleen please.

Posted By GSP
It was also from many many moons ago..... I also was shocked at the lack of H&S but i didnt see a car on any of the footage newer than 1997.

H&S has come along way since then.

The place is also located near me and ollerton is a complete dump, so is the house finish.

Posted By I McDonald
Try watching Bob the Builder!!

Complete nightmare!!!

Ian
PS thank God its Friday!!!

Posted By Ian Dale
My particular concern about DIY programmes on TV relates to the misuse of RPE. Straps not used correctly, one hand holding the respirator to the face while spraying paint with the other, nuisance dust masks to protect against solvent vapours.
While I do realise that TV production companies have time constraints there are many people watching these programmes who will be influenced by what they see.
Ina Dale

Posted By Ron Hunter
"Many people will be infuenced by what they see....." We now routinely have images of war, famine, terrorism, natural & human disasters and (at least in part) public executions beamed in to our homes. Perhaps a sense of perspective is required? Where do you stop with censorship?

Posted By Pete48
The devil is in the detail. And detail is not usually of interest to the media.
Doesn't matter whether it is H&S or anything else, it is not reality TV even when they call it that.
Have you ever watched Holby or Casualty or even Doctors (daytime tv!!). They are all about as far removed from my personal experience of medical care as one could get.
Why do you suppose that others see the H&S aspects that you highlight as reality? People who quote such examples are just looking for excuses not to do something they dont want to do.

I would leave it to the enforcers to decide whether they intend taking any action or not.

Posted By Paul Rhodes
Some good comments, I watched this programme and previous ones, on each build project the lack of PPE has been mentioned and how dangerous some situations can be? (one bloke renovating an old Victorian water tower in the middle of some woods, stood on top of a roof about 4m above gutter line some 40 to 50m off ground level, replacing a weather vane, no PPE).
Isn’t this positive? Pointing out the precautions that should be taken, yes this programme is about self build, so the warning is out to those DIY people, what I have seen is that most genuine builders, trades persons filmed have had the correct PPE and equipment.

Is it Friday can I go home soon

Paul R

Posted By John J
I've been involved with sky a few times on paintball related issues.
The reality is that on many occasions the person they are filming has far more experience than the camera crew and director. If you do get involved you need to lead the process.
I spent 8hours at Chrystal palace filming an episode of Braniacs History abuse and the first thing I was asked to do was give all the crew a safety brief. They listened intently and we never had a problem all day. If there was any doubt regarding safety anyone could stop the filming and address the problem - I wish it was like this everyday.
The only downside of it all was that I realised I'm completely wooden in front of a camera!
John

Posted By anon1234
how do you know the film crew are in a safe working environment - you can't see them and they could be a considerable distance away from the activity using zoom lenses etc.

Posted By John J
Jeffrey,
no it's now powered by air at 4500PSI with markers capped at 15 balls per second and the balls travelling at 280 feet per second.
Putting everbody in goggles and shooting a target at that rate of fire quickly focused everbodys mind on safety!
As I say earlier, in my experience, TV crews will do whatever it takes to get the footage so the easiest way is to lead by example