I was watching the TV programme DIY SOS the other day where a team of experts complete a DIY job for members of the public. I could not help but notice that the DIY team were not wearing any gloves, goggles (even when using an abrasive wheel) overalls, hard hat and so on. The banter between team members is quite funny and often not very PC. How refreshing I thought. I suppose it is a bit like DIY 'Life on Mars', a return to the good old days. So, is it refreshing or foolhardy? Ray

Remember the bit that you see is for the telly e.g. its a act for the sake of the program! The real building work; I am lead to belive by builders employed by the telly to undertake the work [they are standing in the wings], is undertaken off camera so you could say that the actions present represent what is wanted by the program / feathure / show / script [the same as you would have when making a war film] as against the real world If the telly practised 'best practice' [which would not stop them making TV shows] it would send out a very a good message that would be good for the country but for whatever reason the telly people do not, in my personal opinion, want anything other than what they show irrespective of the harm may do An example of how thoughtless the telly etc can be was ?????????? [think about it!] when our broadcasters were publicially passing messages out telling our enemies what was happening etc so putting our 'tommies' at unecessary risk - all in the name of making a program!

Since we are on the topic, I noticed on a news item the other day (and I'm sure it's the same on the likes of Time Team etc) that people working on an archaeological dig were in a fairly deep trench with no signs of edge protection or internal support work. I guess the one area where H&S is not important is on tv shows? And incidentally, are stuntmen/women subject to the same H&S standards, I'm guessing there must be some level of immunity?

We give "newspapers" a hard time on here because of their 'elf 'n' safety' stories. Well, as described above, we have television programmes that are damaging the "image" (or lack of it) of our industry. I might add that the telly reaches many more people that some of the "newspapers" we usually complain about and also young people whose first impression of working environments is one devoid of PPE. PPE isn't TV friendly (its not supposed to be) and that makes the message wrong.

Some interesting comments, although I'm surprised that no one has mentioned about working in a domestic environment. We all know that those engaged in these types of work do not adhere to PPE, equipment and other industry good practice when working for domestic clients as most of the regulations only apply to non-domestic activities and therefore not enforced by the regulators.