Wanted down under

[Guest RobJ1978]

New series is on on BBC1....anyone on this time from here????

 

Nic

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

dunno, have recorded it this morning and looking forward to watching hugely - updated prices! Woo hoo!

[Misplaced]

It was Ok - but no mention of 'most employers requiring a medical'

 

I will get over it honest!!!

[Leyland CJ]

Sorry to say it, but I reckon that some of these kind of shows give people back home (potential migrants and family members left behind) an unrealistic view of what life really is like here. Although Australia is a great country, it takes a lot of hard work to "make it happen", and I would say "twice as much" for those not born here, simply because it takes time to get used to things.

 

It can be a very rewarding place, but in the same spirit as any farmer or old time miner will tell you (and I personally know some ), it can also be very unforgiving and harsh sometimes. Anyone who thinks that it is some kind of utopia is in for a rude shock, although that is a popular misconception that some of my family and friends back in the UK still want to hang onto, like I'm off the cast of West Side Story....# Everything's Free in America #

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Sorry to say it, but I reckon that some of these kind of shows give people back home (potential migrants and family members left behind) an unrealistic view of what life really is like here.

 

Its TV, of course it does. Do you think the winners of Britains Got Talent or the X Factor just happen to be people who have walked in off the street and have this amazing, as yet previously undiscovered talent? Do you think TOWIE is real life without a script and cast? Do you think Frozen Planet films in real time, so there aren't periods of 36 hours on the trot where the camera man had nothing to film but some snow?

 

People in the UK are terribly terribly naive when it comes to TV imho, having worked within the TV industry in various ways over the years and when we tell people stuff they appear to be completely and utterly amazed. Not really sure why - perhaps we are just so used to being spoon fed in the UK (can't comment on other countries as I haven't lived in them for years and experienced it one way or the other) that we are just used to not thinking for ourselves and therefore believe whatever glossy image is presented to us, thinking no further than that. That is certainly what we are churning out from the vast majority of schools in the UK at any rate.

 

You (as in 'one', not specific posters ) just have to tell family that its TV and they only take the glossiest, most exciting and lovely bits to show, they don't show the other half at all.....(since when did they show someone on WDU queuing in the PO to pay their gas bill or waiting for the plumber to turn up to fix the leaking toilet?)

[Anne B]

It's no accident that it is shown in January, when it's cold and miserable outside and summer seems a long way away and people are feeling down in the dumps after Christmas and the New Year. I can't believe that they are still making new episodes, but net immigration to Australia is falling. I just hope there will be jobs for all the people they are trying to entice over here.....

[Guest railman2404]

I think most people with the passion to emigrate need to research as the prices and cost of living have changed immensley in the last few years but so has the cost of living in the UK and how many suffered pay freezes last year.

The grass may not be greener but life is what you make it

we can't wait

 

having checked out the website for wanted down under there is none from adelaide in the next 6 or 7 showings

 

Its TV, of course it does. Do you think the winners of Britains Got Talent or the X Factor just happen to be people who have walked in off the street and have this amazing, as yet previously undiscovered talent? Do you think TOWIE is real life without a script and cast? Do you think Frozen Planet films in real time, so there aren't periods of 36 hours on the trot where the camera man had nothing to film but some snow?

 

People in the UK are terribly terribly naive when it comes to TV imho, having worked within the TV industry in various ways over the years and when we tell people stuff they appear to be completely and utterly amazed. Not really sure why - perhaps we are just so used to being spoon fed in the UK (can't comment on other countries as I haven't lived in them for years and experienced it one way or the other) that we are just used to not thinking for ourselves and therefore believe whatever glossy image is presented to us, thinking no further than that. That is certainly what we are churning out from the vast majority of schools in the UK at any rate.

 

You (as in 'one', not specific posters ) just have to tell family that its TV and they only take the glossiest, most exciting and lovely bits to show, they don't show the other half at all.....(since when did they show someone on WDU queuing in the PO to pay their gas bill or waiting for the plumber to turn up to fix the leaking toilet?)

[Guest guest8040]

I enjoy the programme for what it is, it's telly at the end of the day and probably not that reflective of much at all. It actually makes me feel quite smug as I don't have the housing expectations most of them do. I've never been driven to possess a large flash home here and that will come with me. I'm more bothered about living in a nice area and having some outside space but again not a whopping football pitch. I do worry about finding work but me and my hubby are grafters and will do anything to get by (well just about anything that is legit!) I enjoy the programme to see the scenery and type of housing.

Btw I'd love to know how they work out what they've got to spend on a house bet its not particularly accurate!

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

 

having checked out the website for wanted down under there is none from adelaide in the next 6 or 7 showings

 

Think this series is all either Perth or Brissie, or NZ (production costs and all that).

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Btw I'd love to know how they work out what they've got to spend on a house bet its not particularly accurate!

 

Agree with your thoughts totally

 

On this point - a few series ago they had a couple that went to a financial/mortgage advisor and they filmed it, they gave their estimated salaries based on the earlier segment of the show, and he told them what sort of mortgage they could get and what it would be ina couple of different circumstances too (only one working, one working part-time as well, different deposits etc), I thought that was BRILLIANT it really gave some excellent research figures for people to work with - I'll be completely honest and say I sort of used it a little when dreaming about what we might be able to get mortgage wise one day (we're not going to look to buy for a while, and as we haven't ever had a house in the UK we are a bit clueless about how mortgages work etc), alongside other research I've done. As it was an actual advisor and not just some bloke off the street we thought it would be pretty accurate, and as they used actual figures rather than 'well, as a plumber you could get a mortgage of $x' we thought it was rather useful.

 

Having said that, we're not holding our breathe, and if its completely off, its completely off, but it at least gives us an idea that we could afford at least something, rather than knowing we will never get a mortgage in this country (lots of reasons why) which is good going forward (the figures I've managed to research are a couple of 100K more than the kind of houses we would probably be looking at, which is nice and gives a bit of wiggle room with regards to it being squiffy etc)

[Leyland CJ]

AdelaideBound...that's the whole point, which is why I don't watch these shows like X-Factor and "Got Talent" (whatever TOWIE is ?! You'll have to entertain my lack of knowledge).

 

Australia is very similar (take a look at the amount of 'celebrity / sportsperson worship' in the mass media for both genders), and the water cooler / lunchroom talk that goes on (at least at my workplace) among the Aussies that "XYZ was voted off show PQR last night...their feature room on that Reno show didn't win and it was so much better" and they take it SO seriously, like it is an affront ! Example - I have been outside tending to the garden some nights, and from across the road, huge cheers or boos from the lounge opposite...I came inside and flipped the channels over because I had my suspicions....it was "X-Factor".

 

To me, a lot of it is "manufactured", "saccharin" or just "junk food entertainment" (bread and circuses) and it just doesn't appeal to me. Popular music is the same, so many good bands who never get a chance (like the documentary on the metal band "Anvil") because they "were too old" or didn't play the music that "people wanted to hear"...no, the music the producers wanted to GIVE them and make the most money from as quickly as possible (before they faded away), because it had the widest appeal and hence highest "return on investment". Will the winners of these shows or their music still be around in 20 years like Status Quo, Lionel Ritchie, Rod Stewart, Sir Elton or Bryan May ? I don't think so.

 

I watch SBS history docos instead, my Grandad used to say to me "you might learn something !") - but try telling friends, family or the average person back home (who WANT to think such junk TV has a degree of believability and that their constant SMS voting really does sway the polls as much as they think - illusion of control) and you are fighting a losing argument with them, much the same way as many Aussies staunchly think British people from either end of the country "drink warm beer" (hello to a certain beer commercial on the radio). Like politics, many such shows are a popularity contest.

 

They have already closed their minds to any rational discussion. The same family / friends who believe this tripe are the same ones who haven't even been here to visit me (despite offers of free accommodation) and think that a journey from Manchester to Birmingham is "a long way" (anchoring bias)....wait till you get on the plane then !

 

You cannot really blame them for thinking like this when the sources of where they get their information from - on which they form their views - perhaps lack credibility (by your own admission) or at best, present one side of an argument (sound familiar ?).

 

In psychology, "Confirmation Bias" tells us that people gather evidence and remember information selectively, and interpret it in a certain (biased) way - we form an opinion and unconciously, our brain rejects information that disagrees with that hypothesis and accepts information that reinforces it, e.g. sources that affirm the existing attitudes. That's why I don't even bother trying to sway them from their viewpoint.

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

(whatever TOWIE is ?! You'll have to entertain my lack of knowledge).

 

 

The Only Way is Essex apparently - not actually watched it myself, because I couldn't bring myself to, no matter how isolated it makes you feel at work. Its basically one of these new breed of 'reality shows' but instead of it just being a fly on the wall reality show, ala Airport, or even Big Brother, whilst it presents itself as that, following a group of young people in Essex, its actually got an auditioned for cast, who have a script to learn and all staged situations etc. There are quite a few of them now I believe - one about Chelsea, one about Liverpool and so on. Its so completely vile imho and the worst kind of bottom feeder tv.

 

Don't get me started on Music - there are so many talented people out there, but because they either can't be moulded by a production company or don't have the right 'look' they don't get a look in, and the acts that have all the marketing thrown at them don't actually have any talent at all. Grrr, makes me very angry on many levels, not only the selfish one that I am missing out on being able to hear talented (in many ways) artists that would entertain me.