Copy of an NABD related blog that may interest you…
Some years ago the NABD were approached by some people from the BBC who were involved in making the short film sections relating to different causes on Comic Relief day. They wanted a short piece about the NABD to include in the ‘Disabled People’ section of the programme.
We agreed to this and a dozen of us spent a long freezing-cold day filming in the Peak District for what was planned to be a thirty second piece of the five minute section to do with disabilities.
Some weeks later I had a call from the director saying that they were so pleased with the film and the positive image it portrayed of disabled people pro-actively helping each other that they were going to make it the lead two-minute feature of the disabilities section.
Obviously we were rather proud of this and happy to see the BBC moving away from the ‘pat the poor drooling cripple on the head’ type of image they had previously favoured when dealing with disability related charities. We wrote to all of our members and supporters and to the bike press encouraging people to support Comic Relief and to look out for our bit on the day.
The BBC sent me a video of the piece and our bit was set to the song “I Wasn’t Born to Follow” off the Easy Rider soundtrack. It was really impressive and showed disabled people reclaiming their independence and living life to the full (and looking cool doing it).
Then three days before Red Nose day I had another call from the BBC director saying “I’m really sorry about this Rick but we’ve had to edit the NABD piece out completely!” There had been a meeting to finalise the running order for Comic Relief and one of the presenters, a tenth rate media nobody called Emma Freud (daughter of the MP Clement Freud who’s only notable contribution to British society was a set of dog food adverts where he was up-staged by a baggy faced dog) had objected to our inclusion on the basis that “Comic Relief should not be associating itself with bikers” and the rest of them agreed so the piece was dropped.
It has pained me every year to see hundreds, if not thousands, of bikers getting involved in fund-raising for a charity that is controlled by people who so obviously despise bikers. I for one will never support such a cause in any shape or form and I urge all other bikers to take the same stand!
So please don’t send me any Red Nose related requests. As far as I’m concerned Comic Relief and the bigoted shite that control it can kiss my hairy arse!
That’s incredibly short-sighted and ignorant. If true, and it needs confirming first as these things have a habit of often being wide of the mark, then we should be raising this with them and pointing out how offensive and counter-productive such a view is.
If this is for real then i have to say that its unbelievable and the BBC should consider their position regarding disabled people and the help they get for Red Nose Day.Have you any proof to what you have said, not that i doubt you but some evidence would be good to show proof.
Surely disabled people get prejudiced against enough without having to cope with the further worry that they fit the ‘correct’ disability pigeon hole category, and especially as the BBC purports to do so much good through their charitable efforts.
I’ve contacted Emma and she’s a little confused about this ‘story’… I’ve asked her if she’s ok with me posting her response to me here and if she says ok I’ll post it.
I read your piece about Comic Relief - and wanted you to know that the non-inclusion of the bikers in the comic relief montage many many years ago had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with me.
I don’t know who told you it did - but I double checked it with the CEO of Comic Relief today. He said that he had no memory of why your sequence wasn’t used, but the one thing he did know is that it had bugger all to do with me - i didn’t have the power or influence to affect that sort of decision. My role is that of a fundraiser.
He said that for Comic Relief montages on Red Nose Day, we tend to shoot about double the footage that is needed - all TV programmes do – and the final decisions tend to be with the team of producers at the BBC (not Comic Relief employees). He was really sorry you had a cold and wasted day - but the decisions about what to include are complicated and to do with many factors. Sometimes timings, sometimes tone, sometimes length of sequence, sometimes complications of storytelling, sometimes the shots aren’t good which could be the fault of the cameraman or the content or the mix of subjects within one montage etc etc etc. it was such a long time ago that he couldn’t remember why your time had been wasted and this had happened - but he did say that Comic Relief were very proud of the grants which they had given you, so it wasn’t anything to do with that.
I have worked for comic relief as a fundraiser for the last 19 years and it’s really upsetting to read such aggressive things about me on the net. It’s simply not true and I have no idea why I was named as the scapegoat when that area of influence was simply not mine.
I think its bad that the BBC used the excuse of not wanting to associate with the Biker World. Personally I think they should be educated about the fact that all bikers are humans just like them…we don’t have 2 heads, 6 arms and 10 legs…we all come from different walks of life and vary from one career to another. Amazingly enough, I’m pretty sure most of us even shower on a daily basis!
However, to stop supporting a charity that helps so many people is not the way forward. Charities are suffering enough during these harsher economic days without the extra boycotting from a group of people who are bitter about something that happened in the past. Personally, I think the gent you’re talking about on the other site should write to Comic Relief and ask them to feature a new clip which could include a group of bikers who have joined him in his campaign to raise awareness and funds for his chosen charity. To stop supporting this cause will only create further negativity against bikers by a society who would rather see us all banned from existence.
:hehe: