Oh well, the dust has settled on my brief flirtation with media fame, and things are somewhat calmer in Piddock Place now. My current affairs debut was aired on Monday 5 May in a five minute segment on The One Show, and although I was quite happy with my own on camera performance - I didn't stutter, hiccup, dry up or transmit any type of digestive noises across the broadcasting world - I must say I was less than happy with the piece itself.
In fact I was annoyed that, rather than taking the opportunity to show that life in Spain is nowhere near as bad as the media paint it, they seemed to home in on the negative aspects. Only my short piece and another piece from a couple who have recently moved to Spain really spoke up for life out here as it really is lived, and I can see just how those viewpoints will be perceived by the Moaning Ex Expat Brigade. I'll be dismissed as the token gesture to BBC neutrality, while the other couple will be pitied as poor souls who have yet to find out that instead of living the dream, they have landed in a nightmare.
I sort of knew how it was going to play when the first of the Expats By The Sea came out with the old turkey of 'Hardly any Brits on the golf course these days.' It's comments like that which have earned expats - particularly retired expats - the undeserved reputation of living it up in the sun while pensioners at home starve because they will insist on having their Winter Fuel Allowance, even though the temperatures are sky high all year round. It all helps to create a false picture.
If the production team had wanted originality and an interpretation of the true state of play here, they would surely have left in Donna Gee's contribution. As a respected journalist of many years standing who isn't afraid to say what's on her mind and tell it like it is, Donna would have put things into perspective, but her interview ended up on the cutting room floor.
Maybe they didn't want to portray Spain in an attractive light, or know what it's really like to live here, because they also trotted out the other old expat chestnut, the illegal build. While you have to feel a modicum of sympathy for someone who has to hand back the keys of his property and possibly see his life savings bulldozed, you also have to wonder why anyone in their right mind would purchase a house anywhere - let alone in a foreign country - that didn't have all the right planning permissions.
The bit about the illegal build took up most of the slot, and actually, it had no place in that piece, because the reasons that were given for moving back were mainly financial ones. The guy who paid 300,000 Euro 8 years ago for a villa that was clearly worth at least 3 times that much has nobody but himself and his own greed to blame.
I feel the BBC missed an opportunity here, because there was enough material to do a full, balanced documentary about this topic. They could have interviewed estate agents, who would surely have told them that the property market is picking up again, with many homes selling within days or even hours of going on the market. And they could have left in the bit where I paid just 6 Euro for so much fruit and vegetables that it took two members of the production team to carry it back to my car. That would have gone some way to exploding the 'cant afford to eat in Spain' myth.
But most of all, our own Donna Gee could have told them just why the headline figure of 90,000 Brits leaving Spain is not the basis for building a good piece of investigative journalism, since the authenticity of those figures is questionable. Another opportunity missed. Better luck next time, BBC!
