More waspish whining

[avevale_intelligencer]

I can't remember where I saw it now, but I read somewhere that a national survey had declared Roald Dahl most popular children's author of all time. The survey, the article went on to say, was conducted as part of "Roald Dahl Weekend."

Is it just me?

Maybe it is. Maybe I have a crabbed and suspicious nature. That's probably why I view with similar suspicion the claim by UK Drama that David Tennant was voted the most popular Doctor of all time. I mean, maybe he was, there are all sorts of reasons why he would have been...but if the voting had gone to, say, Patrick Troughton, would they have broadcast an entire weekend of back-to-back black and white wobbly-setted episodes with him in? Far more sensible to take all the votes and then declare the winner to be the one with the recent crop of bright shiny episodes that look like quality twenty-first-century product.

Democratic consultation, after all, only has to be seen to take place. It doesn't actually have to be acted on.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhat skeptical of the Dahl result, primarily because (as you note) of the connection to the sponsor of the survey, but also because he hasn't released anything new recently. As we all know, one of this world's tenets is "what have you done for me lately?"

Which is why I'm less suspicious of the vote for Tennant (though not entirely soothed); his work is current, and there are LOTS of folks who've been exposed to him in the role over the past couple of years. I would have been shocked had it been, say, Troughton, though not as much so had you said Tom Baker, whose work in the role, while not recent, was much more so than Troughton.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

No, it's not just you. Whenever I see any survey results which support the people who commissioned the survey I am suspicious. For that matter, I'm suspicious of any poll which samples a minute percentage of the population, the sort which proclaim that the average household only contains 6 books, based on a sample of only a thousand out of 20 million or so.

Perhaps someone did actually look at Roald Dahl's book sales, and he sold more than any other children's author. OK, that would show something (although not necessarily how popular he is with the target audience). But no one got my opinion on the authors I liked as a child, nor that of anyone I know about. Nor did anyone I know of vote on the most popular Doctor. So how much those poll results are actually worth is, as far as I'm concerned, very dubious.

[occams_pyramid]

So just how do they compare Tennant's popularity with Hartnell's? It's not meaningful

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I think it was a poll of how popular they are now. Which, as redaxe said, gives Tennant a huge advantage.

As for meaningful...well, I agree entirely.

[pink-sweater-uk.livejournal.com]

At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeonly old fart, I think that most of this is down to sustained hyping on recent film/telly appearances. Tennant is apparently the Best Doctor Evah because he's the one that's been seen most recently (for all of the fact that his character isn't a patch on Billy's, Pat's, or either Baker's, to name but some): while Dahl, through frequent celluloid re-imaginings/re-releases,is somehow held to be superior to the likes of (to pick but a few) E Nesbit, Nils Olof-Franzen, J P Martin, Joan Aitken...

It's the same recent bugbear. Nothing's worth nothing if it ain't been on telly recently.