Reality distortion field
Queen gaffe firm's wall of silence
Despite RDF's admission of guilt in relation to the ongoing "Crowngate" saga of the "sexed-up" Queen documentary, you can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for RDF in this situation. Let's face it: RDF were commissioned by the BBC to produce a documentary about the Queen for which they were paid good money for the privilege of doing so.
Putting aside the fact that the BBC operates under Royal charter, the BBC had selected RDF out of all of the independent production companies for this particular commission. This is the very same company that had previously produced such reality TV gems as Wife Swap (the swap can only last four days as opposed to the claimed week), and Faking It.
So on reflection, RDF were only doing what they were told to (namely, make a documentary), and they did so in their time-honoured style. It's a bit like asking the Catholic Church to make a film about contraception: unless you draw up watertight guidelines ensuring impartiality in the subject matter, you can have a shrewd guess as to how the end result would turn out.
Of course the only thing remains to be seen was if Peter Fincham chose RDF or that RDF chose Peter Fincham; namely whether RDF had the idea for the documentary in the first place. Although RDF's subsequent admission of guilt has saved red faces at the BBC, you can't help but wonder at the basic competence of the behind-the-scenes commissioning process.
