Balaclava

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ITV Play rapped over quiz

Quiz channel ITV Play broke broadcasting rules by making its answers too obscure. Viewers complained after two answers to the question “what items might be found in a woman's handbag?” were revealed to be “balaclava” and “rawl plugs”.

Ofcom ruled the answers were unreasonable and the competition was therefore not conducted fairly. ITV Play apologised for what it described as an “exceptional one-off error of editorial judgment”.

The channel, which encourages viewers to take part in games via premium rate phone lines, has faced criticism for giving viewers little chance of getting through to a programme. But ITV Play has insisted it strives to produce popular and innovative programmes.

A spokesman said: “ITV Play aspires to be the gold standard in participation TV and ensure fair play at all levels and we take this error very seriously.” They added procedures had been tightened since the incident.

The sample answer to the handbag conundrum, given to viewers before the quiz started, was “mobile phone”, which, it could be argued—and Ofcom has—was not entirely representative of some of the higher scoring answers, such as “directions” and “dog”.

[Poll #908422]

Comments

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

Regularly or frequently? I suppose I could tick plane tickets for regularly (i.e., once every 6 months or so) but definitely not for frequently, which is what I think they must mean by regularly.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

I have recently put something in my handbag once that I never expect to put in my handbag again: the handset for my shower riser, which I need to match or approximate. However, it has been in my bag for a couple of weeks, which could make it a permanent fixture, depending on how these things are defined.