BBC Heaven

I’ve been all over BBC this week like some sort of computer rash. First up was Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe (BBC 4) where I dully had the extent of my plagiarism chopped up into little pieces and laid out on a plate for me.

Non-stop media came under fire this week as Brooker dismantled rolling news coverage and shone a floodlight through each component, calmly exposing the absurdity at the centre of most “breaking news” coverage and round-the-clock reporting.

Packed with sharply observed witticisms and pointed analysis, Brooker’s Guardian Screen Burn Column translates well onto TV. Having only recently started watching this, I was a little concerned that the column wouldn’t flesh out well to a half hour TV programme, but Brooker succeeds admirably as the show becomes a whole different beast altogether. Emphasis is very much placed on the processes behind TV, as Brooker exposes the trickery and manipulation “behind the story” and coolly lacerates the genre.

While unfailing in its sardonic humour, Screen Wipe also manages to be educational and informative, aided no doubt by Brooker’s clear, matter-of-fact presenting style. Any criticism I make of this would likely be out of bitterness, as it feels like there is literally nothing I can ever think or say about TV again that this man won’t already have expressed, in an infinitely more humorous way, ten years previously.

Next up against the wall was this week’s surprise gem Please Vote for Me, (BBC4) a documentary charting the tears and tantrums of the first ever class elections in a primary school in the city of Wuhan, China.

Screened as part of the BBC Why Democracy? season, the film captured China’s first baby steps into the unfamiliar as the class was introduced to the new and volatile concept of democracy, creating a hotbed of political intrigue and rendering a race as hard and closely fought as the toughest General Election campaign.

On the ballot was the incumbent, Luo Lei, challenger Cheng Cheng and Xu Xiaofei, the only girl in the race and its first casualty as the boys increasingly dominated the debate. Bribery, trickery and backstabbing became par for course as the three battled it out, egged on by over-ambitious parents and determined to keep their eye on the main prize that offered respect, power and privilege.

The subsequent election campaign alternated between the hilarious and downright dirty. During Xu Xiaofei’s crucial election speech, Cheng Cheng orchestrated his classmates to shout her down, reducing her to tears and adding a sinister twist to the contest. It wasn’t long before the whole class was in the throes of anguish and despair as the effect of their ill treatment of Xu Xiaofei became apparent. The next day, Cheng Cheng told her it had all been arranged by Luo Lei, and then once again led the class in a round of intensive heckling as Luo Lei tried to set out his own vision for the class.

This being China, however, Luo Lei managed to fight his way back with some good old-fashioned corruption, taking the whole class for a trip on the city monorail (managed by his fathers police department) and giving out gifts in a bid to secure their votes.

In the end, the incumbent’s advantage proved too great to unseat Luo Lei, as the class cast their votes by secret ballot and chose him to remain their class prefect, to the bitter disappointment of his rivals.

Please Vote for Me was a rare and interesting piece of filmmaking from a country notorious for its suppression of artistic licence and freedom of speech. As the drama unfolded, local director Weijun Chun had captured what he described as a reflection of the “tough yet hopeful democratisation process in China” and created a snapshot of a rapidly changing country that is facing new challenges and threats in the increasingly globalised world.

As the action cut between the classroom antics and the behind-the-scenes political management of the candidates parents, events unfolded seamlessly and without the need voiceover as Chun stitched together a story of power, politics and intrigue while keeping his eye on the wider social implications.

If this does indeed reflect the first steps in the long and arduous process of democratisation in China, it promises to be one that will have its fair share of corruption, mishaps - and Machiavellian eight year olds.