Episode 1: 9th Jan - What did you think?

whitewing

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

As for those people who claimed back their mortgage fees in '3 minutes' - do you really expect us to believe that? Perhaps 3 minutes after the 30 minutes of waiting on the telephone, getting through to the wrong dept etc?

I did reclaim mine (£125 from Halifax) soon after I joined the site in May or whenever, and it did really only take 3 minutes or so.

I prefer the website to the show, but think that's because I can pick and choose what I do when.

In general I'm not keen on a consumer revenge, just prefer a consumer awareness approach.

But I still think MSE is one of the most important things in my life, and without it I would not have been able to buy a house.

glitter123

The content is good but the delivery felt a bit pantomime to me.

gill37

Totally loved Martin as a presenter even if the info was coming thick and fast! was not sure about the female presenter though.....what was she wearing. I know that sounds really petty but i spent the first 5 mins of the show studying the scruffy clothes and wondering why she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards rather than listening.

Agreed that the drainpipe looked cheap and was really out of place in such a fast-paced show. please don't have it on next week's show.

loved the paul daniels and debbie mcgee bit. nice to see 'celebs' being careful with their money as much as we are.

all-in-all a great show as long as you have a pen and paper as I did, to take down all the great info.

well done:T

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

Thank you for the feedback... glad most of you liked it.. to answer some of the questions

1. We film the programme as live (2 hours before transmission for legal reasons) and the MEAF calls were done in real time as you saw. There was no fix. Simple as that - though of course we had all the phone numbers ready and waiting for them.

2. The note re info on pruhealth above. The information was to "get a quote from pruhealth and see what it'll charge" - self evidentally if you're not accepted then it won't save you money. As for 'no mention of the fact that if you don't use the gym" I very specifically said "you must go twice a week on average or you don't get these prices". So that was covered. Plus of course I ended by suggesting people get "the full information" from the website. Sorry you didn't feel it was clear enough - but all your points were covered in the film.

3. Too many topics. It's a tough call between "story count" and "rushing" and we need to learn the balance - its difficult in a live show. Luckily we may be getting a few extra minutes that counts; and we will of course be looking through the show to try and see what we can learn from the first one. TV shows are not born and work overnight; they're developed and I think we did an incredible job on the first show.

Of my own performance, watching back I did speak too quickly in parts and need to slow down; partly I was a victim of time pressure.

4.. The drain pipe. I think I need to work on making it more specific. It's a difficult job - as I can't reveal too much about the celeb's finances both for ID fraud and privacy issues; yet the rating system is quite important. There needs to be a balance on it.

5. As for style. You'll see a different style if you watch the "It Pays to Watch More" programme thats will be going on the IPTW website. However modern prime time TV requires a formatted structure; even though personally I prefer unstructured much as is described. Our aim is develop the programme to try and merge the best elements of both.

As for the person who wrote it's an 'absolute shambles' and I should watch someone else's style (to be honest I've neither heard of nor seen the person mentioned) you're entitled to your opinion; though I disagree 100%. My delivery wasn't perfect tonight; but this is prime time TV; not a niche money programme - without an 'entertainment feel' there wouldn't have been a commission. My passion is reaching people about MoneySaving; spreading the message to the widest possible audience. My aim is to let this programme do that. I can talk niche finance on Moneybox - this is a different beast and needs handling a different way.

What we did was a good programme, with amazing MoneySaving results which needs a touch more polish. We only got the commisison 6 weeks ago and lost three weeks over Christmas; for a TV programme to be done in this time from scratch is virtually unheard of. The team has done an incredible job.


Martin

whitewing

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks

of course we had all the phone numbers ready and waiting for them.

So did I from the website. It can be done in 3 minutes.

And I liked the pink shirt!

gill37

Sorry to disagree with you here but Martin did mention that if you didn't use the gym then your premiums would go up. It talked about swiping in a few times and mentioned that using the gym only means swiping in. Take a look at the blurb on the website.

From the five.tv website.........
The condition is that you go to the gym at least twice a week so it’s best for gym regulars. However, once you’ve swiped in that counts as attending even if you don’t go for a work-out. So if you need to get over the threshold but can’t use the gym you can still walk in and walk out again.

melancholly

i think some people are expecting a panorama hour long special rather than a half hour show on channel 5.

having thought about it now, i think the strength of the forums on this website is in the major personal differences that advice can give - with the soapnuts, how much do they cost (approx), how long do they last and what could this save the 'average' family..... (EDIT - all that info is quite clearly stated on the IPTW website - oops :$) i really like the fact that people rang up and found out what difference the advice could make to them.

maybe those who are more critical of the show should think back to before their lightbulb moment..... before you trawled round 20 websites to find out the cheapest way to do something, before you posted on here and had lots of helpful people giving great advice..... the information may seem basic if you are real MSE regular, but clearly not enough people are.

and i do think you should plug MSE more on there, Martin!!

Edinburghlass_2

The "extra" bit is now live on the It Pays To Watch website, well worth watching!

http://www.itpaystowatch.co.uk/

"legally" Martin isn't able to mention MSE

BigBouncyBall

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks

Thank you for the feedback... glad most of you liked it.. to answer some of the questions

1. We film the programme as live (2 hours before transmission for legal reasons) and the MEAF calls were done in real time as you saw. There was no fix. Simple as that - though of course we had all the phone numbers ready and waiting for them.

2. The note re info on pruhealth above. The information was to "get a quote from pruhealth and see what it'll charge" - self evidentally if you're not accepted then it won't save you money. As for 'no mention of the fact that if you don't use the gym" I very specifically said "you must go twice a week on average or you don't get these prices". So that was covered. Plus of course I ended by suggesting people get "the full information" from the website. Sorry you didn't feel it was clear enough - but all your points were covered in the film.

3. Too many topics. It's a tough call between "story count" and "rushing" and we need to learn the balance - its difficult in a live show. Luckily we may be getting a few extra minutes that counts; and we will of course be looking through the show to try and see what we can learn from the first one. TV shows are not born and work overnight; they're developed and I think we did an incredible job on the first show.

Of my own performance, watching back I did speak too quickly in parts and need to slow down; partly I was a victim of time pressure.


4. As for style. You'll see a different style if you watch the "It Pays to Watch More" programme thats will be going on the IPTW website. However modern prime time TV requires a formatted structure; even though personally I prefer unstructured much as is described. Our aim is develop the programme to try and merge the best elements of both.

As for the programme being an 'absolute shambles' you're entitled to your opinion; though I disagree 100%. What we did was a good programme, with amazing results and MoneySaving which needs a touch more polish. We only got the commisison 6 weeks ago and lost three weeks over Christmas; for a TV programme to be done in this time from scratch is virtually unheard of. The team has done an incredible job.

Martin

Points on PruHealth duly noted - please accept my apologies there. I was probably talking to the others in the room about the scheme and missed that bit.

Perhaps 'absolute shambles' was a bit strong. I do appreciate the work that goes into making a show (believe me - i've worked with television production companies) on the short timescale that you claim you've done well. But come on - there is room for improvement, there always is, especially on a pilot.

I like top gear and the format works for that show, directly transplanting it into a financial setting, i think, doesn't work. It's my own opinion and i don't expect you to take it to heart and i hope you're not offended by any of my comments - though i suspect you are/will be. Reading it back i appreciate they may come across as a little sharp but i really love the work this site does, and i don't want you to spread yourself too thinly and loose interest in this site to spend time on projects like this, that i don't think are your best work.

Sorry i'm not on this thread to make friends by saying it was all wonderful. I suspect you know the audience you're aiming to reach with this show and so i think the style with with you presented it was probably about right, explaining basics and concepts with a lively style.

Good luck with the next show, i shall try and watch it!

Olz

Watched the show and thought it was very good, but I agree you should slow down a bit Martin! I thought the Clarkson comment was insulting, he is Northern Premier League to your Premiership!
Good content, a lot in 30 mins. It brings people to the website and hopefully to the newsletter. If you can get a few hundred thousand extra followers from this it will make the financial institutions take note before they sc*** us.
Many congrats to you and Ruth, and of course the production team, you have done wonders in a short time scale.:T
OLZ:cool: