'I'm making a complaint'

A recent call to the Channel 5 duty office began with a woman demanding to know whether the channel had any medical programmes. She was told that there were none in the schedule, but both Oprah and Open House sometimes featured doctors. She then announced that her internal organs had "packed in" and "no one cared".

Startled, the duty officer suggested she visit casualty or see her GP. She said she'd tried both and they "weren't interested". Did she have a friend or relative to talk to? She didn't, but added that all she really wanted was the chance to appear on Kilroy. The BBC's number was eagerly passed on.

Then there was the chartered surveyor who rang in about the homes show Hot Property. "Your presenter described a broken drain cover as having been caused by subsidence, when it was actually caused by settlement, sneered the caller. Unless she gets her facts straight, she should keep her mouth shut.

Every day, television stations receive hundreds of calls from the public. Each one is logged, often at length. The callers remain anonymous, and a daily "duty log" is circulated to management and programme-makers. Most calls are straightforward requests for information, some are even appreciative, but many are complaints about everything from pro-Palestinian bias in a news report to the weather presenter's tie. Even when there's a big breaking story, it's odds-on someone will phone up to say they find the news anchor attractive.

"Typically they phone in about bad language, violence and the time a programme is shown," explains Philip Purdy, Channel 5 duty-office manager. "They also complain about background music (usually that it's too loud). Some phone in because they don't like the 5 logo which appears in the corner of the screen. We get a lot of complaints if we remove programmes from the schedule. And then there was the woman who wanted to know where

she could buy a dress she'd seen on Family Affairs."

The duty-office staff also take their fair share of abuse from the public. "Occasionally, people are quite passionate when they make their points, and they'll call you all the names under the sun," says Purdy. "We've had to bring in the police over a nuisance caller in the past three weeks. He's been really abusive, especially to women on the team, threatening to come in and bomb us."

All commercial TV stations - including ITV, Channels 4 and 5, cable and satellite services - are required to make their duty logs available to the Independent Television Commission (ITC), the commercial TV regulator. The ITC also demands that records of complaints be kept for two years, and broadcasters must "inform the public that they have a right to complain to the ITC". When complaints

for a particular programme reach a certain threshold, the channel must tell the commission. Last year, the ITC received just under 4,000 complaints about commercial TV. Subjects included violence, bad language, sex, the portrayal of race and religion, inaccuracy and political bias.

IN July, the ITC received its most ever complaints about an individual programme: Channel 4's Brass Eye special, which satirised attitudes to paedophilia, generated 992 complaints, and 700 calls in support of it being broadcast. The ITC ruled that insufficient warning about content was given to viewers before the programme, and Channel 4 was forced to run an on-air apology. In contrast, despite the media fire-storm over Channel 5's documentary series about Fred and Rose West, just nine complaints were made

to the ITC and 13 to the channel. A busy night on what Channel 4 calls its viewer-enquiry line will mean about 100 calls. "In recent weeks, we have had an awful lot of calls about Richard and Judy," says a spokesman, before hastily adding: "Mostly supportive."

The duty log is taken very seriously. "The first thing Tim Gardam, our director of programmes, does in the morning is look at the viewer enquiries. He wants to know which programmes have made an impact. It's instant feedback, and an important tool for shaping the schedule."

At the BBC, the previous night's duty-log report is available to all staff every morning via the internal Gateway website. Huge resources are thrown into ensuring licencefee payers have their right to reply. The BBC's Audience Lines employ 140 people in Glasgow and tackle 900,000 calls annually. Around 10 per cent are complaints

about programming or scheduling: last month, topics included Rupert Everett's use of colourful language in One Night with Robbie Williams and the disruption to coverage of international bowls.

Although one man felt the need to inform the BBC that he was wearing flip-flops, it is the news that provokes the most audience reaction. The 10 O'Clock News attracts up to 30 calls, many concerning coverage of the Middle East. A few nights ago, one man castigated the BBC for alleged bias against the Israelis. "If a Jewish baby is killed, there is little reporting," he claimed, "whereas if it is a Palestinian, there is full cover-age." But in the very next entry in the log, a man complained that "Israel has been illegally occupying land for over 30 years. Why do you never mention this?"

That, the broadcasters claim, suggests they are doing something right.