Tapescripts
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Part 1
Extract One
Presenter: Tea at the Grand Hotel in London is served in the Green Room, a light, airy space with luxuriant plants, fountains and a panoramic view over the city. Dress is strictly smart-casual. There are four sittings for tea, the first at 11.30 in the morning and the last at 6.30 in the evening. Despite the high price tag, tables are booked up months in advance. Tea includes a selection of sandwiches – crustless of course – scones, cakes and pastries. There are 12 types of tea on offer, including the Grand’s own superior afternoon brew. David James has been manager of the Green Room for 15 years. [1] David, tea at the Grand is very popular, isn’t it?
Manager: Yes, indeed. When I first started, we had 80 to 100 people a day. Now it’s twice that number.
Presenter: And are they all wealthy people?
Manager: Not at all. I can tell as soon as someone walks in what type of person they are, where they are from, why they are here. [2] Some people who come here have lots of money and some don’t. When someone has saved to come here as a treat, I like to make a special effort to make them feel comfortable.
Extract Two
Woman: Possibly one of the most talked about pieces of research recently published has surprisingly little to do with anything of particular importance. Entitled ‘The Case of the Disappearing Teaspoons’, the study proves that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon with no apparent explanation.
Man: Yes, a research team in Australia placed 70 numbered teaspoons in various tea-rooms at their Institute and tracked them over a period of five months. Eighty per cent disappeared for good. It was calculated that they had a half-life – that is, the length of time it took for half of the teaspoons to disappear – of 81 days. [3] If this is a global phenomenon, then 600,000 teaspoons are disappearing each year.
Woman: So where have they all gone? Practical and mundane explanations include people taking them home or losing them under piles of work. [4] However, with such a large quantity of teaspoons being lost each year, many people feel these explanations are simply not sufficient.
Extract Three
Woman: One thing that’s quite interesting about popular music is how derivative and imitative it is. You see, most of the innovations that took place in it had happened by the end of the 1970s, and after that it’s all been copies of what had already been and gone. [5]
Man: That’s just not true. There’s lots of really innovative new music going on now and there always will be. Every new generation develops its own styles and sounds that are unique to it.
Woman: No, they just think that’s what they’re doing. Actually, they’re just recycling old things. [6] Granted, they sometimes do that very well, but it’s all been done before. The truth is, it’s new for them but it’s not actually new.
Man: But the fans, the public, they don’t see it that way do they?
Woman: No, they buy the music and they go to concerts by the latest successful or fashionable bands and singers and they think it’s all being done for the first time. It’s only older people like me who spot the similarities with music from the past. Like a lot of things, influences pass from one generation to another, and it’s not always a conscious thing.
Part 2
Woman: In my role as a publishing consultant, I’ve recently written a report on trends in the best-seller lists over the last five years. I’ve carried out an in-depth analysis of best-selling titles in various categories and have tried to identify some patterns. It’s my conclusion that there are some common features in the books that have been most successful.
First of all, the genre of the celebrity autobiography. These consistently top the charts, selling in vast numbers, but what makes them so popular? They show the reader a world of glamour, and they claim to give an accurate picture of the ‘real person’ behind the celebrity. But my research shows that the most successful books all describe the celebrity’s struggles. [7] These may be connected with achieving fame, or they may come after fame, or both. And contrary to what you might expect, the top-sellers in this genre do not always include gossip [8], even though this is generally assumed to be part of their appeal.
Cookery books sell in large numbers and when I analysed the top-sellers in this genre, it was clear that they offer an air of sophistication that has huge appeal [9]. People aren’t buying books of simple, everyday recipes. Often the ingredients required are expensive and hard to find, and the recipes can be complex and challenging. People seem to buy these books because they show a world they aspire to, rather than something they will actually do, apart from for special occasions, when they may well turn to recipes in these books. [10]
When it comes to books about sport, the best-sellers have all been biographies or autobiographies of well-known figures, and what these books have in common is a wealth of anecdotes [11]. It’s clear that readers like the feeling of being on the inside, of getting a glimpse into the world of top professional sport through these funny stories. They are less interested in dry factual accounts of how a career started or statistics about sporting achievements.
One genre that has seen a huge rise in recent years is history books. The best-sellers in this category are aimed at the ordinary reader, not serious students of the subject, and one feature they all share is their use of oral accounts. [12] Quoting from people who were speaking at the time, these books aim to provide a human aspect to history, rather than just focusing on facts and figures, and this give them more relevance to the ordinary person.
Ever since they first appeared on the scene, self-help books have always featured high on best-seller lists. Analysis of the top self-help books of the last five years shows a move away from those dealing with personal relationships or happiness to those advising on how to get ahead in careers [13]. This suggests a shift in the priorities of the people who buy this kind of book.
When it comes to fiction, crime fiction has long been extremely popular, of course. My analysis of bestsellers in this genre indicates that the scientific procedures used in criminal investigations are a dominant feature these days [14], rather than the character of the detective, which used to be the cornerstone of books in this genre. This might well reflect the current popularity of TV crime dramas, with their focus on forensic science.
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