Focusing on a single company is an accepted if slightly eyebrow-raising tactic in TV about business (think of Iceland Foods and The Call Centre), and it evidently seemed a good idea for BBC2’s resuscitated Modern Times strand to film the staff and clients of Citylink in order to shed light on the booming times enjoyed by a “UK parcel delivery industry worth almost £6bn”. A good idea, that is, until Christmas Eve when the company went into administration, apparently necessitating an almighty reverse ferret in which 24 Hour Parcel People (coming up on 12 February) was re-edited to accommodate this inconvenient development. If you run into anyone from BBC2 or BBC factual in the near future, try to sensitively avoid potentially offensive words such as “all” “eggs”, “one basket” and even “putting”.
