Suggestions have come to light that BBC producers may have fiddled a little more than you’d expect with goings-on in an observational documentary. Don’t Tell The Bride is the kind of programme only people who are desperate to appear on TV apply to take part in.  A BBC TV series currently airing on BBC Three, it involves brides-to-be handing over all the preparations for their upcoming wedding to the groom.

Cameras follow the groom using a £12,000 budget (often contributed to by the BBC – and therefore Television License payers) to arrange the whole wedding in two weeks.  The groom and bride can’t see or contact each other until the wedding, meaning the groom has to rely on his own wits and imagination to arrange a wedding that their beloved will approve of.

It certainly makes a fun hour’s watching.  While there are always mishaps along the way (maybe the budget’s too tight to afford a decent meal, maybe the invitations miss the last post and have to be hand delivered) there’s always a happy ending.  The bride may get a bit upset about things not being perfect but he always forgives her husband and ends up crying with happiness.

Watching programmes like this you have to suspend belief a little.  Let’s face it, the production team have to edit things to create a well-rounded story with a satisfactory conclusion – they wouldn’t have a watchable programme otherwise.  This week’s episode seemed to be particularly dramatic, with loads of wedding day problems leaving the bride on the verge of calling the whole thing off and her father on the verge of punching the groom.

Before I go on, take a look at this clip to get a flavour for it…

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Okay, so it’s certainly been edited to tell a dramatic story but surely the groom must have really messed up the booking of the cars, right?  Surely this is a pretty accurate record of what went on?  Maybe not.  Speaking on the You & Your Wedding forum, a user called ‘insideonDTTB’ posted the following:

“You have to take this programme with a very large pinch of salt. What they didnt show on last nights episode was that the production team messed with everyone involved giving them misinformation all the way. For example the production team sent away the wedding cars and told them to come back later partially explaining why the bride was so late. Also the bridesmaids dress debacle came about because the groom had asked the production team 3 days before the wedding to take the dresses round to the brides parents. The production team agreed to do this but repeatedly and conveniently ‘forgot’ on numerous occasions. Also in no circumstances could any communication take place between groom and brides family/friends unless a TV camera was present”

So, if this person is to be believed, producers of the programme not only edit what goes on to tell a fun story, they actually deliberately cause problems if things seem to be going too smoothly!

Now, I’m not naieve – I know a lot of deception goes on in TV.  Most of the time it’s very minor and doesn’t matter too much.  Back when I worked at the BBC I occasionally made up ‘viewer comments’ for presenters to read out on air.  I’d only do this if the people who actually had phoned in had left boring comments, or were just repeating what had been already said.

There’s a long distance between that and deliberately causing problems with someone’s wedding to make more entertaining television.  So, think twice and maybe even three times if you’re ever considering appearing in anything like this!

If you’re in the UK you can watch this episode of Don’t Tell The Bride on the BBC iPlayer here.