Mind Your Ps and Qs Please - I'm British

Photo: Ramzi Hashisho

As mentioned in my blog post last week, I have been watching the Dutch version of Top Chef every day on RTL. However, I was shocked last night as I watched Tuesday's episode (we tape it and watch it when we get the chance so run a little behind....) and heard profanities from Omar's mouth that I hadn't expected to hear on a cooking show broadcast at 7pm. Along with uttering the 'f word' many times, he then combined it with the 'c word' which was a step too far for me.

I grew up with the BBC watershed, which means that any program shown on the BBC before 9pm is suitable for everyone. This means you will not hear 'strong language' (i.e. swearing and vulgar language) before 9pm. Even after 9pm I have a problem with the vocabulary used in Tuesday's program.  I am not generally a prude and I don't have too much of a problem with many swear words but there is a limit.

Much of it is because I am English so when the Dutch use such strong language in English it means more to me than the average Dutchman. The same is true the other way round - if you swear in Dutch it's just a funny word if you are not a native. However, I really struggle to see why such bad language was not edited out of such a show - does swearing on that scale really enhance a cooking show?


What are you used to hearing on TV in your home country? What do you think about Dutch TV and the language used?