BTITmaker

Hi "whistleblower" - yeah, right. Well, at last - got you thinking now, well ... that's a start.

No just because the show's been edited for people with mush for brains, doesn't mean it shouldn't be accurate.

But, you're onto something here ... why DID I agree to film it? Presumably you know the answer.

smokie36 - not the right answer, but I have to say it was a highly entertaining four months.

Come on then "whistleblower" - what's the answer?

Well said geriatrickid ... yep, 82 pages and still going strong. Educate, inform ... and promote. From the comments on You Tube viewers of Big Trouble In Thailand, most of them young, will be beating - perhaps literally - a path to Thailand's door. They may not be in TAT's target group just yet, but we all grow old and first impressions count. Aside from BTIT what other British TV series has showcased Thailand in recent years? In the end, as BTIT has shown, all publicity is good publicity. I first visited Thailand in 1995 and the series hasn't told me anything about Thailand I didn't already know. "Ladies and Gentlemen - a big hand for BTIT ..." cue half-hearted applause.

Gosh - 1,000 Baht. And that's enough for a farang to get upset over - 25 quid? Now that's when you know you've been in Thailand too long. 1,000 Baht eh? Who'd have thought it?

According to an email forward, Pattayaman71 and Whistleblower are actually the same person mailing from different IPs, the source is Pattaya Ghost.

"The Pattaya Ghost has it in for Gavin Hill and especially the Tourist Police Volunteers after a run in concerning non-payment of a 1,000+ baht bill at a Pattaya go-go last March".

ThaiEye - I've had good dealings with the ghostly one and I don't think he'd be that cheap - pursuing a vendetta over a measly 1,000 Baht??!! I think you've got the wrong man ... sorry, spirit.

Maizefarmer - thanks for your response ... I did not foresee winning any awards, though I'm sure there's plenty of room in Bravo's trophy cabinet.

As I've said, the focus of the series was on the Brits who get into trouble in an exotic setting re: the Bravo brief. And it was given a leg up to being commissioned because there are Brit volunteers working with the Thai police because they are the "access" to the Brits in trouble. That way the Bravo viewer doesn't have to put up with some foreigner babbling in their own language, because we Brits who own tellys don't like that sort of nonsense - foreigners speaking in their own languages. The series was never meant to win any awards. It also had zero investigative remit (Bravo didn't want that and certainly weren't paying for that, and the feeling at Vera/Virgin is that this would have been incomprehensible to the Bravo viewer), and they really weren't at all interested in how corrupt the Thai police force is or isn't. Is any UK TV channel - terrestrial or otherwise - interested in paying for that anymore? If so, I'd be interested to know which. And there's plenty of corruption on our doorstep in the UK (police included) without looking for it in a place most Brits would struggle to find on a map. One thing Vera can't do, though they may fake and mislead, get facts wrong and bring people back from the dead, is manipulate actual footage shot - even within the eight hours, let alone the 250 hours sent back to them. There is a story to be told from the footage which is constructive from all sides, and informative rather than lowest common denominator. There were some interesting questions put and answered - prison bosses talking about karma with reference to inmates (and whether they deserve it or not, their treatment etc), the Thai attitude to sex, and sex for sale, compromise rather than confrontation etc etc ... so you can see why I wasn't in the edit.

Maizefarmer - with all due respect to your pal established investigative journalists are very thin on the ground in the UK. Tom Bower is one. Hasn't he got better stuff to do than expose Thai Tourist Police volunteers? Shame.

Maizefarmer - outside of so-called "news" Bravo's about the best Thailand's going to get in terms of attention from UK programme-makers. And that won't be changing anytime soon, so we'd better face up to "reality" and get used to the new media age.

And by the way, where do you think the money comes from to make these programmes, or the sort of old-school Panorama you're so nostalgic about? Certainly not from anyone who watches it over the internet - by illegal downloads or on You Tube.

whistleblower - yes. Vera Productions chose not to include the Thais' rights of reply. Not for any sinister reason I don't think - but because most of the Thai police chiefs and prison governors speak Thai and neither Vera nor Virgin think Bravo viewers can read subtitles. And their attention span isn't held by actors' voices, so they switch over to ITV2 or More4 where they don't pull any clever stunts like that either. whistleblower - give Howard a rest and start directing your energy at the the sort of TV the British so obviously deserve. Ho-hum - it's your money you pay to the BBC, regardless of whether your watching Bravo or Strictly Come Dancing. Distracted and misdirected energy - it's the problem with Britain today. Finally, the TV I've been making for years has had the desired effect. Their brains have turned to jelly. BTITmaker was on record long before 'Big Trouble In Thailand': 'Quality TV - My Part In Its Downfall'. http://www.business.mmu.ac.uk/newsandevent...s.php?uref=2041

"Now, can we please get back to discussing what a hornets nest BTIT stirred up, with its exposure of things some people wanted exposed and others didn't,"

Like the lack of control/coordination/regulation of the organisation the show is about???

"about how an insignificant TV show on a minor cable TV channel could cause such a fuss, about alleged fakery ... come on ... either shut this thread once and for all or change the tune -"

Back to you exonerating yourself for making the show in the first place???

"Only a simpleton would think Howard is the story."

As he and his organisation has been in about 70% of every episode so far, and the show says at the beginning of every episode "we go behind the scenes of this organisation blah blah" you will have to forgive us simpletons for thinking the story was about them!!!

Yawn. whistleblower - you're very obviously a Bravo viewer. And as such I'm afraid neither Vera Productions (makers, by the way, of serious docs for Channel 4 and sniffy stuff like Bremner Bird and Fortune) nor Virgin Media think the likes of you can handle "the truth". Rather you need to be fed on a diet of lads and ladettes throwing punches and throwing up, preferably somewhere a bit foreign ... if you are up to "reaching" a bit, as opposed to being dumbed down to, then this was the demand from Bravo that 'Thai Cops' supplied ... it's all on their site here: http://www.virginmediatv.co.uk/commissioni...vo/our_gaps.php

We also want a further 20/25 half hours of programming.

‘Boozed Up Brits Abroad’ will air from October 2008 onwards and we have high hopes this will rate well and return next year. Police crackdowns and the lack of a 24 drinking culture has meant a lot of people, especially our Bravo viewers have now chosen to hold a customary knees up abroad. The series will highlight the real scale of the problem in Europe and ask if as Brits we can ever clean up our act? This is a great area and genre for us and has been hugely successful in the past with shows such as ‘Booze Britain’ and ‘Costa Del Street Crime’ so we don’t want to stop at just this series. Can we go further with this area? Costa clubbing….Brits boozing and holidaying in the Canaries? Where are the troubled areas that we Brits are creating other than the Eastern Bloc which we cover in ‘Booze Up Brits Abroad’?

BTIT, well said. <deleted> is all the fuss about! Some people seem to have too much time to do eff all and will dissect anything and everything. whistleblower, for one, how about giving it a rest? Nobody gives a smeg about what you can dig up blah de blah de blah. The show's about a bunch of guys helping out tourists in a crappy region of the country. The only tatty thing about it is the general tat on the street... the dregs that come over here to places like that and the dregs of Thais it attracts. Howard seems a decent enough chap so how about getting off the dude's case.

Well said back jackr!

mrtoad - so what would you have liked to have seen happen to Paul H. Put in the stocks in Central? Pilloried? Deported. Dealt with as he might have been back in Britain/your country? And would you stop there? Just how far would you go to change Thailand into where you came from? Would that make you feel more comfortable as an ex-pat? A Thailand that felt just a bit more like home, with our laws, our way of doing things. Familiarity does breed contempt. No wonder they make us leave the country every 90 days. mrtoad - have you written to the Chief of Police in Pattaya, been in to see him have you? To complain? What did he say? "Thank you farang. I'll get right on it. I'll see to it right away - that justice is done Sir, the American way (tugs forelock)." Leave Paul to the Thais. It is their country, lest some people who post to this forum forget.

I understand why TV are keeping this thread open but I am pretty sure in normal circumstances it would have been closed by now.

Yes, I am being selective on what I answer, and why shouldn't I? There is some things I don't want to discuss on a public forum and some BM's that are not worthy of a reply.

By the way, I have been sent 7 individual DVD's (by courier) of the programs to my home address here in Thailand, so I have not broken any laws by downloading torrents of the program.

Well, Howard – why do you think it is kept open? Why?

I’ll tell you why I think: because you guys opened yourselve’s to the public by agreeing to participate in that tatty TV program.

No Police Force in its right mind would allow its volunteers with the public exposure you guys have, in the enviroment you guys are working in to go anywhere near a producer of that sort, or allow you the free hand you have to comment on a public domain forum, let alone one like ThaiVisa.

Do you ever see the volunteers that work for any of the European or USA/State police forces commenting or opening themselves to the exposure you guys have? You could be as right as rain, you still get hauled over the coals – it's political suicide.

As I commented in my opening post to my thread Another Perspective On Thailand's Volunteer Tourist Police – which was then closed down and is now on page 17 of the General Topics threads - if anyone wants to read it - I think the program has a lot to offer, but you guys have brought it on yourselves - you were given an oppurtunity and invited to wrap a lot of the speculation & critisism up with a formal/policy statement - and the public still wait for that – its not coming is it?

I am afraid there is worse to come than the critisms on TV or in the Pattaya Post articals - you are aware a British tabloid has done some considerable background research on your collegues, and a few of them don't come out looking too good, to say the least. When that is going to be published I don’t know, but I would imagine (knowing the tabloids) that they will wait for something to happen that stimulates public interest in you guys again (and what makes me think it will be something "negative"), and then print.

Don't underestimate the power of the press to ruin a good program. The volunteer program is a good program – but its been pretty poorly implemented and managed.

Maizefarmer - grateful if you'd answer the following for me:

1. Which of these three things made BTIT "tatty" - a. the editing b. the opening title sequence c. the end credits d. the fact that it aired on Bravo. Sorry, that was four things. I accept that there are no go-go bars in Thailand, there is no sex tourism and no disrespect for Thai culture and hospitality shown by foreign visitors.

2. Re: participation in the Series. Shouldn't your comments be addressed to the Chief of the Royal Thai Tourist Police who gave permission? I don't see any of the hypocrites on this forum bashing him personally, even though they hide behind supposed anonymity.

3. Producer of "that sort"? I think you may have been in the maize fields a little too long.

4. TV viewers in the UK don't give a monkey's about what long term ex-pats who can't see the wood for the trees anymore think about the Tourist Police and Howard et al. The series was about - at the risk of repeating myself - the British volunteers who work with the Thai police to deal with people who get into trouble in Thailand (the focus being on Brits because it was a Series for Britishcentric TV).

5. No British tabloid is interested in any story about the volunteers who work with Thai Tourist Police - maizefarmer you've been in Thailand too long. Given all the purported controversy about BTIT show me one story about the Series that's made it into a British tabloid. They aint interested. Full stop. Howard - you and your pals are as safe as houses on that count. When's that story going to be published? Never.

6. Don't underestimate the power of the press to MAKE a good programme. Without the efforts of Thai Channel 3, The Bangkok Post and the cult following from ex-pats with an interest in Thailand BTIT would have sunk without a trace a lot sooner.

Maizefarmer, Whistleblower - like me you should get out more ... your energy would be far better expended addressing REAL injustices in this world, and no matter where you are you won't have to go far to find them.

Now, can we please get back to discussing what a hornets nest BTIT stirred up, with its exposure of things some people wanted exposed and others didn't, about depictions of a country some people don't recognise, about how an insignificant TV show on a minor cable TV channel could cause such a fuss, about alleged fakery ... come on ... either shut this thread once and for all or change the tune - people on this forum were bashing Howard before BTIT was made and we seem, at last, to have come full circle. Only a simpleton would think Howard is the story.

The rape video shows an attempt by Vera Productions to FABRICATE a rape at the Full Moon Party.

The girl in question - an Australian doctor as it happens, her face has been blurred - had fallen off a balcony. At no time did this girl complain of being raped.

The video says 'Evaluation Copy' because I'm waiting for the original software I bought to arrive! So, apologies for that.

But that is a 'final' cut of Ep. 5 that the Series Producer was asked to sign off on. He didn't - he wanted nothing to do with Vera Productions' attempts to invent content, especially when it concerns rape - and he hit the roof.

Vera productions were forced to back down, but evidence of their attempted deception is in the episode broadcast, and available on You Tube. The commentary (on the video it is the "guidetrack" laid by the Edit Producer - the narrator puts his voice on right at the end) states that the girl did NOT press charges. The girl TPV Louise Rawlings is talking about is another Australian girl and she DID press charges. She testified in court the week after the attack - her attacker, who was Thai, was caught. And eventually he was given a ten-year jail sentence, reduced to five because at the last minute he pleaded guilty. So, Vera got this wrong too. Inexcusable considering BTIT's Executive Producer, Dean Palmer, even met the father of the real rape victim who was back in Samui to see justice done for his daughter. And the REAL rape happened on Samui - not Phangan. Notice that Louise is NOT walking on the Full Moon Party beach as the commentary suggests, but at Bophut on Samui.

This was a deliberate attempt by Vera Productions to contrive a rape storyline from an actual rape victim's horrific experience. What beats me is how they thought they'd get away from it if the Series Producer had let them? Too many people in the know: the girls concerned, the father of the actual rape victim, the tourist policewomen volunteers, Vera's Assistant Producer who was there, the Bangkok hospital staff at the FMP who attended - would they all perjure themselves when this came to court? It beggars belief. Vera Productions' excuse for this was an "over creative edit" - that was Executive Producer Dean Palmer's explanation. David Clarke, the Managing Director of Virgin Media, has refused to comment. But Virgin Media Commissioning Editor Lucy Pilkington who commissioned 'Thai Cops' aka 'BTIT' left her job a few days ago.

So BTITT maker, what are you working on now? I agree with you on the tv thing, the uk press is bad enough. Pages and pages of what reality "star' did this week etc. Is it safe for u now in thailand?

whistleblower - I'm working on bringing standards, integrity and ethics back into morally bereft British TV. Seriously. I'm trying to make the world a better place for TV viewers - one where mentally ill people aren't figures of fun and ridicule (Cowell's Idol series), where we can trust - at least to some reasonable extent - what we see.

As to Thailand, I think it's as safe for me there as anyone else. The Thais have been watching this situation very closely - the Thai ambassador to the UK has even been involved. They know where the truth lies. I would, however, make a very convenient scapegoat. But faced with where to put my faith and trust - Richard Branson's Virgin Media or Rory Bremner's Vera productions? The Thai authorities would be my choice. Every time.

And in the U.S. reality TV is implicated in the case of a man who sent emergency services on a 50 mile wild goose chase after reporting his son had climbed into the baloon that got away.

whistleblower - the whole TV business thing ... not sure there is one anymore. ITV in the UK can't find anyone to run it and is in a financial mess, Channel 4's got no money and I don't think the BBC's ever been so unpopular. In the UK, at least, TV's in dire straits. Without the BBC, though, where would TV in the UK be? You can't trust Channel 4's 'Dispatches' - a supposedly serious Current Affairs/documentary strand - because Vera Productions which makes it - as well as BTIT - is given to invention and getting its facts wrong, and British commercial telly is dominated by the likes of 'The X Factor' and 'Come Dine With Me'. Dumbed down? Dumb and dumber more like. So, the BBC is fast becoming the only viable game in town - its once formidable commercial rivals have handed over the UK audience to the BBC on a plate. Yep, thank God for 'Strictly Come Dancing' (I'm being ironic). I was in Iraq once, a few days after the American invasion, and an Iraqi man showed me a banknote with Saddam Hussein on it. "Israeli" he said. "He's Israeli." "He's Israeli?" I asked incredulously. "Saddam Hussein? An Israeli? You're joking." "No," replied the man. "He must be Israeli. Why else would he hand our country to the Americans?"

whistleblower - don't get me started on the - avoidable - demise of British commercial TV ..!

whistleblower - perhaps we should swap titles. I sound more like a frustrated whistleblower and you a frustrated BTIT-maker!

you've been pretty honest in your replies to me. Who are Veera productions? uk company? I thought produced meant you had a hand in what went in it and how it was edited.

As for the threat of being arrested, i think all readers would agree that this is another brainfart reaction from the thais. They cant handle critisism or more importantly anything that will affect revenue coming into the country.

I think many of us who live in Thailand (me 10+ years inBkk) know what Thailand and especially Pattaya is like. The show did very well in convincing either sex tourists that Pattaya is their Shangrila or normal tourists that Pattaya is a shithole and the police r corrupt.

But it would have been nice to see a positive outcome for a tourist (i think everyone in trouble had to pay something)

Also a background on the volunteers would have been nice. If i was going on holiday and there were natives of my country as volunteers i would want to know their background. Cynical me thinks these guys/girls are long term expats with business interests who protect them by helping out the local fuzz. If thats the case (and im not saying it is) then my instinct would be they wouldnt be much help.

You could have done a 'this is howard, by day a mild mannered ESL teacher, but by night he prowls the city of pattaya searching for justice for foreigners' type of thing (bit tongue in cheek)

Vera Productions is a London-based production company owned by, among others, Rory Bremner - a TV impressionist. VERA is an anagram of the names of the founders. The 'R' is for Rory. I was sitting in the office one day and in bounded Bremner. "Thailand" he said "It's the only country that charges corkage if you take your wife".

Producing used to mean that you had a hand in the edit, but not these days. And this is my point. I started out in TV 20 years ago and, like everything, it changes. But TV has changed for the worse. It's more common these days for the Producer in the field (who organises and collates the coverage) to hand over to an Edit Producer who might never have been to Thailand but can be relied upon to give the Channel (Bravo) what they need - i.e. stereotypes. It also saves having to pay the Producer in the field to also oversee the editing of his footage, write the scripts etc. So, BTIT was being edited as it was being shot - to save money and to fit a last minute gap in Bravo's schedule (another story).

I welcome your critique whistleblower but, as I say, I had no part to play in the way my material has been presented, which I regret.

Not sure if BTITmaker is the guy that had to leave Thailand, maybe you can confirm or tell me to mind my own business.

I don't know what you're worried about, there's allways Howard to come to the rescue,

Howard what's the going rate for producing a programme deamed to be damaging to Thailand???

Is there a sliding scale or do you just come up with a figure off the top of your head... (Judge Dred, I liked that )

taffylee - I had to leave Thailand anyway, I'm always leaving Thailand and that was always the plan, but having been in seven jails up and down the Kingdom I would prefer not to end up in one, as nice as they are. It was Virgin Media's bright idea to call the series 'Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand' that got the backs up of the Thai authorities, and rightly so given that we'd told them we were making 'Thai Cops'. And then the content of Episode 1 compounded Virgin Media's betrayal. How the ensuing fallout was covered in the Thai media is a different matter. I speak little Thai so didn't understand a word of it in any case.

whistleblower - well, I came up with the original idea (Thai Cops - but a more balanced blend of Thai cops and farang helpers), shot the pilot, spent nearly two years -unpaid - getting the series off the ground (Sky One optioned it first and then turned it down), and when Bravo - eventually - went for it I produced, directed and filmed it. So, I can't shirk the responsibility. But it is a Frankenstein's Monster. My mistake was in relinquishing editorial control - believing Vera Productions would handle the material responsibly and fairly. No. 1 on my agenda would have been not to have upset the Thai authorities - the JJ/Royal Marines story could have been told watchably without causing the fallout it did, which was unnecessary. The title of the series, which caught me completely off-guard, was a bad decision. I haven't been involved in the naming (except to protest) nor the editing of the series, nor the writing of it. That's all been done by editors and an Edit Producer supervised by an Executive Producer in London - structuring the shows from the material I shot. But they weren't the ones threatened with arrest and imprisonment. I have to accept some of the blame because Thai Cops was my idea, but the litany of factual inaccuracies - that's not my fault. On balance, though, I think you're right about my title BTIT, so I may reinvent myself.

whistleblower - 2 things ... I meant what's shown/how it's portrayed as one thing.

A journalist with a series on TV MAY be one thing (but doesn't count for a hill of beans these days I promise you), but a journalist with a TV series on BRAVO? A Channel that was complained of to OFCOM last week - on the grounds of factual inaccuracy - which the following week, aware of this complaint, goes on to say a woman who died (widely reported) is alive? Somehow, I think the Ambassador's got more pressing stuff to attend to.

I'm not sure Howard always negotiates in favour of the Thais - maybe in the programmes it looks that way, maybe not, but doesn't it take a court to decide these things? I hadn't a clue how much you could get a toilet seat for in B&Q until I just learned - Thai Visa's a wonderful thing.

I'm not sure the Thai police regulars were bothered enough to issue any warnings - during filming our series wasn't taken quite as seriously as it was after.

Don't think I was around for the bloke who lost his phone in McDonalds so I don't know how that concluded - but I am unhappy with the way the series has been edited - judgements have been made in the edit suites that I am not pleased about, and I've come out and said so. Like faking stuff.

fter 71 pages i think the maker has a fair opinion of how this show has been received. But just to add my tuppence worth:

Howard, I used to dress up as a cowboy or indian when i was a kid, but it didnt make me one! why did you come to Thailand? and why are you such a Patsy for the Thai police??? Every foreigner in this program who has come across you (and yes some were stupid pissheads) have been cajoled by you to make a financial settlement. Every episode you are constantly saying "i'm trying to help you" How are you helping tourists when for example you negotiate a payment of 1500bht for a toilet seat for a hooker who has probably spent her life shitting and pissing in a hole??? Why didnt you explain (in your oh so perfect Thai!!) that you are a (wannabe policeman) you live in thailand and asking that for a toilet seat is unnacceptable??

Anyone of those tourist volunteers wont argue for a fair deal for the tourist as it will make the police lose face and they may have their nice look at me uniforms taken off them, and probably they will then be just another one of those tourists they were apparantly trying to help.

god help any tourist that has to be helped by those wannabes.

BTIT maker

All you have shown in your series is westerners getting ripped off. Would have liked to have seen you interviewing the local police and asking why (for example) they just stood by as JJ ripped off people, or why a foreigner not paying his bill gets locked up and a thai hooker who admits to stealing is offered the option of paying a fraction of what she has stolen as compensation?

And you have done no follow up. What happened to the pissed dutch guy? or the guy who had 2 computers stolen? did he get them back? did the girl go to jail??

why didnt you do a section with various embassies, show them your footage and ask them why the dont complain through diplomatic channels for the (not all) injustices their fellow countrymen face?

whistleblower -

1. What has been shown in the series doesn't necessarily reflect the entirety of what was shot for the series. You're seeing eight one hour episodes edited down from 200+ hours of material. What is taped and what is shown, and how it's portrayed, are two VERY different things. And I've had no involvement in the editing of the programmes.

2. The foreigner who didn't pay his bill in Ep. 7 - at least the one when I was present and filming in the Walking Street rather than at Soi 9 police station - was not locked up. That's because I paid his bar bill for him - 900 Baht. Because the bar was, apparently, intent on charging the waitress who was crying and was going to have to pay it if he didn't, out of her wages. OK, I'm a sucker but otherwise a down and out old bloke was going to the slammer and a young girl was going to have to find cash that goes a long way in Isan. It was only 900 Baht. The pissed Dutch guy went on his way.

3. These are all matters for the Thai Tourist Police and Thai Police. This was an "observational, fly-on-the-wall" series. I think most viewers can read between the lines - presented with the facts, if they're allowed to be - i.e. without distortion/fabrication by Vera Productions.

4. We might have done some follow up, but Vera Productions really wasn't interested. The money had run out and Virgin Media had seriously upset the Thai authorities, even before the JJ stuff, with the title of the series - from 'Thai Cops' changed last minute to BTI(T)T. So, filming was over. Permissions were pulled.

5. Have you tried ringing up an Embassy, and telling them you've got footage which you'd like them to comment on, thereby upsetting their hosts? Best of luck with that. And in any case that's a different programme - a programme that doesn't get made anymore.

6. In the case of the Royal Marines, as I've already stated, the police weren't brought to the repair yard until it was all over. In terms of JJ's dealing with the American Marines - which hasn't made it into the series yet (and probably never will, along with the jet ski operator in Samui) - JJ was charging for damage he alleged had been done to his jet ski and for which the American Marine had apologised - profusely, even to the point of bowing Japanese-style. So, was this a police matter? Man alleges his jet ski damaged, other man says he did it, both haggle over repair costs. Certainly the Phuket police were present but negotiations were amicable.

whistleblower - the stories, as such, are there for you to make up your own mind about, and that's why I'm arguing they should be given a fair and accurate representation.

Easily the most damaging episode for Tourism. Bargirl drugs customer and steals his computers. Couple gets ripped off with bill for accomodation. Also a feature on the Scottish woman Lydia mugged in Bangkok and the voice over says she is still in a coma!...so Vera Productions didn't edit this very recently because she died more than 6 weeks ago!

phuketrex - Vera Productions DID edit this very recently - last week in fact. And certainly way, way after Lydia died. Vera Productions just aren't very good at getting their facts straight. Though the consensus on this forum is that factual accuracy doesn't matter in crappy series like BTIT. So, bringing a lady back from the dead is OK then? And it was a BRITISH man who ripped off the couple - not a Thai. Funny how Vera Productions forgot to mention this. Perhaps the Samui Express was right after all when they screamed "UK CONSPIRACY" on their front page and I have been an unwitting pawn. Or perhaps more likely it used to be some of the cleverest and most skillful people who worked on some of the most downmarket and crowd-pleasing TV programmes - alas, not anymore. Getting a matter of somebody's life and death right is just basic, and common decency. Especially given that Vera is running around the web having evidence of their JJ/Marines jet ski fakery removed.

And here's how Vera faked a rape at the Full Moon Party, but I guess that's fair play too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouaF_9tC5ME

enyaw - that's a can of worms you're opening there ...

Undoubtedly Thailand offers up more than enough material to pack seasons of series - that's for sure.

Question is how long you have to film for, and where, to get it.

2nd question is whether the broadcaster wants to pay you to do so (they don't).

And then there's the sums - the overall budget for Thai Cops (BTIT) was 400,000 Pounds - 50 grand an episode (Pounds).

How much do you think was spent on the ground, in Thailand? And how much in London?

Go on ... have a guess ...

Back with the answer shortly ...

One tenth of the entire budget was spent in Thailand.

enyaw - that's a can of worms you're opening there ...

Undoubtedly Thailand offers up more than enough material to pack seasons of series - that's for sure.

Question is how long you have to film for, and where, to get it.

2nd question is whether the broadcaster wants to pay you to do so (they don't).

And then there's the sums - the overall budget for Thai Cops (BTIT) was 400,000 Pounds - 50 grand an episode (Pounds).

How much do you think was spent on the ground, in Thailand? And how much in London?

Go on ... have a guess ...

Back with the answer shortly ...

Gavin, can you confirm that during the JJ boatyard scene there were 2 Thai Policemen there?

taffylee - thank you for a very fair response ... I was expecting both barrels. I actually agree with you on many points. And when it comes to the ladyboys ... yes, it was shot but that didn't mean it all had to sail into the episodes and in the salacious way that it has. Bravo is pandering to the lads and fully counting on them to find the ladyboys at odds with their red-blooded, raging heterosexuality. Therefore, the ladyboys become a focus of fun, to be mocked. And mocking is what Vera Productions excells at. My mistake was in thinking that they'd bring some intelligent input to this series, add another layer. It doesn't have to be crash, "bang", wallop every frame of the show. There was nothing clever about BTIT - yet the material WAS there if someone had wanted to do something different. And that's a fact. Making BTIT was a challenge on all counts, because to be honest, the Thai police weren't all that interested either - we were only able to do what we could because of the farang TPVs involved - in my, humble, opinion.

phuketrex, sorry ... no is the answer. The Thai policemen turned up right at the very end - after JJ had torn a strip off Jack, scuffled with one Marine, produced the gun, had the showdown with the Royal Marines policeman Tim Wright, the deal had been struck and after Jack had gone off to the ATM on the back of one of JJ's boys' motorbikes. They came with HMS Bulwark's on-shore agents (private contractors). To be fair, I think that's when they were alerted, although I could be wrong.

taffylee - don't panic ... it's only a TV show on a very minor UK cable TV channel, viewed by about the equivalent of the population of Penzance. And the demographic is not TAT's target market in any case - i.e. not 18-34 year olds.

Thailand attracts MILLIONS of tourists each year and if you look at the UK viewing figures (BARB) BTIT's watched by tens of thousands of Britons - and most of them exactly the sort of person who already comes to Thailand - whether it's to visit the sex spots that you suggest you'd rather didn't exist or the Full Moon Party, which I assume you're also against.

And if the comments on You Tube are anything to go by, BTIT will have given tourism a leg up, if anything. Though you're right - it's the "wrong" types that will be making a beeline for the sorts of places featured in the series. Perhaps you could personally pick and choose the right sort of visitor, maybe set up a vetting desk at the airport?

BTIT's biggest boost, by the way - internationally, illegally over the net - was when Thai Channel 3 gave it day after day of free advertising. The hits rocketed! And Channel 3 screened large chunks of Episode One time and time again, so they must have thought it a good watch at least.

So what was so interesting about the first two episodes that you think BTIT should've been a two part series, then?

And apparently, it's not just the English but Thai ladyboys do a roaring trade with the Welsh too. Bit of bum action knows no borders, but you're right - we should have kept the prostitution strictly hetero.

Has BTIT really done damage to Thailand as a holiday destination? How exactly? By your own admission BTIT has been a softly softly series since Ep. 2 at least, when you notice it was running out of material. So what is it hard-hitting or softly softly? Damaging or a damp squib? I'd be interested to know.

I still think Howard Miller's 'Do Not Resist: Thailand' is a winner ... worth pitching to TAT, see if they'd put up the funding. Howard's irresistible guide to first class travel, gourmet dining and luxury living. Could be a great catchphrase - "Mango and Sticky Rice: Do Not Resist Me!"