Pencil time on telly

Looks as if Faber-Castell will be featured later today on BBC Two in the programme “Make me a German”, part of the BBC’s Germany season. I can’t be absolutely sure though – the preview pictures they have shown so far are rather small.

5 thoughts on “Pencil time on telly”

  1. I live over here in the USA and don’t know what “Make Me a German” is about, although I’m afraid I’m going to be disappointed. I’ve lived in Germany and like to think I know something about Germany and the Germans, well beyond the stereotypes. Could you please fill me in? Thanks

  2. It’s a one-off programme about a family living in Germany for a week (or was it longer?). They tried to live like the average German, which in their case meant trying to eat, drink, work the same as the average German (someone once figured out how much pork the average German is eating, how many hours he/she works, how much time he/she spends in the bathroom, etc).
    For his job the husband was working in Faber-Castell’s pencil factory (turns out the average German does not work in a pencil factory, just just picked one because he had to work somewhere).
    If Sean doesn’t post photos of the show on Contrapuntalism I will post some later.

  3. I enjoyed the program very much — made me miss living in a quiet apartment a little bit. 🙂

    Did I see correctly that they used a black wood pencil to check things off of a list?

  4. @John: I noticed this as well, which disturbed me a bit (working at FaberCastell where the guy used to work for some months (@ Alan: not just a week))
    Being a German I enjoyed the program too as it opens ones’ eyes re the stereotypes and also re differences to british people.

  5. OHem – Justin Rowlatt worked there for a few months?

    I was surprised that Faber-Castell’s company GP seemed to be using a no name ballpoint pen.

    About the black wood pencil: I’m not sure whether it was a black wood pencil. It could have looked like that because they were filming against light – a few seconds later the woman seems to be using an unlacquered pencil …but then when they were reenacting the box ticking for the close up they might have used a black wood pencil.

    If you enjoy German / British stereotypes you could have a look at some videos from Henning Wehn. He came to the UK in the early Noughties. A few months ago I saw him live when he came to the city where I live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJaCedLfdg

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