TV Review: Fair Go all bark and no bite

Fair Go presenters Hadyn Jones and Pippa Wetzell. Photo / TVNZ

A bereft young widow and her small daughter being given the run around by global corporation Apple caught my attention on Fair Go, TV One this week.

I, of course being the old school-gel that I am, questioned why many people had ditched their old photograph albums and relied solely on their smartware gadgets to record and list their loved memories.

According to Fair Go smartphones were rapidly replacing family photo albums.

For this young mum the death of her much loved husband had become an ongoing nightmare for her and her small daughter.

Before he passed of cancer he had stored videos and pictures of him and his daughter.

Now five months on and dozens of pleading phone calls from the young widow and emails to Apple it has become a nightmare of massive proportions.

It seems the master password on the iPhone must be accessed. But in a weird turn of events sadly he hadn't left one.

"They've now told us we need to apply to the court for probate ... I can't afford it," she wept. "I can't believe they can't or won't help us. These are precious memories and to have them back would mean everything to us.''

The action between the young widow and Apple had reached a stalemate when the programme aired this week.

So a 10 for technology? Never bet on it chaps.

Current presenters Pippa Wetzell and Hadyn Jones say the long-running iconic programme was very much a part of their childhoods.

"It was always on the telly through the 80s.''

A story featuring a nurse who worked night shift revealed the plight of many in those neighbourhoods where there is always one dog that incessantly barks.

This young woman was being driven quietly nuts as she snuggled down after work each morning at about 9am to then be assaulted by prolonged barking from the dog next door. It was big dog woofing too ... no tiny Pomeranian squeaks.

Even with Fair Go's intervention, her, the dog's owner and the council, it all came to zilch action.

Dog owner said his dog was still settling in after they had moved in and barked while he was at work and that he would get over it. They had moved in six months before.

So uh - that was that ... live with it.

Shame Fair Go was all bark and no bite on this occasion.