Tag Archives: BBC

The Save BBC 4 Campaign

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BBC Four LogoCurrently there is a campaign and online petition in place to save BBC 4.

The BBC are having to make cuts – or savings – our Prime Minister prefers the term savings but then as he is the leader of the coalition government making those cuts he would! But when is a saving not a cut – just more Orwellian newspeak…

Save BBC 4 CampaignSave BBC 4 CampaignThis need for savings arises from the BBC’s Delivering Quality First (DQF) initiative – the name of their consultation agenda for their current charter period ending 2017. The TV License Fee has been frozen by the government until that period meaning the BBC will have to save one-fifth of its current budget – oops, I used the phrase ‘save’ – its subliminal!

And BBC 4 is in the firing line – as is the daytime output of BBC 2 and the extent of how BBC News 24 is sourced. I understand that cuts do have to be made – consciously resisting the subliminal message now! – and whichever channel they target is going to have its fan-club up in arms resisting the changes. It is positive testament to the BBC that their channels inspire such fierce loyalty.

And if BBC 4 is to escape unscathed then other channels will have to be scathed, and which?

BBC local radio?

BBC News 24? – they do have a number of discrete programmes, such as Hard Talk and Click, but much of the news is repeated fifteen minute chunks always bordered by sports and weather updates (an aside, why do we need weather updates – surely that could be scrolled on the screen or we could use our digital red buttons to access our local weather – I don’t want to know what the weather is like five hundred miles away from where I live at any time of the day nevermind every fifteen minutes!).

There is so much going on in the world, so much going on in Britain, yet we would never know it from the limited items reported on, then repeated ad-infinitum on BBC News 24. Not so much BBC News 24 as BBC News Quarter of an Hour.

They could share the cuts across all the channels? The BBC equivalent of all being in it together?! Less daytime and after-midnight output, but leaving the evening and weekend peak-viewing times intact?

Just as anyone of us can become an armchair general or armchair football manager so we can become the admittedly less glamorous armchair accountant – sitting in all cases at a comfortable distance not having to deal with difficult details and the inevitable messy human cost.

My concern for BBC 4 is that it is already like its younger party-going sibling BBC 3 a part-timer – clocking in at 7pm for its evening and then graveyard shift – heading off home to rest in the early hours of the following morning just as their older sibling channels are waking up to offer us their various Breakfasts.

BBC 4 LogoAnd then much of its content is repeated – if you miss Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency of an evening chances are it will be shown again after midnight and then later on in the week. And with the excellent BBC iPlayer that is of itself not that much of a selling point rather that BBC 4 is already padded out as it is – I am not sure how much saving there is in cutting down on the multiple showings of new content? Perhpas too if BBC 1 and 2 never had their younger siblings, 3 and 4, much of that content would have made it on to 1 and 2 anyway?

The BBC could also consider more content broadcast solely online – the iPlayer itself is a recognition of the time-shifted nature of how most of us now live our lives and watch our television – though perhaps this is an idea whose time is not yet ready with the user experience simply not as satisfying on a smaller computer screen with the vagaries of Broadband.

BBC 4 Library LogoThere is much support for BBC 4 – not just the viewing public but its jobbing actors and presenters – on Twitter there are many speaking up in favour of it and urging us to sign the petition – I have done so – such as Armando Iannucci, David Mitchell, Stephen Mangan and there is also a Twitter account Save BBC Four we can follow to monitor the progress of the campaign.

It is my favourite BBC channel too…for its arts and science output, its comedies, its literary adaptations,  its European crime dramas! – for example in no particular genre order the aforementioned Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency, The Art of Russia, Ego: The Strange and Wonderful World of Self-Portraits, Lead Balloon, The Thick of It, 2012, The Killing, Wallander, Spiral, Everything and Nothing, Women In Love – I could go on but run the risk of merely listing their entire schedule!

Considering its allotment of hours is relatively small it has managed to cram those hours with programs full of quality and originality. I hope, as with the campaign to save BBC Radio 6, that BBC 4 will be ring-fenced and the channel’s current creative content continue.

Save BBC 4 Campaign

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The House of Eliott – ITV Return

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The House of Eliott ITV 3British period fashion drama The House of Eliott returns today to ITV 3 for a weekday afternoon and evening run.

British telly in the 1990′s gave us fashion comedy Absolutely Fabulous – it also gave us the more serious-minded fashion drama ‘The House of Eliott’, both from the BBC.

Whereas Absolutely Fabulous was also set in the 1990′s, The House of Eliott was set in the 1920′s.

The Eliott’s being sisters Beatrice and Evangeline. Bea, the older sister, played by Stella Gonet, who runs the business with occasional forays into dress-design – whereas younger sister Evie, played by Louise Lombard, designs most of the clothes. Bea is the more conservative of the two Evie the more radical – this leads to occasional tensions in their work together and their designs.

The House of Eliott Ball SceneThe show follows the death of the sisters’ doctor father who leaves them without a penny, due to speculative stock purchases on the markets, this being before the crash of 1929, he also leaves them an illegitimate son, a brother they were unaware of.

Bea lands a job to a society photographer who later helps the sisters to fund their fashion house.

Their fashion house being established in a still predominantly male-run environment – they also have to overcome class prejudices – both sisters being from mere middle class backgrounds whereas business was still seen as both an upper class and male domain.

The series was written by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins who also had come up with the brief for the original Upstairs, Downstairs from the 1970′s.

The House of Eliott Fashion ShowThere was more to the show than haute couture – the social and political backgrounds of the time were explored – women’s suffrage, the life of the working and non-working poor. It was well written but perhaps its pace a bit sedate for today’s tastes. But even if you did not care too much for the characters and the plot if you loved fashion and had an interest in its history this show was a must-see.

I myself enjoyed its portrayal of British fashion in the 1920′s – the design process, fashion media, fashion shows – the latter being in dining salons where the fashion press ate and drank as the models moved about the tables – a preferable practice perhaps to the current runway set up!

The first season focussed on their work and run up to their first fashion show, and its critical reception and commercial consequences. Most of their fashion pieces did not come on full display until seasons two and three.

I am looking forward this re-run and am hoping the fashions were as good as I remember them.The House of Eliott Logo

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Tipping the Velvet – Underground, Overground

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Just finished reading Sarah Waters‘ 1998 novel Tipping the Velvet. A real page-turner. In part for me because I was I think as blind-sided as Nan King was at Kitty Buttler’s betrayal-liaison with Walter Bliss and expected a resolution and reunion between the two with each subsequent chapter before belatedly resigning myself against this. There was a happy romantic ending – a number indeed – but not telling between whom as do not want to spoil for those who are not familiar with it! – a real tear-jerker the ending was too following on the emotional rollercoaster of Nancy after Kitty.

I now want to watch the BBC and Andrew Davies 2002 adaptation (which also was the cover of the version of the book I read so Rachael Stirling and Keeley Hawes were already indelibly imprinted in my imagination as Nan and Kitty) – and I want to seek out everything else on TV and in print from Sarah Waters such as Fingersmith and Affinity and am awaiting the 2011 Richard Laxton adaptation of The Night Watch with eager anticipation.

Though the ending was romantically a happy one the politics of the book made me a bit rueful. Not the sexual and equality politics – there have been significant developments in Britain since the time of its setting in the late 19th Century – rather the labour and economic politics of the book as exemplified by the Florence Banner character and her brother Ralph.

At this time socialism was still a hopeful dream of working people. The 20th Century saw it become a nightmare with the Capitalism it sought to replace flourishing and stronger than ever come the end of the 20th Century.

But here we are in 2011 with Free Market Capitalism itself now dead following its demise in the 2008 financial crisis and what to fill the vacuum? A pauperization of the middle-classes now seems in place and the Karl Marx observation that ‘Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks” remains as pertinent as ever.

Only social democracy can perhaps save us now but will the crony capitalists relinquish their reigns – they have prevailed for an awfully long time.

However lest you have not read this book and now thinking it a dry political tract don’t let my tangential musings mislead.The political and economic travails of working people is but a part of this rich and many layered story. The wilful Victorian love-child of Charles Dickens and Emily Bronte. And then some!

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Dragon’s Den Online

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One evolution of television due to the web is not just a website supporting its content or airing of that content again online but the airing of additional content not able to be shown on-air due to scheduling constraints.

Dragon’s Den Online is the web offshoot of the Sony originated and BBC Broadcast Dragon’s Den.

It is a similar format if just two dragons than the usual five. Currently these are Julie Meyer of Ariadne Capital and Shaf Rasul of E-Net Computers (naturally both have many other business interests!). And Dominic Byrne in the Evan Davies commentator role.

Another slight difference is that £50,000 is the ceiling for the capital investment.

Being online means that unlike the TV series you are able to choose the pitches you want to watch and I watched pitches by Gill Goodchild for Costume Workshop Direct and Ian Gallagher for Classic Sinatra.  We are also able to rate the pitches ourselves and see how others have rated them.  We can also comment on them.

Summaries are available for each of the pitches including the dragon’s thoughts on them.

There is no dating of the particular pitches which I think is an oversight and the site itself does not have a very engaging or interactive feel beyond the online pitches themselves.

For the Online Den to be really invested in it needs to remain current and overseen by an active online production team.  Nevertheless it is an interesting insight into new business ideas and the creative and financial planning requirements involved.

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Candy Cabs – not quite a carry on

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Candy Cabs is a new TV comedy from production company Splash Media and the first episode aired Tuesday April 5 on BBC 1.

The premise is the establishment of a new taxi business Candy Cabs, set in a fictional North of England town, South Hadley.  (Actually set in Lymm, Cheshire!)

The twist is that Candy Cabs is owned by Jackie and Elaine played by Jo Joyner and Lisa Millet respectively – and all of their staff and customers are female too.

Carry on Cabby

Its basis reminded me of the 1963 film Carry on Cabby where Hattie Jacques played the head of an all female taxi company in opposition to an  all male firm – with just the one significant difference that the owner of that firm was her husband (played by Sid James)!

Candy Cabs is directed by Minkie Spiro who has written for the BBC’s Hustle and Channel 4′s Skins which are two favourite shows of mine so I was looking forward to the first episode.

The opening scene saw the cremation of Sharon ‘Shazza’ Whitehead (whose idea Candy Cabs had been) being lowered into the flames to the rousing sound of the Tom Jones song Sex Bomb.  This risque humour sets the tone for the rest of the show and the series – which will run to three episodes.

Her two remaining partners Jackie and Elaine now having to decide whether they wish to continue with Sharon’s business dream or not.

This first episode struggled I felt between whether it wanted to be a drama with some humour thrown in or a comedy with some drama thrown in – for me at least the drama worked better than the comedy.

Jo Joyner as Jackie O'Sullivan

Jo Joyner (taking time Up North from Albert Square as Eastender Tanya Branning) managed well the blend of comedy and drama.

There were some solid performances too from British acting stalwarts John Henshaw (as the towns CEO of Business and Trade), Denis Lawson (as Kenny Ho the owner of the local rival taxi firm) and Melanie Hill (as Stella another Candy Cabbie).

Some of the more overt comedic performances I found less convincing including that of Elaine played by Lisa Millet – more though due to the comedy writing than her acting itself.

Another was Paul Kaye as absconding husband Dennis Whitehead whose performance I felt was detached from the action about him.

Threading through the narrative of this newly establishing taxi cab business are the difficult family and home lives of the main characters. This aspect of the show I did find convincing both in terms of the writing and acting.

There was a clever touching brief scene with the bereaved daughter Beth Whitehead played by Alexandra Roach shown on her living room couch clutching the telephone answer-machine and replaying the last ever message left by her mother Sharon.

At the end of the first episode we learn that Sharon’s feckless husband Dennis was not actually divorced and thus has inherited her share of the business, which sets up episode two nicely.

I though am undecided whether I will be tuning in for this next episode to discover whether Jackie and Elaine buy him out and keep Candy Cabs an all female company.

Women In Love – Episode Two

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Episode Two begins with a brutal scene between a British and German soldier in a World War I trench and does not dwell on that war much beyond that – its horror has been starkly encapsulated in that one act of kill or be killed.

Women In Love then returns to the peace if a broken and haunted peace.

The Gudrun Sisters

The idealism of the first episode replaced with dreams broken yet accommodated – for all of the main characters the Brangwen sisters themselves and Gerald Crich (the brutal and brutalised soldier) and Rupert Birkin.

Their hearts and minds are stripped even more naked in this ending episode.  Gudrun Brangwen who gave the appearance at least of frivolity in the first episode deepened considerably in this second and I thought Rosamund Pike who played her turned in the most impressive of all the performances.

Women In Love’s preoccupations of love and sex, the purpose of art and how we should live our life all felt very modern and I had to remind myself that DH Lawrence wrote this story the best part of a century ago.  I am glad that the BBC brought it to wider attention.

Lark Rise to Candleford – no more

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The programs Pearl

Lark Rise to Candleford has been a real treasure from the trove that is BBC Television.

Each episode was a pleasure in and of itself whilst enriched by watching as a series as the characters and plot developed – it lasted four series and forty episodes.

There will be no fifth series as the BBC have decided not to re-commision one.  This has caused a popular outcry and I can understand why.  I have not read the Flora Thompson trilogy of books on which the series is based and if the series ended in step with the trilogy then I can understand its ending – but this does not appear to be the case and the BBC explanation for its demise I find vague and very puzzling.

I enjoyed so much about this program – from its opening theme composed by Julian Nott, its narration by Sarah Lancashire (as the adult Laura Timmins and sounding uncannily like Olivia Hallinan the actor who plays her on screen), the acting of all the Lark Rise and Candleford residents and the observational and subtle writing.

There were some impressive male performances most notably for me Brendan Coyle as Robert Timmins before he disappeared in Series 4 – for employment as Lord Grantham’s valet at Downton Abbey it seems!

Julia Sawalha as Dorcas Lane

The women though I thought made the show. Dorcas Lane played with consumate skill by Julia Salwalha was the centre-piece of the program – not just its post-mistress but the moral anchor of Candleford as Emma Timmins (outstandingly performed by Claudie Blakly) the moral anchor of Lark Rise.

Olivia Hallinan was another formidable performance as Emma’s daughter Laura.  I have been enjoying her as Kim in the re-airing of Sugar Rush on 4 Music where again she also serves has that program’s narrator and beating heart.

Matilda Zeigler and Victoria Hamilton were memorable too as the Pratt Sisters – owners, designers and dress-makers of their own women’s clothing store. The fashions of the period were another pleasure for me of this series – though I think I enjoyed the fashion of Dorcos more than that of Ruby and Pearl!

I found the writing sharp, funny and moving and a fascinating social history of English rural life at the end of the 19th Century.

I will miss Lark Rise to Candleford very much.

And another set of books to add to my never-ending reading list!

Screenshot from list site Listal.

Wanted Books Image from Listal

Avaaz – hear our voices – internet global petitioning

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Avaaz in their words are ‘a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere’.

Avaaz comes from the Persian word for ‘voice’ or ‘song’ and was founded in 2007 in the spirit of other such burgeoning social media at the time most notably Facebook and Twitter.

And in the spirit of the disconnect between those governing and those governed – and not just in Dictatorships but alas in Democratic nations and the spectre of Croney Capitalism with the mainstream media fused with its governments and global corporate interests – with most of the mainstream hard working populace left out in the cold.

Avaaz is an attempt to bring the often unheard voices of peoples of all countries together to persuade our often remote and unlistening global leaders to a particular cause.

Identifying causes which are universal, shared across cultures and nations, is no easy task and in the television program Hard Talk on the BBC 24 channel Stephen Sackur addressed these and other issues very forcefully.

The program also addressed the politics of the organization – broadly liberal.  This is not an issue for me – the world is diverse and we are not going to agree on all things – but if we believe in an issue then campaign for it – if you don’t like the particular cause espoused then you do not have to sign your name against it.  Further similar petitioning organizations are likely to be set up from a conservative outlook and agenda – it is all about peaceful if passionate persuasion of a particular cause.

I have taken part in a few myself recently – a petition against Rupert Murdoch and his move to increase ownership of BSkyB and hence control over the UK Media and another petition against the appalling practice of corrective rape in South Africa (raping gay women to cure them of their ‘lesbianism’).

Another campaign to the UN Security council to protect the Libyan people protesting against the Government Dictatorship from violent reprisals may have been influential in the decision to impose a No Fly zone over the country on March 19.

It is heartening to be reminded that there is so much that unites rather than divides us and that those who share our values come from every country of the world, from every culture, from every class.

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Who Do We Think We Are?

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The Wall to Wall family research series Who Do You Think You Are? which originally broadcast on the BBC back in 2004 and currently is being re-aired on the Yesterday channel (strapline The Past Is Always Present!) I always make a point of watching its new episodes not just because I have an interest in family research and a tree set up on Ancestry but because I enjoy the social history that underpin such programmes.  In school our British history was generally the tale of our ruling orders – Kings, Queens, other such noble (and often not very noble!) aristrocrats and latterly governing politicians – but the history of ordinary working people was often a footnote if mentioned at all and Who Do You Think You Are is a fascinating resource in correcting this – leaving aside Olympic Gold Medalist Rower Matthew Pinsent and Actor Brooke Shields and their very aristocratic backgrounds!

Royal Brooke

I enjoyed this social history of Britain and I enjoyed the USA spin off when the BBC aired some of its episodes from June 2010 as an opportunity to explore the wider history of its country.  I note also versions for other English speaking countries such as Australia, Canada and South Africa.  And a number of non-English speaking ones from various Scandinavian countries – even without knowing much about the particular celebrities of any of these countries I would be interested in viewing a few episodes from those series too, again to discover more about the history of their peoples.

The greatest family history resource for most of us in the UK for the last few centuries has been the decade frequent census first commenced in 1801.

Today we are having to fill in the 2011 census – I just completed mine online – and I completed it with my future descendants in mind so much as for the Scottish government officials who will utilize the data for the various social planning mandates stated in its purpose.  The census started as a quite modest affair and though not unsurprisingly the number of questions it asks has multiplied I still do not consider it intrusive as some people do. Though I cannot but wonder with the web and the trail we leave behind us on it whether far more richer sources of information will be found in these personal domains than in this public government overseen resource.

The BBC to mark this census aired ‘This is Britain with Andrew Marr‘ which provided a fascinating profile of our country past and present.

And indeed I found the social make-up of this country as revealed in the very recent history of the 2001 census as revealing as the social history detailed from the two centuries preceding us.

Facts and figures can be dry and prosaic but what they can reveal on closer scrutiny is as poetic and revealing as any fictional account of those times – and provide an instructive insight of a country and its people beyond the political spin and ideology of its times.