Post by Teddy Bear on Oct 2, 2007 21:32:30 GMT
A humourous but aptly caustic observation on BBC's (lack of) quality in today's Telegraph.
Regarding the comments on Stephen Fry, I notice he's gotten a lot more TV exposure at the Beeb since he's more concerned about Palestinian rights than Israeli. He's also spoken out against the BBC decision to fire Angus Deayton from 'Have I got News For You', but clearly the Beeb is very forgiving, since there's little they like better than a prominent Jew who speaks out against Israel, and they're rewarding him greatly for it.
Regarding the comments on Stephen Fry, I notice he's gotten a lot more TV exposure at the Beeb since he's more concerned about Palestinian rights than Israeli. He's also spoken out against the BBC decision to fire Angus Deayton from 'Have I got News For You', but clearly the Beeb is very forgiving, since there's little they like better than a prominent Jew who speaks out against Israel, and they're rewarding him greatly for it.
On radio: Phew! The party's over
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 02/10/2007
Enjoy Radio 4 like this while you can, says Gillian Reynolds
No more birthday cake, thank you; not another drop of audiofizz. As Radios 1, 2 and 4 celebrated their 40th anniversaries on Sunday (Radio 3, also born Sept 30, 1967, is saving itself for a more controlled blast of self-congratulation this week), I metaphorically staggered along Beeb Street from party to party, collapsing at last on to the familiar sofa of Russell Davies, but even there, through nostalgic strains of Les Paul and Mary Ford, the raucous sounds of Radio 4 sending itself up could still clearly be heard through the parlour wall.
Stephen Fry and Matt Lucas were doing a spoof Radio 4: This is Your Life, with Fry as the interviewer and Lucas as Radio 4. Fry was satirically condescending, Lucas acted bluff, and various people (Roger Bolton, for example) appeared as themselves to make fun of their listeners. The show was pre-recorded before a highly amused invited audience in the newly re-furbished theatre in Broadcasting House.
Ah yes, Broadcasting House, where new double-ended studios have been built but without a wall between so that only one end can be worked at a time. Where engineers mutter it's more an office block with a bit of broadcasting added on than a new headquarters fit for the return of radio news from TV Centre and the migration of World Service from Bush House. Where no one knows when it will all be finished or tell you the cost overrun. But let's not bother with such wearisome stuff when these days everybody loves radio.
And why wouldn't they? BBC television is the pits. Would anyone, drunk or sober, stay in for BBC 1 on Saturday nights where The World's Greatest Elvis is preceded by Strictly Come Dancing and followed by The National Lottery, where BBC2 is wall-to-wall Stephen Fry?
I love Stephen Fry, or I used to until he began spreading all over the airwaves like ground elder. Clever he is and amiable, too, but not enough to do tea commercials and quiz George Michael about his love life in between hosting panel games. Now ghastly rumours reach me that he is the preferred candidate to succeed Humphrey Lyttelton on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Enough, no more. He's not so sweet now as he was before.
The spirit of love, however, flowed all over Radio 4's 4 at 40 programme on Sunday, when sundry experts, including me, were herded into separate compartments to offer comments edited together into someone's idea of a representative sampler and linked by a studio discussion. The result was long, baggy and dangerously self-congratulatory.
Compare and contrast Radio 1's day-long, clever pairings of DJs old and new. (Tony Blackburn to Chris Moyles: "We should do this more often." Moyles: silence.) Radio 2 had both re-creations and archive material. Ed Stewart on Junior Choice said, "We could do this every week", and played Three Wheels on My Wagon. Brian Matthew remembered all the people he'd interviewed. Elvis might have been in the charts but, on Semprini Serenade, it was still Arrivederci Roma and Butterflies in the Rain.
On Radio 4, after The Archers, came a massive love-in. Even critic Miranda Sawyer, who said she hates The Archers, listens because her editor likes them.
She is 40, doesn't think the network is in touch with her generation, although she has a Radio 4 programme this Thursday about acid-house music, raves and drugs.
Sarfraz Manzoor, a regular presence on the network, would like Radio 4 to be "cooler". It wasn't plain whether he meant cool in the sense of "less enthusiastic" or "more chic". Perhaps he could show us when he appears on Saturday Review again this weekend.
Former Radio 4 controllers Monica Sims and Michael Green spoke of past battles to keep it as we know it today. Green said how, in the fight to stop the LW frequency being hived off to become a separate news service, listener power had defeated both BBC managers and governors.
Is it safe now? Current controller Mark Damazer thinks it is. I wouldn't be so sure. A decade hence, when digital switch-over is complete and the BBC's Charter expires, the licence fee will probably go, leaving Radio 4's future to subscription and market forces. Enjoy it while you can.
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 02/10/2007
Enjoy Radio 4 like this while you can, says Gillian Reynolds
No more birthday cake, thank you; not another drop of audiofizz. As Radios 1, 2 and 4 celebrated their 40th anniversaries on Sunday (Radio 3, also born Sept 30, 1967, is saving itself for a more controlled blast of self-congratulation this week), I metaphorically staggered along Beeb Street from party to party, collapsing at last on to the familiar sofa of Russell Davies, but even there, through nostalgic strains of Les Paul and Mary Ford, the raucous sounds of Radio 4 sending itself up could still clearly be heard through the parlour wall.
Stephen Fry and Matt Lucas were doing a spoof Radio 4: This is Your Life, with Fry as the interviewer and Lucas as Radio 4. Fry was satirically condescending, Lucas acted bluff, and various people (Roger Bolton, for example) appeared as themselves to make fun of their listeners. The show was pre-recorded before a highly amused invited audience in the newly re-furbished theatre in Broadcasting House.
Ah yes, Broadcasting House, where new double-ended studios have been built but without a wall between so that only one end can be worked at a time. Where engineers mutter it's more an office block with a bit of broadcasting added on than a new headquarters fit for the return of radio news from TV Centre and the migration of World Service from Bush House. Where no one knows when it will all be finished or tell you the cost overrun. But let's not bother with such wearisome stuff when these days everybody loves radio.
And why wouldn't they? BBC television is the pits. Would anyone, drunk or sober, stay in for BBC 1 on Saturday nights where The World's Greatest Elvis is preceded by Strictly Come Dancing and followed by The National Lottery, where BBC2 is wall-to-wall Stephen Fry?
I love Stephen Fry, or I used to until he began spreading all over the airwaves like ground elder. Clever he is and amiable, too, but not enough to do tea commercials and quiz George Michael about his love life in between hosting panel games. Now ghastly rumours reach me that he is the preferred candidate to succeed Humphrey Lyttelton on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Enough, no more. He's not so sweet now as he was before.
The spirit of love, however, flowed all over Radio 4's 4 at 40 programme on Sunday, when sundry experts, including me, were herded into separate compartments to offer comments edited together into someone's idea of a representative sampler and linked by a studio discussion. The result was long, baggy and dangerously self-congratulatory.
Compare and contrast Radio 1's day-long, clever pairings of DJs old and new. (Tony Blackburn to Chris Moyles: "We should do this more often." Moyles: silence.) Radio 2 had both re-creations and archive material. Ed Stewart on Junior Choice said, "We could do this every week", and played Three Wheels on My Wagon. Brian Matthew remembered all the people he'd interviewed. Elvis might have been in the charts but, on Semprini Serenade, it was still Arrivederci Roma and Butterflies in the Rain.
On Radio 4, after The Archers, came a massive love-in. Even critic Miranda Sawyer, who said she hates The Archers, listens because her editor likes them.
She is 40, doesn't think the network is in touch with her generation, although she has a Radio 4 programme this Thursday about acid-house music, raves and drugs.
Sarfraz Manzoor, a regular presence on the network, would like Radio 4 to be "cooler". It wasn't plain whether he meant cool in the sense of "less enthusiastic" or "more chic". Perhaps he could show us when he appears on Saturday Review again this weekend.
Former Radio 4 controllers Monica Sims and Michael Green spoke of past battles to keep it as we know it today. Green said how, in the fight to stop the LW frequency being hived off to become a separate news service, listener power had defeated both BBC managers and governors.
Is it safe now? Current controller Mark Damazer thinks it is. I wouldn't be so sure. A decade hence, when digital switch-over is complete and the BBC's Charter expires, the licence fee will probably go, leaving Radio 4's future to subscription and market forces. Enjoy it while you can.