TV rant nb

Magic_Sailor

Magic_Sailor

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 Dec 2002
Messages
2,552
Location
Marchwood
Visit site
Once upon a time we had "The Wednesday Play" - with actors and things. We had great series like "The Sweeney". Great comedy series like "Fawlty Towers".

Now apparently, what passes for good television is the sight of a man choking and partially throwing up a semi-masticated kangaroos gonad.

The Sweeney and it's ilk have been replaced by endless soaps all of which are pumping out the latest government, politically correct crap message in a carefully coordinated effort.

Comedy has been reduced to a series of sketches which only revolve around homosexuality and catch phrases - I mean, am I alone in thinking the "Little Britain" is complete tosh - only talked up by fawning chat show hosts until people actually believe the publicity. Can we really be saying that those writers are in the same league as Richard Sullivan, John Cleese et al? They are rubbish - like comparing a club tennis player to Pete Sampras.

Now the BBC is going to lay off 3000 jobs to presumably save money. Or will it spawn hundreds more small production companies which merely shift the costs from the overheads to the direct costs column on the P&L sheet - which will of course cost more money and provide the incontravertible evidence that the licence fee needs to go up.

Magic

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://practical-business.co.uk>Click for website!</A>
 
Dont watch television, unless its discovery or national geographic, and then rarely, just cant be doing with all the dross, better things to do with my time, sorry BBC!

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Yup last night the telly was very close to being in the skip. OTOH watched an excellent episode of Dads Army and Porridge recently . maybe IASOG but with the constant outpouring of crap I think the days of television as an entertainment medium are numbered with amusement being provided by film makers and TV merely being a "newspaper".

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Na - they will just use the extra dosh to get Leslie Grantham to make 3 more apperances .... its a shame cos the BEEB do make/show some good programs - (eg Have I got New for You) ... but the rest is just decending into the same old stuff - regurgitated storylines with a slightly different twist, dumbed down documentaries that assume everyone has the intelect of a 5 yearold (I appologise to any 5 yearold reading this) or news stories that - to be honest are sooo boring because they are the same day in day out ... About the only news programmes we watch are the local news ...

Bring back Red Dwarf!

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
<quote>
Bring back red dwarf
</quote>
only if grant and naylor <sp> write it, the 2 seasons written by only 1 (grant i think) were absolutly pants.

move it back to an action comedy i say!



<hr width=100% size=1>Thanks

Leyton

EXTAR Software - Software that works for you
Phone : 07803 139 736
 
Couldn't agree more. One of the very few things worth watching recently has been Grumpy Old Men - I thought I was turning into one, now I know.

I'd chuck the bl@@dy TV out if it weren't for the petticoat parliament.

Robert



<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Only go back to TV land once a year. Then I look at the crap on the box and think how lucky we are not to have it on the boat.


<hr width=100% size=1>
Gaelic_Cat.thumb.jpg
Ceum ur
 
Nostalgia isn\'t what it used to be

Can't agree with all you grumpy old men /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Yes, there is an awful lot of rubbish on TV, and reality programmes don't, by and large, scale new peaks of cultural excellence, but we've always had rubbish TV - remember "Triangle" (desparate soap set on a North Sea Ferry) or "Love thy Neighbour" (toe curlingly awful 'comedy' programme, based on the hilarious premise that an Afro-Caribbean family lived next door to a racist)?

So far as recent comedy is concerned, we've had "The League of Gentlemen", "Black Books" and "Green Wing" - which is one of the funniest things I've seen in years. Agreed that comedy is a matter of individual taste, but I look at some of the stuff that is now adjudged classic, and wince.

I agree that there's a bit of a hole where one-off dramas used to sit, but they'll come back and, as long as we have people like Alan Plater, Steven Poliakoff, Alan Bleasdale, Russel T Davis (gay, so I guess you'd dismiss him) and their ilk writing for television, we'll still get original, quality drama on our screens. Similarly, though we don't have "The Sweeney" any more ("Shaddap"!) we currently have "Spooks".

Adaptations of classic novels are still a strength; for example, the current adaptation of "North and South".

So, I think we get a pretty good choice, though the proliferation of channels means that you have to search for the good stuff a bit more.

PS Think you mean John Sullivan ("Only fools and horses"), not Richard (O') Sullivan, who was the dark haired guy in the truly execrable "Man About the House"?

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho
 
<blockquote><font size=1>Quote from previous post:</font><hr>

only if grant and naylor <sp> write it, the 2 seasons written by only 1 (grant i think) were absolutely pants.

<hr></blockquote>

As I understood it, Grant and Naylor were one and the same, a gestalt entity if you will. Don't remember exactly where I read it, maybe a biography in the distant past, but I am 95% sure this is the case.

Oh god I am a sad git, I have played the videos until I know most of the script.

I think I should shut up now.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>
w.jpg
</A>
 
And Radio

IT is the radio that bothers me more.

Radio one is dire, it is losing audiences by the day.
Radio two is ok up to about 6pm and then god knows who it is aimed at.
Radio three is just not for me, I love classical music but the presentation on three is dull.
Radio four is generally excellent, but we need more comedy and current affairs. The drama is generally good but the outside broadcasts are often sleepy, listening to someone in a winery pouring a glass of wine. Surely the scope for getting on the scene with radio is bigger than what they do.

Don't gave DAB so can't listen to the others.



<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>
w.jpg
</A>
 
Re: And Radio

Oh Woofy, re "Radio three is just not for me, I love classical music but the presentation on three is dull". I think your master is more suited to "highlights from the Classics" on Classic FM.

I think it's time you wound up the old R3 gramophone:

nipper_painting.jpg


There really is some good stuff there, and also with with good analysis.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/rams/archivehour.ram>http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/rams/archivehour.ram</A>
 
From BBC Website:
<blockquote><font size=1>Quote from previous post:</font><hr>


Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were a writing partnership for many years before they devised ‘Red Dwarf’.


<hr></blockquote>


Definately two writers in the beginning....

If <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.reddwarf.co.uk>http://www.reddwarf.co.uk</A> is correct they are doing a Red Dwarf movie !!

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Personally I don't care what the BBC produce, but I do object that I'm forced to pay for it whether I want it or not. Lets face it, at a cost of tenner a month, given the choice and with other alternatives, how many people would take it?

Can anyone tell me, if I have a cable connection and a plasma screen with no tv receiver built in, can I avoid paying the licence fee?

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
I think the licence fee is purely there to operate a "tuner" - although I'd be suprised if they haven't extended this to include cable tuners as well ...

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Little Britain has quite alot of raw humour but is still good. As Kevb says the first was much better than the second.

Thing is, you don't have to watch it. Have you tried the radio or Sky?

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Re: Rant!

Thats not a rant.

My carpet has teeth marks around the edge, the cats hiding behind the sofa, SWMBO has disolved in tears.

3000 redundancies - there ought to be 23,000.

Can you name any business that has 5 boards

A Board of Govenors to whom report an Executive board, to whom report 3 other boards

What nonsense is this.

The BBC has no right to exist - its no more than a gravy train for the new labour luvies.

Public service broadcasting? yeah right! Eastenders? Cretins eating worms? is that a public service?

Just heard some bufoon on the radio saying how he would use the savings to give the listeners what they want - How does he know. What I want is to save the £126 pa - and see him on the dole or earning an honest living.

If they want to be in the entertainment industry let them live by the rules - make things people want to see so much they are willing to pay - if not go sell hamburgers.

The best part of how they are going to save money - fire 3000 people, move 1800 people from London to Manchester and build a "state of the art" new broadcasting centre in Manchester.

Now that really will be a saving

Public service @ £126 pa - its little better than than being mugged!

The dogs just joined the cat.

Think I need a new carpet.

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Sailing programmes

What about some good sailing programmes? Sailing, by its nature is difficult to televise, but there have been some good shore based stuff. I remember several years ago a programme from Southern TV (I think) called Making Waves. I could only get it here when the weather was right. Now TV's have moved on, I can get Southern easily

<hr width=100% size=1>
 
Re: Rant!

I still think the bbc make some of the best programs in the world. The news is undoubtedly one of the best too.

I think they are acknowledging they have lost their way watching this on the news tonight, maybe we will see a revival of how it was and should be done.

I would still pay for it, what is the alternative, Sky, Living or even that dross known as ITV, no thanks!

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>
w.jpg
</A>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top