Steve Coogan On Abu Qatada
I have had this thought, that it might be a good idea to put Abu Qatada on Question Time. After all, the BBC put the equally nice leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin on the program and it doesn’t seem to have done him much harm.
So I searched the Internet with “Abu Qatada Question Time” to see if anybody had suggested it and found this extract from the program featuring Steve Cooghan.
Are The BBC’s Troubles Down To Manchester?
The BBC has now lost their Director General as reported here.
I do wonder how much the troubles at the BBC are down to the ill-thought-out move of much of the Corporation to Manchester. How many of their better managers and journalists have left, because they didn’t want or were unable to leave London?
I know that Newsnight is a London-based program, but even so just the threat of a possible move to the North was a reason to jump ship. Especially as this year, London was the media centre of the world, with this years events in the capital, like the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.
It is one thing to decentralise drama and factual programming, but news and probably sport should be in the capital.
It was a daft decision to move so much to Manchester.
Newsnight In A Twist
The BBC’s flagship news program has really got itself in a twist lately.
They may or may not have libelled a politician and they really got it wrong with Jimmy Savile.
When she was a pupil, C did one pupillage in chambers specialising in libel. Every night, someone from chambers used to read the next day’s copy of a well-known tabloid to make sure they hadn’t defamed anybody.
Where was that check in Newsnight?
Jimmy Savile
Everybody seems to have it in for Jimmy Savile these days.
I won’t defend him, but as the guy is now dead, and no recompense can be made from the man or offences charged, surely it is one of few cases, where to let sleeping dogs lie, may well be the best thing to do.
There have been similar cases in the past, including murders that might have involved a much-loved and dead at the time boxer. These have been forgotten by most.
But the bigger you are, the more likely it is, that the tabloids and the general public will want to cut you down.
I saw Jimmy Savile once walking down Portland Place by the BBC, with a big cigar clamped in his teeth and a couple of blonde young ladies about twenty or so on his arms.
The Inter City 125 On BBC4
There was a documentary last night on BBC4 about the legendary High Speed Diesel Train or Inter City 125. It described how the politics, finances and some clever thinking produced a real icon.
Catch the documentary before it disappears from the BBC iPlayer!
The programme said that they’ll still be running in the 2030s on some routes. I wouldn’t bet on them still being running long after that.
Because of their speed and acceleration, they have proven that they can mix it on lines with both slow and higher speed traffic, so unlike heritage units like steam trains, they don’t cause pathing problems. Since they have now been updated with new engines, they produce a lot less noise and emissions too.
It is still proposed that they will be used for services to the far south west for many years, as electrifying the route from Exeter will be very difficult and expensive. They even did the journey from Plymouth to London in well under three hours recently. I reported it on this post.
But if they did a bit of marketing and perhaps uprated the catering, they could create a line, that would be a must-ride one for all visitors to Cornwall from London.
I have believed for a long time, that these trains will never go quietly. They’ll be like Routemasters and even if they’re not in main line service, they’ll turn up in the most surprising of places. The ghost of Jimmy Saville will see to that!
An Insult To Ipswich and Suffolk
The Tour of Britain cycle race starts this morning in Ipswich. The BBC radio traffic reports placed Ipswich in Norfolk.
They did correct it later. Or in fact, they didn’t repeat it again.
But yet again Suffolk is treated badly by the media. As it is by government, where more funding always goes to North Anglia.
How Slovenly!
As BBC Breakfast cut to the local news, you could just see Louise Minchin kicking her shoes off. I wonder what the style police, that insist all women on the show wear stilettos, will say later.
The Future Of Freeview
I have been looking at an article which describes digital terrestial television in the UK, which is generally referred to as Freeview.
At present there are a hundred or so TV and radio channels, most of which are free-to-air, but some like Sky Sports One and Two are available through various subscription methods like BT Vision, which I have.
When the switch-over is complete and everybody in the UK can get their free-to-air channels in a digital form, terrestrially if they want to, the old analogue signal can be switched off and the spectrum released can be sold off.
I had thought that this free spectrum would end up with those providing mobile services, but it would appear that there’s nothing technically to stop a broadcaster buying spectrum and using it to broadcast other services, whether they be free-to-air or by subscription.
I did say technically, as they would probably have to be regulated by the British authorities.
So would this have attractions for other broadcasters? The obvious candidate would be Sky, as it might like to setup a new Freeview multiplexer to broadcast all their channels terrestrially, probably using similar technology to that used by BT Vision.
It would also allow a powerful sports body such as the Premier League or Formula One to have their own channel.
I think the days in the UK, where you needed a satellite dish to get certain channels may well be numbered. I don’t think Sky will be objecting, as they know how to price a service to maximise the revenue. They are also one of the partners in Freeview.
NBC Treats Paralympics With Contempt
Two of the UK’s broadsheets; The Times and The Telegraph, have turned their ire this morning on to the American broadcaster NBC, for its appalling coverage of the Paralympic Games. read the report in The Telegraph here.
I know I’m not watching the Paralympics live, as I don’t watch channels with adverts, unless it’s an important sporting event, that I’m interested in. But I am following the Games on BBC Radio 5 Live and television news reports.
I could cynically suggest that no-one in America would advertise in the breaks of the Paralympics, as it might give your organisation the wrong image. But I don’t know the facts.
Here in the UK, all the major channels have back-up digital channels, like BBC with BBC3 and BBC4 and Channel 4 with More4 and E4, which they use to compliment their major coverage, so can’t NBC put the Paralympics on a back-up free-to-air digital channel or is America so sophisticated that it doesn’t have an equivalent of our Freeview.
The New Dallas Is On Channel 5
The BBC is giving a plug to the new series of one of the silliest television programs, ever to appear on British television; Dallas.
Why?
The original programs were crap, and this one is probably crap too as it’s on that broadcaster of crap; Channel 5.
I’ve just sent this e-mail to the BBC.
I don’t pay my licence fee to have you promote rubbish like this on Channel 5! It gives me a good break to have a shower.
Let’s hope they are being paid well for the plug!
I shall not be watching!
The Anonymous Widower 